This past week, the Illinois General Assembly adopted Senate Resolution 131, designating the week of March 9-16 Civic Learning Week in the state.
For me, it’s a proud moment, and one in which my work to date has come full circle.
Twenty-five years ago last fall, I started my career as a high school social studies teacher in Sheboygan, WI.
I taught U.S. History and Social Problems (current issues). It might surprise most who know me that I did not teach a civics course. That’s because a standalone civics course was not an option for my students.
It was nonetheless a formative couple of years as a teacher and coach (football, basketball, and track) before I left to attend graduate school in Chicago and continued teaching at Community High School in West Chicago, IL.
That’s where I started to see the power of civic education.
West Chicago seniors take a required American Government course modeled after the Illinois General Assembly, where parliamentary procedure is employed in class each day while students debate current issues. Students later declare party affiliations, write legislation, and ultimately consider bills in committee hearings and full sessions of the legislature.
Dubbed the “Legislative Semester,” this experience was formative for me and my students. I fondly recall asking its architect and my mentor, Steve Arnold, why all Illinois graduates didn’t have a similar opportunity.
He was retiring that spring, and responded, “Shawn, that’s your challenge.”
I left the classroom after four years in West Chicago, but replicated the Legislative Semester in an undergraduate political science course on Congress at the University of Illinois at Chicago and continue to embed current issues discussions in public policy courses to this day.
Most importantly, I took up Steve’s challenge as Chair of the Illinois Civic Mission Coalition (ICMC) and Director of the Democracy Program during my 16 years at the Robert R. McCormick Foundation in Chicago.
I helped expand the Illinois Democracy Schools Initiative statewide, a school recognition program focused on teaching civics across the curriculum, in extracurricular activities, and through school governance. As of this writing, more than 90 high schools are part of the Illinois Democracy Schools Network and they are representative of the state’s diverse geography and demography.
ICMC advanced a policy agenda beyond Democracy Schools that yielded a legislative task force on civic education, revised state social studies standards centering civic learning, and middle and high school civics course requirements. The spirit of the Legislative Semester is evident in the latter as Illinois civics courses include the usual direct instruction on government institutions, but also discussions of current public issues, service learning, and yes, simulations of democratic processes like lawmaking.
Chicago’s philanthropic community rallied to the cause, supporting teachers, schools, and districts with course implementation as permitted by the new state laws, investing more than $3 million annually in ongoing teacher professional learning opportunities throughout the state. From fall 2015 through spring 2019, the Illinois Civics Hub, led by the incomparable Mary Ellen Daneels, provided nearly 1,200 hours of professional learning to 8,217 teacher participants.
Students were the ultimate beneficiaries.
We’ve found that those taking civics courses are 20% more likely to discuss politics or public issues, 25% more likely to serve as a group leader, and 41% more likely to help make their city or town a better place for people to live.
Illinois Senate Resolution 131 celebrates this remarkable progress in the Land of Lincoln. Its sponsor, Senator Karina Villa, is fittingly a graduate of Community High School in West Chicago and a Legislative Semester alum.
Four years ago I joined iCivics to stand up a policy team and scale the now 365-organization-strong CivxNow coalition.
During this time, we quadrupled federal funding for K-12 civics.
But it’s on the state level where we have made the most progress, and where we will need to focus in the coming years.
In partnership with state coalitions, CivxNow pushed for adoption of 38 policies in 24 states to strengthen K-12 civic education. This momentum carries forth this spring, with 38 states considering 131 bills concerning civic education, 95 of which are aligned with the CivxNow State Policy Menu.
One of these bills, Assembly Bill (AB) 4 in Wisconsin, sponsored by Representative Amanda Nedweski, would require a semester of civics in high school. In recent weeks, back where my journey began, I’ve facilitated bipartisan and bicameral conversations about the bill as it makes its way through first the Assembly, and now the Senate.
One meeting in particular with freshman Representative Joe Sheehan stands out, as he was Superintendent of Sheboygan Area School District when I was a rookie social studies teacher. Then-Superintendent Sheehan supported the adoption of a required civics course at Sheboygan South High School. Now Rep. Sheehan is committed to getting to yes on AB 4, ensuring that the Badger State joins the ranks of 35 others that require a civics course to graduate, and that schools have the requisite resources to implement it with fidelity.
As our third annual national Civic Learning Week dawns on the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison and chambers across the country, we have much to celebrate as a field, and crucial opportunities like AB 4 to further our noble cause.