This study examined the "opportunifies to learn" related fo the democratic purposes of schooling that students receive in eighth, ninth, and tenth grade social studies classrooms. We iden tifiedfive prominentframeworks linking ctrrrictrlar sf rafegies fo the preparation of citizms fur a democratic society. We then created rubrics that rejlected these conceptions and used these rubrics to code obsemafions of 135 social studies classroom in Chicago. Wefollnd thaf st uden ts in this represen tat ive sample of social sfudies classrooms received an alarming lack of opportunities fo develop the kinds of capacities democratic theorisfs believe are important. We atsofound fhat when teachers provided students with more and varied opporfunifies to develop as ci tizens, that they simultaneorisIy pmided significantly more opporhinit iesfor higher order thinking and for deep and disciplined inquiry. Finally, we found that when eighth grade teachers were prepring students for the State-mandated constit~ltion test (the stare requirement most explicitly linked to civic goals), they provided significantly fewer opportunities relafed to developing citizens than when they focused on other eighth grade curriadlswr.

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