October 5, 2004

Boise State Receives New Grant To Boost Civic Mission Of Public Schools

Boise State University is the recipient of one of 12 grants awarded nationwide to promote civic education in public schools, university officials announced today. The new $20,000 grant, administered by the national Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, will enable a bi-partisan coalition of educational, community and policy leaders from across Idaho to develop guidelines to assess civic education programs in the state’s K-12 schools, said Dan Prinzing, a Boise State education professor who procured the grant and chairs the statewide coalition. The assessment guidelines will then be field tested at three Idaho schools: Borah High School in Boise; Orofino High School in Orofino, and Wendell Middle School in Wendell. As part of the grant, a team of education leaders from Idaho’s seven institutions for higher education will also design a model unit of instruction on civic education and civic engagement for elementary and secondary social studies courses, Prinzing said. “Our goal is to prepare students to assume what Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called the most important office in the land — citizenship,” Prinzing added. “Programs such as this one will help ensure that this happens.” The grant addresses the need for accountability standards for civic education in K-12 schools, Prinzing noted. While Idaho’s Thoroughness Standards include a comprehensive statement regarding citizenship education, the state testing plan only includes reading and math. Civic education was also omitted from the federal Leave No Child Behind Act, the landmark 2001 bill that requires that all students be tested for adequate yearly progress toward academic proficiency levels established by each state, and that schools be held accountable for the results. Coalitions in 39 states submitted applications for the 12 grants awarded by the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools. The Campaign is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and managed by the Council for Excellence in Government in partnership with the Academy for Educational Development. The Campaign endorses a comprehensive approach to civic learning, with schools not only being places where young people acquire knowledge but where they also are exposed to all faces of citizenship through experiential activities that instill civic knowledge, skill and behavior. -30- Contact: Dan Prinzing, College of Education, (208) 426-1991, danielprinzing@boisestate.edu  Media Contact: Janelle Brown, communications and marketing, (208) 426-1790, jbrown2@boisestate.edu