What do ninth grade students in the United States know about democracy and democratic principles? What attitudes do they have toward civic issues? What experiences have they had in democratic participation and how engaged do they expect to be in the political arena as adults? How do youth in the United States compare with their peers in other nations on indicators of civic knowledge and engagement? Those questions and others were addressed in the recent Civic Education (CivEd) study conducted under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). This digest reports the main findings of the United States portion of the IEA CivEd study. (BB)