Sponsored by AEI's Program on American Citizenship, Frederick M. Hess, AEI's director of education policy studies; Meira Levinson, associate professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education; and David E. Campbell, associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, have commissioned leading researchers and scholars to explore the issues of citizenship and schooling by looking at domestic and international data, teacher training, and schools and classrooms.

A new poll by AEI's Program on American Citizenship finds that Americans are deeply skeptical about school efforts to educate the next generation of voters. Our report also finds that teachers and the average American citizen have markedly different priorities.

This report from the AEI Program on American Citizenship investigates what our schools are teaching today about citizenship, based on the views, thoughts, and frontline observations of our nation's high school history and social studies teachers.

The sad truth is our schools are producing a generation of citizens ill-equipped to govern themselves as participants in our democracy.

American students are less proficient in their nation's history than any other subject. If creating good citizens who understand the workings of their government is a national goal, schools need to do better.

Americans are rightly concerned that schools are not providing students with the knowledge and habits necessary to be good citizens.