Beyond Basics, Civics Eludes U.S. Students

By David J. Hoff

Washington

Almost all 4th graders know that Bill Clinton is the president of the United States, and the vast majority of 8th graders can identify Martin Luther King Jr. as a civil rights leader.

But American students have a weak grasp of the underlying principles of the U.S. Constitution and lack a fundamental understanding of how governments operate, according to the results of the 1998 civics portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

"The kids get the words, but it's not the words we want," said Diane Ravitch, a research professor at New York University and a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, the panel that sets NAEP policy and achievement levels. "It's the living of democracy," she said at a press conference held here last week to unveil the latest...