Only one in five American eighth graders can demonstrate proficiency in civics, and the federal assessment that measures their knowledge is now headed for an overhaul that education advocates warn could make things worse if ideological activists get a seat at the table.
The National Assessment Governing Board is preparing to update the 2018 Civics Assessment Framework, the blueprint that shapes how the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests students on their understanding of American government. Defending Education, a nonprofit that monitors politicization in schools, has submitted formal comments urging the board to refocus the exam on the Constitution, the structure of government, and core founding principles, and to keep DEI-aligned consultants out of the process.
The numbers behind the push are difficult to argue with. The most recent NAEP civics results, released in 2022, found that just 22% of eighth graders scored at or above the proficient level. Nearly a third, 31%, scored below basic. Both figures represent a slide from 2018, when 23% were proficient and 27% fell below basic, Fox News Digital reported.
The NAEP, often called the "Nation's Report Card", administers its civics exam every four years to students in grades 4, 8, and 12. The 2022 results marked the first time civics scores declined since testing began in 1998. That drop didn't happen in a vacuum. Breitbart reported that the decline extended to U.S. history as well, where about 40% of eighth graders scored below basic in 2022, up from 34% in 2018 and 28% in 2014. History scores hit their lowest average since that assessment began in 1994.
"These results are a national concern," said NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr at the time.
The problem doesn't stop at middle school. A 2024 survey by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni tested more than 3,000 undergraduate students and found that 60% did not know the term lengths of members of Congress. Separately, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation surveyed registered voters in 2024 and found that 70% failed a basic civics literacy quiz. Just half could correctly name the branch of government where bills become laws.
Read that again: half of registered voters could not identify Congress as the lawmaking branch. These are people already casting ballots.
Part of the explanation lies in what states actually demand of their students. A 2024 Hoover Institution report found that eight states, Alaska, Delaware, Kansas, Maine, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wyoming, require neither a civics course nor a civics test for students to receive a high school diploma. Just four states, Idaho, Louisiana, Virginia, and West Virginia, require both a full-year civics course and a passing score on a standard civics test.
That patchwork leaves millions of students with no formal requirement to learn how their own government works before they graduate. The gap between Idaho and Alaska isn't a matter of regional flavor. It's a gap in basic civic preparation.
Incidents inside schools this year have only sharpened the debate. Anti-ICE walkouts spread through campuses across the country, raising questions about whether students participating in political demonstrations understand the constitutional framework behind the policies they're protesting. Minneapolis schools closed after an ICE confrontation at Roosevelt High, an episode that drew national attention to how schools handle politically charged disruptions.
Terry Stoops, Defending Education's director of state affairs, told Fox News Digital that the core failure is straightforward.
"The primary problem is that most high school graduates know very little about our American government, our political institutions, and our traditions. And so when these individuals get old enough to vote, they're doing so with not having the type of foundation that they need to make informed decisions in the voting booth."
Stoops described civics classrooms as having been "hijacked by activists" and warned that some curricula now prioritize political mobilization over foundational knowledge. He used the word "indoctrinate" to describe what he sees happening in certain programs.
His concern isn't abstract. Stoops pointed to a specific pattern: students learning to carry signs and chant slogans rather than learning how a bill becomes law or what the Tenth Amendment reserves to the states.
"So, this wave of activism we've seen in a lot of these classes is particularly troubling because rather than students learning the basics about American government, they're learning how to be activists and they're learning how to carry signs with witty slogans for the service of groups and individuals that are trying to instill political change. They're basically pawns in someone else's game."
That framing, students as "pawns", cuts to the heart of the dispute. When a West Chicago teacher was forced out over a two-word social media post, the episode illustrated how political conformity now shapes the professional environment teachers navigate. The question Defending Education raises is whether that same conformity has seeped into the curriculum itself.
The organization's formal comments to the National Assessment Governing Board lay out specific demands. Defending Education wants the updated NAEP civics framework to focus more heavily on what students actually know about the Constitution, the separation of powers, and the founding principles of the republic. It wants questions on foreign affairs to assess knowledge of specific constitutional mandates, not vague global-citizenship concepts.
Perhaps most pointedly, the group has called for the elimination of questions on "action civics", a term for curriculum that emphasizes student participation in protests, community organizing, and political campaigns as a form of civic learning. Defending Education's written comments argued that "encouraging civic participation without an adequate understanding of American political institutions produces little more than public displays of self-assured ignorance."
Nicole Neily, Defending Education's president, also urged the board to "reject consultants and reviewers from organizations that openly support identity politics and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives." The concern is that the same ideological framework that has reshaped hiring practices and corporate training at major institutions could quietly reshape the national standard for measuring civics knowledge.
Neily framed the stakes in practical terms, calling the NAEP civics exam "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."
The civics collapse doesn't exist in isolation. Public schools face scrutiny on multiple fronts, from federal Title IX investigations into student safety failures to financial scandals that drain resources meant for classrooms. The common thread is a system that has drifted from its core obligations to students and taxpayers alike.
Hans Zeiger, writing in the Washington Examiner, called the NAEP results "a national embarrassment" and said the scores "should be a wake-up call to every citizen." History scores for eighth graders have been declining since 2014, well before the pandemic, suggesting the rot predates remote learning and Zoom classrooms.
The New York Post noted the same NAEP data and highlighted the ongoing debate over how civics should be taught and measured as the national framework heads for revision. The question isn't whether American students are falling behind. They already have. The question is whether the institutions responsible for measuring and fixing the problem will make it worse.
When federal authorities investigated a child protective services complaint filed against a high school political club in Maryland, the case showed how quickly the machinery of government can be turned against students exercising basic civic rights. If young Americans don't understand those rights, they can't defend them.
Stoops put the consequences in blunt terms. He warned that citizens who lack critical thinking skills can undermine the country's core institutions, not through malice, but through ignorance.
"So, I think that the very republic that we have is at stake if we continue to produce citizens that don't think critically about these very, very important issues."
Rev. Francis Bellamy wrote the Pledge of Allegiance in 1892, assisted by patriotic teachers of the National Education Association who helped spread it as a school ritual. More than 130 years later, millions of students recite those words every morning in classrooms across the country. The data suggests a growing number of them have no idea what the republic they're pledging allegiance to actually requires of its citizens, or of them.
A country that can't teach its children how their own government works isn't preparing voters. It's manufacturing a public that's easy to mislead.
