• Introduction
• Overall Assessment Results
• Results for Student Subgroups
• Trends in Civics Topics Studied
• Trends in Contexts for Learning Civics
• Reference

As we move into the 21st century, our nation looks to its youth for confirmation that the government established over 200 years ago will remain relevant, vital, and strong. We expect that today's students are being prepared to understand and maintain the values of our democratic society. Civics education in our nation's schools informs students about the structures, functions, and processes of government and about the meaningful ways in which citizens can make decisions about public issues and participate in governance. This report, based on findings from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), provides a view of students' achievement in civics over the 10-year period from 1988 to 1998. The data and information provided give some indication as to whether there have been changes in students' understanding of civics and whether civics education has changed during the last decade of the 20th century.

NAEP is the nation's only ongoing survey of what students know and can do in various academic subject areas. Authorized by Congress and administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the U.S. Department of Education, NAEP regularly reports to the public on the educational progress of students in grades 4, 8, and 12. In 1998, NAEP conducted two national assessments of students' civics knowledge in each of these grades.

One of the 1998 civics assessments was entirely new, employing a new set of test specifications (or "framework"). The results of this new assessment were not comparable to those of the 1988 assessment. The other 1998 civics assessment (based on the 1988 test objectives) was a special study that repeated a number of the multiple-choice test questions used in 1988.

The results of the new assessment were reported in the fall of 1999 as the NAEP 1998 Civics Report Card for the Nation (Lutkus et al. 1999). The results of the special study are reported here as a summary of trends in students' knowledge and teachers' classroom practices over the 10-year period.

The results are based on the assessment of a sample of students at each grade that is statistically representative of the entire nation. Students' performance is described in terms of average percentage correct, rather than the traditional NAEP scale scores. The reason for this departure is that the relatively small set of test questions repeated from 1988 in grades 8 and 12 did not allow comprehensive coverage of the 1988 test objectives, nor did it allow the reliable development of scale scores parallel to those used in 1988.

This report provides results for subgroups of students defined by various background and contextual characteristics. The analyses focus on differences between 1988 and 1998, rather than differences among groups within each year. To illustrate the civics knowledge that was assessed, the report provides numerous samples of the test questions. The report also explores trends in the classroom coverage of civics topics from 1988 to 1998, as well as trends in classroom instructional activities over the decade. A summary of the major findings from the NAEP 1998 special study is presented below.

• In both 1988 and 1998, students at each of the three grade levels answered about two-thirds of the assessment questions correctly.
• Fourth-grade students in 1998 answered more questions correctly, on average, than did fourth-grade students in 1988.
• Eighth-grade students in 1998 answered fewer questions correctly, on average, than their counterparts in 1988.
• The performance of 12th-grade students in 1998 was not significantly different from that of their counterparts in 1988.

• Fourth-grade males had a higher percentage of correct responses in 1998 than in 1988, while 12th-grade males had a lower percentage correct in 1998.
• The percentage of correct responses for female students at grades 4, 8, and 12 did not change significantly between 1988 and 1998.

• In 1998, the percentage of correct responses increased for White students in grade 4 and decreased for Hispanic students in grade 12.
• At all three grades in both 1988 and 1998, White students consistently achieved a higher percentage correct than either Black or Hispanic students.

• A trend was noted toward less frequent social studies classes in grade 4, with 49 percent of students in 1988 reporting daily classes compared to 39 percent in 1998.
• The percentage of eighth-graders who reported having studied civics or American government in grades 5, 6, and 7 rose between 1988 and 1998.
• The percentage of 12th-graders who said they were studying civics or American government in their current grade rose between 1988 (61 percent) and 1998 (71 percent).
• The percentage of fourth-graders who reported spending "a lot" of time studying three of the six civics curriculum topics surveyed—elections and voting, President and leaders of our country, and judges and courts—increased between 1988 and 1998 (table A).
• For both 8th- and 12th-graders, the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights is the one curriculum topic, of the 10 topics surveyed at these grade levels, that was studied "a lot" by the majority of students in both 1988 and 1998.
• The amount of time spent studying the various civics topics surveyed at grades 8 and 12 was similar and has not changed between 1988 and 1998.

• The frequency with which students at grades 8 and 12 were assigned extra reading material by their civics or American government teachers increased between 1988 and 1998 (figure A).
• The percentage of 8th- and 12th-graders who reported being assigned to work on group projects at least once or twice a week rose substantially from 1988 to 1998 (figure B).
• The percentage of fourth-graders who reported discussing current events in social studies class once or twice a week increased from 29 percent in 1988 to 39 percent in 1998.
• The amount of time that 12th-graders reported spending on civics homework did not change significantly between 1988 and 1998.
• Between 1988 and 1998, the percentage of eighth-graders reporting that their families regularly got a newspaper fell from 77 percent to 71 percent. For 12th-graders, the percentage dropped from 82 percent to 75 percent.

Table A.—Percentage of students who reported how much they studied selected civics topics, grade 4: 1988 and 1998

Figure A.—Percentage of 8th- and 12th-graders who reported being assigned extra reading material almost every day or once or twice a week: 1988 and 1998

Figure B.—Percentage of 8th- and 12th-graders who reported working on group projects almost every day or once or twice a week: 1988 and 1998