There is a well documented link between adolescent experiences in High School and civic engagement even a decade and a half later. The SchoolVote program has the potential to provide students with experiences that will enhance their level of civic engagement in the years ahead.

The following quotes from Why We Vote: How Schools and Communities Shape Our Civic Life, by David Campbell reveal the importance of providing civic engagement experiences to high school students:

Strong civic norms in an adolescent's high school lead to a greater likelihood of voting well over a decade following high school. (page 8)

The evidence I have gathered suggests that schools are a lever to enhance young people's sense of civic commitment. An investment made in enhancing the sense of civic responsibility taught in our schools has the potential to pay big dividends over the long haul in enhancing voter turnout and other forms of civically oriented public engagement. (page 8)

The accepted wisdom in the political science profession is that civics classes have little or no effect on the vast majority of students. (page 151)

Since there seems to be little empirical traction to the study of the formal curriculum, perhaps our attention should be directed toward the second way in which schools potentially affect civic development--the experience they provide of being part of a community. (page 153)

We have seen that it is the civic climate of the school community that has a robust impact on participation in adulthood... we have seen that it is the norms within the adolescent's community, defined in this case as the high school, that matter... strong civic norms within a school community reach into the future. (pages 173, 174)

Finally, we are left with the question of whether a school has any control over its civic climate. Do the civic norms inside a school simply reflect the norms in the community outside the school? Are there efforts schools can take to enhance the sense of civic commitment among their students?... If schools can enhance the civic dimension of public engagement in America, it is worth finding out how. (page 175)

The last chapter of Why We Vote explains that a method of modifying behavior called the "Social Norms Approach" has been effective in a variety of settings, and might be useful for strengthening civic norms. The fundamental insight of this approach is that changing behavior among young people requires changing their perceptions of what is normal, and that their perceptions can be changed by giving them relevant experiences and trustworthy information.

To this end, the SchoolVote program provides opportunities for active participation in election campaigns (endorsement preparation and publishing) and encourages the use of exit polls as a way to demonstrate the importance of political activity beyond voting. Information about campaign activities and voting behavior collected with exit polls can be used to enrich classroom discussion of politics.

Successful implementation of the SchoolVote program will encourage students to view voting, providing endorsements, exit polling, and related political activities as being normal activities among their peers, and as being important elements of good citizenship.