Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Knight Foundation Fund New Campaign to Put Civic Education Back in the Schools

5/5/2004

From: Sarah Howe of the Council for Excellence in Government, 202-530-3270 or showe@excelgov.org, Web: http://www.excelgov.org

WASHINGTON, May 5 -- The national effort to renew and elevate civic education in America's schools receives new momentum today through support from a pair of respected national funders. Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York, and Hodding Carter III, president and CEO of the Knight Foundation, today each announced grants of $1 million to support the newly-launched Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools.

"History teaches us that American ideals, values, and beliefs have been transmitted through our schools to countless generations of young citizens and immigrants" Gregorian said. "We need to recall and revive a forgotten civic curriculum that was once one of the principle missions of our public schools - preparing young people to become citizens in a vibrant and robust democracy."

"Democracy has always required sustained attention and participation," said Carter. "The challenges facing the nation have brought new focus to the need for civic education. That's why we are so pleased to join our colleagues at Carnegie Corporation of New York in backing this Campaign."

The core purpose of the Campaign is to change policy and practice at the state, local, and national levels so that considerably larger numbers of students have rigorous civic education experiences in their K-12 education. The Campaign will undertake a major advocacy effort directed to state and national policy-makers designed to implement key recommendations in the Civic Mission of Schools report (civicmissionofschools.org).

The Civic Mission of Schools report, issued in February 2003 by Carnegie and CIRCLE (Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement at the University of Maryland), reflects a broad consensus among scholars and practitioners in the civic education field about the key elements for effective civic education in our schools. Six promising approaches endorsed in the report include:

-- instruction in government, history, law and democracy -- class discussion of current local, national and international issues and events -- community service and service learning linked to curriculum and class instruction -- extracurricular opportunities to get involved in the school and community -- participation in school governance -- simulations of democratic processes and procedures

The Campaign represents a broad coalition of more than 40 educators, practitioners, civic officials, and organizations dedicated to promoting civic education in America's schools. The Center for Democracy & Citizenship at the Council for Excellence in Government in Washington, D.C., will manage the Campaign, in partnership with the Academy for Educational Development, based in New York City. Former Colorado Congressman David Skaggs, serves as Executive Director for the Center and the Campaign.

"The health of American democracy depends on citizens that have an understanding of our system and how it's supposed to work and who are ready and motivated to play their crucial part," Skaggs said.

Much of the Campaign's work will be accomplished through grants to state-level coalitions expected to be formed by interested educational, nonprofit, governmental, business, media and philanthropic groups. The Campaign expects to make grants in two categories -- up to six large grants of $150,000, and up to 15 smaller grants of $20,000 - to state-based coalitions for a two- year period. The request for proposals for these grants was announced on May 1, 2004. For further information about the RFP process, please contact cms@excelgov.org.

Grantees will be selected based in part on their goals for elevating civic education in their states and their strategy for changing state and local policies (curriculum content, funding, training and technical support, accountability systems) to achieve that vision. An added criterion is that the grantees together reflect an appropriate diversity of geography, demographics, politics, educational governance and other key characteristics.

In addition to the state efforts, the Campaign will work with legislative and executive branch officials in Washington and with the national media to increase understanding and support of this crucial element of public education for democracy. Objectives at the national level include: more frequent administration of the National Assessment of Educational Progress in civics assessment, and introducing civic content wherever possible into the subject areas covered by the No Child Left Behind legislation.

The national and state advocacy efforts will be aided by the development of a research-based communications strategy and plan for the Campaign's target audiences as well as the general public. In addition, the Campaign will prepare and make available an extensive set of civic education resources and practices that provide a range of examples of the six recommended approaches to civic education geared to different grade levels.

The Campaign is part of a larger effort Carnegie Corporation of New York has undertaken to focus national attention to providing K-12 students with a more comprehensive approach to civic education. This effort, which began with the publication of the Civic Mission of Schools report, includes funding several model civic education programs in states and districts across the nation.

Knight Foundation, based in Miami, promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities where the Knight brothers operated newspapers. Knight Foundation's involvement in the Campaign stems from its interests in stimulating civic engagement in communities and coincides with efforts to re-energize high school journalism where it has flagged or disappeared. Knight's funding adds media literacy as an element of serious civic education and will support state-level coalitions in three to five states that are home to Knight communities.