Civics and Values Education Curriculum Policies in the United States: A Survey of the States

Abstract

This article reports the results of a survey conducted in the fall of 1997. The purpose of this study was to survey the extant policies in civics and values education across the 50 United States. The survey addressed three areas concerning civics and values education: curriculum, textbook selection, and teacher licensure. The findings were: One, most states mandate or suggest civics education curriculum and policies while many fewer states have curriculum and policies addressing values education. Two, many states have teacher licensure requirements for civics instruction at the secondary level; however, no teacher licensure policies exist with respect to the instruction of values. Three, states are almost equally divided between the state‐adoption and local‐control methods of textbook adoption. The authors discuss six important trends and issues that emerge from this survey.