IEA Civic Education Study, 1999: Civic Knowledge and Engagement Among 14-Year-Olds in 23 European Countries, 2 Latin American Countries, Hong Kong, Australia, and the United States (ICPSR 21661)

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The IEA Civic Education Study (known as CIVED) is an international assessment of the civic knowledge and skills of 14-year-olds (8th and 9th graders) in 28 countries. Data were collected in 1999 under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) headquartered in Amsterdam. Begun in 1958, IEA is a consortium of educational and social science research institutes in more than 50 countries. The IEA's International Steering Committee (University of Maryland, College Park) and an international Technical Advisory Group guided the research. The International Coordinating Center (Humboldt University of Berlin) coordinated the day-to-day operations and the IEA Data Processing Center (Hamburg, Germany) processed the data. The Study's National Research Coordinators developed an octagon model that guided the two phases of the study, the first phase a more qualitative set of case studies in 24 countries and the second phase a test and survey of students in 29 countries. This model gave special attention to macrosystem elements such as the country's history of democracy, transnational position, economy, and media. It also delineated ways in which civic education goals are carried into practice, especially the role of the formal community, informal community, school, peer group, and family. Publications from the study have addressed each of these theories and approaches and have been authored by educational researchers, civic education specialists, comparative scholars, political scientists, and psychologists. The following countries took part: Australia, Belgium (French-speaking), Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong (SAR), Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. The sizes of the nationally-representative samples ranged from 2,076 students tested in Belgium (French-speaking) to 5,688 students tested in Chile. Civic achievement was measured by a total civic knowledge scale composed of two subscales: civic content and skills. Civic content refers to knowledge of civic concepts such as the characteristics of democracies, and civic skills refer to the interpretative skills needed to understand civic-related communication (e.g., to make sense of a political cartoon or an election leaflet). In addition, survey items measured students' concepts of democracy, citizenship, and government, attitudes toward civic issues such as immigrants' or women's rights, trust in governmental institutions, and several types of expected political and community participation. Students also answered questions pertaining to their background characteristics, their organizational participation, and the climate of their school and classroom. Item responses gathered from approximately 95,000 students in total and 22 scale scores developed with confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory are included on the file. Questionnaires also solicited background information from school principals and teachers.

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