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Promoting Civic Action, Community Engagement and Youth Activism

Topics on the Page

Civic Learning by Students

Current State of Civics Education
Research on the Impact of Community Service by Students
Civics Test Questions

Community Engagement, Service Learning and Civic Action

Massachusetts Passes Civic Engagement Bill (November 2018)

Special Topic Page on Youth Activists and Change Makers in History

Engaging: Should All Young Americans Be Required Do National or Public Service?

Mock Trials as a Teaching Strategy

Historical Examples and Teaching Strategies

Sugata Mitra and SOLEs (Self-Organized Learning Environments)

Civic Learning and Action Civics by Students

Model UN-themed Wikipe-tan

Definition: Civic learning means acquisition of the knowledge, the intellectual skills and the applied competencies that citizens need for informed and effective participation in civic and democratic life; it also means acquiring an understanding of the social values that underlie democratic structures and practices

A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy's Future (2012)

Forgotten Purpose: Civics Education in Public Schools, NEA Today (March 2017)

What is Action Civics?

Student-led project
Real-world, personal issue
Political action toward lasting change

Source: Action Civics in School Districts, GenerationCitizen

Example of Action Civics: High School Students Can Be Absent from School to Vote in Illinois

A group of high school students from Thornton Fractional North and Thornton Fractional South high schools brought the idea to state Sen. Elgie Sims, D-Chicago, who worked with others in the General Assembly, including state Rep. Nick Smith D-Chicago, to pass it into law, according to the release.

Text of Public Law 101-0624 passed in Illinois in 2019

Voice in the Classroom: How an Open Classroom Climate Fosters Political Engagement among Adolescents

A classroom environment which fosters a free, open, and respectful exchange of ideas is positively related to young people’s level of knowledge about democratic processes.

Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict. Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan. Columbia University Press, 2012.

Authors collected data on all major nonviolent and violent campaigns for the overthrow of a government or territorial liberation since 1900.

World-wide scope; every known campaign of at least a thousand participants; hundreds of cases

No campaigns failed once they achieved active and sustained participation of just 3.5 percent of the population

Many succeeded with less

Diversity, Group Identity and Citizenship Education in a Global Age, James A. Banks, Educational Researcher, 37(3), 129-137. Banks proposed the following typology of types of citizenship:

Legal Citizenship
Minimal Citizenship
Active Citizenship
Transformative Citizenship

Current State of Civic Education in the U.S.

Most States Require History, Not Civics, Education Week (October 23, 2018)

A Year of History is a high school graduation requirement in 31 states
Just 8 states require civics or government to graduate

50 State Comparison: Civic Education Policies, Education Commission of the States (December 2016)

The State of Civic Education, Center for American Progress (February 21, 2018)

An Inventory of State Civics Requirements: 2018 Brown Center Report on American Education

Student Learning Gaps Persist in Several Subjects--Including Civics Education, Brookings (July 13, 2018)

Research on the Impact of Community Service by Students

Students who are more civically engaged tend to perform better in school subjects such as reading, history, science and mathematics

and are more apt to complete high school

Source: Students Can Benefit from Participation in Community Service, Studies Show

"Boring but Important: A Self-Transcendent Purpose for Learning Fosters Academic Self-Regulation." David S. Yeager. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2014 October.

Researchers found that students who value education as a means to improve society (and not just themselves) displayed more persistence in completing tedious academic tasks at school.

Seider, S. C., Gillmor, S., & Rabinowicz, S. (2012). The impact of community service learning upon the expected political voice of participating college students. Journal of Adolescent Research, 27(1): 44-77.

Researchers found college students participating in a community service program demonstrated statistically significant increases in their political voices in comparison with peers in a control group

Civic Education Lesson Plans

Lesson Plans--Civic Engagement and Action

Using Dystopian Fiction to Explore Citizenship from MiddleWeb (August 2015).

Project Soapbox, Mikva Challenge

Students write and record two minute speeches about local, national and global issues; examples can be found on the project's Vimeo channel

Civics Test Questions

Arizona 1st to Pass Law Requiring High School Civics Test, Arizona Republic (January 16, 2015)

Civics Test Questions from NAEP (National Assessment of Education Progress)

Civics Test Questions from Fasttrack Civics

Who Won the Civil War? Tough Question, NPR Photojournalist, November 2014. This includes on campus interviews at Texas Tech University about civic knowledge.

Flunking Civics: Why America's Kids Know So Little, American Bar Association Journal, 2011 This includes on the street interviews about civic knowledge.

Reading with Second Graders

Community Engagement and Service Learning

How to Teach Civics in Action to K-12 Students, Baylor University (May 2019)

While 40 states and the District of Columbia have civics course requirements for high school students, only Maryland and the District of Columbia have community service requirements. Massachusetts now has a requirement for 8th graders.

Civics in the Elementary Classroom, Edutopia (January 31, 2019)

Example: Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility, Medford, Massachusetts

Includes a listing of school-by-school student community service projects

In 2018-2019, two 10-year-olds led a campaign to install 3D crosswalks at city's intersections

High School Graduation or Credit Toward Graduation--Service Learning/Community Service: A 50-State Comparison

Engaging: Should All Young Americans Be Required Do National or Public Service?

Proposed Legislation: Universal National Service Act

Half of Americans Favor Mandatory National Service, Gallup (November 10, 2017)

The Economics: Why National Service is Worth It, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas (Summer 2014)

Should a Year of National Service Be Required of All Americans? National Constitution Center

Mandatory National Service--Top 3 Pros and Cons from Pro/Con.org

European Countries Are Quietly Bringing Back the Draft, Quartz (July 3, 2018)

France Begins Trial of Compulsory Civic Service for Teens, France 24 (June 16, 2019)

An Act to Promote and Enhance Civic Engagement, passed in Massachusetts in 2018

Now a requirement for Massachusetts public high schools and school districts serving eighth-grade students to provide at least one student-led, non-partisan civics project for each student.

These projects can be individual, small group, or class wide

They must be designed to promote student abilities related to the analysis of complex issues; consideration of different perspectives; logical reasoning with supportive evidence; engagement in civil discourse, and understanding of the connections between federal, state, and local policies, including those that may impact the student’s school or community.

Under the new law, a student who chooses not to participate in a particular group or class-wide project must be offered the opportunity to develop an individual civics project, with approval by the principal.