What Does the NAEP Civics Assessment Measure?

NAEP measures the civics knowledge and skills of fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade students. According to the civics framework developed by the National Assessment Governing Board, the assessment should be organized in three main components: civic knowledge, intellectual skills, and civic dispositions.

Civic Knowledge

The civic knowledge component draws heavily on the National Standards for Civics and Government developed by the Center for Civic Education and covers the broad range of content that forms the basis of civic understanding. It is organized into five main categories, expressed as questions.

• What are civic life, politics and government?
• What are the foundations of the American political system?
• How does the government established by the Constitution embody the purpose, values, and principles of American democracy?
• What is the relationship of the United States to other nations and to world affairs?
• What are the roles of citizens in American democracy?

Intellectual Skills

The intellectual skills component covers those skills of mind and action that allow individuals to apply civic knowledge to good effect. The framework distinguishes three skills, though they are clearly overlapping.

• identifying and describing;
• explaining and analyzing; and
• evaluating, taking, and defending positions.

Civic Dispositions

The component of civic dispositions, according to the framework, "refers to the traits of private and public character essential to the preservation and improvement of American constitutional democracy." The framework defines five dispositions as follows:

• becoming an independent member of society;
• assuming the personal, political and economic responsibilities of a citizen;
• respecting individual worth and human dignity;
• participating in civic affairs in an informed, thoughtful, and effective manner; and
• promoting the healthy functioning of American constitutional democracy.

Look at the distribution of questions in the civics assessment.

Sample Question booklets for the 2006 civics assessment are available for download.

For more in-depth information about the objectives of the civics assessment, explore the NAEP civics framework (575K PDF).

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Last updated 14 May 2007 (HM)