Action Civics: A New Way to Involve Students in Civic Learning
Over the summer, CIRCLE released two new products focused on “Action Civics.” First, with support from the Spencer Foundation, CIRCLE published, “Civic Learning through Action: The Case of Generation Citizen,” which defines “Action Civics” and explores Generation Citizen (GC) as a case study. In August, CIRCLE released Working Paper #78, “Building an Evidence-Based Practice of Action Civics: The Current State of Assessments and Recommendations for the Future,” by Jessica Gingold of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Gingold assembles evidence for Action Civics as a field, reviews the assessment tools that are used by Action Civics programs, and offers recommendations for improving assessment.
The term “Action Civics” was coined by the National Action Civics Collaborative (NACC) to describe a model of experiential learning in which young people define and address problems in their own communities. NACC was formed by six groups (including CIRCLE and GC) that have common interests in promoting Action Civics, especially for underserved and marginalized youth.
Strengthening Civic Life at Frontiers of Democracy
Each year, Frontiers of Democracy brings together people who think about and work to strengthen civic life from a variety of vantage points. As part of the two-day event in July, attendees participated in “learning exchanges” on women in public life, teaching in prisons, participatory budgeting, and other topics. They also heard and discussed “short takes,” which were provocative 10-minute presentations that can be viewed here.
The online conversation (#demfront) collects Tweets from various participants during the conference. Read our blog post on Frontiers, which documents that online conversation and includes resources that were mentioned during the sessions.
Stay connected to CIRCLE on facebook and twitter to learn more. Sign up here for CIRCLE’s monthly e-update. |
Get the 2012 Voting Rates for your Campus!
CIRCLE and Tisch College’s National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) is a research initiative that will measure college students’ voting rates and create a comprehensive national dataset of college and university student registration and voting rates.
Currently, we are in the process of analyzing data for more than 260 campuses. We are now accepting authorization forms for the next group of campuses interested in 2012 rates. Sign up now to ensure comparisons for future elections. Learn more here.
CIRCLE at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting
From August 29-September 1, CIRCLE Director Peter Levine, with several other scholars, will be at APSA discussing topics related to youth engagement, civic renewal and measurement and assessment.
For the details and description of these sessions, visit the CIRCLE website. |
