Welcome to Civic Education and Community Engagement Program
Civic Education & Community Engagement Program
"We pay a price when we deprive children of the exposure to the values, principles, and education they need to make them good citizen."
--Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
Vision | Mission |
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All Arizonans are engaged as active, informed, and responsible participants in our communities.
| The Civic Education and Community Engagement (CE2) program aim to increase civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions by:
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Destination Democracy: Civics in the Driver's Seat
The Civic Education and Community Engagement Committee in conjunction with the Arizona Department of Education and the Arizona Council for the Social Studies is proud to host the 9th Annual Civic Learning Conference- Destination Democracy: Civics in the Driver's Seat. A conference emphasizing teaching, learning, and engagement in all areas of the social studies from birth through career and beyond:
Join ADE, the Arizona Council for the Social Studies, Higher Education faculty, Arizona K-12 educators, Arizona Civic Engagement Schools, community organzations and Adult Education program staff for a full day of civics and social studies learning. Highly topical and interactive sessions will focus on inspiring civic and community engagement through the social studies disciplines and creating vibrant civic spaces in our communities for all Arizonans. All sessions will utilize best practices civic learning. There will be sessions for early childhood, elementary, middle, highschool, college and university, adult education instructors, and community members and organizations. Conference Highlights Include:
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Conference Details:
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Civics Celebration Week 2022
Resources
ADE does not endorse or support any particular resource or curriculum. We are only providing options that local education agencies may choose and select from when making the best decisions for their students.
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Local Resources
Contests
Get Involved
- Request to Speak - Sign up and training
Sandra Day O'Connor Civics Celebration Day Resources
In 2019 the Governor signed HB 2625 into law. This law honors one of Arizona's own leader-Justice Sandra Day O'Conner by establishing Sandra Day O'Connor Civics Celebration Day. This day which occurs on September 25th is a day for all K-12 schools to devote the majority of the day to learning about Civics. To learn more about this day and resources for schools ADE has created this short video
General Resources for Civics Celebration Day
ADE does not endorse or support any particular resource or curriculum. We are only providing options that local education agencies may choose and select from when making the best decisions for their students.
| K-2 Civics Resources | 3-5 Civics Resources | 6-8 Civics Resources | HS Civics Resources |
iCivics is a web-based education project designed to teach students civics and inspire them to be active participants in our constitutional republic. iCivics is the vision of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor who wanted to assist in getting students the information and tools they need for civic participation and to assure classroom teachers easy access to materials and support for teaching civic content. Grades 5-12
Supported by a grant from the Library of Congress, KidCitizen introduces a new way for young students to engage with history and civics through primary sources. Through KidCitizen’s interactive episodes, children explore civics and government concepts by investigating primary source photographs from the Library of Congress and connect what they find to their daily lives. Grades K-5
This link has two excellent programs for elementary school-age students. The Civics in Literature Initiative created in partnership between the National Constitution Center and the Rendell Center for Citizenship and Civics at Arcadia University is a program that uses children’s literature and famous historical texts to teach civics. The Becoming Active Citizens program helps students build basic civic knowledge through fun and interactive lessons. Students will practice thinking and acting responsibly while participating in real-life problem-solving situations and practicing democratic deliberation. K-6
This weekly show covers a constitutional debate each week. Hosted by Jeffery Rosen, National Constitution Center President and CEO, listeners can hear the best arguments on all sides on the constitutional issues at the center of American life.
Through the Veterans Inspiring Patriotism program, Veterans visit classrooms to share personal stories while delivering educational material the focuses on roles and responsibilities associated with active engaged citizenship. All grades
ASU Center for Political Thought and Leadership has built a Civics Classics Collection of rare books and manuscripts to support the mission of civic education through learning spaces. Students and teachers can explore the collection online and learn about many of our nation’s significant and well-known documents. 7-12th grades
Created by Holocaust survivor and humanitarian Gerda Weissman Klein, citizenship counts provides lessons and resources to teach students about citizenship and the naturalization process. This program can culminate in schools hosting a naturalization ceremony.
A site that is full of excellent materials to teach the courts. Check out the SCOTUS in the Classroom Cases each school year and wonderful activities from their free resource library including deliberations, lesson plans, election resources, and mock trials.
This site provides materials and activities to help students explore 17 landmark cases. Highly interactive resources and teaching strategies including background summaries, excerpts of opinions, simulations, moot courts and a wide range of lessons for each case in the “Teacher’s Only” section
This site has probably the most comprehensive coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court of any media outlet, featuring statistics about recent terms, interviews with academics and advocates, podcasts, and live blogging of decision days. The case files include full summaries, decisions, and all case briefs since 2007.
More Perfect, from WNYC and Radiolab Podcast
Podcast mini-series created to tell the stories underlying important Supreme Court decisions and how those decisions affect the lives of the American people.
Civics Education and Community Engagement Program
In July and August 2019 the Civic Education Committee met at their first annual retreat and made some exciting changes in the program based on the feedback of our Civic Engagement Schools and research in the field on civic education and engagement. The name of the program was changed from The Excellence in Civic Engagement Program to The Civic Education and Community Engagement Program. This change was made because we wanted to expand the program from the focus on the K-12 School Award to a program that not only recognizes exceptional Civic Learning programs in our K-12 schools but also our Institutes of Higher Education and programs by organizations that focus on Civic Learning programs for Adult Education. We also wanted the community engagement to become a larger focus of our mission. Along with the changes in the program, there are significant changes in the school award. In addition to the Civic Engagement Schools Award for K-12 schools, post-secondary programs, and community organizations that offer exceptional programs for adults will also be recognized through a separate application and award. In addition to program recognition, The Civic Education and Community Engagement Program (CE2) will increase its focus and commitment to providing high-quality professional development and community outreach. The annual Civic Learning Conference will continue each year.
Please take a short Civic Learning Self-Assessment to help you determine your school’s strengths and areas of improvement
Guides
- Common Terminology
- Guidebook on Six Proven Practices in Civic Learning
- The Republic is (Still) at Risk and Civics is Part of the Solution
Applications
In order to receive the link to the Application for the K-12 Award please watch this short video explaining the changes in the application and award. At the end of the video, there will be a link to the application. The new application is a google form and cannot be saved once started.
Before you begin to fill out the application in full, please be aware of some limitations in the application process:
1. Google forms does not allow for you to partially complete the application and return later to finish the rest.
YOU MUST FINISH THE APPLICATION IN ONE SITTING. Thus, we ask you to prepare the narratives and spreadsheets ahead of time. See below for directions on formatting and information to be included:
2. In order to prepare to complete the application in one sitting, be aware you will be asked to write three narratives on Social Studies Classroom Instruction and Action Civics, Structured Engagement of Current Events and Media Literacy, and School Culture and Climate Embedded with Social Emotional Learning. We strongly advise writing these narratives in Word or Google Docs ahead of time and then uploading to each section’s page when filling out the application.
3. The remaining civic education proven practices ask for spreadsheets to be uploaded. You will need to track your school’s activities for Service- Learning, Extra-curricular Activities, Student Participation in School Governance and Decision-Making, and Simulations of Democratic Processes. Please refer to the spreadsheet setup in the pictures below. You will need to create these ahead of time and upload each spreadsheet into each section of the application.
4. Your school is also being asked to upload short slide deck or video presentation (no more than five minutes) highlighting the civic practices in action at your school. *If students are identifiable, ensure your school keeps a media release on file because some of the videos may be shown at publicly to showcase the school.
Click above to watch this video.
Educating for American Democracy Initiative
American Civics Education Pilot Program
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