To gauge the civic knowledge and skills of the nation's 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-grade students, an assessment has been scheduled for 2006 by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). This assessment will enable NAEP to report on trends in civics achievement from 1998 to 2006. The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), NAEP's policymaking body, oversees the activities of each assessment and is authorized by Congress to determine the content of the assessment. To prepare for the assessment of civics, this Framework, or set of guidelines, has been developed through an extensive, national, consensus-building process involving experienced educators, scholars, students, and citizens from many walks of American life. The purpose of this Framework is to specify civic knowledge and skills that students at grades 4, 8, and 12 should possess and on which they should be assessed; describe the desired characteristics and approaches of the assessment of civics; and present preliminary descriptions of the three levels of achievement--basic, proficient, and advanced--by which students' performance will be judged and reported in that assessment. Following a Preface and an Executive Summary, the report contains chapters (1) Introduction; (2) Civic Education and the Issues Framing the Assessment; (3) The Civics Assessment: Knowledge, Skills,and Dispositions; and (4) Desired Attributes of the Assessment. Appendix A contains: NAEP Civics Assessment Planning Process; and A Note About Terminology. Appendix B contains: Organizing Questions and Content Summary; Intellectual Skills; Participatory Skills; and Civic Dispositions. Appendix C contains: Steering Committee Members; Planning Committee Members; and Management Team. (Contains 6 tables.)