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1 Million Florida Students Reached by TurboVote

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TurboVote is gaining traction across Florida. As the attached article from the Orlando Sentinel recently reported, the voter registration message has reached more than 1 million Florida college students. And as we know, more than two-thirds of them are in the Florida College System.

So it’s thanks to the Civics Initiative’s efforts that TurboVote is reaching the majority of Florida’s college population during this election cycle. Voting is the most basic – and vital – form of civic engagement. And who knows where it may lead from casting a ballot for the first time?

Keep up the civics education advocacy, especially TurboVote before the deadline to register for this fall’s election, which is Oct. 6. And please, send us your Best Practices and/or ideas for expanding civics education.

Read the full article HERE.

–David Klement, Executive Director
Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions
St. Petersburg College

Fall Elections: The Season for Debates

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At St. Petersburg College, two events are being launched this fall to promote student engagement in the civic arena. On October 15, SPC’s Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions is hosting a Watch Party in connection with the televised debate between the candidates for governor of Florida. Students will gather at 6:30 p.m. for free pizza and discussion of the issues likely to be brought up in the debate, which begins at 7 p.m. Afterward, a member of the SPC faculty will facilitate a discussion of debate highlights and take part in a survey on who “won” or “lost”.

The second student event is called The Great Debate. It offers students an opportunity to engage in debate of topical issues outside the classroom and to compete for valuable prizes. By promoting critical thinking, effective communication, independent research and teamwork, The Great Debate fulfills three of SPC’s Strategic Priorities: The Student Success Initiative, Out-of-Class Learning & Experiential Initiative, and College Experience Initiative.

Five SPC campuses will participate in the debate competition: Seminole, Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, Downtown/Midtown, and St. Pete Gibbs. The campus competition will be held the week of October 13-17, and the finals well be held at the Seminole campus on Nov. 13.

Besides fulfilling SPC’s strategic goals, The Great Debate also promotes civic engagement and builds esprit de corps. Students who volunteer for the competition will research an assigned topic, assemble factual data to support their position, and anticipate their opponent’s arguments with facts at hand to refute them. Besides honing research and writing skills, this will open their minds to critical policy issues that affect them, and thus initiate a process of civic engagement.

Instructors who incorporate the debate initiative into their syllabus may use the assigned topics to generate class discussion and create research and writing opportunities for all of their students. Preliminary debates will be held the week of Oct. 13 at each of the five competing campuses: Downtown/Midtown, St. Pete Gibbs, Seminole, Clearwater and Tarpon Springs. The finals will be held Nov. 13 at Seminole.

Is anyone else planning similar events within the Florida College System? Let us hear about it.

David Klement, Executive Director
Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions

California Task Force Urges New Approach to Civics Education

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Florida isn’t the only state that is proactively working to advance civics literacy and civic engagement. In California, a state task force has called for a revival in civics education, transforming it from “an afterthought” – an undervalued social studies class – to a core element of study and community engagement.

An Aug. 7 report on Ed Source by John Fensterwald (http://edsource.org/2014/task-force-urges-remake-of-civics-education/66060#.U-T1rYKFlCM)  reviewed details of the final report of the The California Task Force on K-12 Civic Learning. The task force, commissioned by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, urges a new approach to civic learning, which it defines as “cultivating the qualities that will enable all students to mature and participate in our democracy.”  The 23-member task force’s recommendations include:

  • Rewriting the state’s 15-year-old history and social studies standards to incorporate civic learning in every grade;
  • Involving students in school governance and decision-making to create a school culture that “embodies democratic values and principles;”
  • Creating a “best-practices clearinghouse” and training opportunities for teachers;
  • Reaching out to government, businesses, the courts and nonprofit organizations to create projects and internships for students involving government and community issues that interest them.

The report states that only 13 percent of California  high school seniors showed a solid understanding of U.S. history and less than half viewed active involvement in state and local issues as their responsibility.

According to Fensterwald’s article, student disengagement is partly the product of years of tighter budgets, added academic requirements and a shift in focus under test-driven accountability. “It’s different for this generation of students, for the landscape of teaching and learning has changed so much,” said David Gordon, Sacramento County superintendent of schools. “Things that used to be in the curriculum have been driven out.”

But the timing for change may be right, the report says, with the adoption of broader criteria for measuring student learning under the state’s new school financing system and the adoption of the Common Core State Standards.

The entire report is on the website of the California Department of Education.