Federal, state and local policies are key to improving and expanding civic learning in our schools.

Federal Policies

At the national level, the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools advocates for improved civic learning policies by communicating with policymakers in Congress and the Administration, the national media and opinion leaders, and the general public. Our message is about the importance of educating for democracy in our schools and how to best accomplish this goal. The Campaign seeks concrete policy improvements and increased funding for the states in areas relating to civic learning. We will update this section regularly.

Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools position statements and thought papers:

Statement on NAEP Civics Assessments

Statement on No Child Left Behind

Position Paper on the Civic Case for Comprehensive School Reform

Thought Paper on Assessment

Thought Paper on Positive Youth Development

State Policies

At the state level, the Campaign's advocacy is in the hands of coalitions in 18 states. Advances in policies and practices by these state campaign teams will be posted here. To learn more about the policy environment in these states and to follow civic learning policy actions in all 50 states, the Campaign recommends the following two resources:

The National Center for Learning and Citizenship's (NCLC) at the Education Commission of the States/ State Policies for Citizenship Education Database

From this database, you can generate profiles of the state policies for K-12 citizenship education in individual states, create comparisons of specific types of citizenship education state policies across several states, and view reports on state policies for citizenship education.

http://www.ecs.org/ecsmain.asp?page=/html/ProjectsPartners/nclc/nclc_main.htm

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) / Civic Education State Legislation Database

This database captures state legislative efforts to address civic education-related issues and youth civic engagement. It includes brief summaries of the legislation, bill number, status and the bill sponsor. Users can search the database by year, state, bill status and keyword.

http://www.ncsl.org/public/trust/civiceduc.cfm

To obtain the full text of legislation, go to NCSL's State Legislatures Internet Links and search the sites of the legislatures where bills have been introduced.

http://www.ncsl.org/public/leglinks.cfm