Boosting Civic Learning to Boost College Access and Success

1. Boosting Civic Learning to Boost College Access and Success National Partnership for Educational Access Annual Conference  April 29, 2016

2. Agenda WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS (5 MIN) CONNECTING CIVIC LEARNING AND COLLEGE SUCCESS (15 MIN) STRATEGIES FOR STRENGTHENING CIVIC EDUCATION (20 MIN) GROUP ACTION PLANNING & DISCUSSION (25 MIN) Q & A (10 MIN)

3. What knowledge, skills, and attitudes do students need in order to be successful in college? What knowledge, skills, and attitudes do students need in order to be effective civic participants and leaders?

4. Civic activities undertaken during high school are related to significantly higher odds that individuals graduate from college in later years. • Students who receive effective civic learning are: • More likely to vote and discuss politics at home • Four times more likely to volunteer and work on community issues • More confident in their ability to speak publicly and communicate with their elected representatives African-American and Hispanic students are twice as likely as their white counterparts to score below proficient on national civics assessments. A similar civic knowledge gap exists between America’s wealthiest and poorest students. Political scientists have uniformly found that the most powerful way to engage [a student] in civic or political activities is to invite him or her to participate.

5. I hear, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand. - Confucius

6. Strategies for StrengtheningCivics Education • Providing Civics Instruction & Modeling • Promoting Student Voice • Encouraging Community Engagement

7. ACTION CIVICS Students learn about the political process by engaging in the political process. According to the National Action Civics Collaborative (NACC): • Examine community • Identify key issues • Research • Strategize • Take action • Reflection Nearly half of all dropouts (47%) report that a major reason they leave school and fail to graduate is that they found their classes boring and irrelevant.

8. OUR APPROACH GC CORE PROGRAM College volunteer Democracy Coaches are partnered with middle and high school teachers to co-facilitate our action civics curriculum GC TEACHER-LED PROGRAM GC staff support teachers outside of our Democracy Coaches’ proximity in independently implementing our action civics curriculum COMMUNITY CHANGE FELLOWSHIP GC high school students apply for and are placed in intensive six-week internships with the offices of elected officials and local advocacy organizations DEMAND-BUILDING GC engages in local advocacy to build the demand for action civics in classrooms across the United States

9. CORE PROGRAM ELEMENTS • Trained college Democracy Coaches partnered with teachers • Twice weekly lessons • for one semester • Student-centered • Action driven • Civics Day

11. FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION: THE ADVOCACY HOURGLASS Hard to get to school, feeling very unsafe walking in the school's neighborhood, attendance issues… Community Issues Focus Issue Safety is an issue that affects students staying after school and commuting home in the neighborhood Lack of district and city resources providing students safe transportation if leaving after general dismissal time Root Cause Advocate for school department and city funding to provide immediate safety measures for students, and allocate long-term funding for an after-school bus Goal Decision-Maker: Superintendent, City Council Influencers: Executive Director of the Walking School Bus Program, Mayor, parents, teachers, students Targets Tactics Conducting a survey, circulating a petition, hosting a coalition meeting, holding a meeting

12. MODEL ACTION GOALS Legislative Legislative Executive Executive 1 Influence in-process legislation or the budget at the state or local level 2 Introduce new legislation at the state or local level Proposed (and passed!) legislation implementing single-stream recycling throughout BPS Lobbied for proposed police accountability legislation in NY 4 Influence how departments or schools solicit youth input 3 Influence how departments or schools use resources Created student positions on the School Leadership Team and Principal’s Council in RI Lobbied for stronger water conservation systems & technologies in CA schools Why is it beneficial for students to work on projects like this in additional to traditional service learning projects?

13. Strategies for StrengtheningCivics Education • Providing Civics Instruction & Modeling  Action civics  Mock voting  Voter registration  Current events discussion • Promoting Student Voice • Encouraging Community Engagement

14. Strategies for StrengtheningCivics Education • Providing Civics Instruction & Modeling  Action civics  Mock voting  Voter registration  Current events discussion • Promoting Student Voice  Student government  Student advisory boards  Restorative justice programs  Student feedback systems • Encouraging Community Engagement

15. Strategies for StrengtheningCivics Education • Providing Civics Instruction & Modeling  Action civics  Mock voting  Voter registration  Current events discussion • Promoting Student Voice  Student government  Student advisory boards  Restorative justice programs  Student feedback systems • Encouraging Community Engagement  Guest speakers  Field trips  Volunteering on campaigns  Summer internships / programs

16. How Can Your Organization Improve? • Providing Civics Instruction & Modeling  Action civics  Mock voting  Voter registration  Current events discussion • Promoting Student Voice  Student government  Student advisory boards  Restorative justice programs  Student feedback systems • Encouraging Community Engagement  Guest speakers  Field trips  Volunteering on campaigns  Summer internships / programs Try a SWOT Analysis

17. LESSONS LEARNED • Action civics content dependent upon local civics knowledge • Policy research complex, time-intensive, laborious, unfamiliar, staff value-add • College volunteers ≠ student teachers • Evaluation of skills and motivation change difficult • Still a “nice to have,” not “need to have”

18. “Being as young as I am, I’ve been told that I don’t really have a place in politics, that my voice is insignificant, that no one would ever listen. Oh, the lies they’ve told me. Truth be told, my voice matters, it matters a lot, and because of Generation Citizen I’ve had the opportunity to not only voice my opinion, but  to have it heard.” • MiaijaJawara • Former GC NYC student and Community Change Fellow alumnus

19. www.generationcitizen.org Sarah Andes, Director of Programming sandes@generationcitizen.org

20. References Alberto Dávila and Marie T. Mora, “CIRCLE Working Paper 52: Civic Engagement and High School Academic Progress: An Analysis Using NELS Data,” (2007), via http://civicyouth.org/PopUps/WorkingPapers/WP52Mora.pdf. Donald Kinder, “Opinion and Action in the Realm of Politics,” in Daniel Gilbert, Susan Fiske, and Gardner Lindzey, eds. The Handbook of Social Psychology, 4th Edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998. Gould, Jonathan, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Peter Levine, Ted McConnell, and David B. Smith, eds.,Guardian of Democracy: The Civic Mission of Schools. Rep. Philadelphia: Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of, 2011. Print.