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To read more about Service-Learning, visit the ECS Issue Site on Service-Learning.

To read more about civic education, visit the ECS Issue Site on Citizenship/Character Education.

Do you have information you would like to share in future issues of Citizenship Matters? Send submissions to Brady Delander at bdelander@ecs.org.

The ECS National Center for Learning and Citizenship (NCLC) assists state and district policymakers and educators developing policies that support K-12 school-based service-learning opportunities. These educational experiences help students acquire the skills, values, knowledge and practice necessary to be effective citizens. The NCLC identifies and analyzes policies and practices that support effective civic education, creates and disseminates publications for education stakeholders, and convenes meetings to develop a collective voice for citizenship education and civic mission of schools. NCLC also encourages policy support and system structures to integrate service-learning into schools and communities. For more information, visit www.ecs.org/nclc.

Boyte: New Generation of Citizen Workers Needed in Every Field
Dr. Harry Boyte, a Senior Fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, among other titles, has worked with a variety of foundations and non-profit, educational, and citizen organizations in the United States and abroad concerned with community development, citizenship education, and civic renewal.

As he outlines in this edition’s Guest Column, Boyte says, “We need active citizens who learn to work across differences if we are to see much change in the Washington culture or the country. This will mean deepening citizenship to understand it as expressed through work, not simply off-hours activity. To accomplish this will take a movement across education.”

More than 200 Texas high school students gathered at the Capitol for the Junior Statesman of America's Texas Fall State, titled “Crafting a More Perfect Union: A Nation in Transition.” They debated in committee rooms over issues like the Buffett Rule, capital punishment, NAFTA, third party candidates, and income inequality. Read more here.

The dust from the 2012 elections is still settling, and there are many aspects being examined by proponents of civic education. Here, civics teacher Cari Harris writes about voter turnout (or the lack thereof) and how civic education can and should play a role in helping students become engaged in the process. “If young Americans are not exposed to a basic Civic Education and thus unable to understand, appreciate, and then act on principles of democracy and a representative republic, then the essence of this form of government is in peril, just as John Dewey warned in the early 20th century,” she writes.

New NCLC Case Study Coming Soon

Be on the lookout in January 2013 for the new NCLC case study titled, “Early Implementation of the Common Core State Standards Through Service-Learning: Alignment, Progress and Obstacles.” NCLC Project Leader Lisa Guilfoile and NCLC Associate Policy Analyst Molly Ryan are in the process of interviewing teachers, administrators, and others at sites in Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, and Vermont to learn how state policy around early implementation of the Common Core State Standards is affecting service-learning practice.

NCLC's Executive Board Meeting

The NCLC will hold its Executive Board Meeting during the ECS’ Winter Commissioners Meeting, Dec. 10-12 in Denver. This will be the first meeting with NCLC’s new chair, Dr. Glenys Hill Rada. Featured on Wednesday, Dec. 12, will be NCLC’s session, “State Civic Education Policies: Advancing Accountability.”

We ask the question: Did you know that only two states (Ohio and Virginia) require high school students to pass a civics test before they graduate? Panelists for the session are L. Douglas Dobson, Executive Director, Lou Frey Institute of Politics and Government; Kei Kawashima-Ginsburg, Lead Researcher, Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE); and Janis Adams Kyser, Executive Director, Tennessee Center for Civic Learning and Engagement.

Pearson recently announced a new partnership with the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools to support the acceleration of access to high-quality civic learning, with the goal of educating young Americans about their rights and responsibilities as citizens. Pearson joins the Campaign’s coalition of more than 70 national civic learning, education, civic engagement, and business groups committed to improving the quality and quantity of civic learning in American schools. Read an excerpt on “educating young people on the importance of citizenship” here.

Working as an election officer can be an exhausting and thankless job, but one volunteer learned a few strong lessons on election day. Aside from the demands of the job and the surprisingly congenial atmosphere despite long lines, the writer also  “observed something that I found a bit disturbing. Many voters seem to know very little about the choices they are making—so little that it evinces a lack of even basic civics knowledge. Those who are politically engaged might be shocked at how deep the ignorance goes.” Read the full opinion piece here.

Sticking with the theme of the 2012 election season, Youth Radio/Youth Media International (YMI) discusses what makes “participating in the voting process more accessible to some than others.” Part of the discussion includes this tidbit of information: “What we found in our mid-October poll was that young people without college experience were less likely to be contacted by a presidential campaign in 2012, than young people with college experience,” says Abby Kiesa, youth coordinator and researcher for CIRCLE. Read the full discussion here.

It’s no surprise that civic education is subject for ongoing discussion not just in the United States, but around the world as well. In Hong Kong, one group says students need a full understanding of their country in order to become engaged, “critical” patriots. Read more here.