Civic Education in Schools
The Right Time is Now

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A required interdisciplinary Civics-English course that engages all ninth graders in exploring the rights and responsibilities of citizens begins the year with students learning about government and then segues into a study of what circumstances gave rise to the Holocaust. By spring, the students are energized for the community service-learning component of the course, with proposals ranging from conducting workshops in elementary schools, to organizing fund raisers, working at a nonprofit day care center and volunteering at a nursing home. A key question that is the focus of the course throughout the year is: “What is the individual’s responsibility to create a just society?”

So what begins as a simple ritual of passing a koosh ball culminates in experiences that ripple throughout the community and emphasize the idea that citizenship is predicated on recognizing an individual’s responsibilities as a citizen as well as his or her rights. “Kids come out of the Hudson school experience with an understanding of the common good,” says Berman. “They understand what it means to be a responsible member of a community. They know better how to treat each other and work together effectively, they have an ethical and moral compass that we have helped them develop and some of the civic skills and competencies to make a difference.”

A Laundry Becomes a Remarkable School
As a fourteen-year old Mexican immigrant, Irasema Salcido worked in the fields of California, picking strawberries on weekends for three of her teenage years. Now, years later, as founder and principal of the César Chávez Public Charter High School for Public Policy (www.cesarchavezhs.org) in Washington, D.C., she knows what it takes to help teenagers achieve.

The César Chávez student population is a diverse group of 250 students, with about 25 percent recent arrivals to the U.S. Many of the students are from El Salvador, one emigrated from Cameroon and two from Bosnia.

Salcido has recruited a staff of what she considers to be “the best teachers in the entire world,” and is proud to have attracted 25 full-time, experienced teachers, some of whom graduated from Ivy League colleges and to include a lawyer, research scientist, poet and an artist on the staff.

Housed in a former laundry and with few amenities, César Chávez’s mission is “to develop young people who will make the country a better place by influencing the public policies that affect their communities.” School facilities are below average in many respects. Makeshift dividers separate areas into classrooms, so discussions from one area of a partitioned room intrude on another class. There are only a few computers, no science labs, and no gym or playground for physical education. “Our students don’t get any exercise in school,” says Kate McGreevy, director of development and community outreach, “even though many of them are out of shape and might have health problems.”

While acknowledging the lack of facilities, the students are proud of the strengths of their school. After taking a Foundations in Public Policy course in the ninth grade, tenth graders select an issue that is relevant to their community, form a relationship with a local group and develop and put into action a plan that addresses that issue. The following year students partner with policymaking organizations and meet with government leaders. The students apply for a fellowship with a public policy organization and spend three weeks with the group. Meagan Labriola, public policy director at César Chávez says, “It’s real work experience, not filing and answering phones. That means taking a student to planning meetings and hearings or to attend meetings on Capitol Hill.”

The high school experience in the public policy arena culminates in a senior policy thesis that involves research and analysis of a problem and challenges the students to become experts who can propose solutions.

A school government and constitution were recently established and instituted. One of the first forays by the students in shaping school policy has been to reevaluate a rule that prohibits cell phones in the school. After a period of study and debate, the governing body, which meets every two weeks and comprises eight students and eight adults, submitted a revised policy to the principal and dean, who can veto a proposal. The administrators approved the new policy, which allows students to have cell phones in the school, but only if they are turned off. If students violate the regulation, their cell phone privileges are revoked.

Having the Courage
César Chávez opened in 1998 and at the end of that first year, two-thirds of the students were held back. Salcido wondered: “What am I doing?” She knew that some other schools routinely pass youngsters to the next grade, whether or not they have adequately mastered required work. “We couldn’t continue making the same mistake. We were the last stop for them,” says Salcido, who earned a masters degree from Harvard University. “I’m glad I had the courage to stick to my principles; it really shaped the way the school is today.” When it came time for the first graduating class to prepare their theses, the staff pondered whether they should assign a 15-20 page thesis or allow students to write just a five-page paper. Once again, the decision was made to hold students accountable to high standards.

From the outset, strict discipline was an essential element of the school program. Late to class five times? Your grade is reduced one level. Late eight times and you fail the course. “Drugs, or weapons, you’re out,” Salcido says. “Fight and you get a twenty-five
day suspension.”

Despite the strict routine, a visitor saw clear signs that there was a caring, relationship between students and principal, between students and their teachers. A sign on a board in Salcido’s office, written in blue marker and displayed proudly, proclaims “Class of 2003. We love you, Mrs. Salcido.”

It is also clear that many of the students are articulate and forthright in talking about their newfound world at César Chávez. (See: What is it Like to be a Student at César Chávez?) During a lunchtime meeting students shared their thoughts about some of the issues that were uppermost in their minds

• “Children die every day because of child abuse and neglect,” Cherry Wooten, a senior, said emphatically. “I’ve read horrible stories about parents who put their child in a dog cage without food or water, and the parents were not convicted.” Cherry will present her thesis to her class, including recommendations for change in D.C. law to ensure that at least minimum punishment levels are in place for convicted child abuse offenders.

• Preventing teenage pregnancy was a high priority for Jajaira Mejia, a junior who is a teen mother of seven-month old Diana. “At first I was shy to share my opinions, “ Jajaira said. “but now I have a public service announcement on the Internet about teenage pregnancy. I don’t want other girls to make the same mistakes I made.”

• Josue Cruz, a freshman, spoke enthusiastically about a school trip to Quebec where students stayed with host families. “It was way more than just fun, being in a different country and realizing the world is bigger than it seems.”

Other public service projects at the school include helping a food bank keep its shelves stocked, organizing a D.C.-wide Earth Day event, and conducting a fund-raiser to purchase energy-conserving light bulbs, green plants and other items to create a “green space” in the school.

The first César Chávez class graduated in 2002, with 100% of the students going on to college including Brown University, American University, and George Mason University. In 2003, all students in the senior class were again accepted to college, one to Columbia University. Speaking of the pride she felt at seeing the students collect their diplomas, Salcido says that the experience was so moving—and so hard-won—that, “I thought I was watching a movie.” She’s sure that all her students are now firmly on track to become truly engaged and successful citizens.

Making a Difference
As The Civic Mission of Schools urges, both the Massachusetts school district and the D.C. public charter high school “infuse a civic mission throughout the curriculum . . .so that the students are able to ‘live what they learn’ about civic engagement and democracy.” The experts whose input shaped the report recommend “conducting more research that helps to define and develop standardized indicators of civic engagement, especially those that expand the meaning of citizenship and take a broader view beyond voting, volunteering, and knowing facts about the government.” Evaluation of the innovative ways in which civic education is changing in these schools and others throughout our country will yield valuable data to help states shape their education policies.

The Hudson schools and César Chávez are different in many ways, one a suburban school district, the other an urban high school drawing students from all parts of its city. The two academic institutions have developed different iterations of school-based civic education, yet they share a number of characteristics. In both Hudson and César Chávez, for example, all students—including those who might otherwise be disaffected—have ongoing opportunities to be engaged in the civic life of their communities, to begin to appreciate how classroom lessons are inextricably linked to their civic experiences and to learn how to voice their opinions and listen to the thoughts of others.

Civic engagement programs in the Hudson and Washington, D.C. schools help young people begin to understand how lessons learned in the classroom, in the Patanal of Brazil and in local governing groups in their communities resonate in their lives. Through civic engagement securely anchored to academics, the youngsters begin to gain a rich understanding of our democratic life and learn the skills needed to contribute to our nation in a meaningful way. As Carnegie Corporation president Vartan Gregorian has said, “When young people learn that they can make a real difference in their communities, civic lessons of the heart will become integral to their lives, and hopefully the youngsters will become active, caring citizens, who understand that the future of our democracy is truly in their hands.”

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