proving the process and the results each year.
Each year has had a theme (drought, trans-
portation, waste, housing). We look to local
laws or grants from which to base the work
and have students write actual grant propos-
als to organizations, replete with budgets.
The process has been consolidated into one
“Innovation Week”.
While the first two years, we relied on
Ms. Whitman to use her professional con-
nections, she was not able to give so much
time over the years. So I began cold calling
legislators and business people to get them
involved. Just saying I am a principal of a
public school gave them a reason to listen.
Each year companies offer internships to the
students to help students actualize their vi-
sion. This concept of an authentic commu-
nity-based project for every student began
because Eliza Jane Whitman came to us - it
continued, because we reached out and fur-
thered our connections.
The power of civic learning through the
Innovation Project is that student work is
taken to industry and positively received.
It encourages students to use their critical
thinking and creativity not just for a grade,
but to actually do something for our com-
munity, state and country. Where many
schools take students on field trips to ob-
serve an industry, we helped students to be-
come the industry.
Student Voice
Work such as the Innovation Project gave
our students a platform to develop ideas and
have them considered. If the school had not
connected with industries and made the ef-
fort to bring the students to them, their voice
would not have reached as big an audience.
It was important for us to take the students
to the industry rather than have the industry
professionals come to the school - it changes
the dynamic of what they are doing and why
they are doing it. When students leave the
school to do their work it gives the mindset
that the ideas are going more places.
Student government is an already estab-
lished program in schools that can be used to
amplify the student voice. The student gov-
ernment can serve roles beyond fundraising
and planning activities. Use student gover-
nance to engage students in the community,
to develop ideas for reaching out to the com-
munity, and have them contact local lead-
ers. One member of our student government
reached out to the city to ask for a tour of the
city hall. The students went and sat in on city
council meeting, just to observe. This turned
into summer internships with city council
members and voice on the city Youth Council.
Once connections are built, they snowball and
soon everyone wants to be a part of the school.
Schools create avenues for student voices
to be heard within the school and commu-
nity, the entire school benefits. We ensure
that the student voice is heard and valued.
When students feel their voice matters
within the system, they will not try to dis-
rupt the system to be heard.
Civics course
Even though all students take a Civ-
ics course, generally in the 12th grade, the
class can be just another course, or it can be
a course that matters. Kahne and Middaugh
(2008) identified in their study that effective
Civics courses that fully engage the students
through the following actions:
• Discussing current events.
• Studying issues the student cares about.
• Experiencing an open climate in class-
room discussions of social and political top-
ics.
• Providing opportunities to interact with
civic role models.
• Engaging in after-school activities.
• Learning about community problems
and ways to respond.
• Working on service learning projects.
• Engaging in simulations.
• Focus on student cases.
The study identifies that these types of
activities happen more in Advanced Place-
ment courses than college prep courses.
Students surveyed report that in AP courses
students are encouraged more to make up
their own mind and develop their own ideas
as compared to students in college prep
courses who are told how to think. In col-
lege prep courses, rote memorization of facts
is encouraged more than than in simulating
civics experiences. Even as schools use open
access policies to diversify AP courses, there
is a correlation between race and socioeco-
nomic status and enrollment in advanced
Placement courses; thus, the gap widens as
to who gets to actively participate in authen-
tic civics.
The level of rigor may be higher in an AP
course, but the level of authentic engage-
ment can be the same across all levels.
Conclusion:
Civic learning is a vital part of our edu-
cational system in preparing all students
to engage in the community beyond high
school. We need to involve all our students
in civic learning. It does not need to be a
new initiative we add to the school; teach-
ing Civics is already a graduation require-
ment. But we can expand civic learning and
authentic engagement to all grade levels
and all students by purposefully aligning
our focus to call out civic learning in what
we do. The Civics class needs to engage
students in simulations and purposeful in-
volvement in the community. Thomas Jef-
ferson spoke his vision of public education
almost two and half centuries ago - and the
words still ring true. The way to create and
improve on society is to build up the youth
- all the youth from every ethnicity and so-
cioeconomic class - to take the lead.
References:
Annenberg Public Policy Center. (2017).
Americans are poorly informed about basic
constitutional provisions. Retrieved from
https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.
org/americans-are-poorly-informed-about-
basic-constitutional-provisions/
Kahne, J., & Middaugh, E. (2008). De-
mocracy for some: The civic opportunity gap
in high school. CIRCLE Working Paper,
59, 1-30. Civicyouth.org.
Mark Anderson is principal of Marshall
Fundamental School in the Pasadena
Unified School District.
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