IEA Civic Education Study, 1999: [United States]

The IEA Civic Education Study is an international
assessment of the civic knowledge and skills of 14-year-olds in 28
countries. It was conducted under the auspices of the International
Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA): the
IEA's International Steering Committee guided the research, the
International Coordinating Center (ICC) coordinated the day-to-day
operations, and a data processing center processed the data. The
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) sponsored the 1999 IEA
Civic Education Study in the United States. The assessment was
administered to 2,811 students across 124 public and private schools
nationwide at the beginning of ninth grade, the grade in which most
14-year-olds were enrolled at the time of the assessment (October
1999). Civic achievement in this study was measured by a total civic
knowledge scale composed of two subscales: civic content and civic
skills. Civic content refers to knowledge of content, such as
characteristics of democracies, and civic skills refer to the
interpretative skills needed to understand civic-related information
(e.g., the skills needed to make sense of a newspaper article). In
addition, survey items measured students' concepts of democracy,
citizenship, and government, attitudes toward civic issues, and
expected political participation. Students also answered questions on
their background characteristics and on classroom climate.
Questionnaires also solicited background information on school
principals and teachers, and demographic information about the school
and school programs related to civics education.