What Does the Research Say About Effective Civic Education at the High School Level?

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Consortium on Chicago School Research and Mills
College
What Does the Research Say About Effective Civic
Education at the High School Level?
Joseph KahneMills College Susan Sporte
Consortium on Chicago School Research Alternativ
es to Large, Traditional High Schools Event
CIRCLE, July 6, 2005
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Goals of Presentation

• Discuss a set of strategies for fostering
  commitments to civic engagement.
• Share findings from a study in Chicago that
  examines the impact of these strategies.
• Identify school level factors that promote the
  provision of these opportunities for civic
  development (including small schools).

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Goal
Goal The commitment and capacity to work to
improve ones community and the broader society.




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Six Promising Practices

• Instruction in Government, History, Law and
  Democracy (CMS1)
• Discussion of Current Events of Interest to
  Students (CMS 2)
• Community Service and Service Learning (CMS 3)
• Extracurricular Activities (CMS 4)
• Voice in the School and the Classroom (CMS 5)
• Simulations of Democratic Processes and
  Procedures. (CMS 6)
• Exposure to Role Models

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Measures Used in this Study

• Home and School Context
• Parental Support for Student Learning (a.82)
• Level of Civic Engagement in each Students
  Community (a.75)
• School Culture Indicators
• Student Classroom Behavior (a.61)
• Academic Personalism (a.72)
• Student/Teacher Trust (a.78)

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Measures, Contd

• Exposure to Curricular Supports
• Classroom Civic Opportunities (includes CMS
  recommendations 2,3,5, and 6 role models
  (a.76)
• Participation in after-school activities (CMS 4)
• Content tied to student interest
• Controls
• Prior commitment to civic engagement
• School characteristics
• Student demographics
• Student academic indicators

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Analytic Method

• Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM)
• Survey of 9,800 students in 2001 and 2003.

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Findings

• The following were significantly related to civic
  commitments
  Beta
• Classroom Civic Opportunities .80
• Content tied to student interests .08
• After school activities .13
• Prior commitment help in community .09

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Findings, Contd

• Also significantly related to civic commitments
  Beta
• Peer support for academics .04
• Civic engagement in each .19
• Students community
• Parent support for academics .10
• SES .04
• Female .08

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Findings, Contd

• Not significantly related
• Student assessment of student voice in school
• Teacher/student trust
• Concentration of poverty in students census
  block
• Prior academic achievement

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Interpretation

• Opportunities for civic development matterthey
  promote civic commitments even when controlling
  for demographics, prior achievement and prior
  commitments,
• The effect size of these opportunities indicate
  that they matter quite a bit. Schools can make
  a significant difference in this regard.
• Student voice in the school is the one
  exceptionbut student voice in the classroom did
  appear to matter.

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Factors promoting classroom opportunities

• School-level factors
• Average achievement in the school .08
• Teacher knowledge of student culture .11
• Small high schools .07

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Prevalence of Classroom Opportunities in Past Year

• 65 of students reported they had not worked on a
  project to improve their community in any of
  their classes.
• 50 had not been required to keep up with
  politics of government in any of their classes.
• 56 had not participated in a role play or
  simulation in any of their classes.

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Summary

• What happens in classrooms can foster civic
  commitments even when compared with the
  influence of the home and the community.
• Schools in Chicago could enhance the volume of
  these opportunities.
• Small schools may make provision of such
  opportunities more likely.