Political knowledge, political engagement,and civic education

After decades of neglect, civic education is back on the agenda of politica l science in the United States. Despite huge increases in the formal educat ional attainment of the US population during the past 50 years, levels of p olitical knowledge have barely budged. Today's college graduates know no mo re about politics than did high school graduates in 1950. Recent research i ndicates that levels of political knowledge affect the acceptance of democr atic principles, attitudes toward specific issues, and political participat ion. There is evidence that political participation is in part a positional good and is shaped by relative as well as absolute levels of educational a ttainment. Contrary to findings from 30 years ago, recent research suggests that traditional classroom-based civic education can significantly raise p olitical knowledge. Service learning-a combination of community-based civic experience and systematic classroom reflection on that experience-is a pro mising innovation, but program evaluations have yielded mixed results. Long standing fears that private schools will not shape democratic citizens are not supported by the evidence.