Center
for Civic Education
Research
and Evaluation
|
We the People: Results
of Pilot Test
A report to the Center
for Civic Education
Ardice Hartry
and Kristie
Porter
MPR Associates, Inc.
July 2004
Executive
Summary
In 2003, MPR Associates,
Inc., one
of the nation's leading education research consulting firms, conducted
a pilot study
to find a valid measure to assess the program’s influence on student
learning
and attitudes. The study found significant increases in political
knowledge and
political participation among students who participated in We
the People: The Citizen and the Constitution. This pilot study
found evidence that students participating in the We the
People program
- develop a greater sense of
citizen responsibility and obligations to the
community;
- had
stronger feelings of political efficacy;
- scored
higher on an achievement test of knowledge of U.S. government and civics;
and
- showed
greater interest in politics and current events.
The political knowledge assessment
found that
Advanced Placement (AP) students who participated in We the People
performed, on average, 30 percent better on the survey than AP students
who did
not participate in the We the People program.
Participating students enrolled in general
education civics courses that used We the People also
significantly
outperformed their peers.
The pilot
study utilized a high-quality quasi-experimental design and was
administered to
high school seniors in the fall of 2003.
The instruments were developed throughout 2002 and 2003 by the
Center in
collaboration with WestEd and MPR Associates, Inc., two well-regarded
firms in
the field of educational research, and leading civic education scholars
Dr.
Richard Niemi and Dr. Beth Theiss-Morse.
Two separate instruments were developed and pilot tested: one
measuring
attitudinal items deemed important for future political engagement and
the
other measuring political knowledge.
Students were given pretests and posttests on political
attitudes, and a
posttest questionnaire for knowledge.
Two sets
of comparisons were made. In the first,
students in AP courses that used We the People were compared
with
students in AP courses that did not use We the People. In
the second, students in general education civics courses that
used We
the People were compared with students in general education civics
courses
that did not use We the People.
The
Center plans to survey high school students in four states in Fall 2005
as part
of a longitudinal study. In this study the same students will be
queried over a
period of six to eight years, allowing the Center to demonstrate links
between
their participation in civic education in high school and informed
political
engagement in later years.
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