IEA Civic Education Study, 1999: Civic Knowledge and Engagement Among 14-Year-Olds in 23 European Countries, 2 Latin American Countries, Hong Kong, Australia, and the United States

The IEA Civic Education Study (known as CIVED) is an
international assessment of the civic knowledge and skills of
14-year-olds (8th and 9th graders) in 28 countries. Data were
collected in 1999 under the auspices of the International Association
for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) headquartered in
Amsterdam. Begun in 1958, IEA is a consortium of educational and
social science research institutes in more than 50 countries. The
IEA's International Steering Committee (University of Maryland,
College Park) and an international Technical Advisory Group guided the
research. The International Coordinating Center (Humboldt University
of Berlin) coordinated the day-to-day operations and the IEA Data
Processing Center (Hamburg, Germany) processed the data. The Study's
National Research Coordinators developed an octagon model that guided
the two phases of the study, the first phase a more qualitative set of
case studies in 24 countries and the second phase a test and survey of
students in 29 countries. This model gave special attention to
macrosystem elements such as the country's history of democracy,
transnational position, economy, and media. It also delineated ways in
which civic education goals are carried into practice, especially the
role of the formal community, informal community, school, peer group,
and family. Publications from the study have addressed each of these
theories and approaches and have been authored by educational
researchers, civic education specialists, comparative scholars,
political scientists, and psychologists. The following countries took
part: Australia, Belgium (French-speaking), Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia,
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany,
Greece, Hong Kong (SAR), Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic,
Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. The sizes of the
nationally-representative samples ranged from 2,076 students tested in
Belgium (French-speaking) to 5,688 students tested in Chile. Civic
achievement was measured by a total civic knowledge scale composed of
two subscales: civic content and skills. Civic content refers to
knowledge of civic concepts such as the characteristics of
democracies, and civic skills refer to the interpretative skills
needed to understand civic-related communication (e.g., to make sense
of a political cartoon or an election leaflet). In addition, survey
items measured students' concepts of democracy, citizenship, and
government, attitudes toward civic issues such as immigrants' or
women's rights, trust in governmental institutions, and several types
of expected political and community participation. Students also
answered questions pertaining to their background characteristics,
their organizational participation, and the climate of their school
and classroom. Item responses gathered from approximately 95,000
students in total and 22 scale scores developed with confirmatory
factor analysis and item response theory are included on the file.
Questionnaires also solicited background information from school
principals and teachers.