We’re launching a peer community for school district administrators
It is vital for the strength of our democracy that every student in the U.S. receive an Action Civics education. Generation Citizen will teach upwards of 13,000 students this year, and 30,000 per year by 2020. But there are over 50 million K-12 students in the country. Needless to say, we can’t do it alone. We need the support of teachers, funders, other nonprofits, policymakers, public officials — and critically, school district administrators.
School district leaders are in a unique position to shift the tide of civics education and help to achieve the goal of educating every student with Action Civics. This is why we sought to understand how we can support district leaders as they work toward implementing Action Civics in schools and classrooms across their districts. Over the past year, we conducted interviews with 14 school district leaders responsible for civics education in districts across the country. These interviews taught us about the challenges they face, what has facilitated the implementation of civics, and what would be useful to them as they work to improve civics, specifically Action Civics, in their districts.
We wrote a report summarizing insights and incorporating key resources to support district leaders based on their expressed needs.
One thing we heard in our interviews was a resounding desire for the opportunity to collaborate with and learn from peers in similar roles across the country. So, we created that opportunity.
In August, we invited the individuals we interviewed to come together for an in-person workshop. They were able to go through the report from the interviews together and share best practices, personal stories, and visions of civics education for the future. At the end of the workshop, participants agreed that the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with peers shouldn’t end there. They suggested we create an online platform to ensure that this kind of collaboration could continue. We did just that.
This new platform aims to be a collective learning space for district administrators working to implement Action Civics across the U.S. to share resources and ideas and provide support for one another.
Key features of the Action Civics for District Leaders community platform:
RESOURCE SHARING
A space for district leaders to share Action Civics tools, templates, lessons, professional development frameworks, and more.
COMMUNITY CHAT
A forum to ask questions, share ideas, and have group brainstorms with peers working with civics in districts across the country.
THE REPORT
A report with insights and resources for district leaders to use as they implement Action Civics district-wide.
Please join us and share with others who might be interested in doing so.