Civics education has always been a passion of mine.
As a social studies teacher, I prioritized civics in my own classroom. And I firmly believe that the fundamental purpose of public schools is to create active citizens – not just to make students college and career ready.
I have worked with state and national civics education groups in the past – including C-SPAN and the Citizens Campaign. I’ve been through countless professional development programs. I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t.
Some things that work include creating an inclusive curriculum, focusing on local government, offering opportunities for participatory learning, prioritizing project based learning, emphasizing themes over facts, discussing current events, and deliberating controversial issues. CIRCLE is a great resource for research on effective methods of civic education.
What doesn’t work is reducing civics to a high stakes test – i.e. the citizenship test. Nor is it effective when you do a stand alone unit on the political process without connecting it to the broader curriculum.
The district has an obligation to infuse civics throughout its curriculum, and I’ll rely on my experience as a civic educator to ask the right questions and hold the district accountable to that.
The Institute for Citizen Empowerment is a great program offered by the district, and it offers us the opportunity to test out more innovative ways to teach civics. But ultimately, these methods need to be extended to the student body at large.
We’re also a step ahead of the game when it comes to civics in the middle school. The legislature recently passed a law that requires every district to offer a stand alone civics course in middle school, which we already do. It also tasks the Center for Civic Education at Rutgers with creating curriculum guidelines for these courses. When these guidelines are published, we should be evaluating our own curriculum to make sure it’s up to par.
Let us take the opportunity to be a leader in civics education – and make sure that our students leave West Orange High School prepared to be active and engaged citizens.