Defending Education Submits Comment on Upcoming NAEP Civics Assessment Framework Update

March 25, 2026


Lesley Muldoon, Executive Director
National Assessment Governing Board
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Ave. SW
Washington, DC 20202
Mailstop: 1A112D

Dear Executive Director Muldoon,

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Civics Assessment Framework for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) asked respondents to address three specific questions:

  • Does the NAEP Civics Assessment Framework need to be updated?
  • If the framework needs to be updated, why is a revision needed?
  • What should a revision to the framework include?

Does the NAEP Civics Assessment Framework need to be updated?

Defending Education urges the National Assessment Governing Board to update the 2018 Civics Assessment Framework. All participants should possess relevant technical and subject area expertise necessary to complete this critical work. Moreover, they should pledge to conduct the revision in good faith, pledging to deliver a final product that is free of political bias and divisive ideologies. To this end, we recommend that the NAGB reject consultants and reviewers from organizations that openly support identity politics and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, such as the American Institutes for Research.

As part of this work, we would encourage the NAGB to consult states, organizations, and institutions of higher education that have produced comprehensive, rigorous, and relevant civics standards. These include the Hillsdale College K-12 History & Civics Curriculum and American Birthright: The Civics Alliance’s Model K-12 Social Studies Standards. In addition, Foundations of Freedom: A Louisiana Civics Program, the Florida Civics Literacy Excellence Initiative, and the Tennessee Academic Standards for Social Studies are state-level civic education models worthy of consideration by the revision committee.

If the framework needs to be updated, why is a revision needed?

Civics education has been a core function of American schooling since the Founding Era. Political leaders throughout the colonies may have had many disagreements about the nature of the American experiment, but they almost universally agreed that an educated populace is essential to a thriving republic.

Yet, multiple political and social measures suggest that civic literacy and engagement in the United States began to decline in the latter half of the twentieth century and remains at alarmingly low levels today. State-administered tests, the NAEP Civics Assessment, and countless independent studies reflect this disheartening decline. For example:

  • Only 22% of eighth-graders performed at or above the NAEP Proficient level on the 2022 NAEP Civics Assessment, and a shocking 31% of students scored Below Basic.
  • According to a 2024 American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) study, 60% of undergraduate respondents could not correctly identify the term lengths of members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Only 28% of students correctly identified the 13th Amendment as the government action that freed the slaves.
  • In a 2024 U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation survey of registered voters, 70% failed a basic civic literacy quiz on topics like the three branches of government, the number of Supreme Court justices, and other basic functions of our democracy.

These outcomes reflect a systematic failure starting in the elementary school grades and persisting into adulthood. Civics education at the typical public school is fragmented, knowledge-poor, and too often saturated with biased content. Various forms of higher education and both formal and informal forms of adult learning do not compensate for the shortcomings produced by inferior civics instruction in K-12 public schools.

Yet, we believe that revising the NAEP Civics Assessment Framework could be the first step toward ushering in an era of civic renewal. Americans will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence this year, and the Semiquincentennial is an ideal time for the nation to recommit to providing a high-quality civic education for all Americans.

What should a revision to the framework include?

The NAEP Civics Assessment should focus entirely on measuring what students know about the foundations of the American political system, the United States Constitution, and the fundamental principles and ideas that underlie our republican form of government. Additional questions related to foreign affairs should be included, insofar as they assess students’ understanding of the constitutional mandates dictating the proper use of state power in such contexts, including treaties, international commerce, declarations of war, and the appointment of ambassadors.

Accordingly, the revised NAEP Civics Assessment Framework should eliminate questions that focus on “participatory skills,” also known as “action civics.” On the surface, the participatory skills component is a well-intentioned effort to encourage children and young adults to exercise their constitutional rights in the public sphere responsibly. Yet, this aspect of the framework puts the proverbial cart before the horse.

Civic knowledge necessarily precedes “questioning,” “discussing public affairs,” “using media resources,” “deliberating on public issues,” “assessing others’ arguments and positions,” and other participatory skills identified in the current framework. Encouraging civic participation without an adequate understanding of American political institutions produces little more than public displays of self-assured ignorance. One need not look further than much of the political discourse on social media or an anti-ICE walkout to see this phenomenon occur in real time.

In addition, the NAEP Civics framework’s stated focus on employing “authentic stimulus materials” produces pedantic distractions that are counterproductive to the task of authentically measuring civic knowledge. There is no need for test items to feature an “exciting array of materials,” such as newspaper articles, hypothetical cases, sample ballots, real-world scenarios, or song lyrics. Obviously, younger generations and middle-aged standardized testing writers seldom agree on what constitutes “exciting” fodder for a test question, a disconnect that creates more problems than it solves.

Rather than undertaking the fool’s errand to make test questions ostensibly resonate with children and young adults, testing writers should simply draw on the nation’s rich and enduring corpus of primary text documents, consequential speeches, U.S. Supreme Court decisions, and other items of historical or national significance. Surely, real-world scenarios and song lyrics are mediocre substitutes for the majesty of Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have Dream” speech.

Other Considerations

  1. Add the NAEP Civics Assessment to the biennial testing cycle that currently is limited to reading and mathematics

Accountability is not an end in itself. It is a means to both recognize excellence and propel meaningful reform. Yet, the infrequent administration of the civics assessment allows the dismal NAEP Civics results to fade from the public consciousness without consequence. Increasing the frequency of test administration will increase the likelihood that policymakers and education officials address shortcomings in civic education in their own states.

  1. Increase the sample to allow for state-level results

Although not ideal, researchers can derive state-level estimates of NAEP Civics performance using statistical techniques such as multilevel regression with poststratification. A better approach would be to administer the NAEP Civics Assessment to representative student samples in each state.

Representative samples for future civics assessments should be large enough to generate statistically valid scores for each state. State-level scores would allow policymakers to identify and address strengths and shortcomings in social studies standards, curricula, instruction, and assessments. This is particularly valuable for the many states that do not administer statewide civics assessments as part of their testing programs.

  1. Questions on future NAEP Civics tests should focus on fundamental concepts and not tangential matters.

According to the NAEP Questions Tool, the 2022 NAEP Civics test asked 8th-grade test takers to identify careers in public service, evaluate the usefulness of web page searches on citizenship, and identify the central purpose of the organization Vote Smart. At best, low-stakes questions like these provide little insight into what students know about American political institutions. At worst, these “softball” questions inflate otherwise dreadful test scores and mask the depth of test-takers’ civic illiteracy.

Conclusion

The NAEP Civics Assessment is a necessary, often sobering snapshot of public school students’ understanding of our fundamental constitutional rights and their readiness to exercise those rights as responsible and informed citizens. As long as civic education remains a core function of public education, the NAEP Civics Assessment will remain a critical tool for ensuring that our public schools are fulfilling their responsibilities.

We applaud the National Assessment Governing Board for soliciting public comment on this critical issue, and we look forward to a NAEP Civics Assessment Framework that improves upon the 2018 edition.

Sincerely,

Nicole Neily
President
Defending Education

This comment was submitted in response to the National Assessment Governing Board request for public comment for NAEP Civics Assessment Framework