This research report studies the impact of informal extracurricular activities and formal social studies curriculum on the political socialization process of high school students. The hypothesis is that involvement in extracurricular activities, school partisan political activities, and exposure to formal course work in social studies is positively related to political participation. Results of testing 1,811 high school students in Washington, D. C. indicate that extracurricular activities and school partisan political activities are not consistently positive in correlation with political participation. The correlation between the number of social studies courses the student takes and political participation is also weak. When testing for civics and government courses that include involvement in real political and community activities the correlation with later political participation is positive. The major implication of the report is that, if one wants to promote political participation, class activities and extracurricular activities should include out-of-class, real political and community activities. (Author/DE)