What's New

• In an October 20, 2002 article entitled "Youth Voters' Disengagement Skews Politics" for The Washington Post, Amy Goldstein and Richard Morris report that if the trends in lack of youth voting continue the number of people age 65 and older is likely to exceed that of youth by 4:1 by 2002. The net effect, the authors write, is "an accelerating cycle of political disengagement" where youth don't vote, don't have their issues addressed, thus spiraling into further disincentives to participate in the process. The full article can be found at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53238-2002Oct19.html

• St. Albans School of Public Service (SPS) is pioneering new approaches for civics education at the high school level. SPS is an intensive, four-week summer residential program open to young women and men nationwide who are entering their senior year of high school. The program combines rigorous academics with opportunities to experience personally the challenges of making policy decisions using the case method of teaching. SPS totally immerses its students in the world of public policy and government with two goals: 1) to help them understand how to be effective and involved citizens in a democratic society and 2) to inspire them to pursue careers in public service.

  Through its partnership with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, SPS hopes in future years to expand its efforts beyond its core summer program to include teacher training and dissemination of its innovative curriculum nationwide. To read more about the program or a PDF newsarticle go to http://www.schoolofpublicservice.org/inside_sps/inside_sps.aspxo and Albans.pdf

• The University of Missouri-St. Louis College of Education is seeking nominations and applications for the Theresa M. Fischer Endowed Professor of Citizenship Education. The professor will hold twelve-month tenured appointment in the University of Missouri-St. Louis College of Education, the largest preparer of educators for Missouri and the St. Louis Region. For more information, go to the PDF file Endow_Prof

• The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is conducting the Political Engagement Project addresses the growing disengagement of young people from politics. Colleges and universities are the institutions most involved with shaping the values, knowledge, skills, and motivation of those between 18 and 28 years old. But there are few attempts to help strengthen students’ political engagement at these institutions, and those that do exist remain episodic and isolated from each other, and little is known about their effects. The PEP is an effort to address these issues through educational programs and research.

  This three-year project involves a collaborative investigation into the neglected question of what works and why in the realm of increasing undergraduates’ political engagement. The project will bring together leaders of twenty-one promising curricular and extra-curricular programs with a focus on political engagement. These courses and programs represent a range of curricular and extra-curricular approaches at different types of educational institutions. For more information go to http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/PEP/index.htm

• NEW VOICE FELLOWSHIPS TO SUPPORT NONPROFITS AND PROMISING NEW LEADERS COMMITTED TO SOCIAL JUSTICE AND PEACE
  New Voices, inaugurated in 1999, is a national program to help nonprofit organizations bring innovative new talent to their staffs. It awards salary-support grants to small nonprofits demonstrating a commitment to cultivating and strengthening the leadership potential of "new voices."

  The program is administered by the Academy for Educational Development with funding from the Ford Foundation. The two-year grants offer support for salary, fringe benefits, financial assistance, mentoring, and a professional development account for a promising new leader. The organization may recruit its candidate, based on organizational goals, priorities, and needs, or the prospective fellow may approach an eligible organization, based on his or her professional interests.

  Proposed fellows must clearly represent a "new voice" to the organization and its field of work. Most Fellows will have completed an undergraduate or graduate degree or have equivalent education and experience. Applications are strongly encouraged from candidates reflecting diverse educational, cultural, and experiential backgrounds.

  Only U.S.-based nonprofit organizations are eligible. Preference will be given to organizations with annual budgets between $75,000 and $2 million. Sponsored fields of work include: foreign policy; international economic policy; international peace and security; international human rights; women's rights; racial justice and civil rights; and migrant and refugee rights.

  Complete eligibility criteria and application guidelines and forms are available from the New Voices Website. Deadline for proposals is January 13, 2003. To obtain a copy of the RFP, visit: www.aed.org/newvoices

  
  

• In an October 15, 2002 article for The Washington Post, Michael Zimmerman, reports that the Center for Democracy and Citizenship, part of the Council for Excellence in Government, is conducting a "30 Million Missing Voters" campaign to get youth ages 18 to 24 to vote. As part of the campaign the center has developed "30 Million Missing Voters: A Candidates Guide to Reaching Young Americans." The publication provides help to candidates so they can dedicate time and resources to younger voters by engaging them in the voting process. The article can be found the Washington Post Website.
  
• In a September 21,2002 article for The Hill, Peter Brand reports that a group of House democrats are convinced that young people are the largest untapped voting bloc. As a result, they unveiled an effort designed to reach out to them. An eight-member working group headed by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), assistant to the Democratic leader, presented the "Young Voter Project" to the Democratic Caucus. "Young people are the largest group of unclaimed voters in the country, " DeLauro said. "Neither party has been particularly effective in reaching out to them." The group spent some four months crafting a Democratic agenda for young Americans, including economic empowerment, corporate responsibility, affordable college costs and workplace skills training. The article can be found at http://www.hillnews.com/issues/091802/youth.shtm
• September 19, 2002: A ground-breaking new study of the nation's civic life was released at the National Press Club. The report analyzes a comprehensive survey of Americans' civic and political behavior from voting to volunteering, chronicles the differences between the generations, and takes the most in-depth look to date at the civic perspective and behavior of "Generation DotNet" (ages 15-25).

  The research was funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, and is being presented in collaboration with the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at a briefing for leading practitioners in the youth civic engagement field.

  Some highlights of the study:

1. Young people are much more likely to support government action and are just as engaged in apolitical civic activities as are older generations, but are less likely to trust others and participate in electoral politics.
2. "Generation DotNet" (15-25 year-olds) has a strong and distinct generational identity, while joining older citizens in using consumer activism as a vehicle for expressing their political and policy views.
3. Younger Americans don't share older generations' views about the responsibilities of citizenship, but they do say that civic education makes a big difference in fueling their interest in public affairs.
4. The report also identifies what is working to increase the civic engagement of young people.

For more information about the study-including detailed results, methods, and personnel-please see http://youth_index.civicyouth.org.

• Public Agenda has released "Knowing it by Heart: Americans Consider the Constitution and its Meaning" describing Americans beliefs on of use of the U.S. Constitution for other countries, attitudes toward the government and its actions after September 11, and their rights and responsibilities as citizens. A free online copy of "Knowing it by Heart" is available until October 8 at http://www.publicagenda.org/PDFStore/PDFLogin.cfm
• "Give Class of 2006 a chance to create its own syllabus" an interesting and somewhat more positive view of youth civic engagement was written by Jane Eisner for the Philadelphia Inquirer on September 5, 2002, http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/4003843.htm
• Choices for the 21st Century Education Program at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies, has developed a new curriculum to help teachers engage students in discussions about U.S. policy toward Iraq and its leader Saddam Hussein. It has also developed an array of other educational programs and curricula for students to encourage discussion about international and public policy issues. These resources are posted on the Institute's website: www.choices.edu.
• The Bill of Rights Institute has created a 45 min. lesson, "September 11: Commemorating America's Civic Values." In this lesson, students will commemorate the tragic events of September 11, 2001 by focusing on those civic values that enabled the American people to respond - both individually and collectively - to the horrific attacks of that day and to ultimately triumph over adversity. "September 11: Commemorating America's Civic Values" is available free from www.BillofRightsInstitute.org.
• The Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University is holding a conference on civic education this Fall as part of its annual Rutgers Invitational Symposium in Education (RISE) series. Titled "Social Studies for a New Millennium: Re-envisioning Civic Education for a Changing World," this conference will bring together experts from a variety of disciplines to discuss the future of civic education in these complicated times. Participants will include Judith Torney-Purta (University of Maryland), Carol Hahn (Emory University), Henry Giroux (Penn State University), Alan Rosenthal (The Eagleton Institute, Rutgers University), Margaret Smith Crocco (Teachers College) and others. The conference will result in an edited collection, to be published by Earlbaum.

  The second day of the conference, October 18, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., is open to students, teachers, school administrators, policy-makers, researchers and any other interested members of the public. Those interested may register and receive more information by contacting gsece@rci.rutgers.edu or 732-932-7496, x8202.

• NACE is cited in Michael A. Fletcher's Washington Post article of July 4, 2002, "Struggling to Get Civics Back in the Classroom."
• The New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm's College is looking for an Executive Director. A major focus of the Institute's work is in the area of civic education and civic engagement. Please see their position annoucement.

• CIRCLE has released a fact sheet showing that voter turnout among young Americans (ages 18-25) has declined substantially since 1972. There are methodological complications involved in calculating youth turnout, but the decline is evident regardless of the method used. CIRCLE's fact sheet also presents turnout trends for various subgroups of youth.
• The Council for Excellence in Government has released a new Hart-Teeter poll of young Americans and their interest in public service careers. It shows an increase in interest since 1997. Also, more young people are motivated by public spirit to consider jobs in the public sector; and more believe in the importance of giving national attention to domestic problems.
• The National Association of Independent Colleges & Universities has mailed a booklet entitled Make Your Vote Count and Your Voice Heard in the 2002 Elections! to college and university presidents. The handbook has been produced by the National Campus Voter Registration Project in every federal election year since 1996, and offers guidance on how to organize voter registration campaigns and develop voter education activities. The handbook also includes a full list of voter registration deadlines by states. In many cases, the deadline falls in June.

• The following news comes from Liz Beaumont, Anne Colby, and Tom Ehrlich of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: "We are in the process of completing a book on the first project, the Moral and Civic Responsibility in Higher Education project, which will be published by Jossey-Bass this winter [click for flyer]. We are also making good progress with a new project, the Political Engagement Project (PEP), which will include a group of 21 courses and programs with a focus on increasing undergraduates' political knowledge, interest, skills, and involvement. We also have some information about PEP on the Carnegie Foundation web site at: http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/PEP/."

• First Amendment Schools, in conjunction with Newsweek's Education Program, will host a First Amendment Summer Seminar, July 12-14, 2002 in Washington, D.C. All seminar-related expenses will be paid for the 30 teachers invited to participate. Teachers will receive instructional resources, including a free classroom set of Newsweek for the 2002-2003 school year. Click here for more information and on online application. Deadline is April 15, 2002.

• The Public Employees Roundtable has free Teachers Kits available on their Website.

• NPR has just done a report on the updated new GED examination. In addition to addressing the move toward higher literacy standards and the need for some statistical literacy, the GED will expand coverage of civic education.

• CIRCLE, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, has made its first four research grants and released a new national survey of 1,500 young Americans, focusing on their civic and political engagement. CIRCLE welcomes proposals for research (not practice) on topics related to the civic engagement of Americans between the ages of 15 and 25.
• Henry Milner has published Civic Literacy: How Informed Citizens make Democracy Work.