American Federalism: June in Review
- Noah Farnsworth
- 1 day ago
- 11 min read
Updated: 5 hours ago
Primary author: Noah Farnsworth
In This Edition
America 250: Assessing K-12 Civic Education Throughout the States
Introduction
This year marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. To celebrate this historical Semiquincentennial (what a fun word), national commemorative events were set to take place all around the country under the banner of "America 250." For the most part, events focused on engaging the American people in a reflection on the nation's founding, our democratic institutions, and civic identity.
Putting aside some of the controversy surrounding these debates, we believe that serious reflection on our nation’s history remains important for all Americans. A civically educated public, especially among younger generations, is vital to sustaining the democratic institutions and values that have long shaped the American experiment. Yet the way civics is often discussed, and the uneven manner in which it is taught, too often leaves young Americans less prepared for the responsibilities of citizenship.
We are mindful of Alexander Hamilton's opening in Federalist 1:
"[T]he important question [is] whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force."
How is the nation doing in preparing its future citizens for the next 250 years of self-government?
According to most reports, the answer is: not well. But not hopeless.
The negative side is clear. NAEP’s 2022 civics assessment showed that eighth-grade civics scores declined for the first time since the test began, and only 22 percent of eighth graders reached the proficient level. U.S. history results were even worse: eighth-grade scores fell by 5 points from 2018 and were not meaningfully different from the first assessment in 1994.
But there are some qualifications. Although Americans disagree about how civics should be taught, there is a promising and hopeful bipartisan agreement - just emerging in recent years - on the necessity of doing something to turn it around.
America's federal system, despite its complications and frustrations, remains resilient. For the most part, the task of educating citizens has always depended heavily on the states. Across the country, states are experimenting with new ways to strengthen civic knowledge, to balance the hyper-focus on STEM, and in some cases, to put citizenship education back at the center of public education.
learn more about what is happening in the states: https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/civics-citizenship-and-america-250
In this newsletter, we focus on examining the state of K-12 civic education throughout the country. This is a vast topic, so we focus on three major sources: The National Assessment of Educational Progress, a major study by the Fordham Institute, and the Nexus CivxNow Report.
Each of these sources reveal a unique aspect of civic education ranging from student achievement and state educational standards, to legislative initiatives and civic education focused bills. We will point out the studies’ empirical findings, highlighting interesting data points and policy recommendations. We highlight the studies’ major empirical findings, identify notable data points, and discuss several policy recommendations. Our aim is to convey the importance of civic education in K–12 schools and to explain why preparing the next generation of citizens may help address some of the problems the nation faces 250 years after its founding.
Please enjoy this month's issue of American Federalism, and let us know what you think we should cover next!
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
The National Assessment of Educational Progress, better known as "The Nation's Report Card" is a leading and trusted government source that measures K-12 academic achievement. A representative sample of students are tested either once every two years or every four years, depending on the subject. Topics of assessment include reading, mathematics, science, civics, U.S. history, geography, and arts. Students are tested at 4th, 8th, and 12th grade (or ages 9, 13, 17, respectively).
The test was first administered in 1969, and provides a reliable trend to study over the past 50 years.
Our specific focus will be on the Civics Assessment and what the scores are teaching us about the state of our K-12 civic education.
The Civics Assessment
The Civics Assessment measures how well students understand the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed for citizenship in the United States. The test covers topics such as the foundations of American government, the roles of citizens, how democratic institutions function, constitutional rights and privileges, and technology's role in political media, campaigns, and voting.
The test was last administered to 8th graders in 2022 and the results are telling. Only 13% of respondents scored at or above the proficient level and 40% scored below basic, the lowest grade threshold.
Below is a table with the average score distribution over the years. The NAEP advanced level's minimum score is 213, the proficient level is 178, and the basic level is 134.
Results & Conclusion
The results of the NAEP Civics Assessment reveal a worrisome pattern: by the 8th-grade, students demonstrate weak civic knowledge and skills. Fewer students are reaching proficiency, and overall performance has stagnated or declined across various demographics.
Weak civic knowledge at the 8th‑grade level is especially concerning because it exists within a broader civic‑knowledge gap among adults. Research from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation shows that 58% of adults fail a basic civics test, and the Annenberg Public Policy Center finds that only 40% can name three First Amendment rights, with just 9% able to name all five.
These adult gaps matter because policymakers, school board members, and educators are the ones responsible for setting civics standards, adopting curriculum, and modeling civic skills. When adults themselves have limited civic understanding, it becomes harder for the system to correct early weaknesses.
While the results from the Civics Assessment are worrisome in their own right, work done by the Fordham Institute helps illuminate some additional factors that might contribute to student outcomes and civic knowledge.
learn more about the NAEP: https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/
The Fordham Institute Study
The Fordham Institute is a national education think-tank focused on K-12 policy, curriculum quality, and school accountability. Most notably, the Fordham Institute is one of only a few organizations that systematically evaluates and grades civic and U.S. history standards in K-12 education. In 2021, the Institute published a report titled "The State of State Standards for Civics and U.S. History in 2021."
Unlike the findings from the NAEP which evaluated student performance, Fordham's 2021 Report was exclusively focused on evaluating individual state civics and U.S. history standards. In other words, Fordham examines what states actually expect students to learn, evaluating the quality, rigor, clarity, and organization of standards across all fifty states and the District of Columbia.
This evaluation is conducted through a line-by-line analysis of state standards, assessing which topics were included or excluded, the depth and breadth of coverage, and the skills and dispositions students were expected to develop.
After a thorough evaluation of a state's standards, the Institute graded each state on a letter scale and matched it with a corresponding rating. (A = Exemplary; B = Good; C = Mediocre; D = Inadequate).
Below is a map showing the Institute's rating for each state.
The Report includes lengthy explanations for each grade, with examples of what states within those ratings did to receive their scores. We note that the word "exemplary" might be misleading: all states receiving an "exemplary" score received, in fact, no better than an A- on Civics and U.S. History. A detailed guide with discussion of how the scores were tallied can be found here.
Findings
We will only point out a few findings of the Report that we found most instructive.
Emphasizing Necessary Skills
While subject matter is important and strongly contributes to a state receiving a higher score, reviewers for the report also focused on how that subject matter is approached.
The report notes: "Exemplary civics and U.S. History standards emphasize skills that are essential to informed citizenship such as critical thinking, problem analysis, and evaluating, interpreting, and arguing from evidence."
As one example, students in California are expected to know "the difference between relevant and irrelevant information, cause and effect, and cost and benefit" all by the time they leave elementary school.
As another example, students in Massachusetts' high schools are required to complete three different research projects – one on a "public policy impacting a local community", one on a significant world issue, and one on "the relevance of the Constitution in the 21st century."
Championing Civic Dispositions
The Report highlights three primary "Civic Dispositions" that each of the states with Exemplary ratings should have:
1. Respect for other persons and opinions.
2. An inclination to learn, participate, and serve.
3. A commitment to American institutions and ideals.
These civic dispositions are often habitual, meaning "they should be practiced as well as preached." Students should learn that respecting other people and their opinions is important, but they should also be put in learning environments to practice these skills. That goes for the other two dispositions as well.
Weak States
The report includes a valuable section on why states were labeled "inadequate" or otherwise failed to receive more than a D or F. Inadequate states provide "vague" or insufficient guidance for curriculum and instruction; they make poor use of early grades; they are overly rigid or "needlessly complex" in organization; or they pay little attention to writing, argumentation, problem analysis and "the connections between core content and current issues and events."
States who get an Inadequate or Mediocre civics score often also omit or seriously underrepresent important topics from civics and/or U.S. history classes. Some of these include:
Covering the three branches of government as a single, all encompassing topic. States rarely dive into detail about the function, purpose, personnel makeup, or current events about each branch.
Federalism is often omitted entirely! If Federalism is taught, it "appears in a laundry list of constitutional 'principles' instead of receiving its own discrete, nuanced standard(s)." As expected, this is cause of concern.
Electoral process topics such as elections, gerrymandering, campaign finance, and voter access are often rarely covered or if they are, are too overbroad for students to apply what they learn to what they are seeing in the real world.
Recommendations
As part of their report, the Fordham Institute includes five specific recommendations that can be applied across the board. They include:
Maximize civics education in elementary and middle school and require at least one year of U.S. history and one semester of civics in high school.
Provide more detailed and specific instruction on history and civics topics, like federalism.
Put more emphasis on writing, argumentation, and the connections between core concepts and current events.
Take a simpler, more flexible, more user-friendly approach to organization.
Address specific gaps and oversight in topic coverage, per the individual state reviews.
Conclusion
We encourage all to read and study this report by the Fordham Institute. Its recommendations and carefully crafted analysis reveal a useful and relevant approach for legislators, community leaders, teachers, and all those who support our K-12 community.
As the Report notes in its forward:
"We urge those closer to the ground to lean into the debate by asking kids to consider the inherent tensions and unavoidable tradeoffs that are so often at work when it comes to these issues and insisting that they listen to one another, dialogue respectfully, and disagree agreeably."
Nexus, CivxNow Data
Turning away from student outcomes and state curriculum standards, we will now turn to the policy side of civic education. Formed through a collaboration between Nexus and iCivics, CivxNow unites 300+ organizations focused on strengthening K-12 civic education. Their partnership with Nexus allows them to provide a yearly state policy scan focused on state level civic education policy bills.
This policy scan is a comprehensive scan, organized around a series of "Civic Readiness Policy Levers" such as:
1. Civic course requirements
2. Civics assessments
3. Media literacy mandates
4. Teacher preparation requirements
5. Funding for civics initiatives
The map below highlights the number of civic education bills introduced by each state in the 2025-2026 legislative session.
New York had the highest number of bills introduced, with a total of 21. Iowa also introduced a significant number of bills, with a total of 17. 11 states had no civic education bills introduced in their most recent legislative session.
The connection between the "number of bills" and the Fordham rating is not clear, but it might be useful to track legislative efforts with the Fordham rating going forward, as follows:
Summary of Important Bills
The CivxNow site includes a full list of all civic education bills from 2025-2026 state legislative sessions.
Here are just a few examples of bills that focus the concerns found in the NAEP and Fordham reports.
State Civic Seal Bills
State civic seals are academic awards for students who demonstrate excellence in civic education and participation. These bills typically authorize the state's board of education to issue seals on a graduating student's diploma, recognizing their achievement and dedication to civics. Usually, students are required to complete coursework in history, politics, or civics; participate in community service, student government, or real‑world civic engagement projects; and demonstrate civic proficiency through an assessment, essay, or capstone project. These bills help encourage students to go beyond instruction from a teacher and become involved citizens at a younger age.
New York was the first state to implement a type of state civic seal and since then, many states have followed suit. Here are states who proposed one in their most recent legislative session. Asterisks (*) denote enacted bills. So far, 4 of the 9 have been signed into law.
Bills Supporting Civics Curriculum and Student Development
In addition to state seal bills, many states have adopted bills focused on updating curriculum standards in the state.
Alaska: HB 168 – Supports a revised civics curriculum update with instruction on the American founding, federalism, government institutions, civic rights, and liberties. It also requires a civics assessment based on questions from the naturalization exam used by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
California: SCR 128 – Deems two full weeks each year in April "High School Voter Education Week" and provides focused instruction, activities, and support for grades 9-12. Students will be given the opportunity to register to vote and will be taught various lessons on the electoral process and the importance of voting, both locally and nationally.
North Carolina: S 787 – Seeks to promote AI literacy across K-12 education and provide students with the knowledge and skills to use AI ethically and responsibly.
Maryland: HB 627 – Creates a commission on history, culture, and civics in education. The commission includes experts in various fields, teachers, active students, university leaders, and more.
New York: S 9994 – Lowers the voting age to 17 years; requires that students receive education in civics and be given the opportunity to register to vote in the classroom.
Idaho: SB 1336 – Amends state code to require each student to: (1) exemplify the cardinal virtues necessary for self-government, (2) understand the fundamental principles of the nation's republic, and (3) understand the content, history, meaning, and significance of founding documents.
Conclusion
At the end of the Constitutional Convention, Elizabeth Willing Powell questioned Benjamin Franklin about the form the new government was to take, to which he famously replied, "A republic, if you can keep it."
Civic education is one way we can meet that challenge.
While there is still much to be done to improve civic education nationwide, the growing number of state bills focused on this area demonstrates its increasing importance. Civic education helps students develop critical thinking, problem-solving, advocacy, and civil discourse skills. This in turn fosters a healthier and - at least this is the hope - a less polarized political culture.
Becoming civically informed isn't just for K–12 students; it is a skill to cultivate throughout one's life. As the country celebrates and reflects on 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, we hope readers will also reflect on the key importance of the federal design, which puts states and local communities in the leading position of preserving America's civic heritage.
The results of these efforts will be uneven, and perhaps not all experiments will be worth the effort. But a federal system provides an "arena of citizenship" that calls each of us to action: to become better informed, better prepared, and more capable of meeting the challenges of self-government.
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