Reformers seeking to increase the quality and accessibility of civic education in schools confront five challenges. system of government and heightened participation in democratic activities such as voting. Validating the belief in the worth of civics education and underscoring the importance of reform efforts, data reveal that schooling in civics and other, related cocurricular activities are associated with increased knowledge of the U.S. Complicating these efforts is ideological disagreement about the content that should be taught and the values that ought to be inculcated. In the past decade, low levels of youth voting and non-proficient student performance on a widely respected civics assessment test have elicited efforts to increase the amount and quality of time spent teaching civic education and have ignited a movement to create common standards in the social studies. For much of the nation’s history, our leaders have viewed civics education as a means of realizing the country’s democratic ideals. Because, as John Dewey contended, “emocracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife,” 1 the quality of civic education has been a concern of those interested in the health of our system of government and the well-being of the citizenry.

Civics today textbook objectives