This posting and ones to follow are a restatement of what has
been addressed previously in this blog.
Some of the sentences to come have been provided before but the concern
is that other information has been discovered and an update seems appropriate. The blog has not changed the overall message,
civics education is seriously deficient, but some of the evidence needs
updating.
As with what
has been reported before, this writer uses the same questions. He asks:
to what level of knowledge do Americans – beginning with secondary
students – command in terms of their government and politics? How and to what degree do they engage in
politics, demonstrate political skills, civility, and law-abiding
behavior? These questions
are treated in a meaningful but summary way. This account will begin with the
first question, regarding political knowledge or how the relevant literature today
identify this knowledge, civic literacy.
Civic Literacy
Those who are concerned with the
quality of civics education have an advantage.
Most academic fields, when the same evaluative questions are asked, must
rely on mostly testing results. While
testing can also shed information about civics, those parties need only look
around and judge the quality of citizenship he/she sees among fellow citizens. So, this account will cite testing results,
but also observations by various scholars who study this aspect of human
behavior.
One can cite an array of studies, for
example, concerning political knowledge[1]
– and the other above listed concerns – but, with a limited number, this
account will report what the state of the citizenry is. It is not so good. More recent research extends what previous
research has discovered but is a bit more nuanced. Below is a sampling of this more recent
research.
Mary
Hylton defines this term, civic literacy, as follows: “a basic understanding of the structure and
functioning of government as well as the political process through which
decisions are shaped.” [2] She also includes how people know and understand
the underlying values reflected in the US
Constitution, including liberty, freedom, and justice.[3]
The
Pew Research Center has reported recent survey information on the state of
knowledge and the information reflects how the 2018 midterm elections seem to
have affected civic literacy.[4] The electorate seemed to be informed about
relevant current political issues – e.g., the role the Electoral College plays
in determining who becomes president – but demonstrated significantly less
knowledge over currently unfocused facts concerning the structure of
government.
Here
is a sampling of what they report:
The
public does less well on other questions about the structure of American
government. Overall, 56% know that the number
of terms a president can serve is determined by the 22nd Amendment;
54% can correctly identify the vice president as the person who casts the
tie-breaking vote in deadlocked Senate.
Fewer than half (41%) are aware that
60 votes are needed to end a filibuster in the U. S. Senate, the lowest level
of public knowledge on any of the seven questions included in the survey.
Republicans
and Democrats perform about equally well on the civic and political knowledge
questions included in the survey. For
example, nearly identical shares of Republicans and Republican leaners (87%)
and Democrats and Democratic leaners (86%) know that the First Amendment
guarantees the right to free speech.
There [are] no significant divides between Republicans and Democrats on
most questions and 4 percentage points is the most that separates the two
groups on any single item (80% of Republicans can correctly identify the
Electoral College, compared with 76% of Democrats).[5]
Perhaps
these numbers reflect the virulence that certain political questions seem to
have in current popular consciousness.
The election of Trump to the presidency, one could argue, has upped
public concerns – as illustrated by the vast demonstrations the nation has
witnessed since the 2016 election.
A
look at the recent past might provide a better view of political knowledge
although one can detect by this 2018 Pew report that whatever knowledge is
shared by the American public seems to be targeted on what seems most relevant
to the Trump era politics and not an overall knowledge of the American
government.
Reportage, as recently as 2016, this
writer believes portrays a more accurate view of American civic literacy. That is, the level of civic literacy is so
low that it had been widely reported in the press. For example, a Boston Globe article cites an Annenberg Public Policy Center study
which reports:
·
only 36% of American adults could name
the three branches of the central government;
·
almost 75% didn’t know it takes
two-thirds in each house of Congress to override a presidential veto;
·
only 38% could correctly identify which
political party controls either house of Congress; and
·
25% believe that Congress can override
a 5-4 Supreme Court decision.[6]
These
are considered reflecting basic governmental information; the type news reports
assume readers or listeners know.
What of young Americans; does the next
upcoming generation give one hope for a better-informed electorate? The results of a 2010 exam, given by the
National Center for Educational Statistics group, report only 24% of high
school seniors scoring at a proficient or advanced level (64% scored at or
above basic level).[7] This finding, with a bit of improvement, was
mostly mirrored in the testing of college students.[8] The ISI study summary states:
Unfortunately, the results of ISI's past civic
literacy research does not inspire confidence that our institutions of higher
learning are living up to their educative and civic responsibilities,
responsibilities that almost all American colleges recognize as critical to
their overall public missions.[9]
One
issue often not included in reporting these deficiencies is the fact the
currently the study of civics itself has been jettisoned from the nation’s
curriculum. At this time, American
schools have dropped or otherwise not included civics in their offerings. American history is still generally offered,
but civics as a separate course is offered only in one of three schools
nationally.[10]
Civic
literacy, as a concept, relates to what the questions above refer to as
political knowledge and political skills.
According to a site, Urban Agenda,
civic literacy means: “… the knowledge of how to
actively participate and initiate change in your community and the greater
society. It is the foundation by which a democratic society functions … a means
to create avenues for peaceful change.”[11] If one states it that way, it sounds
important – and it is.
Knowledge
and skills are two important aspects of citizenship, but before they become
utilized, one needs to be motivated to use them. One such motivator is social empathy – more
closely looked at in a future posting.
Yes, acquiring and using political knowledge and skills can be motivated
by other concerns, some might be very self-centered. But in terms of improving civic literacy, one
needs to first care about the societal conditions around him or her.
[1] “Executive Summary of the Results of the Latest
Administration of Assessment Test on Civic Knowledge.” National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). 2006, http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/itmrls AND James G. Gimpel,
J. Celeste Lay, and Jason E. Schuknecht, Cultivating
Democracy: Civic Environments and Political Socialization in America
(Washington, DC: Brookings Institution
Press, 2003) AND “Report on Survey Conducted by NASS on Americans’ Knowledge of
Political System,” National Association
of Secretaries of State (NASS), 1999, http://www.nass.org/ (since originally accessed, the report has
been taken down) AND “Executive Summary of the Results of the Latest
Administration of Assessment Test on Civic Knowledge,” NAEP AND Andrea Neal, “Disengaged:
We Have Failed at Civic Education,”
Indianapolis Star, November 2, 2017, accessed November 6, 2017, https://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/2017/11/02/andrea-neal-weve-failed-civic-education/826756001/ AND Pew Research, “How Increasing Ideological Uniformity and Partisan Antipathy Affect
Politics, Compromise and Everyday Life,” Center Political Polarization in the American Public, June 12, 2014, accessed on
February 21, 2017, http://www.people-press.org/2014/06/12/political-polarization-in-the-american-public/.
[2] Mary E.
Hylton, “Civic Engagement and Civic Literacy among Social Work Students: Where
Do We Stand?,” Journal of Policy Practice,
vol. 14, 3-4, 2015, 292-307, (doi:10.1080/15588742.2015.1004396), 296.
[3] Mary E.
Hylton, “Civic engagement and civic literacy among social work students: Where
do we stand?”
[4] “Political Engagement, Knowledge and the Midterms,”
Pew Research Center, April 26, 2018, accessed April 8, 2019, https://www.people-press.org/2018/04/26/10-political-engagement-knowledge-and-the-midterms/
.
[5] Ibid.
[6] “Americans’
Knowledge of the Branches of Government Is Declining,” Annenberg Public Policy
Center, September 13, 2016, accessed May 14, 2018, https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/americans-knowledge-of-the-branches-of-government-is-declining/ .
[7] National
Center for Education Statistics, The Nation’s Report Card: Civics 2010 (Washington, DC: Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, 2011), (NCES 2011-466),
accessed May 14, 2018, http://nces.
ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/main2010/2011466.pdf .
[8] Association of
American Colleges and Universities, A
Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy’s Future (2012), accessed
May 14, 2018, https://www.aacu.org/crucible AND
Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Enlightened
Citizenship: How Civic Knowledge Trumps a College Degree in Promoting Active
Civic Engagement, 2011, accessed May 15, 2018, https://www.americancivicliteracy.org/2011/summary_summary.html [a summary
account], AND Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania,
“Americans Know Surprisingly Little about Their Government, Survey Finds,”
2014, accessed May 15, 2018,
https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/americans-know-surprisingly-little-about-their-government-survey-finds/.
[9]
Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Enlightened
Citizenship: How Civic Knowledge Trumps a College Degree in Promoting Active
Civic Engagement, November 1, 2011, accessed April 9, 2019, https://www.heartland.org/publications-resources/publications/enlightened-citizenship-how-civic-knowledge-trumps-a-college-degree-in-promoting-active-civic-engagement
.
[10] Campbell Streator and Maria Yuan, “Young Americans
Are Politically Engaged. They Need to Be
Civically Educated.” Real Clear Policy,
February 27, 2019, accessed April 8, 2019, https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2019/02/27/young_americans_are_politically_engaged_they_need_to_be_civically_educated_111079.html
.
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