Standardizing Citizenship: The Potential Influence of State Curriculum Standards on the Civic Development of Adolescents Wayne Journell, University of North Carolina at Greensboro ABSTRACT The rise of state-mandated standards in public education have allowed legisla- tors to answer the question of what constitutes a proper civic education, a debate that has existed in the United States since the turn of the twentieth century. Through the content they employ in their standards, states may indirectly influence the type of citizenship education students receive in the classroom. The present study focuses on the Virginia Standards of Learning for two courses, civics and economics and U.S. and Virginia government, which are commonly taught to eighth graders and high school seniors, respectively. A content analysis of the essential knowledge found in the stan- dards for these courses categorizes instructional content into seven forms of citizenship: civic republicanism, character education, deliberative, social justice, participatory, trans- national, and cosmopolitan. Although the results are specific to the Virginia Standards of Learning, the nature of how citizenship is portrayed within the standards may transfer to other states with similar forms of standards-based education within their social studies curricula. A n extensive body of literature within political sci- ence suggests that political socialization starts in the primary grades and continues throughout life (Sapiro 2004; Easton and Dennis 1967). Using Fou- cault’s (1991) notion of governmentality, interper- sonal relationships and societal institutions aid in this socialization, and their influence varies from individual to indi- vidual. Moreover, it has become commonplace to acknowledge the role of family (Achen 2002) and public schooling (Callan 1997; Dewey 1916; Gutmann 1987) in developing the civic identi- ties of individuals within American society. Therefore, even when approaching political socialization from a developmental perspec- tive (Merelman 1971), studying the role of schooling in the for- mulation of students’ political identities seems apt, given that maturation of political thought corresponds with the time stu- dents spend within the confines of public education. Yet, Macedo et al. argue that schools “often teach about citi- zenship and government without teaching students the skills that are necessary to become active citizens themselves” (2005, 33). Even in civics and government courses, which Kahne, Chi, and Middaugh describe as “the part of the formal high school curric- ulum that is most explicitly linked to the democratic purposes of education” (2006, 391), conversations about citizenship rarely extend beyond one’s right to vote. Recent movements to standard- ize public education in the United States have only exacerbated this notion by mandating content taught to students. Although the social sciences fall outside the realm of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), many states have standardized their civics and govern- ment curricula as part of the sweeping trend toward greater teacher accountability and systemized decision making. Virginia was one of the first states to introduce curriculum standards, even prior to the implementation of No Child Left Behind, and its Standards of Learning (SOLs) have been sub- sequently used as a model for standardization efforts in other states. In this study, I analyze the content of the Virginia SOLs for civics and economics and U.S. and Virginia government, which are commonly taught to eighth graders and high school seniors, respectively. Although a study of the way that one state promotes citizenship within its standards does not necessarily generalize to how citizenship is portrayed in other states or even in Virginia public schools, it does show the potential of states to frame the meaning of citizenship within standards. The specific questions addressed are: (a) What type of citizenship do the civics and gov- ernment SOLs advocate? (b) How do the civics and government Wayne Journell is an assistant professor of secondary social studies education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His research focuses on the teaching of poli- tics and citizenship in high school social studies classrooms. He can be reached at wayne_ journell@uncg.edu. The Teacher ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. doi:10.1017/S1049096510000272 PS • April 2010 351 Journell, W. (2010). Standardizing citizenship: The potential influence of state curriculum standards on the civic development of adolescents. PS: Political Science & Politics, 43, 351-358. Made available courtesy of Oxford University Press: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1049096510000272 ***Reprinted with permission. No further reproduction is authorized without written permission from Oxford University Press. This version of the document is not the version of record. Figures and/or pictures may be missing from this format of the document.***