Youth courts provide communities with an opportunity to impose immediate consequences for first time youthful offenders, while providing a peer operated disposition mechanism that constructively allows young people to take responsibility, be held accountable, and make amends for violating the law. Dispositions hold youth accountable in part…

This technical assistance paper is designed to give trainers guidance on teaching the development and use of substance-abuse lessons found in "Street Law: A Course in Practical Law." The paper provides background on the lessons, a rationale for using the lessons, and sample agendas to use in training. "Street Law" contains…

This booklet is a guide to establishing youth service learning councils. The booklet begins with a discussion of what youth service learning councils are and why they are a good idea. The following aspects of initiating the process of forming a youth service learning council are explained: facilitating a youth service learning council; identifying…

Social studies promotes civic competence through the integrated study of the social sciences and humanities. This Nebraska framework states that the primary purpose of social studies is to help young people make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse and democratic society in an interdependent…

Presents the Texas standards for U.S. history in the following areas: (1) history, (2) geography, (3) economics, (4) government, (5) citizenship, (6) culture, (7) science, technology, and society, and (8) social studies skills. Offers 26 standards in total and provides expectations for the students in each area. (CMK)

This book's purpose is to help teachers and administrators in British schools review their schools in order to provide a high quality education for every student regardless of ethnic or racial identity or cultural tradition and work towards removing prejudice, harassment, and discrimination. The British legal framework pertaining to equal…

This document consists of the first 16 volumes (47 issues) of a serial devoted to law-related education (LRE) that offers background information on a wide range of legal issues as well as teaching strategies for LRE. Issues of the magazine focus on the law as it affects schools and young people, with articles on school discipline, juvenile…

A curriculum packet is presented that is designed to give English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teachers the information and tools they need to help students address the issue of job discrimination, especially discrimination based on citizenship status or national origin that may result from the employer verification requirement of the Immigration…

This publication is the result of a project in New York State to increase public awareness of themes related to the U.S. Constitution using the medium of the arts. Designed as a photo essay, the volume reflects the activities of thousands of students in the Statewide Mini-Imagination Celebration Program. In efforts to understand the impact of…

The Families in Education Program sponsored by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction is dedicated to nurturing a family-community-school partnership and provides this packet for schools to use throughout the year to promote families and learning. The articles in the packet contain ideas for making family-community partnerships work in the…

In recent years a number of political and educational leaders and groups have urged the nation's public schools to place a greater emphasis on teaching civic values and on educating students to become citizens. This book puts forth the civic values and ideas that schools should be teaching. The volume is not a handbook or curriculum guide, but is…

The lack of economics literacy is a serious problem in the United States. Today, public school students are taught little if any economics and score very poorly on economics literacy tests, with the average test score being 40 percent. This absence of economic understanding hurts the economy in the following ways: (1) economically illiterate…

There are others in the community besides lawyers and police officers who can serve as useful resource persons in law-related education (LRE). Business people, representatives of civic groups, and others can offer students interesting perspectives on the law. School partnerships with civic and community groups can result in several desirable…

The essence of a healthy democracy is open dialogue about issues of public concern. An integral part of the training of young citizens, therefore, includes the discussion of controversial social, political, and economic policies. The use of classroom discussions as a pedagogical technique to examine controversial issues is explored by considering:…

Community service is a voluntary contribution to the commonweal that teaches valuable lessons about the responsibilities of citizenship in a free society. Vital services are provided through thousands of organizations created to meet needs not otherwise provided for by government. Participation in these community service projects help create a…