Scholars and educators tout the benefits of civic education for civic competence, the ability to act on and complete meaningful political tasks. However, researchers debate which educative approaches make competent and engaged citizens. In this dissertation, I use multiple methods to examine how curriculum and pedagogy shape political knowledge, self-efficacy, and trust, all crucial ingredients for civic competence. I argue we need to reconceptualize civic education by incorporating local knowledge about diverse lived political experiences into curricula. In the first of three papers, I analyze data from focus groups with 162 students and show that young people from ideologically, racially, and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds all want to learn more local and relevant political content. They believe this would increase their ability and desire to be politically engaged. Does learning local political content really improve political outcomes associated with civic competence? I examine this question in two additional papers. In paper 2, I test the relationship between local content and political outcomes by teaching a minicourse using engaged pedagogy to 23 youth randomized into two learning cohorts. Treatment group students (n=12) received content about local civic education, while control group students (n=11) learned about national civics. Using pre- and post-surveys, observations, and an exit focus group, I find all students increased their political knowledge and self-efficacy through enrollment in the engaged pedagogy experience, and students in the local curriculum classroom had higher levels of knowledge retention alongside greater increases in knowledge and self-efficacy. In paper 3, I analyze a novel survey that again tests the impact of local curricular content on student civic outcomes. Students (n=586) randomly received one of four newspaper articles about local political and/or policy relevant content. I find small curricular changes that include local and relevant information improve youth civic outcomes that are associated with participatory political behavior, a primary goal of civics education. I contribute to the future of civic education research by leveraging rigorous mixed methods and community-engaged scholarship to reconceptualize how we define and measure civic competence in a pluralist United States. These findings are valuable for interdisciplinary civic education scholarship, policymakers, and educators.