The National Assessment of Educational Progress is an information-gathering project which surveys the educational attainments of 9, 13, and 17-year-olds and adults in ten subject areas, with two areas assessed every year. The results of the 1971-72 assessment of political knowledge and attitudes are summarized in this report. Chapters 1-4 present national results for each exercise in the volume. The four chapters group the exercises in the following areas: attitudes toward the underlying values of American society; knowledge of the role and function of government; knowledge of and attitudes toward constitutional rights; and knowledge of the electoral process and of the role of political parties. A rationale for the choice of content of the exercises introduces each chapter. Each exercise is reproduced with its possible answers, and tables show the percentage of responses to each answer. The fifth chapter presents summary results for various sub-populations at each age level. The variables used for the division are region of country, sex, color, parental education, and size and type of community. Each variable is defined, and tables present statistics on each variable as well as on group differences from the national percentage and limitations of the data. (Author/KSM) Primary type of information provided by report: Results (Selective).