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From the Classroom to the Kitchen Table: An Experiment in Building Youth Political Knowledge and Efficacy
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From the Classroom to the Kitchen Table:
An Experiment in Building Youth Political Knowledge and Efficacy
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Timothy Vercellotti, Western New England College
Elizabeth C. Matto, Rutgers University
Abstract
Research tells us that systematically incorporating newspapers into school curricula improves standardized reading and math scores. But there is little research to tell us whether these efforts are effective in increasing political knowledge or efficacy among students. We address this gap in the literature with an experiment involving 361 students in four high schools in New Jersey. After conducting a baseline survey measuring political knowledge, efficacy, and information-seeking among students, we randomly assigned the students' social studies classes to one of three conditions: a treatment group assigned to read and discuss articles about politics in a newsweekly magazine in class for eight weeks; a treatment group in which students were assigned to read and discuss the same articles at home with their parents, with the students subsequently also discussing the articles in the classroom; and a control group that did not receive the magazine and did not engage in discussion. We followed up with surveys of the students at the end of the eight week intervention, and then six weeks later to measure for longer-term effects of the experiment. We find that the combination of reading the articles and discussing them at home is related to an increase in internal political efficacy, while the same was not true for the group that discussed the articles only in class and the control group that received no exposure to the magazines. The combination of reading and discussion also was related to increased information-seeking and political knowledge for at least some members of the group that discussed the articles at home and in the classroom. Our results could provide guidance to practitioners looking for ways to enlist potentially powerful allies – parents – in reinforcing what happens in the classroom by extending political discussions to the home as well.
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Prepared for presentation at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association,
April 2-5, 2009, Chicago, IL. This research was funded by a grant from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University. The authors would like to thank Susan Sherr, Theresa Thonhauser, April Clark, Hannah Holden and Michele Brody for assistance in developing the proposal and research design for this project, and Brian Hayes, Yoni Yares and Qin Zhang for research assistance. We are also grateful to Time magazine, which donated the magazines used in this research. Address inquires to Timothy Vercellotti, Western New England College, 1215 Wilbraham Road, Springfield, MA, 01119, ## email not listed ##.
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| | Authors: Vercellotti, Timothy. and Matto, Elizabeth. |
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From the Classroom to the Kitchen Table:
An Experiment in Building Youth Political Knowledge and Efficacy
1
Timothy Vercellotti, Western New England College
Elizabeth C. Matto, Rutgers University
Abstract
Research tells us that systematically incorporating newspapers into school curricula
improves standardized reading and math scores. But there is little research to tell us
whether these efforts are effective in increasing political knowledge or efficacy among
students. We address this gap in the literature with an experiment involving 361 students
in four high schools in New Jersey. After conducting a baseline survey measuring
political knowledge, efficacy, and information-seeking among students, we randomly
assigned the students' social studies classes to one of three conditions: a treatment group
assigned to read and discuss articles about politics in a newsweekly magazine in class for
eight weeks; a treatment group in which students were assigned to read and discuss the
same articles at home with their parents, with the students subsequently also discussing
the articles in the classroom; and a control group that did not receive the magazine and
did not engage in discussion. We followed up with surveys of the students at the end of
the eight week intervention, and then six weeks later to measure for longer-term effects
of the experiment. We find that the combination of reading the articles and discussing
them at home is related to an increase in internal political efficacy, while the same was
not true for the group that discussed the articles only in class and the control group that
received no exposure to the magazines. The combination of reading and discussion also
was related to increased information-seeking and political knowledge for at least some
members of the group that discussed the articles at home and in the classroom. Our
results could provide guidance to practitioners looking for ways to enlist potentially
powerful allies – parents – in reinforcing what happens in the classroom by extending
political discussions to the home as well.
1
Prepared for presentation at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association,
April 2-5, 2009, Chicago, IL. This research was funded by a grant from the Center for
Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University. The authors
would like to thank Susan Sherr, Theresa Thonhauser, April Clark, Hannah Holden and Michele
Brody for assistance in developing the proposal and research design for this project, and Brian
Hayes, Yoni Yares and Qin Zhang for research assistance. We are also grateful to Time magazine,
which donated the magazines used in this research. Address inquires to Timothy Vercellotti,
Western New England College, 1215 Wilbraham Road, Springfield, MA, 01119,
## email not listed ##.
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