Along with its role as the primary social mechanism of knowledge and skill transmission in modern societies, a basic function of education as a social institution involves socialization to citizenship. Moreover, many feel that the educational system may be a major instrument in the shaping of political attitudes and political orientations. As an agent of political socialization, the school provides the content, information, and concepts that expand the early learning experiences of the family. On this point, the evidence from past research is somewhat contradictory. Hess and Torney (1967) perceive the school as the central salient and dominant force in the political socialization of the young child. Greenstein (1965) and Jennings and Niemi (1974), however, question that conclusion. Researchers do generally agree, however, that the schools are more effective agents of political socialization for lower status and minority group youngsters. Langton and Jennings (1968), for example, concluded that high school civics courses exert more influence on the political orientations of minority and lower class youth because of the relatively low level of policical interest, knowledge, or involvement in their home environments. They argue that the curriculum has a lower level of informational redundancy for black students than for white students. Black students are, therefore, more likely to encounter new or conflicting perspectives and content, while the white student encounters a further layering of familiar materials. Unfortunately, however, as Hawley (1971) suggests, civics instruction in general "fails to develop within students an understanding of the capacities and skills needed to participate effectively and democratically in politics." Thus, the schools are viewed as contributing to political passivity among America's youth (Hawley, 1971). This observation apparently applies across racial groups. For example, in the Langton and Jennings study mentioned above, the researchers note that although exposure to civics courses tends to increase the system-loyalty of blacks, it also has the unfortunate consequence of lowering their participant orientation. Recently, researchers have begun to find some limited evidence that schools vary in their capacity to socialize their constituents into active political orientations. Merelman (1971) notes that although high quality schools are superior in conveying political information, they do not appear to engender interest in