Author Description

The International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) studied the ways in which countries prepare their young people to undertake their roles as citizens. It investigated student knowledge and understanding of civics and citizenship as well as student attitudes, perceptions, and activities related to civics and citizenship. It also examined differences among countries in relation to these outcomes of civic and citizenship education, and it explored how differences among countries relate to student characteristics, school and community contexts, and national characteristics. ICCS considered six research questions concerned with the following: (1) Variations in civic knowledge; (2) Changes in content knowledge since 1999; (3) Student interest in engaging in public and political life and their disposition to do so; (4) Perceptions of threats to civil society; (5) Features of education systems, schools, and classrooms related to civic and citizenship education; and (6) Aspects of student background related to the outcomes of civic and citizenship education. ICCS gathered data from more than 140,000 Grade 8 (or equivalent) students in over 5,300 schools from 38 countries. The study revealed considerable variation across and within participating countries in civic knowledge. On a scale with a standard deviation of 100 points, the difference between the top and bottom quartiles of the country distribution was 60 points. In the four highest-performing countries, more than half of the students were at the highest of three proficiency levels. In the four lowest-performing countries, more than 70 percent of student scores were in the lowest three proficiency levels. Girls gained significantly higher civic knowledge scores than did boys in nearly all of the ICCS countries. Appendices include: (1) Institutions and staff; (2) ICCS participation rates and sample sizes; (3) The scaling of ICCS questionnaire items; and (4) Item-by-score maps for questionnaire scales. (Conta