Whether and how well we teach civics are important questions, especially in the midst of an election campaign in which millions of Americans are being asked to sort through complicated issues and navigate an increasingly difficult voting process.

We found recently that 68 percent of young people...

President Obama ended his Democratic Convention speech on the theme of active citizenship. "As citizens," he said, "we understand that America is not about what can be done for us. It's about what can be done by us, together through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of...

As someone who studies young Americans, I keep on my shelf the book Generation We: How Millennial Youth are Taking Over America and Changing Our World Forever by Eric Greenberg and Karl Weber (2008). Norman Lear provides one of many enthusiastic endorsements on the back cover: "The Bible tells us,...

Since 2006, unemployment has risen by 10 points in Nevada but just one point in North Dakota. Such differences matter deeply for people's lives, and we need to understand the underlying reasons.

The obvious place to look is economic conditions. A Goldman Sachs study in August found...

Here is news that may shake your stereotypes. Urban students from several Massachusetts cities (in a coalition called Teens Leading The Way) have chosen to fight for a statewide civic education requirement. Today, they will testify in the state capitol in favor of Senate bill # S00183 (which...

Today, educators and young people from around the country are meeting in Chicago for the first National Action Civics Conference. These are people who know that teenagers become good citizens -- and improve their schools and communities -- when they are given the chance to contribute.

Chicago is...

On the American Prospect blog, Jamelle Bouie cites the latest Pew survey of public knowledge (only 38% of Americans can identify the incoming House Speaker; only 14% know what the inflation rate is) and concludes, "If there's a pundit trick that annoys me the most, it's the tendency to...

Paul Krugman has been criticizing Barack Obama since early in the primary season, and their shadow-boxing is one of the most interesting debates in American politics.

Today's Krugman column provides an opportunity to sum it up. This is the key paragraph:

In retrospect, the roots of current Democratic...

About one in five young citizens (20% of those between the ages of 18 and 29) voted in this year's election. About nine million young citizens voted. Their turnout rate and sheer number of youth votes is down somewhat from 2006 -- a statistically significant decline but not one of...

A few months ago, after months of debate and negotiations, health insurance reform passed Congress: the biggest social reform in decades. Yet youth--who will be affected at least as much as anyone by the new bill--were barely aware that a national debate was even occurring.

(My co-authors of this...

As a candidate, Barack Obama made the strongest case since Bobby Kennedy in 1968 that we need to engage Americans in changing America. His civic engagement theme was popular with voters (although largely unreported by the press), and I believe it helped him win the primaries.

But no one who...