Experiments in Political Socialization: Kids Voting USA as a Model for Civic Education Reform

This report describes how an innovative curriculum promoted the civic development of high school students along with parents by stimulating news media attention and discussion in families. Evidence is based on a three-year evaluation of Kids Voting USA, an interactive, election-based curriculum. Political communication in the home increased the probability of voting for students when they reached voting age during the 2004 election. Thus, the interplay of influences from school and family magnified curriculum effects in the short term and sustained them in the long term. This bridging of the classroom with the living room suggests how Kids Voting offers a model for reforming civic education in the United States.

Data are derived from a series of natural field experiments, beginning with interviews of 491 student-parent pairs in 2002. The authors evaluate the curriculum as it was taught in the fall of that year in El Paso County, CO, with Colorado Springs as the largest city; Maricopa, County, AZ, which includes the Phoenix region; and Broward/Palm Beach counties, FL, the epicenter for the ballot-recount saga of 2000. Students who were juniors or seniors in 2002 were interviewed in the fall/winter of 2002, 2003, and 2004. They were all of voting age by the fall of 2004, allowing us to determine whether participation in the curriculum in 2002 affected turnout in the presidential election two years later. They also interviewed
one parent from each family each year. They examined the voting records in the four counties to provide a definitive assessment of whether the curriculum increased the likelihood of voting. Finally, they supplemented the panel survey data with qualitative insights obtained from focus group interviews. (authors)