IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/apsrev/v110y2016i03p495-511_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Testing Civics: State-Level Civic Education Requirements and Political Knowledge

Author

Listed:
  • CAMPBELL, DAVID E.
  • NIEMI, RICHARD G.

Abstract

Do state-level exams in civics have a positive impact on young people's civic knowledge? We hypothesize that civics exams have the biggest effect in states where they are a requirement for high school graduation—the incentive hypothesis. We further hypothesize that civics requirements have the biggest effect on young people with less exposure to information about the U.S. political system at home, specifically Latinos and, especially, immigrants—the compensation hypothesis. We test these hypotheses with the 2006 and 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) civics test administered to high school students, and with a large national survey of 18–24 year-olds. Across the two datasets, we find modest support for the incentive hypothesis and strong support for the compensation hypothesis.

Suggested Citation

  • Campbell, David E. & Niemi, Richard G., 2016. "Testing Civics: State-Level Civic Education Requirements and Political Knowledge," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 110(3), pages 495-511, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:110:y:2016:i:03:p:495-511_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0003055416000368/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lindgren, Karl-Oskar & Oskarsson, Sven & Persson, Mikael, 2017. "Can increased education help reduce the political opportunity gap?," Working Paper Series 2017:12, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    2. D. Sunshine Hillygus & John B. Holbein, 2023. "Refocusing Civic Education: Developing the Skills Young People Need to Engage in Democracy," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 705(1), pages 73-94, January.
    3. Matthew D. Nelsen, 2023. "Lessons in Empowerment: The Civic Potential of Historically Grounded Conversations among Racially Marginalized Youth," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 705(1), pages 174-191, January.
    4. Elizabeth A. Bennion & Melissa R. Michelson, 2023. "Educating Students for Democracy: What Colleges Are Doing, How It’s Working, and What Needs to Happen Next," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 705(1), pages 95-115, January.
    5. J. Andrew Harris & Catherine Kamindo & Peter van der Windt, 2020. "Electoral Administration in Fledgling Democracies:Experimental Evidence from Kenya," Working Papers 20200036, New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Social Science, revised Jan 2020.
    6. Luo, Ya-Hui & Chen, Kuang-Hui, 2018. "Education expansion and its effects on gender gaps in educational attainment and political knowledge in Taiwan from 1992 to 2012," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 88-99.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:110:y:2016:i:03:p:495-511_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/psr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.