Education for democracy was at the center of the nation’s public discussion and debate in 1946, the year in which the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) was founded by Congress. More than one million returning veterans flooded the nation’s campuses, taking advantage of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (the “GI Bill of Rights”). And President Truman established a Presidential Commission on Higher Education charged with examining “the function of higher education in our democracy and the means by which [it] can best be performed.” According to the Commission report, “education for a fuller realization of democracy in every phase of living” was the principal goal of higher education. Democracy was understood in an expansive fashion, as “much more than a set of political processes…it is a way of life—a way of thinking, feeling, and acting.” In the same spirit, Congress granted NCoC a formal charter and charged it with the responsibility of promoting effective citizenship and civic education.

In 2006, NCoC launched an initiative to establish a yearly national index to measure the state of America’s civic health. Since that time, developmental work on the Civic Health Index has been undertaken in partnership with the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), Harvard’s Saguaro Seminar, and a group of distinguished scholars and practitioners. The Civic Health Index is intended to help the nation chart its progress toward preparing active citizens who are confident, effective contributors to a democratic way of life.

The 2009 America’s Civic Health Index is based on a national representative survey of 1,518 Americans and an addition oversample of 2,371 respondents in six states, including Minnesota (with an oversample of 395). The polling firm Knowledge Networks used random digit sampling, address based sampling, and cell phone based sampling in addition to online sampling to minimize potential biases. For those who do not have internet at home (19.3%) Knowledge Networks provided free connection and equipment.

The survey aimed to take the pulse of American civic life in a moment of great change.