In recent years, state policy makers have passed legislation to improve civics education in order to address the persistently low levels of youth civic engagement. However, there is considerable disagreement about what types of learning experiences best prepare students to be active, engaged civic actors. Should students have direct instruction in democratic structures and processes so that students are well informed when they become adult citizens? Or should civics education facilitate opportunities for active learning, so students have civic experiences to draw on when they become adults? In this paper, I explore the relationship between exposure to active learning in civics and student civic knowledge using the 2010 eighth-grade NAEP civics assessment. I found that active learning experiences were positively associated with increases in student civic knowledge, but the effect size was small (0.02 standard deviations). However, I also found that different methods for measuring active learning produced different results, with some methods showing much larger effects for active learning activities (0.2 standard deviations). These findings suggest that careful attention must be paid to the design and calibration of measures of instructional practice if we seek to draw connections between instructional practice and students' civic knowledge.