Civil Engagement in the High School Classroom
From WikEd
Descriptions, definitions, synonyms, organizer terms, types of
Civic engagement in the High School Classroom, loosely defined, is any attempt by a teacher of any discipline to encourage their students to take an interest in any level of government activity. The interest should fuel a student desire to be involved in their communities, culminating with students ending up as registered voters by the time they reach their 18th birthday (or earlier in some American jurisdictions).
Locally, Northwestern University attempted to organize their thoughts on Civic Engagement of young people via the following graphic organizer:
http://collaboratory.nunet.net/iVOTE08/about.html
The philosophy behind Northwester University's "IVote" program, an offshoot of their research, beliefs and best practices is that there is a disparity that exists between the social concerns of young people, and their participation in the democratic process. Their approach is to encourage community service and political advocacy, which will eventually foster participation in the democratic process
Application in classrooms
Sandburg High School, Orland Park, IL, recently received a grant from the D230 foundation, set up to assist district schools outside of the traditional budget structure, to produce a school wide Civic Engagement initiative. Voice and Choice: A Living Guide for First-Time Voters, is described in several news articles, and in the following description from the foundation web site [1]:
"This is a 16-month consortium on voting that will directly impact 700 student-voters and 1,200 government students. The overall goal is to inform students of the life-long civic duty of voting in local, state and federal elections through symposiums, mock elections, and other experiences."
Other articles describing this Program include: Cook County Clerk David Orr visits OP http://www.opprairie.com/Articles-i-2008-01-13-170092.112113_Cook_County_Clerk_David_Orr_visits_OP.html
Evidence of effectiveness
There is a connection between engaging students in Civic Life and Achievement in the classroom. According to a study by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, students who have higher levels of civic engagement and participation tend to do better academically in school. See http://www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/FactSheets/FS_Mora.Davila.pdf for more details on this study
Critics and their rationale
The Federal Government itself has inadvertently hindered educator's attempts to encourage Civic Engagement in the classroom. According to the National Council of the Social Studies, No Child's focus on Math and Language Arts assessments have created a situation where Civics is becoming less important in the classroom as it not assessed in an official capacity by the government [2]
As part proposed revisions of the No Child Left Behind Act, as a further reform of American Education, included The Education for Democracy Act. According to the text of the Act itself, the purposes are three fold [3]:
(1) to improve the quality of civics and government education by educating students about the history and principles of the Constitution of the United States, including the Bill of Rights;
(2) to foster civic competence and responsibility; and
(3) to improve the quality of civic education and economic education through cooperative civic education and economic education exchange programs with emerging democracies.
Alternative explanations due to Diversity considerations
The The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), an independent, international research organization, conducted a study of attitudes and beliefs of young people in 18 different countries towards civic participation, including the United States. The results of their study can be found on their website: http://www.wam.umd.edu/~jtpurta/ . Among other findings, some of the same problems that Americans youths face with civic engangement were found in the youths of other nations as well.
Signed “life experiences”, testimonies and stories
References and other links of interest
1 http://foundation.d230.org/ - District 230 Foundation
2 http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg31.html
3 http://collaboratory.nunet.net/iVOTE08/about.html Northwestern Collaboratory's IVote
The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement http://www.civicyouth.org -Academic information and research on the topic of Civic Engagement of Young People
Youth Leadership Initiative: http://www.youthleadership.org -From the University of Virginia Center for Poltics, a site geared for teachers of civics to use in their classrooms, including lesson plans, and interactive student activities, such as interactive student state by state elections and a nationwide congress simulation.
Representative Democracy in America: Voices of the People http://www.representativedemocracy.org/ -Website funded by The Education for Democracy Act
