Schools’ Civic Purpose Getting Renewed Attention

I posed the question to a class of recent immigrants and first-generation college students. One, a graduate of Chicago-area public schools, noted that schools help people acquire knowledge so that they can make a living and contribute to the economy; she’s in school to become a registered nurse. Another, a Chicago cab driver originally from West Africa, agreed, but he also talked about the civic mission of schools; they not only prepare students for work, they help make a better society, too.

America’s founding fathers believed that a system of public education is essential to the maintenance of a democracy. Thomas Jefferson put it bluntly in 1816: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free . . . it expects what never was and never can be.” A century later, John Dewey was even more direct: “Democracy must be reborn every generation, and education is its midwife.”

According to Jack Jennings, who heads the Washington-based Center on Education Policy (CEP, www.cep-dc.org), this fundamental belief in public education has been instilled in generations of Americans. Ten years ago, Jennings traveled around the country, working with the national PTA organization on a series of forums about the purpose of schools. These were community gatherings of both public and parochial school officials, civic leaders, police officers, and parents, and the question at hand was what we, as a society, expect from our public schools.

“The thing that really struck me,” Jennings said, “is that even people who had not thought about schools or education for many years noted that schools serve two purposes: first, to prepare people for further education or for jobs, and second, to prepare people for life. In a democracy, we are creating opportunities for the greater good,” Jennings added.

“Schools exist for more than making an investment in our own future as individuals; they are for the future of our community and our country.” Although Jennings claims that most Americans realize instinctively that schools serve the public good, that fundamental belief has been challenged, whether purposely or not, by the current emphasis on testing.

Is testing undercutting the civic mission of schools?

Competition in the global marketplace has led to a heightened emphasis on reading and mathematics. These are skills that critics of public schools contend have been neglected, leaving U.S. students less well-prepared for jobs than are students in some other nations.

Although this may be an arguable contention, it is the one that drove passage of the legislation known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2001, which requires satisfactory test scores in math and reading, among other requirements, for a school to receive a good NCLB rating. The civic purpose of schools, a foundation of our democracy, is neglected in the law.

According to a Fall 2003 report from the Carnegie Foundation of New York, “Young people today are less informed about civic matters than youngsters were a generation or two ago. Students attending high school now often take only one government course, compared to a range of courses in civics, democracy, and government that was available in the 1960s and earlier. The profile of civics and social studies education in elementary school students is also dismal: during the decade beginning with 1988, there was a reported decline of 49 percent of 4th graders who had a social studies lesson each day.

“A multitude of factors has led to this decline, including emphasis on high-stakes testing, cut-backs that affect extracurricular programs in which students can learn civic skills, and teachers’ concerns that discussing controversial subjects may result in negative reviews or even legal action.”

The 2006 national report cards on civics and history published by the National Center for Education Statistics found that only a quarter of U.S. high school graduates are deemed “proficient” in civics and half are leaving school with only a “basic” knowledge of U.S. history. Findings like these do not bode well for our democracy.

A welcome swing of the pendulum?

The disturbing trends in civics education, even before NCLB, led to the establishment of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools (www.civicmissionofschools.org), a coalition of 40 organizations whose function is “to ensure that more students leave school prepared for college, work, and citizenship,” according to Patrick Phillips, its executive director. Civic Mission has undertaken several projects to accomplish these goals, such as highlighting exemplary state-sponsored civics programs, suggesting promising approaches to civic education that schools can adopt, and bringing together representatives of numerous organizations that share its concerns. Civic Mission also sponsors an online clearinghouse for innovative ways schools can introduce civics into their programs that teachers and administrators can easily access.

Rocco Morano of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) is responsible for overseeing the National Association of Student Councils (www.nasc.us/s_nasc/index.asp), which is a project of the NASSP. While nearly all high schools and many middle schools sponsor student councils, he said, their role during the 1980s and 1990s changed. “There was a lot of civic involvement during the 1960s and 1970s, then students started becoming more conservative,” he noted. Their emphasis was on their careers rather than on getting involved in politics. Although student councils did not decrease in number, their role in schools became more social than civic.

Since about 2000, students have been volunteering in community service projects in greater numbers, and often in service learning projects that emphasize a connection to the curriculum. Rob Donahue directs a program at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, that offers civic education programs for students around the country. It sponsors week-long civic experiences for high schools students, such as spring break activities in which they can learn firsthand about issues such as immigration and rural poverty. He attributes a renewed interest in civic involvement to incidents that consumed national attention, such as the 9/11 attacks and the impact of Hurricane Katrina on impoverished people in New Orleans. He admits that students see such service as an asset when they apply for college.

Whatever their motivation, students themselves may be pushing the pendulum back toward civic engagement. As Morano noted, “In the last two elections, we have seen an increase in the youth vote.” Like the Civic Mission’s clearinghouse, Morano’s student council group offers projects schools can adopt to encourage their students to consider worthy undertakings in addition to their other activities.

Civic education in action

In November 2007, the League of Women Voters in the highly diverse city of Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago, held a Constitution contest. About 300 7th graders were asked which amendment in the Bill of Rights is most important to them and why. Students responded with an astonishing array of essays, sculptures, rap songs, and videos. League members, the school administration, and local civic leaders were thrilled with the program’s success. Winners received savings bonds—$500 for first place, smaller denominations for runners-up—but with hundreds of students competing, something else was driving their interest.

Asked why the contest was so successful, the district’s middle-school social studies coordinator Erin Murphy pointed to the project’s “authenticity.” There was something real being created. “This wasn’t just a project that you do for a teacher and throw away,” she said. Others got to see the results of their efforts.

Enthusiasm for the program was so overwhelming that the superintendent immediately dubbed it the “First Annual Constitution Contest.” The contest also has generated spin-offs. All five of the district’s middle schools participated in a mock primary in early February, and they are planning on holding a presidential convention later in the year.

“The Constitution contest spurred the idea that we can do this,” Murphy said. Now we are going to use the presidential election to help students learn about the electoral process.”

If, as Dewey said, education is democracy’s midwife, today’s youth are demonstrating an ability to become the next generation of citizens.

Connie Goddard, PhD, is a education historian and adjunct professor at National-Louis University and Truman City College in Chicago, Illinois.