Counting on Character: National Heritage Academies and Civic Education
By Joanne Jacobs
(January 23, 2013)

Like other charter schools, National Heritage Academies promises parents to teach a rigorous curriculum that will prepare their children for success in college. It also promises a moral education imbued with traditional values such as love of country and family. Good character is not just a private asset, NHA leaders believe. It leads to good citizenship.

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In the first in a series of in-depth case studies by the AEI Program on American Citizenship exploring how top-performing charter schools have incorporated civic learning in their school curriculum and school culture, AEI’s Daniel Lautzenheiser and Andrew P. Kelly take a look at the Democracy Prep Public Schools network in New York City.

The 2013 Summer Institute of Civic Studies at Tisch College, Tufts University, is now accepting applications. Organized by Peter Levine (CIRCLE) and Karol Soltan (University of Maryland), the fifth annual summer program will be an intensive two-week seminar that brings together advanced graduate students, faculty, and practitioners from diverse fields of study to learn about and discuss topics related to citizenship.

The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) recently completed a study of the iCivics computer-based teaching module called Drafting Board. iCivics is an online civic education platform founded by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor that seeks to prepare “young Americans to become knowledgeable, engaged 21st century citizens” by providing educational video games and teaching materials available at its website.

After serving for 18 years in the U.S. Senate, Arizona’s Jon Kyl delivered his farewell address to the Senate yesterday afternoon. Kyl first represented Arizona in the House of Representatives from 1987 to 1995 and then was elected to serve in the Senate. In his farewell remarks, Kyl emphasized the importance that civic education plays in shaping civil society and teaching students what it means to be American.

The Center for the Constitution at James Madison’s Montpelier is looking for volunteers to help with the 2013 Virginia We the People competition. Sponsored by the Center for Civic Education, We the People is a national program for middle and high school students to compete in simulated congressional hearings about Constitutional issues.

The “Song of a Citizen” project isn’t especially new, but it’s one we were unaware of until reading this post on citizenship and civic responsibility over at the Besette Pitney American Government and Politics blog.

Over at the Heartlander, Rachel Sheffield, an education research assistant at the Heritage Foundation, interviews the Program on American Citizenship’s Cheryl Miller about the state of civic education in American schools and the promise of charter schools when it comes to civics. Miller notes that “states say civic education is important, but very few test on it. [...] That communicates something to teachers, administrators, parents, and students about the importance of this subject.”

The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) recently raised the interesting question of whether civic education laws affected youth voter turnout in the 2012 election. To explore the answer, CIRCLE “compared youth turnout (for citizens between the ages of 18 and 29) in three groups of states[...]. The first group had strengthened their requirements for high school civics or American government courses or statewide tests in civics. The second group already had some requirements in place and did not change them between 2004 and 2012. The third group weakened their course or testing requirements between 2004 and 2012.”

The American School Board Journal has an article in its current issue about the importance of civics education, even at a time when social studies and civics classes are facing challenges in the era of “college and career” readiness. As Ted McConnell, executive director for the Civic Missions of Schools, reminds, education should be “about preparing students for college, career — and citizenship.”

Over at the Fordham Institute’s Education Gadfly, Chester Finn, the organization’s president, responds to the recently released statement by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) about its upcoming framework for states to use as they develop their social studies standards.

In this morning’s edition of “Rick Hess Straight Up” over at Education Week, AEI scholar Rick Hess hopes that the momentum from the election will focus much needed attention on civic education in our nation. “Students,” Hess notes, “are remarkably unprepared for citizenship.”

In an interview last week with Florida Today, Lou Frey, a former US Congressman and founder of the Lou Frey Institute of Politics and Government at the University of Central Florida, discussed the importance of civic education efforts in his state. Florida is currently field-testing a new high school civics exam, which it plans to implement statewide next year, and has been leader in promoting civic education for all K-12 students.

Following on the heels of CIRCLE’s recent report showing that most states do not significantly test high school students in social studies or civics, a “draft framework” for common social studies standards is scheduled to be released at the upcoming conference of the National Council of Social Studies on November 17.

Here are some recent happenings in the citizenship world:

• A new CIRCLE study reveals that knowledge about voter laws is still lacking among young Americans
• From the Education Gadfly: “U.S. Civics education is lacking…but at least we’re not France.”
•  Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor writes in the San Francisco Chronicle that it’s “time to restore civic learning”

Over at his blog, CIRCLE’s Peter Levine raises some good questions about the role and purpose of civic education, and how it can be used to strengthen democracy and civil society. Before we can judge which civic education initiatives work, Levine writes, “more fundamentally, we must decide what our democracy and civil society need from citizens. Should we be most concerned about information and knowledge? Skills? Civility? Devotion and duty? Independence?”

At Education Week, Nora Fleming explores the results of CIRCLE’s recent report examining the civics-related standards, assessments, and course requirements of all 50 states. (We covered the release of the report here.) After noting that the report found that very few states test civics in a meaningful way, Fleming considers what the next steps are for educators.

In the Huffington Post, Alex Wirth, part of the Harvard Public Opinion Project, discusses the results of a new poll by the Project that finds that youth voter (defined as voters ages 18-29) turnout this November could be the lowest on record.

We have been following with great interest the release of CIRCLE’s new report that examines the standards, course requirements, and mandatory assessments related to civic education in each of the 50 states.

Writing at the Harvard Education Publishing blog, CIRCLE’s Peter Levine argues that the results of the recent CIRCLE study of each state’s civic education standards and course requirements–which we highlighted here–are not as dire as they may seem. (One such discouraging note from the study is that only eight states nationwide have statewide tests specifically in civics or American government.)