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California offers graduation honor to encourage active civic engagement

John Fensterwald

February 08, 2022 |

EdSource |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, California

The State Seal of Civic Engagement, which is affixed to high school diplomas, recognizes student civic participation. The program is intended to increase civic participation among youth and strengthen civics curriculum by making the learning more active instead of passive. Criteria for what qualifies for the seal varies and is meant to be inclusive and accessible. It ranges from high-level demonstrated knowledge in civics courses to participation in actual civic engagement projects. Several districts have partnered with a nonprofit that supplies “action civics” curriculum and teacher training.

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The Lagos Group Taking Children Off The Slums And Streets Back To Classrooms

Arinze Chijioke

December 30, 2021 |

Prime Progress |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Nigeria, Lagos

The Destiny Trust performs outreach in slum settlements and encampments to connect homeless children with residential housing and get them enrolled in school, sometimes via placing them in boarding schools. Through fundraising and partnering with other groups such as religious organizations, the nonprofit has sponsored the education of nearly 3,000 children since launching in 2012.

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No Longer ‘Under the Radar,' Louisiana Black Fathers Group Looks to Expand ‘Dads on Duty' as a National Response to School Crime

Linda Jacobson

December 15, 2021 |

The 74 |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Shreveport, Louisiana

Dads on Duty is a group of roughly 40 fathers who routinely spend time at a Shreveport, La. high school to connect with students one-on-one and steer them away from gang culture. The school has not had any large fights since the dads began visiting, and their success has been partially attributed to the fact that several of the group's members were already involved in the school community and building relationships with students.

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Morgan County High School Teacher Implements Sustainability into Agriculture Curriculum

Anna Lyn Mobley

October 20, 2021 |

Grady Newsource |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Georgia

A high school agriculture teacher in Georgia implements sustainable agriculture into her classes through farm visits, lectures, and student application to reach all types of learners.

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Two KCK schools shifting focus from punishment to make schools safer, reduce suspensions

Maria Benevento

July 02, 2021 |

The Kansas City Beacon |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Kansas City, Kansas

Restorative discipline in classrooms is allowing students to focus on building relationships and repairing harm instead of suffering punishments. The practice prioritizes communication in an effort to emphasize community as well as reduce suspensions. The technique has had proven success in other schools, resulting in dramatic decreases in safety offenses.

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'Gang Contracts' in Cicero and Berwyn Schools Raise Concerns About Criminalization of Youth

Irene Romulo

May 26, 2021 |

Cicero Independiente |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Cicero, Illinois

"Gang contracts" are used by many schools as a way to tell students they are suspected of gang activity and must avoid such activity or face discipline or expulsion. Gang contracts have been put to extensive use in the high schools and middle schools of two towns, Cicero and Berwyn, that underwent large demographic shifts toward more Latinx residents since the 1990s. Meant to make schools safer and put students on a better path, they have been based often on vague, unsubstantiated suspicions in Cicero and Berwyn. Critics cite evidence that young people are wrongly criminalized and denied educations.

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With policing in the spotlight, districts search for alternatives to SROs

Meg McIntyre

May 25, 2021 |

Concord Monitor |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Plymouth, Minnesota

As New Hampshire schools debate the presence of police officers stationed in schools, one model they and other states can consider is found at Minnesota Intermediate School District 287. That district lowered in-school arrests dramatically by replacing school resource officers (SROs) with student safety coaches, trained in de-escalation tactics and crisis intervention. While some staff cite safety fears now, school officials say healthier relationships form between staff and students when help, not law enforcement, is the response to problems.

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‘What difference would that make?'

Kiran Misra

April 30, 2021 |

The Chicago Reader |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

A participatory budgeting pilot in ten Chicago Public Schools empowers students to influence change by deciding how small grants, typically $1,000 to $2,000, should be spent for school improvement. Students brainstorm ideas, construct persuasive proposals, and vote on which to implement, providing valuable lessons in civic participation. The proposals revealed student needs that staff hadn’t previously considered. Ultimately, grants supported gender-neutral bathrooms, locker room shower curtains, a peer mentoring program, and spaces for students to reflect and decompress when feeling overwhelmed.

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A teen's death by suicide with her father's gun divides a small Missouri town

Kaitlin Washburn

April 07, 2021 |

The Kansas City Star |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Sedalia, Missouri

Seven teen suicides in one county over a two-year span prompted residents whose lives were touched by suicide to form DeFeet, an educational and advocacy group devoted to the message that suicide is preventable. Thanks in part to its trainings, public speakers, support groups, public education campaigns, and advocacy for gun safety, local schools now screen all students for suicide risk starting in middle school. A local health clinic now screens all patients and credits DeFeet, named for its annual 5K memorial walk, with creating "an environment where we are not as afraid to talk about suicide."

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Fighting America's Gun Plague

Ian Frazier

March 29, 2021 |

The New Yorker |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

One of dozens of community-based anti-violence groups in New York City, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence teaches high schoolers classes on gun-violence prevention that carry an underlying message: how to fight their community's powerlessness in nonviolent ways. Former students of the program were inspired to start their own youth-focused offshoot, Youth Over Guns, and others have gone on to careers in activism or the work of directly intervening to prevent retaliatory shootings. As one of its counselors put it, he's teaching that "everybody should be an anti-gun activist now.”

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