Assessing young people’s citizenship attitudes using rubrics

Schools’ role in the development of students’ attitudes towards society is increasing deliberated, which also leads to question how these attitudes can be assessed. Assessment instruments typically use Likert-type items to measure the extent to which students agree or disagree to certain statements. In this study we aim to evaluate an alternative approach to assessing citizenship attitudes: using rubrics. The theoretical framework describes how we conceptualized attitudes towards acting democratically, acting socially responsible, and dealing with differences at four levels. Students in Dutch general secondary and vocational tertiary education were asked to assess which level they felt best described their attitudes, and to explain why. The results show students are generally implicitly supportive of democratic principles, show a willingness to help others, and respect people’s differences. We find several differences between students’ attitudes based on their background. The implications of using a comprehensive assessment of citizenship attitudes are further discussed.