Ethical-Citizenship Education Policies and Programs: A National Survey of State Education Agencies. Technical Report.

Overview & Synopsis

A national survey of state education agencies was undertaken in 1976 to ascertain policies and programs in the area of ethical-citizenship education (ECE). The objective of the survey was to investigate the relationship of national public opinion in favor of moral education to state education agency attempts to develop ECE programs. Forty-six states responded to the questionnaire. Questions centered on six areas: (1) state interest in ECE; (2) state goals in ECE; (3) current efforts in ECE at the state and local levels; (4) funding sources; (5) type of assistance planned for ECE by the state, if funding becomes available; and (6) name of person to contact for further information. Analysis of the ECE data revealed 13 policy areas shared by the majority of responding states. These included that ethical/values education must be integrated with citizenship education; new developments in the behavioral sciences should be used in ECE curricula; and schools should teach the skills which enable students to think and act consistently with American civic ethics. Subject areas identified as being relevant to ECE objectives were values education, moral reasoning, personal development, prosocial education, law-related education, community education, school-community education, economic-political education, and consumer education. (Author/DB)