An Assessment of Civic Engagement and Educational Attainment. Fact Sheet.
It is well documented that individuals with higher levels of education tend to be more civically engaged. 2 In a two part study conducted for the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) 3 we provide empirical evidence using 1988 2000 panel data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS) 4 that civic engagement might also promote educational attainment: civically engaged teenagers make greater scholastic progress during high school and subsequently acquire higher levels of education than their otherwise similar peers. Our first essay provides supporting empirical evidence for this relationship in general, and the second essay broadens these findings across gender and race/ethnicity. With regards to policy relevance, the primary results point to the importance of civic participation as one means to foster both social and human capital investments. The purpose of this fact sheet is to provide highlights from our two part study. The empirical analyses of the relationship between civic engagement and scholastic progress, based on an education production function framework, 5 are discussed in detail in the first essay. Table 1 includes selected results from both essays of particular interest. Community service performed to meet course requirements or on a strictly voluntary basis had a positive and statistically significant effect on scholastic progress during high school. For example, on average course required community service enhanced scholastic progress by 3.3 percent (in history) to 6.7 percent (in reading) Moreover, in each subject, community service conducted for classes related to higher average gains among male teenagers than females. The scholastic returns from voluntary community service were also greater for male students than for females. Table 1 further indicates that being involved in student government during high school raised the scholastic progress of young women by 1.1 to 1.7 percentage points in history, mathematics, and science; with the exception of history, however, it did not have a significant effect for young men. It appears that the average scholastic returns from civic engagement activities during high school are not gender neutral. Other findings presented in the second essay suggest that community service conducted for classes had similar effects on the academic progress made by minority versus non Hispanic white students of the same gender. As such, high school coursework that includes a service learning component does not appear to give a particular racial/ethnic group an advantage with respect to