ABSTRACT
Federal policies regarding civic education are limited; the US government allocates no funding for civics, which has been overlooked in major federal reform efforts such as the No Child Left Behind Act and the US Department of Education's Race to the Top grant competition program. Most evaluations in the field of civic education have focused on programs delivered by nonprofits rather than on strategies or policies adopted by districts, although McIntosh, Berman, and Youniss infer positive results from an ambitious approach in one small district that built its new high school with the goal of enhancing civic education. Community-based activists who take a critical stance toward current policies and institutions could consider endorsing a division of responsibilities. The schools teach a baseline of valuable knowledge about how our systems work; activists add a critical lens of their own choice and offer youth opportunities for social change.
