Civics Education and Social Studies

Civics Education and Social Studies supports research to improve learners' knowledge, skills, and attitudes to understand complex social and economic issues. Recently, the Every Student Succeeds Act expanded the curricular focus of U.S. education to encourage states to include social studies and its core disciplines of civics, geography, economics, and history as part of 17 subjects that make up a well-rounded education. Such an expansion will have to address the current level of student knowledge in social studies. For example, the 2018 National Assessment of Education Progress found that only 15 percent of eighth-graders performed at or above Proficient in U.S. History, 25 percent performed at or above Proficient in Geography, and 24 percent performed at or above Proficient in Civics. Students from lower-income and minority backgrounds performed lower than those in other groups.