This Digest describes the development of the 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress for civics, and the results from that examination of civic knowledge and intellectual skills of students in grades four, eight, and twelve. The assessment format utilized multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. Results were reported by the achievement levels of basic (46% of students at grade four, 48% of students at grade eight, and 39% of students at grade twelve), proficient (21% of students at grade four, 21% of students at grade eight, and 22% of students at grade twelve), and advanced (2% of students at grade four, 2% of students at grade eight, and 4% at grade twelve). NAEP Civics performances also revealed that: (1) at all grades students identified as white or Asian/Pacific Islander tended to have higher test scores than those identified as black or Hispanic; (2) the higher the level of formal education students' parents had attained, the better the students performed on this assessment; (3) students in nonpublic schools tended to score higher than students in public schools, with those in Catholic schools reaching even higher levels of achievement; and (4) students who qualified for the federally funded free or reduced-price school lunch program tended to score lower than students not eligible for this program. (LB)