The Sandra Day O'Connor Civics Education Act: A Summary

Sample Letter Using Our Blog-Links for 'Evidence' - text version with hyperlinks working

One advantage of this website is that it enables powerfully written letters to embed hyperlinks to important documents to provide instant 'evidence' to the points we wish to make to legislators, news editors, leaders of civic groups or even colleagues. Here is one 'informal' email that was quickly thrown together to demonstrate to a community leader across the state the position of FASSS/FCSS during the 2009 legislative session. For this reason, legislative committee members should be very familiar with the resources on the webpage!

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Hello Rich ---

I’ve heard plenty about the book, but haven’t a copy and thus can’t comment. I put it up with Mark Levine’s “Men in Black” (which I have read) and some others on the Constitution. It’s on my list to ‘read’ this summer.

Civics is vital, but so are the other strands of the ‘social studies’ --- American History, World History, Economics, and Geography. We’re not opposing the current CIVICS campaign, indeed some of my best friends are leading that charge, but many of us feel ALL of the social studies strands need taught and assessed. The new version of HB0013 (Rep. McBurney) in Tallahassee has been amended to no longer assess these other strands of Social Studies. It would ONLY assess civics and ONLY at the seventh grade. There are some other problems with the bill – down the road, if a student failed the state’s end of course civics exam by a single point, for example – that student would be denied credit in the course, one day’s poor work thus negating the other 179 days in the course! NO educator I know embraces such a thought and Florida doesn’t do this for FCAT. Maintaining this logic will mean the civics exam must be a ‘minimum test’ – something else we would oppose. For more information you may want to add to your ‘favorites’ our legislative website at http://fasss-fcss-legislative-news.blogspot.com/ . The letter of ‘concern’ on the Civics Bill may be found on page https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh-RNnawWv2bW6YF78rrLeA4luk9FwiQZtilXifdUDvejZsssSyVqYAjzISACXs83IxCuy60RZfpP8zNwcX-ldF0Ne73FkEoJo7bA-cMxcvdWKNhjKz7twdV07k5cLjkLgEek_PtDPVvQ/s1600-h/FCSS+Position+on+CS+H0013.bmp of that site. (Hoover your ‘mouse’ over the document, then ‘click’ to bring it to full size for reading/Printing.)

There are already several bills in existence that requires civics be taught – one that has been on the books for many, many years is called “Florida’s Required Instruction Statute”. You may find many references to ‘requiring’ the teaching of the “Constitution” and “Bill of Rights” and “Declaration of Independence” as well as the content of specific history, economic education and patriotism in this kaw. You may find a copy of that law on our website at http://collier.k12.fl.us/CandI/ss/Docs/legnews/RequiredInstructionStatute.pdf If you want other examples of other bills requiring civics be taught let me know.

The MAIN PROBLEM rests in the assessment of this content. As I mentioned to your group in my visit, this has NEVER been done in Florida and to assess ONLY the civics strand now is only 25% of the battle in my own personal view. It would be tantamount to assessing only “biology” and not the rest of the sciences, or only ‘geometry’ in all the fields of mathematics. (Ask Bernadette Bennett in your county for her thoughts on this, too, for another opinion though.)

At the VERY LEAST, we ‘supervisors of social studies’ endorse the assessment of Civics AND History at the state level. You can’t have one without the other. And assessing ONLY civics would leave out much in our history, let alone a great deal of world geography and economics. And by the way, when you talk to legislators be sure to point out that Florida is only one of TWO southern states that do not assess social studies in any manner. (See evidence on our website go to: http://collier.k12.fl.us/CandI/ss/Docs/Assessments%20by%20State.pdf ) Mind, you we ALWAYS preface our comment with the need to assess ALL of our curriculum strands.

At the national level, there is a bill that would correct much of our problem -- by holding the states accountable by comparing their students’ performance in the areas of civics and history on a periodic basis-- and despite what some might refer to as the “pork” that is in it, I’m convinced it’s the only thing that will help! At the very end of this bill are a few words and a few dollars to actually begin to hold up to ten states accountable for teaching civic and historical literacy!! The rest of the bill includes hundreds of millions of dollars for other projects, thus it may or may not ‘pass’ Congress.

Information about this NATIONAL measure (sponsored by Kennedy, Byrd, and Alexander) may be found on our site at these links: (1) http://fasss-fcss-legislative-news.blogspot.com/2009/03/fasss-urges-congress-to-pass-naep.html
(2) http://fasss-fcss-legislative-news.blogspot.com/2009/03/florida-pushes-to-reform-naep-expand.html
(3) http://fasss-fcss-legislative-news.blogspot.com/2009/04/nche-endorses-s659-pg-1.html (page one) and
(4) http://fasss-fcss-legislative-news.blogspot.com/2009/04/nche-endorses-s659.html (page two)

In conclusion, social studies professionals have been fighting since 1988 (SINCE 1988!!) to get Florida to hold our districts and schools accountable for all the content described in the states’ ‘required instruction statute’ cited above. (By the way, did you notice any (ANY!!) mention of reading, mathematics or even science in that bill? Evidence of our battle in 1988 may be found at: http://collier.k12.fl.us/CandI/ss/Docs/legnews/1988FASSSLetter.pdf ) And again, we’d like to see ALL of the social studies assessed, not just ‘one’ strand of our curriculum.

Many groups have endorsed the idea of testing all of the social studies over the years. Here’s an impressive one dating back to 2001 at http://collier.k12.fl.us/CandI/ss/Docs/legnews/LWV%20Letter%20to%20Sec.%20Horne.pdf . If you and your organization would like to ‘go on record’ calling for the same, it would be a great stimulus to doing things ‘the right way’. I would be delighted to add your group to a growing list of organizations calling for this necessary step. But I urge we do it ‘right’. Getting ‘one-fourth a loaf’ may be an excuse to never give us the rest! And given the sorry state of legislative history on this matter, this is no idle ‘worry’. For an example of how bad things got over one simple bill which the ENTIRE House of Representatives once voted for and ALL MEMBERS of the Senate Education Committee see “An Example of How an Eminently Worthy Measure Repeatedly Fails to Become Law” at http://www.collier.k12.fl.us/ss/Docs/legnews/History%20of%20Progression%20law.pdf

Thanks again for being a great supporter of our cause. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Jack Bovee
Legislative Chair, Florida Association of Social Studies Supervisors and Florida Council for the Social Studies

FASSS Position on CS H0013 (DRAFT letter)

Florida League of Cities In Favor of Civics Bill

Source: Sharon Berrian

During the League's Legislative Action Day, President Priore testified before the House Pre-K Policy Committee in favor of Rep. Charles McBurney's bill on Civics Education in the Classroom.

When Carmine Priore became president of the Florida League of Cities he pledged that he would spend his tenure implementing a statewide campaign to increase knowledge of civics and promote greater public participation in our political process. Since then, he has traveled around the state speaking to students, civic organizations and other elected officials about the importance of civics.

President Priore believes that " City officials must be teachers in classrooms, in city halls and in our communities. We will all benefit if more citizens understand what services cities provide, how we pay for those services, and how residents can impact their city's quality of life through active participation in their government."

(ed. Note: Representative McBurney’s bil, H0013, has recently been amended to assess only Civics in grades six – eight in Florida in order to lessen the overall fiscal impact of assessing all of social studies.) From: http://www.floridaleagueofcities.com/News.aspx?CNID=657

President Priore's Civics Education Initiative
There’s no better time than now for city officials to help take civics education to the next level.
Why?Because civics education builds stronger cities and a brighter future for Florida. And because there is a great need for civics knowledge as recent polls, surveys and voter turnout have confirmed.

What about the cost?The Florida League of Cities has many ideas for no-cost and low-cost civics education programs and partnerships – and many are very easy to implement.

What do you have to lose?More than you think. The passage of several constitutional amendments and various legislative initiatives that were damaging to city governance show the need to educate Floridians about the services provided by their municipal governments and how those services are funded. With a better understanding of city issues, would these proposals even have an audience?

Every city can do something – don’t miss the opportunity to make a difference.

Florida League of Cities President Carmine Priore has launched the “Building Citizenship in the Community: Back to Basics” campaign to help increase civic awareness and participation. He encourages each Florida municipality to support this initiative.

The Florida League of Cities encourages each city to adopt the “Back to Basics” resolution supporting President Carmine Priore in his efforts to improve civic education in the State of Florida.

Sample Resolution
“Educating our citizens on the fundamentals of city services and what it takes to effectively run a city is going to be essential as we continue to be forced to ‘tighten our municipal belts,’ do more with less, and still maintain the level of service demanded by our citizenry,” Priore says.

Current ProgramsThe Florida League of Cities has several resources ready to help. They were developed to increase Floridians’ understanding of city government and the services they provide. These materials will help with civics outreach efforts for people of all ages.

Related Articles:
· Back to Basics Resolution Request Source: Casey Cook
· Civic Education Best Practices Source: Casey Cook
· Civic Education
· A Guide for Creating a City Youth Council Source: Casey Cook
· A Guide for Creating a Citizens' Academy Source: Beth Mulrennan
· Florida Municipal Officials' Manual Source: Gail Dennard
· 2008 Municipal Brain Bowl Source: Estella Gray
· FLC Donates $25,000 to Florida Joint Center for Citizenship Source: Sharon Berrian
· ABCs of City Government Source: Beth Mulrennan
· "Getting to Know Your Florida Cities" DVD Source: Sharon Berrian

FCSS Position on CS H0013 - March 27, 2009

FCSS Fights for 'Education for Democracy Act' - 2007