Action Civics: A New Way to Involve Students in Civic Learning

As taken from CIRCLE’s August E-Update:

Over the summer, CIRCLE released two new products focused on “Action Civics.” First, with support from the Spencer Foundation, CIRCLE published, “Civic Learning through Action: The Case of Generation Citizen,” which defines “Action Civics” and explores Generation Citizen (GC) as a case study. In August, CIRCLE released Working Paper #78, “Building an Evidence-Based Practice of Action Civics: The Current State of Assessments and Recommendations for the Future,” by Jessica Gingold of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Gingold assembles evidence for Action Civics as a field, reviews the assessment tools that are used by Action Civics programs, and offers recommendations for improving assessment.

The term “Action Civics” was coined by the National Action Civics Collaborative (NACC) to describe a model of experiential learning in which young people define and address problems in their own communities. NACC was formed by six groups (including CIRCLE and GC) that have common interests in promoting Action Civics, especially for underserved and marginalized youth.