What's New in Civic Education and Youth Civic Engagement Work .... (March 2005 Archive Section)

• March 31, 2005

• The National Forum for Community Schools now has highlights from its 2005 Conference recelnlty held in Chicago. To read more about the conference and the Forum go to: Community Schools - The Time is Now!

  March 30, 2005

• Shared from The Public Education Network (PEN) online newsletter:

  A Civic Mission to Do What's Right -- From day one the mission of public schools in America was to instill and nurture the values of democracy. The reason was simple: Democracy can flourish only when an informed citizenry takes part in the process. William J. Cirone sees this basic concept underscored these days at far reaches of the globe where democracy is struggling to take root. Public schools always have been seen as one important mechanism for instilling the values of citizenship by teaching history, social studies, government, and rights and responsibilities. That goal seems even more important in today's world. As daily life becomes more complex and distractions from mass media and entertainment grow exponentially, the challenge of getting young people to care about their country and their communities becomes more daunting. Yet several tools remain to assist public school leaders. High on that list are the opportunities for community service and meshing it with academic learning. The blend, as most educators know, is called service learning and it appears to make a real difference in the lives of those who take part. Studies show that students involved in community service tend to be more involved and better citizens, and they also improve their academic knowledge and skills. Nationwide our communities are filled with individuals who work for community betterment, in large and small ways, as volunteers or professionals or even just here or there as a worthy issue arises. To maintain those worthy activities, we all need to light that inner spark in our young people. We need to give them the chance to feel it. For more go to: http://www.aasa.org/publications/sa/2005_03/col_cirone.htm

  March 28, 2005

• Papers are sought for a special issue of the Journal of the Community Development Society on "public participation in community-based organizations and local government." Public participation is central to community development, yet research focusing on the scope of citizen engagement in local governance needs to be expanded upon in order to inform practice and promote greater equity in society. In its most limited form, public participation entails a process where citizens are notified of impending public policy decisions and given limited opportunities to comment on them. At the opposite extreme, public participation can involve processes that empower a broad spectrum of citizens in policy formulation, implementation and evaluation. This special issue of the Journal of the Community Development Society will examine public participation in community-based organization and local government, as well as grassroots efforts aimed at promoting citizen empowerment and community control in decision-making. Papers are invited that examine techniques used by community development practitioners to enhance citizen participation as well as contemporary trends in grassroots involvement. Studies that focus on public participation as it relates to inequality faced by low-income and minority communities in both central cities and rural communities are of particular interest. Deadline for submissions is June 1, 2005. Please contact the guest editor, Robert Silverman, prior to making submissions at: rms35@ap.buffalo.edu.

  March 25, 2005

• Civic Engagement: How can Schools Prepare Students for Democratic Leadership in Egypt and the United States.

  - The Department of Education Policy and Leadership at the College of Education, University of Maryland, is holding an Open House on March 31 from 2:30-4:30 pm with Visiting Faculty from the Suez Canal University, Egypt. The visitors are Prof. Saad Ahmed Abdalla El-Gibaly (Professor of Curriculum Development and Instruction), Dr. Ashraf Fathi Abdelhamid Eldesoki (Lecturer in English Literature & American Literature), Dr. Tarek Mohammed Abd Elfattah Ahmed Wahdan (Lecturer in Chemistry), Dr. Hamida Bedir Ibrahim Marak (Lecturer in Botany), Dr. Mohammed Ismail Salem Rahmah (Lecturer in English Instruction), Dr. Heba Fathy Hassan El-Deghaidy (Lecturer in Curriculum & Science Pedagogy), Dr. Eatedal Abbas Hassanein Kahla (Lecturer in Educational Psychology). The Open House will be moderated by Dr. Steve Klees (Chair, International Education Policy). If you plan to attend -- please RSVP nishat@wam.umd.edu . For more information contact: hmawhinn@wam.umd.edu.

  March 24, 2005

• The Dirksen Center will distribute $31,891 in Congressional Research Awards to ten projects in 2005.  Since 1978, The Center has awarded over $650,000 to more than 330 research projects. According to Center staff member Frank Mackaman, political scientists will use the grants to study such topics as interest group influence in Congress, how leaders' personal characteristics interact with changing political contexts, and the role of new media in covering Congress.  A more historically-oriented project will examine how Congress responded to citizens' petitions in the early national period.
  
  Recipients this year include PhD candidates and faculty from the Indiana University, Vanderbilt University, the University of Westminster in the United Kingdom, the University of North Carolina, and Ball State University, among others.
  
  A complete list of this year's Congressional Research Award recipients is posted at: http://www.dirksencenter.org/print_grants_CRAs.htm. For more information contact Frank Mackaman at: fmackaman@dirksencenter.org.
  

  March 23, 2005

• Reminder: Applications for The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement's (CIRCLE) youth-led research grant competition is due March 31. Teams may research a community issue that they think is important. Research teams must include young people under the age of 18, and may also include adult mentors. For more information go to: http://www.civicyouth.org .

  March 22, 2005

• New Perspectives in Service-Learning: Research to Advance the Field edited by Marshall Welch and Shelley Billig (2004). The fourth book in the Advances in Service-Learning Research series presents new research in several areas of service-learning. Included are the foundations, impact, institutionalization, and future of Service-Learning. For more information go to the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse at : http://www.servicelearning.org/index.php.

  March 21, 2005

• The CivicMind recognizes The League of Conservation Voters with the March 2005 CivicMInd Award. The League of Conservation Voters is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization devoted to educating citizens about the environmental voting records of Members of Congress and holding Congress and the president accountable for their environmental actions.

  March 18, 2005

• The National Service-Learning Clearinghouse is pleased to provide sections of The Complete Guide to Service-Learning by special agreement with Free Spirit Publishing. Teachers may download and print these sections for classroom use and for creating successful service-learning programs for their students. For more go to: http://www.servicelearning.org/resources/starter_kits/k-12_starter_kit/index.php.

  March 16, 2005

• Federal Youth Coordination Act -- The Forum for Youth Investment's e-newsletter has announced they have been working in partnership with the National Collaboration for Youth to promote the Federal Youth Coordination Act which they believe will bring efficiency and accountability to federal youth policy. In addition, states can expect to benefit from increased federal coordination, better reporting and tracking systems and potential support for state coordination efforts.  Rep.Osborne (R-NE) and Sen. Coleman (R-MN) are the original sponsors in the House and Senate.  Senators DeWine (R-OH) and Alexandar (R-TN) are Senate co-sponsors and Representatives Ford (D-TN), Hoekstra (R-MI) and Payne (D-NJ) are House so-sponsors.
  
  Learn more and take action to support the bill by visiting the Forum's White House Task Force Action Center. http://www.forumfyi.org/_catdisp_page.cfm?LID=BF78271A-7A07-404E-B86CB72A93B7C12C . You can also visit: http://www.youthcoordinationact.org.

  March 15, 2005

• The latest online edition of Citizenship Matters ( http://www.ecs.org ) from the National Center for Learning and Citizenship (NCLC) at the Education Commission of the States (ECS) is now available. This bimonthly newsletter focuses on ECS' work in improving citizenship education in our nation's schools. Among its contents are the following:
  
  - Colorado State Senator and National Center for Learning and Citizenship (NCLC) Board Member Sue Windels shows her commitment to citizenship education in Colorado by "rolling up her sleeves and calling in the experts." The result is a new "Civic Canopy" that supports civic engagement in Colorado.
  
  - Georgia recently adopted new regulations regarding instruction in U.S. and Georgia history and government, including a requirement for a high school-level course in citizenship education (State Board of Education Rule 160-4-2.07).

  - Former U.S. Senator and National Service-Learning Commissioner Chairman John Glenn and Children's Defense Fund founder and President Marian Wright Edelman's commentary in Education Week (free registration required) asserts that "preparing young people to be citizens requires us to embrace civic learning as a core purpose of education."

  - With a recent grant from the State Farm Companies Foundation, NCLC will help states develop policies that sustain high-quality professional development for service-learning. Grant activities will include the promotion of stronger leadership for service-learning among policymakers and education leaders.
  
  - The National Service-Learning Conference will take place March 16-19, 2005, in Long Beach , California . NCLC is hosting a day-long administrators-only session, "Leading for Change in Tough Times: Maintaining a Focus on Service-Learning and Citizenship Education," on March 17. Advanced registration is required. Additional information is available on the National Youth Leadership Council's National Service-Learning Conference Web page.
  
  - Save the date of July 11-12, 2005, in Denver , Colorado , for the 5th Annual Education Leadership Colloquium (ELC) on the Civic Mission of American Education, where teams will focus on supporting effective citizenship education, service-learning and professional development for teachers. Then join the ECS National Forum on Education Policy, July 12-15, which will focus on a range of issues, including the latest on No Child Left Behind, arts education, early learning and much more.

  - Judith Torney-Purta , professor of human development at the University of Maryland and senior advisor to NCLC, received a 2005 Decade of Behavior Research Award for her work on the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Civic Education Study. The study surveyed 140,000 young people in 28 countries, making it the largest and most rigorous international study on civic education.

  - Updates from NACE - Citizenship Matters regularly features new information available on the National Alliance for Civic Education's (NACE) Web site. NACE comprises over 200 group and individual members committed to advancing civic knowledge and engagement.

  March 11, 2005

• Reminder: The application deadline for The Dirksen Center's Congress in the Classroom is March 15, 2005. The workshop is dedicated to the exchange of ideas and information on teaching about Congress. Congress in the Classroom is designed for high school teachers who teach U.S. history, government, civics, political science, or social studies. Forty teachers from throughout the country will be selected in 2005 to take part in the program. Take a look at The Center's Web site to see what participants say about the program and to learn more about the scheduled sessions and presenters. If you are interested in registering for the Congress in the Classroom 2005 workshop, you can complete an online registration form .

  March 10, 2005

• Developmental Circle: Deliberative Democracy in Latin America? Dr. Gabriel Murillo, a professor of government at the University of Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia, will discuss the nature of experiments in deliberative democracy in Latin America as well as their promise and value for addressing Latin America 's economic and political problems. The event will take place on Friday, March 11 (12:00 p.m.–1:30 p.m.) at Van Munching Hall; 1113 at the University of Maryland – College Park. For more information contact: dcrocker@umd.edu -http://www.publicpolicy.umd.edu .

  March 9, 2005

• The Public Education Network (PEN) reminds that The Home Depot Foundation provides cash and materials to help provide young people with safe places to play and learn, leadership programs that teach skills through community engagement, and job readiness training. Maximum Award: Up to $25,000 Eligibility: Schools and districts. Deadline: Applications are considered four times a year. For more information go to: http://www.homedepotfoundation.org

  March 8, 2005

• First Amendment Schools is accepting applications grants to Project Schools to help schools become laboratories of democratic freedom. In May First Amendment Schools will select five Project Schools for 2005-2006. Each Project School will receive $10,000, subject to review and renewal in August 2006 and August 2007. The Project School grant is open to all schools in the U.S. K-12, public and independent. Joint grant applications are acceptable. The application deadline is April 29, 2005. For more information go to: Project Schools or the First Amendment Schools website.

  March 7, 2005

• The Forum for Youth Investment announces results from Investing in Youth Poll released on March, 3, 2005. Results from a new national and city-level poll show that adults place a high priority on after-school, job training, service-learning, recreation, arts and health care programs — ahead of other concerns like senior centers or tax breaks for new businesses, with 45 percent of respondents nationally saying these programs are a very high priority. At the city level, this support is even higher, ranging from 78 percent to 62 percent. Support for both tax increases on high-income taxpayers and for community “trust funds” to pay for services for young people was surprisingly strong (66 percent favor the tax increases and 78 percent favor the trust funds nationally).  The poll was commissioned and released by the Forum.
  
  The poll offers information on public opinions about strengthening coordination, neighborhood services, taxpayer investments, children's trust funds, academic investments, and positive role models and programs.
  
  The ten cities included in the poll: Atlanta , Baltimore , Boston , Chicago , Denver , Detroit , Nashville , Oakland , Philadelphia , and Portland .
  
  
  Click here to read the press release and the 4-page PDF of poll results.

  March 4, 2005

• A reminder about the recenly released survey entitled From Classroom to Citizen: American Attitudes on Civic Education that found that American public schools received a C grade in their efforts to teach civics, while students gave their schools a grade of C- when asked to rank their civic awareness and engagement. Also among the survey findings: most Americans believe that civic education should be a central purpose of public schools, and schools can effectively teach civics. Of the 1,219 adults surveyed, 9 out of 10 believe civic education is important in the maintenance of a democratic system, and 90 percent want policymakers to become involved in the process of encouraging civic education in public schools. To read the survey go to either: http://www.representativedemocracy.org or http://wwwcivicmissionofschools.org

  March 3, 2005

• Congress in the Classroom is a national, award- winning education program now in its 13th year. Sponsored by The Dirksen Congressional Center, the workshop is dedicated to the exchange of ideas and information on teaching about Congress. Congress in the Classroom is designed for high school teachers who teach U.S. history, government, civics, political science, or social studies. Forty teachers from throughout the country will be selected in 2005 to take part in the program.
  
  You will gain experience with The Center's educational Web site, CongressLink - http://www.congresslink.org -- which features online access to lesson plans, student activities, historical materials, related Web sites, and subject matter experts. Throughout the program you will work with national experts as well as colleagues from across the nation. This combination of firsthand knowledge and peer-to- peer interaction will give you new ideas, materials, and a professionally enriching experience.
  

  The deadline for applications is March 15, 2005. Enrollment is competitive and limited to forty. Selection will be determined by The Center. Individuals will be notified of their acceptance status by April 1, 2005.

  Take a look at The Dirksen Center Web site to see what participants say about the program and to learn more about the scheduled sessions and presenters. If you are interested in registering for the Congress in the Classroom 2005 workshop, you can complete an online registration form .

  March 1, 2005

• The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) has announce d a new grant competition for youth-led research. Teams may research a community issue that they think is important. Research teams must include young people under the age of 18, and may also include adult mentors. The application deadline for the competition is March 31, 2004. For more information go to: http://www.civicyouth.org .