• Overview
• Introduction
• Eighth-Graders’ Performance on 37 Sample Questions
• Reference

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1998 Civics Assessment measured students’ knowledge, their intellectual and participatory skills, and their civic dispositions at the 4th, 8th, and 12th grades. This issue of NAEPfacts describes eighth-graders’ performance on 37 questions from the eighth-grade assessment.

The goal of the NAEP 1998 Civics Assessment was to measure how well American youth are being prepared to meet their citizenship responsibilities. One way to obtain an understanding of the range of student performance is to look at individual questions on the assessment and the percentage of students who gave a correct response to these questions.

The assessment administered to eighth-grade students included 151 questions. Thirty-seven of these questions, together with student performance data, scoring information, and additional data, are available at the NAEP Web Site (http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/).

This issue of NAEPfacts arranges the 37 released questions in order of difficulty, as determined by the percentage of eighth-grade students who answered them correctly. These 37 questions provide examples of student performance but do not give a representative sample of the complete range of questions on the assessment. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is unable to release enough questions to provide a fully representative sample. Most questions must be kept confidential so that they can be reused on future assessments, permitting comparability of results for the assessments.

The framework for the 1998 civics assessment specifies three interrelated components that, taken together, reflect broad civic competency: knowledge, intellectual and participatory skills, and civic dispositions (National Assessment Governing Board 1996). Each assessment question has a knowledge and intellectual skills component. Some of the questions also measure participatory skills and/or civic dispositions.

The questions required eighth-graders to read and answer questions based on a variety of materials. The assessment was designed to evaluate students’ ability to recall specific information, make inferences, or perform more analytical or evaluative tasks such as distinguishing opinion from fact or defending a position.

For example, students were asked, “Which of the following documents describes the powers of the President of the United States? A) The Declaration of Independence, B) The Mayflower Compact, C) The Constitution, D) The Articles of Confederation.” Forty-eight percent recognized that “C” was the correct answer.

Frequently, students would be asked several questions on a single topic. For example, students were asked three questions about a quotation on civil disobedience from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter From Birmingham Jail.

Thirty of the 37 questions displayed in this issue of NAEPfacts are multiple-choice questions with four possible answers. This means that students had one chance in four of getting these questions right, merely by guessing.

The remaining seven sample questions are “constructed-response” questions, which require students to write their answers. It is harder for students to get these questions right by guessing. Short constructed-response questions have three possible scores—“complete,” “partial,” and “unacceptable.” Extended constructed-response questions have four possible scores—“complete,” “acceptable,” “partial,” and “unacceptable.”

For purposes of this analysis, only “complete” and “acceptable” answers to extended constructed-response questions are reported. For short constructed-response questions, only “complete” answers are reported.

The following are summary descriptions of 37 sample questions from the NAEP 1998 Civics Assessment for the eighth grade, arranged by the percentage of students who answered them correctly, from the highest to the lowest. Multiple-choice questions are identified by an “(MC)” at the end of the question. For these questions students were choosing the “best” answer available, which was not necessarily the answer they would have given themselves. Each constructed-response question includes the full text of a student’s answer that received a “complete” score, with students’ grammatical and other errors left unchanged.

• 85 percent of students knew that the World War I poster below was intended to get people to join the army by appealing to patriotic feelings. (MC)

• 81 percent recognized that, according to standards set forth by Martin Luther King, Jr., a law that requires segregation of the races is unjust. (MC)
• 78 percent recognized that the photograph below illustrates the secret ballot. (MC)

• 77 percent recognized that one step the United Nations could take to prevent two nations from going to war would be to arrange for diplomatic negotiations between the two countries. (MC)
• 77 percent knew that the Bill of Rights mostly addresses the rights of individuals. (MC)
• 75 percent understood from an anecdote about Susan B. Anthony that the U.S. Constitution did not say that it was illegal for women to vote. (MC)

• 71 percent of students recognized that taking part in peaceful demonstrations and boycotts would be the response to an unjust law that is most consistent with Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ideas. (MC)
• 71 percent understood that Congress has been able to expand the powers of the federal government based largely on its authority to make all laws necessary to perform its duties. (MC)
• 62 percent were able to use the charts below to determine that people are most likely to volunteer for organizations that focus on community affairs. (MC)

• 61 percent recognized that the cartoonist who created the cartoon below would be likely to support strengthening the World Court’s ability to resolve conflicts. (MC)

• 60 percent understood that Richard Nixon’s poster emphasizes his political experience, while Jimmy Carter’s poster portrays him as a political outsider. (MC)

• 59 percent understood the graph below to show that the higher someone’s income is, the more likely he or she is to vote. (MC)

• 58 percent recognized that someone convicted of stealing a candy bar and sentenced to 50 years in prison might challenge the sentence by citing the Eighth Amendment. (MC)
• 58 percent understood that according to the Bill of Rights, the fact that only some rights are listed does not mean that the people have no others. (MC)
• 52 percent recognized that if the places of worship in Town X join together to provide food and shelter for the homeless, this is an example of civil society rather than government. (MC)
• 52 percent knew that because of the Fourth Amendment there are legal limits on the power of police to enter your home. (MC)
• 51 percent understood that the story of Susan B. Anthony’s attempt to register is an example of people peacefully protesting against a law they believe is wrong. (MC)
• 50 percent understood that Congress can pass a bill even if the President disagrees with the bill because Congress is the primary legislative power of the government. (MC)

• 48 percent of students knew that the U.S. Constitution describes the powers of the President of the United States. (MC)
• 46 percent understood the meaning of the cartoon below to be that before the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment state governments did not have to follow the Bill of Rights. (MC)

• 46 percent understood the cartoon below to mean that well-funded special interest groups have privileged access to Congress. (MC)

• 42 percent recognized that a statement by Chief Justice Earl Warren on the power of the Supreme Court to determine the meaning of a law describes the Court’s function of judicial review. (MC)
• 35 percent knew that the number of electoral votes allotted to each state is based on its representation in Congress. (MC)
• 34 percent recognized that the meaning of the cartoon below is that human beings are much more advanced in science than in their ability to get along. (MC)

• 32 percent knew that the Fourteenth Amendment was designed to protect former slaves. (MC)
• 31 percent received either “complete” (13 percent) or “acceptable” (18 percent) scores when asked to choose three areas of volunteer activity from a list, identify for each one a specific action individuals can take outside their homes, and explain how it will make a difference in their own community. A student receiving a “complete” score wrote “1) The environment: People can get together and pick-up trash along side a road or lake. This would help the environment by keeping animals from getting hurt by the trash. 2) Youth organizations: People could form groups and have after school activities until about when parents get home from work. That would help keep kids off the street. 3) Education: Smarter adults or teens could become tutors for other children who need extra help. That would help keep children up with the rest of their class.”
• 31 percent knew that the section of the Fourteenth Amendment stating that the government will not interfere with a person’s right to life, liberty, or property without following established rules is referred to as the “due process” clause. (MC)
• 31 percent recognized that an effective argument against allowing the Supreme Court to determine what a law means is that “It is dangerous to give nonelected officials such as judges so much power in the government.” (MC)
• 26 percent understood that the State Department is primarily responsible for carrying out U.S. foreign policy. (MC)
• 26 percent received a “complete” score when asked, “In addition to voting and being a candidate, what are two ways that citizens can be involved in presidential campaigns and elections?” A student who received a “complete” score wrote, “1) They may create signs and posters, etc. to help campaign for their choice. 2) They may write editorials or media objections and concerns about a certain candidate.”

• 22 percent of students recognized that labor unions, civil rights groups, business associations, and environmental organizations all try to influence public policy and get people elected. (MC)
• 21 percent knew that in a totalitarian system there are few checks on the powers of the ruler. (MC)
• 17 percent gave a “complete” answer to a two-part question asking both for an argument in support of the statement that “one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws” and an example of the negative consequences of using civil disobedience to challenge the law. A student receiving a “complete” score wrote, “If there is a law that goes against the constitution and against your moral beliefs you shouldn’t have to follow it” and “Using civil disobedience cause outbreaks or riots.”
• 13 percent received a “complete” score for giving two specific examples of how the U.S. Constitution limits the power of the government. A student receiving a “complete” score wrote “1) Through separation of powers. 2) Through judicial review.”
• 10 percent received a “complete” score when asked what the cartoon below says “about how American government is organized” and to explain “why American government is organized this way.” The character at the left has just been asked by the aliens to “Take us to your leader.” A student receiving a “complete” score wrote that American government “is organized in different levels of power. It is organized this way because there are certain things not important enough for the president to take care of (community problems), so there are smaller levels to work on smaller problems.”

• 6 percent received a “complete” score when asked to give a valid reason for the pattern of voter turnout shown in the graph below. A student receiving a “complete” score wrote, “The poorer people either don’t care or they think that their vote does not matter.”

• 6 percent received a “complete” score when asked to give two reasons why it can be useful for a country to have a constitution. A student receiving a “complete” score wrote “1) So that we have rights and we can limit the government’s power. 2) So we can control how our government is running.”