Citizenship education at the school district level

Posted by on April 16, 2004

[posted from National K-12 Service-Learning Listserv]

The National Center for Learning and Citizenship (NCLC) at the Education Commission of the States has just posted an issue paper on citizenship education at the school district level. The paper describes the results of a survey of fourteen school districts across the country, and includes a series of recommendations for policymakers and educational leaders at the state, district and building levels.

K-12 citizenship education prepares young people for active, principled participation in their communities and includes strategies such as service-learning, civics instruction and character education designed to
cultivate civic knowledge, skills and dispositions.

This issue paper describes survey findings in the areas of curriculum and instruction, school board policy, leadership, and assessment and accountability. The paper provides examples of programs and policies in the surveyed districts, and concludes that a more systematic approach to citizenship education in American schools is needed. A number of recommendations are offered to support the efforts of schools and school districts to more effectively prepare young people for citizenship by increasing the involvement of local stakeholders and establishing state policies to convey the importance of civic knowledge, skills and dispositions.

The issue paper, “Citizenship Education Policy at the School District Level,” can be found (in PDF format) on the NCLC website: http://www.ecs.org/nclc