Civic Education and the Democratic Mind: A Study of a School-Based Intervention for Youth Political Engagement and Behavior

The public education system in the United States was founded upon a civic mission, but youth have been historically politically disengaged. While research has been conducted on the impact of high school civics courses on youth civic engagement, research on targeted school-based interventions for youth political engagement is limited and outdated at the high school level. This paper explores the effects of a five week voter education curricular intervention on youth political engagement and behavior through a program evaluation study conducted in three Philadelphia schools. The curricular intervention included three lessons and guidelines for organizing peer-to-peer voter registration drives, and was developed by undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania. This curricular intervention was designed to be implemented in high school social science and history classes. Future findings will support the civic education system in improving civic education curricula, and expanding youth civic and political participation.