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Teaching Citizenship in Charter Schools

Tuesday, January 29th, 2013

Charter schools provide an intriguing opportunity to rethink the role of public schools in preparing students to become informed and engaged participants in the American political system. As public schools of choice, charter schools are freed from many rules and regulations that can inhibit innovation and improvement. They can readily adopt best practices in civic education and encourage extracurricular activities to enhance civic learning. With their decentralized approach to administration, they can allow parents and students a far greater role in school governance than they would have in traditional public schools.

• Richard Lee Colvin, Creating Capital Citizens: César Chávez Public Charter Schools for Public Policy and Civic Education, Citizenship Policy Brief #8 (April 2013)
• Robert Maranto, In Service of Citizenship: YES Prep Public Schools and Civic Education, Citizenship Policy Brief #7 (April 2013)
• David Feith, Making Americans: UNO Charter Schools and Civic Education, Citizenship Policy Brief #6 (January 2013)
• Joanne Jacobs, Counting on Character: National Heritage Academies and Civic Education, Citizenship Policy Brief #5 (January 2013)
• Daniel Lautzenheiser and Andrew P. Kelly, Charter Schools as Nation Builders: Democracy Prep and Civic Education, Citizenship Policy Brief #4 (January 2013)
• Robin Lake and Cheryl Miller, Strengthening the Civic Mission of Charter Schools, a report of the AEI Program on American Citizenship (January 2012).