Enlightened Citizenship: How Civic Knowledge Trumps a College Degree in Promoting Active Civic Engagement is the fifth report to the nation issued by ISI’s National Civic Literacy Board. While each past study has had a different point of emphasis, all share a common thread of examining the relationships that exist between higher education, civic knowledge, and citizenship.
Unfortunately, the results of ISI’s past civic literacy research does not inspire confidence that our institutions of higher learning are living up to their educative and civic responsibilities, responsibilities that almost all American colleges recognize as critical to their overall public missions.
In 2006 and 2007, ISI administered a sixty-question multiple-choice exam on knowledge of American history and institutions to over 28,000 college freshmen and seniors from over eighty schools. In both years, the average freshman and senior failed the exam.
In 2008, ISI tested 2,508 adults of all ages and educational backgrounds, and once again the results were discouraging. Seventy-one percent of Americans failed the exam, with high school graduates scoring 44% and college graduates also failing at 57%.
Last year, ISI examined the real-world impact of both college and civic knowledge on public opinion and discovered diverging influences. College made graduates more liberal, while greater civic knowledge led adults to be more supportive of America’s constitutional traditions.
ISI’s new study continues to focus on practical politics by assessing the independent impact of college and greater civic knowledge on the political participation rates of American citizens. ISI was interested in more than whether these phenomena encouraged Americans to simply vote, but whether college or civic knowledge motivated citizens to devote significant amounts of their time and resources to engaging the political process.
Consequently, ISI asked its randomly selected sample of 2,508 Americans ten electoral questions to assess how engaged they were in electoral activities. With this data in hand, ISI employed multivariate regression analyses to determine the independent influence that earning a college degree, acquiring more civic knowledge, and other factors have on the political participation of American citizens. Below are our findings.
Major Finding 1
A College Degree Fails to Promote Active Civic Engagement Beyond Voting
A college education exerts zero influence one way or another on encouraging graduates to become actively engaged in more consequential aspects of the political process. For example, college DOES NOT make a person more likely to:
- Give money to a political campaign
- Try to influence how others vote
- Attend a political meeting or rally
- Work on a political campaign
- Contact a public official
- Sign a political petition
- Publish a letter to the editor
Major Finding 2
Greater Civic Knowledge Trumps a College Degree as the Leading Factor in Encouraging Active Civic Engagement
Greater civic knowledge is the leading factor in promoting the kind of active civic engagement that has proven to be emblematic of effective citizenship. No other variable, including age, income, race, gender, religion, or partisanship was found to exceed both the breadth and depth of civic literacy’s positive impact on active political engagement. The more a person grows in knowledge of American civics, the more likely they are to perform the more private functions of writing a letter to the editor and contacting a public official, as well as the more public actions of working on a campaign or attending a political rally.
Major Finding 3
Civic Self-Education Increases Active Civic Engagement; Video Games Detract
In past reports, ISI identified “civic self-education”—frequently reading history and current events, and then discussing those topics with family and friends—as a leading contributor to greater civic knowledge. ISI discovered a similar pattern for this study, as those who read and discuss more history and current events were also more likely to participate actively in key electoral activities. Only greater civic knowledge on its own had a more positive impact on ISI’s seven modes of active civic engagement than discussing history and current events. Our analysis also revealed other factors that significantly influenced active civic engagement:
Positive Factors
- Frequently attending religious services
- Frequently watching television news
- Greater age
- Higher income
- K-12 teacher
- College teacher
Negative Factors
- Frequently playing video games
- Judeo-Christian religious identity
Additional Finding
Greater Civic Knowledge Discourages Elective Office Holding
In 2008, ISI’s survey of 2,508 adults revealed 164 respondents who had won elective office at least once in their life. After statistical analysis, it was discovered that scoring higher on ISI’s civic literacy exam was only one of two variables examined that discouraged individuals from successfully running for office. Perhaps, if elected officials placed a higher premium on civic knowledge, this anomaly would not exist. Conversely, there were six variables that exerted a positive influence on winning public office:
Positive Factors Encouraging Office Holding
- Frequently attending religious services
- Frequently reading websites
- Greater age
- Higher income
- K–12 teacher
- College teacher
Conclusion
The Successful Study of America’s History and Institutions is the Key to Informed and Responsible Citizenship
The best way for colleges to produce enlightened and engaged citizens is to focus more on educating and less on indoctrinating.
