| Community Youth Development | K-12 Civic Education | Engaged Campus K-12 Civic Education Welcome to the K-12 Civic Education section of CPN. Here you will find field-defining essays, reports, and case studies on civic education and service learning, and on the growing movement to renew the civic mission of schools. For training manuals, best practice guides, and other resources, click on Tools. Essays, Declarations, and Reports The Civic Mission of Schools, (2003, 653K pdf) by Cynthia Gibson and Peter Levine. This joint publication of the Carnegie Corporation and CIRCLE sets the agenda for a movement to renew the link between K-12 schools and democracy.It represents the consensus of some sixty leading practitioners, organizations, and researchers in the field of civic education about the need and potential of reinvigorating the civic mission of schools. It also contains a detailed policy agenda for educational institutions and administrators, state and federal policymakers, colleges and universities engaged in teacher training, researchers, and funders. Learning in Deed: The Power of Service Learning for America’s Schools (2002: 1.6 MB pdf), by the National Commission on Service Learning. Chaired by Senator John Glenn and funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the commission summarizes the research and key practices of service learning in K-12 schools, and offers an important policyagenda for advancing it further. Every Student A Citizen: Creating the Democratic Self (2000: 472 KB pdf), by the National Study Group on Citizenship in K-12 Schools for the National Center for Learning and Citizenship at the Education Commission of the States. This executive summary outlines key recommendations for revitalizing schools as sites for nurturing democratic citizens, especially by engaging them in real public work in their schools and communities and through first-rate service learning. Citizenship: A Challenge for All Generations (2003: 1.4 MB pdf), by Karl T. Kurtz, Alan Rosenthal and Cliff Zukin for the National Conference of State Legislatures provides national public opinion data on the falloff in key indicators of an engaged citizenry among younger people. National Evaluation of Learn and Serve America (1999: 300 KB pdf), by Alan Melchior of the Center for Youth and Communities at Brandeis University, in collaboration with ABT Associates, provides an overview of service learning successes and limits for Learn and Serve, a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service. Public Schools, Our Schools. (1996)
by David Mathews. Case Studies The Algebra Project Organizes Communities to Prepare All Young People for Academic Success. The Algebra Project, a math-science program in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has organized local communities to help make algebra available to all seventh- and eighth-grade students, regardless of their prior level of skill development or academic achievement. The project's philosophy is that access to algebra will enable students to participate in advanced high-school math and science courses, which in turn are a gateway for college entrance. The project involves parents, teachers, school administrators and community volunteers in creating an environment that supports academic achievement and stresses motivation as the key to students' success. Case study plus. Baltimore's Commonwealth of Schools. Baltimoreans United for Leadership Development, or BUILD—the largest mainly black local organization in the country—has crafted an ambitious plan for revitalizing public schools, called the Baltimore Commonwealth. The plan combines a remarkable incentive plan for high school graduates with a strategy for wide-ranging devolution of power and responsibility to teachers and the community. Moreover, it represents a potent redefinition of the very function of schools, reviving the old tradition which saw education as the instrument of democracy itself, teaching young people to be full, active participants in the life and decision-making processes of their communities. Story and case study plus. | 
