The IEA Civic Education Study as a Source for Indicators of Civic Life Skills

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The IEA Civic Education Study as a Source for
Indicators of Civic Life Skills

• Judith Torney-Purta
• Carolyn Barber
• Gary Homana
• Britt Wilkenfeld
• University of Maryland, College Park
• jtpurta_at_umd.edu

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Outline of the Presentation

• Criteria for indicators of civic life skills and
  examples of issues
• in the U.S. in Europe
• The IEA Civic Education Study data base
• data collection, primary and secondary analysis
• New approaches to indicators tailored to
  audiences
• Academics and researchers
• Policy-makers
• General Public

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IEA Civic Education Study

• Early 1990s
• IEAs member countries decided to go beyond
  science, math, and reading assessments to conduct
  a knowledge and attitudinal study of
  civic-related outcomes.
• Mid-1990s Civ-Ed Phase 1
• An international consensus process achieved
  agreement on concepts for a test and survey.
• 1999 Civ-Ed Phase 2
• Nationally representative samples of 14-year-olds
  were tested in 28 countries
• 90,000 students nearly 2500 schools.
• 2001 to the Present
• Data analyzed internationally and with special
  attention to U.S. in comparative context.
• Policy implications examined

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Countries Testing in Civic Education Study (at
age 14)

• Australia, England, United States
• Belgium (French), Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Italy,
  Portugal, Switzerland
• Hong Kong (SAR)
• Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden

• Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
• Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland,
  Romania, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic,
  Slovenia
• Chile, Colombia

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Academics and Researchers as Audiences

• The importance of multi-dimensional views of
  participation
• Differences across 28 countries in average
  performance on 3 indicators of expected
  participation
• Differences across 4 countries in the predictors
  of 3 types of expected participation

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Examples of Diverse Patterns in Three Types of
Expected Participation Using IRT scales mean
10 SD 2All countries above International Mean
in Civic Skills
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Summary of Multidimensional Patterns of
Participation

• Southern countries (Latin America, Greece,
  Cyprus, Portugal) high in expected participation
• Northern European and most Post-Communist
  countries low in expected participation
• However, considerable variation by dimension of
  participation.

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Summary of Differential Predictors of Multiple
Participation Dimensions

• School-related variables predict likelihood of
  voting in the future.
• Civic knowledge, experiences at school
• Parent discussion and political interest but not
  school variables predict likelihood of joining a
  party in the future.
• Current volunteer activity but not school
  variables and not political interest predict
  likelihood of volunteering in the future.

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International and National Policy Makers as
Audiences

• Modeling analysis that relates country-level
  variables to students knowledge and attitudes
• Wide range of items and scales in the IEA data
  base and a nested sampling design make this
  feasible
• Choice of appropriate national or international
  indicators is key.

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Summary of Results on Knowledge Items

• Students in countries with stronger
  civil/political rights
• less likely to know about the Declaration of
  Human Rights, but
• more likely to know about the purpose of the
  United Nations
• Students in countries paying more attention to
  human rights in intergovernmental dialogue are
• more likely to know about the Convention of the
  Rights of the Child

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Percent Correct on Question about the Convention
on the Rights of the Child by Countrys Focus on
Human Rights in Intergovernmental Dialogue
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Summary of Attitudes toward Immigrants Rights

• Recent history of government issues with human
  rights did not predict attitudes toward
  immigrants rights
• Alternate hypothesis attitudes associated with
  the level of diversity in the country
• Language, religious, ethnic and cultural

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Immigrant Attitudes by Religious Fractionalization
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Attitudes toward Refugees by Religious
Fractionalization
Strongly Agree
Strongly Disagree
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Summary

• Students in more homogenous countries have more
  positive attitudes toward the rights of
  immigrants/refugees
• Fractionalization is more significantly related
  to immigrant attitudes than the countrys human
  rights situation
• Students who know more about human rights have
  more positive attitudes toward immigrants and
  refugees.

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The Public and Policy Makers as Audiences

• How do attitudes cohere in students?
• What characteristics distinguish clusters or
  typologies of adolescents in different countries?
• Is any substantial group of concern because of
  attitudes or expected behavior?

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U.S. Clusters
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Distribution of Cluster Membership in the United
States
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Civic Knowledge Scores by Cluster Membership
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IRT Means on Four Expected Participation
Dimensions by Cluster
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Percent Disagreeing that a Good Citizen Obeys
the Law by Cluster Membership
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Sweden
Clusters
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Distribution of Cluster Membership in Sweden
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Characterizing the Potential for Analysis in IEA
Dataset

• Multiple levels
• Country and student
• Multiple student outcomes
• Knowledge and different dimensions of attitudes
• Multiple categories of country predictors
• Political and cultural/demographic
• Multiple types of analysis relating to
  indicators
• Patterns of dimensions by country
• Predictors by country
• Country-level predictors
• Individual typologies or clusters