{"id":18665,"date":"2023-10-25T11:45:23","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T11:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/leadership\/researchers-say-high-school-civics-test-doesnt-boost-voting-theyve-lost-the-plot\/"},"modified":"2023-10-25T11:45:24","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T11:45:24","slug":"researchers-say-high-school-civics-test-doesnt-boost-voting-theyve-lost-the-plot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=18665","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Say High School Civics Test Doesn\u2019t Boost Voting. They\u2019ve Lost The Plot."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Last month, the American Educational Research Association (AERA) touted a new study reporting that, as the press release headline had it, \u201cState-Mandated Civics Test Policy Does Not Improve Youth Voter Turnout.\u201d With more than a little evident glee, given the education school community\u2019s hostility to anything that smacks of testing, the Penn State researchers reported that requiring high schoolers to pass a civics test didn\u2019t lead to statewide increases in self-reported voting by 18 to 22-year-olds.<\/p>\n

Now, there are several issues with this study, including the fact that boiling millions of students down to several dozen state-level aggregates made it unlikely that the researchers would find an impact. Indeed, one might wonder why the AERA chose to highlight the non-findings of a not-very-compelling study.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s focus on the larger issue: The study fundamentally misconstrues the point of civics instruction. In American education today, it\u2019s widely assumed that voting, advocacy, and \u201cspeaking out\u201d are the ultimate aim of civic education.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something odd about that premise. In a landscape pocked by hyperbolic social media, pro-terrorist theatrics on campus, and performative MAGA lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives, does it look like America\u2019s problem is a lack of activism? Last week, Students for Justice in Palestine published an op-ed in Columbia University\u2019s newspaper \u201ccelebrating\u201d their having held \u201cone of the largest campus protests\u201d in Columbia\u2019s history. The presumption is that a big protest is innately deserving of celebration. This<\/em> is what follows from the premise that \u201cactivism is good,\u201d even when it\u2019s on behalf of rapists, kidnapers, and murderers.<\/p>\n

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As a one-time high school civics teacher, I wholly embrace the need to prepare students for democratic citizenship. But democratic government is about a lot more than activism and voting. It\u2019s also about respect for rules, personal responsibility, patience, and a willingness to work with those who see things differently.<\/p>\n

And those are the things that are getting neglected. After all, voter participation is at record highs. Impassioned activists and \u201csmall-money\u201d donors are calling the shots in party primaries. The nation\u2019s most visible lawmakers are those who have the least interest in the job of actually crafting laws. The U.S. citizenry is lacking not political participation but restraint, trust, knowledge, and respect for institutions and norms.<\/p>\n

Democratic self-government is secured less by getting students to pull a lever (or mail in a ballot) than by helping them develop a proper respect for due process, free speech and a free press, canvassing boards that faithfully review vote tallies, election officials who resist political pressure, public agencies that maintain public trust, independent courts, responsible legislators, and limited executive authority. This is what civics needs to teach.<\/p>\n

Today, civics education isn\u2019t doing that. Teachers don\u2019t even realize they\u2019re supposed to teach those basic values. How do I know this? Because teachers themselves say so. The RAND Corporation has found that barely half of social studies teachers<\/em> think it essential that students understand concepts like the separation of powers or checks and balances. In 2022, another RAND survey of K-12 teachers found that more thought a key aim of civics education is promoting environmental activism<\/em> than \u201cknowledge of social, political, and civic institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

If teachers say they\u2019re more concerned about environmental activism than civic institutions when asked<\/em> about civics education<\/em>, it\u2019s a good bet they\u2019re not spending a lot of time teaching why things like federalism and the separation of powers might be good\u2014even if they make it tougher to impose one\u2019s favored environmental policies.<\/p>\n

The hard part of civics education isn\u2019t the right to be heard but learning to be a responsible citizen. Voting isn\u2019t actually a responsibility<\/em>; rather, it\u2019s an opportunity to tell elected officials, \u201cThis is what I want.\u201d While that\u2019s a vital part of democratic self-government, it\u2019s also a fundamentally self-interested act. It\u2019s really the easy part of citizenship.<\/p>\n

The hard part is understanding why we don\u2019t and shouldn\u2019t<\/em> always get our way, how anti-majoritarian arrangements like the Bill of Rights, the federal system, the separation of powers, and judicial review can protect each of us\u2014even in those moments when they impede our ability to get what we want. Equally counterintuitive in a populist age is contemplating the downside of \u201cdemocratic\u201d practices like campaign finance reform (which have gutted the political parties), presidential primaries (which have strengthened the hand of ideologues), sunshine laws (which make it tougher for public officials to negotiate compromises), and televising Congress and courtrooms (which encourage grandstanding).<\/p>\n

Indeed, the \u201cparticipatory\u201d ethos has contributed mightily to a politics in which reflexive, demagogic partisanship is increasingly the norm. Civic education in the American republic should help students grasp the role of institutions and norms in safeguarding self-government and checking illiberal impulses, right or left.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s<\/em> why students need to study civics: so that they have an opportunity to learn how democratic institutions actually work, what it takes to defend them, and the demands of responsible citizenship. As for those education professors who think the point of civic education is \u201cgetting more 18-year-olds to vote\u201d? They have, I fear, lost the plot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month, the American Educational Research Association (AERA) touted a new study reporting that, as the press release headline had it, \u201cState-Mandated Civics Test Policy Does Not Improve Youth Voter Turnout.\u201d With more than a little evident glee, given the education school community\u2019s hostility to anything that smacks of testing, the Penn State researchers reported […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leadership"},"yoast_head":"\nResearchers Say High School Civics Test Doesn\u2019t Boost Voting. 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