Building democracies in K-8 schools is a promising approach to increasing young people and educators' civic knowledge, skills and dispositions. The Rendell Center for Civics and Civics Engagement leveraged strategies and concepts from the fields of civic education, student voice, and distributed leadership to build a youth-adult school governance…

While many Americans might agree on the importance of preparing young people for democratic life, civic education receives relatively less attention than other school subjects. Student performance on civic assessments reflects the limited focus of schools on civic learning. While many individuals and organizations have sought to address the poor…

Public schools in Pennsylvania were created to educate children to be useful citizens, loyal to the principles upon which the nation was founded, and aware of their duties as citizens to maintain those ideals. This document includes 4 critical elements of civics and government standards that describe what students should know and be able to…

The report identifies instruments for measuring citizen education improvement efforts in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The document is presented in three sections. The first section outlines evaluation criteria and reviews literature related to testing and citizenship assessment. Materials reviewed are reports of citizenship assessment…

The report presents an overview of perspectives on citizen education; relates needs expressed by planning groups for citizen education programs in Deleware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; and presents materials relating to national and state citizenship education priorities. A major purpose of the document is to help state and local educators and…