Civics Course Implementation Blog

by Mary Ellen Daneels, Lead Teacher Mentor This week, the confirmation hearings of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be the 114th justice to serve on the United States Supreme Court will be front and center in many #CivicsIsBack classrooms. Nina Totenberg from National Public Radio states that abortion, gun rights, presidential power and campaign finance reform are likely to be current and controversial issues addressed in the hearings. It is the perfect opportunity to address essential questions such as: How should the government balance individual rights with the common good? Are the branches balanced ? What responsibilities do people in charge have to others? Who has the power and why? What should be the role of the judicial branch? How should the courts interpret the law? Does the structure of the federal court system allow it to administer justice effectively? To what extent has the judiciary protected the rights of privacy, security, and personal freedom? To help #Civi...

by Mary Ellen Daneels, Lead Teacher Mentor Best-selling author Gretchen Rubin has declared that “ September is the new January ,” signaling that for many of us, the new school year marks new beginnings and an opportunity to put those summer resolutions into practice. As Shawn has highlighted in his recent blog posts , the #CivicsIsBack campaign is designed to support teachers, schools, and districts throughout Illinois in implementing the new high school civics course requirement and related, revised K-12 social studies standards . Leading the way in this endeavor are regional mentors seeded throughout the state of Illinois to support teachers in their areas with resources to enhance classroom practice. You can contact your regional mentor through the illinoiscivics.org website or at a regional workshop in your area. As you prepare to return to the classroom, here are some of our favorite resources at #CivicsIsBack to start the school year. Engage student voice in setti...

by Shawn P. Healy, PhD, Democracy Program Director This post represents the third and final analysis of year two evaluation data provided by the Center for Information Research on Civic Learning and Engagement ( CIRCLE ) on our #CivicsIsBack Campaign in Illinois to support implementation of the new high school civics course and K-12 social studies standards . The first piece provided a broad overview of the findings, and the second did a deep dive on the results of our Illinois Civics Teacher Mentor program . This concluding post will further analyze the student outcomes data touched upon in the preliminary piece . More than 3,000 Illinois high school students completed surveys during the 2018-2019 school year measuring their exposure to proven civic learning practices and a stand-alone civics course, along with related civic dispositions and behaviors. They attended schools affiliated with teacher mentors and span from the suburbs of Chicago and St. Louis to rural communitie...

by Shawn P. Healy, PhD, Democracy Program Director Two weeks ago, I summarized a comprehensive evaluation of our #CivicsIsBack course and standards implementation efforts two years into a three year cycle. Today’s post will delve further into our findings from thirty Illinois Civics Teacher Mentors that completed the survey. They serve as our foot soldiers in implementing these policies in every county in the state, providing frontline support to teachers, schools, and districts in their respective regions. Twenty-eight of the thirty mentors that completed the survey are currently in the classroom and they reach a combined 1,759 students annually. Mentors reported hosting workshops and giving presentations to other teachers as well as college students in education programs. They also emailed teachers and administrators with suggested resources to further curricular integration. In line with the encouraging student outcomes illustrated in the previous post, mentors reported st...

by Shawn P. Healy, PhD, Democracy Program Director Since the debut of the #CivicsIsBack Campaign in 2016, we have provided periodic updates on our progress. The primary intent of the Campaign is to support teachers, schools, and districts throughout Illinois in implementing the new high school civics course requirement and related, revised K-12 social studies standards . To measure our progress, we partnered with the Center for Information Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University, and have previously summarized their findings on the impact our interventions have had on teachers participating in our professional development, plus the fidelity by which teachers, schools, and districts are implementing the law . Core to our campaign are Illinois Civics Teacher Mentors , veteran educators representing the state’s 38 Regional Offices of Education outside of the City of Chicago. Teacher Mentors have received extensive professional development from th...

by Shawn P. Healy, PhD, Democracy Program Director Last Wednesday, I had the honor of addressing the Illinois Governor Rural Affairs Council (GRAC) in partnership with Anita Banjeri of Forefront’s Democracy Initiative in regard to the 2020 Census. Mary Ellen and I have posted in the past about national concerns on administering the 2020 Census , its high stakes for Illinois , and how to integrate it into your classroom this fall. Anita and I shared some of these lessons with the GRAC, and received a favorable reaction from Council members, including Lieutenant Governor Evelyn Sanguinetti (see picture below). A few highlights are particularly relevant for civics teachers serving in schools outside of the Chicago area. As mentioned in a previous post, Illinois is speckled with hard-to-count communities (HTC’s) outside of Chicago, including Rockford, DeKalb, Peoria, Bloomington-Normal, Champaign-Urbana, Decatur, Springfield, Metro East (suburban St. Louis), Carbondale, and ...

by Shawn P. Healy, PhD, Democracy Program Director Last week I reviewed a Brookings Institution study on the state of civic learning in the United States. Today, I’d like to review a separate report published by the Democracy Project that explores how we can reverse “a crisis of confidence” in our democratic institutions. The report is a collaboration of Freedom House , the George W. Bush Institute , and the Penn Biden Center . It draws from a large national survey and regional focus groups, “…examining American attitudes about democratic principles and institutions at home and support for U.S. policies that advance democracy abroad.” While the project did not find a decline in support for democratic ideals, it demonstrated “…a crisis in confidence of how U.S. democracy works in practice.” A majority view American democracy as weak (55%) and more than two-thirds (68%) feel it is getting weaker. These feelings are more pronounced among people of color, perhaps attributed to thei...