Northwest

education

winter 2009 / Volume 14. Number 2

Civic

Engagement

Creating Active and Informed Citizens

Bringing the presidential 

election into the classroom 6

Addressing the 

civic opportunity gap 12 

Students answer the 

constitutional team challenge 22
On the cover

At Portland’s Sellwood Middle School, eighth-graders in 

Jim Keiter’s social studies class mark the historic election of 

Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States.

The contest captured the interest and enthusiasm of millions of schoolchildren, who closely followed the issues 

and voted for their candidates in mock elections around the 

country.

Photo by Jim Keiter 
Northwest Education / winter 2009 1

6

18

28

features

6 A Teachable Moment

A historic presidential election finds its way into classrooms across the 

region.

12 Civic Engagement for All

Peter Levine, director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic 

Learning, talks about the current state of civic education in America’s public 

schools. 

14 Leading by Example

An award-winning Montana teacher gives her students real-world 

opportunities to engage in civics and service.

18 First Nation, Next Generation

On the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in eastern Idaho a tribal school finds 

hope for the future in the deep traditions of the past. 

22 Passing the Torch

An Oregon high school’s constitution team pushes itself to the limit as it 

strives to carry on a winning tradition. 

28 A Citizen of the World

The Idaho Human Rights Education Center helps teachers and students 

make the connection between the local and the global. 

An Election Day Youth Summit

Oregon’s Classroom Law Project brings together 150 middle and high school 

students for an all-day political summit that explores the questions voters 

should ask when choosing elected officials.

Northwest

education

contents / winter 2009 civic engagement: creating active and informed citizens Vol. 14 / No. 2

Web exclusives at nwrel.org/nwedu/

14
2 nwrel.org/nwedu/

departments

3 Forum

4 Editor’s Note

34 Research Brief

Volunteering Leads to Long-Term Civic 

Engagement

36 Voices

The Path to Public Service

38 Region at a Glance

Building Civic Knowledge: What Students Are 

Studying

39 End Note

40 NWREL News

Toolkit Helps Programs Engage Youth in Service

Plans Lack Parent Involvement Activities

New Members Join Board

Researchers Win W.T. Grant Foundation Awards

Equity Marks 30 Years With Renewed Contract

Expert on Education Reform Named Deputy

Conference Call

What the Research Says (or Doesn’t Say) 

Civic Engagement and Civic Knowledge

On the Web

Northwest Education is available online in both PDF 

and HTML versions at www.nwrel.org/nwedu/. 

Look for Web exclusives, marked with .

Northwest Education is published three times a year by the 

Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. Past and current 

issues of the magazine are available at www.nwrel.org/nwedu/.

ISSN 1546-5020

Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Carol F. Thomas

Deputy Executive Officer

Dr. Robert E. Blum

Administrative Director, Development and Communications

Dave Wilson

Managing Editor

Rhonda Barton

Issue Editor

Bracken Reed

NWREL News Writer

Kate Fitzgibbon

Staff Photographer

Michael Heavener

Technical Editor

Eugenia Cooper Potter

Design

Denise Crabtree

Data Analyst

Richard Greenough

Library Support

Linda Fitch

Webmaster

Jeff Jones

Circulation

Jean DeYoung

Statement of Purpose

Northwest Education aims to promote a regional dialogue and to 

elevate teaching and learning by giving readers the best information, ideas, and personal stories from practitioners, researchers, and 

other experts. 

Copyright © 2009, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory

Articles and information in this publication may be reproduced 

and distributed without permission for nonprofit educational and 

professional development purposes. Please acknowledge NWREL 

as the source.

Northwest

education
Northwest Education / winter 2009 3

NWREL Board of Directors

Jerry Colonna (Chair)

Superintendent, Beaverton School District (OR)

Rob Larson (Vice Chair)

Federal Liaison/Director, Oregon Leadership Network

Oregon Department of Education

Dr. Joan Parker Webster (Secretary-Treasurer)

Associate Professor, University of Alaska Fairbanks 

Steve Bradshaw

Superintendent, Sitka Borough School District (AK) 

Doreen Brown (Regional Parent Representative)

Supervisor, Indian Education, Anchorage School District (AK)

Susan Castillo

Oregon Superintendent of Public Instruction

Karanja Crews

Teacher, Portland Public Schools (OR)

Randy Dorn

Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction

Dr. Joanne Erickson

Associate Professor, Montana State University

Jeff Estes

Manager, Office of Science Education Programs 

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (WA)

Dr. Patrick Haggarty (Private School Representative)

Superintendent, Chief Diocesan Administrator

Diocese of Helena, Missoula (MT)

Jeri Harris

Teacher, Seattle School District (WA)

Dr. Mary Alice Heuschel

Superintendent, Renton School District (WA)

Dr. Jannette R. Hill

Chair, Division of Education

Lewis-Clark State College (ID)

Wendy Horman

School Board Member, Bonneville Joint School District (ID)

Denise Juneau

Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction 

Jerry Keane 

Superintendent, Post Falls School District (ID)

Larry LeDoux

Alaska Commissioner of Education

Tom Luna

Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction

Dr. Richard McCullough (Ex-Officio)

Assistant Professor, Seattle University (WA)

Dr. Bruce Messinger

Superintendent, Helena Public Schools (MT)

Dr. Geoffrey Mills

Dean, Southern Oregon University 

Dr. Perla Rodriguez (Parent Representative)

Elementary Principal, Forest Grove School District (OR)

Mo Sanders

Principal, Soldotna Montessori Charter School (AK)

Corri Smith

Teacher, Great Falls School District (MT)

Dr. Tom Stritikus

Associate Dean, College of Education 

University of Washington

Frederick H. Striker

School Board Member, Battle Ground (WA)

Colleen Thompson

Teacher, Riverside Elementary School (ID)

Carol VanDerWege

Teacher, Kenai Peninsula Borough School District (AK)

Jeff Weldon (Regional Business Representative)

Attorney, Felt, Martin, Frazier & Jacobs PC (MT)

forum

A Timely Resource 

I am chairperson for our school district’s response to intervention (RTI) 

committee. This is the second year for 

our committee, which is working to 

build knowledge about RTI with teachers and administrators. Our committee 

has broad representation from district 

staff: general education teachers, principals, learning specialists, professional 

development specialists, department 

directors, and school psychologists. As 

we develop an understanding of the 

philosophy of RTI, we are building 

systems to support it in our buildings. 

We are constantly on the lookout for 

resources to make this work meaningful for students and staff. 

The most recent edition of Northwest Education (RTI: Tiered Instruction Goes Mainstream, Fall 2008) is a 

resource perfectly suited for use by our 

school district’s RTI committee members. Beginning with the Editor’s Note, 

the issue makes the case for RTI as a 

general education issue, not one exclusive to special education. In “Response 

to Intervention: An Overview,” the author outlines some components that 

must be in place for RTI to be effective. These components could be used 

to guide and assess our work with RTI. 

Dean Fixsen’s article about “Bridging 

the Implementation Gap” will be especially helpful as we transition from 

understanding the philosophy of RTI 

to applying the ideas in classrooms 

around the district. 

The fall issue also features the work 

of schools with instructional contexts 

similar to Sumner’s. White River School 

District, our neighbor to the east, provides a model for implementing RTI in 

the framework of professional learning 

communities. And, “The ‘Wa-High’ 

Way” gives a much-needed example 

of tiered instruction in a secondary 

setting, Walla Walla High School. So 

much research and resource material about RTI is focused on elementary reading. The snapshot from Walla 

Walla is critically important as we invite our middle school and high school 

colleagues to join us on this journey. 

We committee members now have 

models for examination, local experts 

for consultation, and resources in 

the form of Webinars, symposia, and 

frameworks. Each of these was found 

in RTI: Tiered Instruction Goes Mainstream. Thank you for compiling RTI 

information into one easily accessible 

resource.

Kellie Fremont 

National Board Certified Teacher 

Elementary Curriculum TOSA 

Sumner School District, Sumner, WA

We want to hear from you! Send your 

letters to the editor, comments on current and past issues, article ideas, and tips 

on places where good things are happening to nwedufeedback@nwrel.org. Letters may be edited for length or clarity.
4 nwrel.org/nwedu/

editor‘s note

© 2009, Getty Images

The first thing you are confronted with when 

looking into civic education is a gloomy set 

of statistics. In November 2008, for example, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute 

(ISI) released a report titled Our Fading 

Heritage: Americans Fail a Basic Test on Their 

History and Institutions. In this study, which 

primarily focused on adults older than 18, 

71 percent of those polled scored an F on 

a basic 33-question civil literacy test. 

The data from K–12 public education are no sunnier. The 

2006 National Assessment of Educational Progress in civics, for 

example, found that only 24 percent of 4th-graders, 22 percent 

of 8th-graders, and 27 percent of 12th-graders demonstrated a 

proficiency in civics appropriate to their grade level. 

So many studies and assessments of this kind have been 

released in the past decade that it has become a kind of truism: Americans in general, and the youngest generation in 

particular, are not voting, not volunteering, not participating 

in the civic life of their communities, not informed about the 

issues, and not even familiar with the basic fundamentals of 

our democracy. But, is this true? 

Recent studies and recent national experiences point to a 

more complicated picture. The most obvious example is the 

undeniable impact of the youth vote in the recent presidential election. As Peter Levine, director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement 

(CIRCLE), points out in this issue’s Q&A (see page 12), the 

2008 turnout is not an anomaly, but part of a trend. Youth 

voter turnout has actually increased in each presidential election since 1996. Meanwhile, other recent studies point to a 

similar increase in youth volunteerism. 

In his 2007 book, The Good Citizen: How a Younger Generation Is Reshaping American Politics, Russell J. Dalton argues that 

what is really going on is not a catastrophic decline in civic 

engagement, but a fundamental change in the way a new generation of Americans views the rights and responsibilities of 

citizenship. Supported by a wide range of data, Dalton argues 

that “changing social conditions have reshaped the norms of 

what it means to be a good citizen.” He calls the new norms 

“engaged citizenship,” and contrasts them with an earlier citizenship of “duty.” Engaged citizenship emphasizes “a more 

assertive role for the citizen and a broader definition of the elements of citizenship to include social concerns and the welfare of others ... [and] may promote other forms of political 

action, ranging from volunteerism to public protest.” 

Of course, it’s entirely possible that civic literacy is in sad 

shape, while civic engagement—in new forms—is on the rise. 

It’s unsurprising, if ironic, that only 21 percent of the respondents in the ISI poll knew that “of the people, by the people, 

for the people,” comes from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, 

while at the same time younger people turned out in droves 

to vote for a new president who has frequently pointed to 

Lincoln as a source of inspiration.

In this issue of Northwest Education we offer a snapshot of 

the current state of K–12 education in the Pacific Northwest, 

in all its contradictions. While we researched and wrote the 

stories you will find here, one of the most historic elections 

in American history was taking place. “A Teachable Moment,” 

(page 6) looks at how teachers embraced the presidential race 

as a unique learning opportunity, engaging many students in 

the excitement of electoral politics for the first time. Other 

stories show how students are engaged in changing public 

policy, mastering constitutional law, gaining a global human 

rights perspective, and learning about tribal government 

within the context of a culturally based curriculum. 

As Peter Levine asserts, the biggest issue facing civic education today is not a lack of civic literacy or civic engagement, 

but a gap in civic equity. “The kids themselves are ... getting informed, volunteering, and participating in government 

at a really encouraging rate,” he says. “We want to see those 

opportunities spread more equally across race, class, and 

geographic lines.”

As we move forward into a new political era, it is my hope 

that more students will not only come to know the author 

and words of the Gettysburg Address, but will also find 

themselves in public schools that are truly “of the people, by 

the people, and for the people.”

—Bracken Reed, reedb@nwrel.org
5

Northwest education Features

winter 2009 / Vol. 14. No. 2

The 2008 presidential race sparks student interest in government 6

Civic opportunity and civic achievement remain equity challenges 12

Public policy projects give students invaluable lessons in civic engagement 14

 Native American students find power in their traditional culture 18

Constitutional teams drive a group of Oregon students to reach their full potential 22

A human rights center provides lessons in dignity, respect, and responsibility 28

civic engagement 

creating active and informed citizens
6 Macey Ke, a fifth-grader at North Pole Elementary School, designed this prize-winning poster for the Kids Voting North Alaska art and essay contest.
Northwest Education / winter 2009 7

A

Teachable

Moment

From Alaska to Oregon and Washington, an historic election enlivens classrooms.

By Rhonda Barton

In early November a blue-curtained voting booth—on loan from City Hall—beckoned students in the library of North Pole Elementary School. Seventy percent of 

youngsters at the small K–5 school outside Fairbanks, Alaska, lined up to cast their 

ballots, even though it wasn’t required by teachers. 

Alyza Handley, a North Pole second-grader, tried to imagine what it would be like 

to lead the nation. “I would try to make things fair,” Alyza wrote in an essay on “If I 

Were President.” “I would be nice. I would love our people because a lot have died 

for us. That’s what I would tell our country. And I would guide our people. I would 

help our people. I hope they know that.”

For students around the country, an election marked by firsts stirred passions and 

piqued curiosity. For teachers, it provided fodder for classroom debates on contentious issues and civics lessons on the electoral process. The closely contested race 

prompted young people to volunteer in droves for local and national campaigns. 

Those not yet old enough to vote in the “real” election marked their choices in 

school and classroom balloting.

The National Student/Parent Mock Election tallied a record 5 million votes from 

more than 15,000 schools. “The total number of votes exceeded the population of 30 

states in the U.S.,” observed Gloria Kirshner, the director of the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that conducts the mock election. “I hope our teachers will look at 

the children in front of them now and ask themselves whether young Barack’s teachers or young Sarah’s realized a future candidate for president or for vice president 

was sitting before them,” said Kirshner. “Any little boy or girl in America might grow 

up to be president from this day forward.”

How were teachers inspired to bring the historic election into their classrooms and 

expose their students to the possibilities and responsibilities of civic engagement? To 

answer that question, Northwest Education checked in with elementary, middle, and 

high school educators in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington. Here are their stories.
8 nwrel.org/nwedu/

FAIRBANKS, Alaska—Senator John McCain would be sworn in as the 44th 

President of the United States if young 

voters in North Star Borough School 

District had their way. Fairbanks students supported the GOP ticket featuring Alaska Governor Sarah Palin by a 

three-to-two margin in the national 

Kids Voting USA election.

This is the 17th year that the school 

district has taken part in the mock election, the longest track record among 

the program’s participants. Kids Voting USA (www.kidsvotingusa.org)

operates through a national network of 

community-based affiliates that partner 

with schools and election officials to 

offer opportunities for civic learning to 

more than 4.5 million K–12 students. 

According to the organization’s Web 

site, “the combination of classroom instruction, family dialogue, and an authentic voting experience helps achieve 

... long-term change in voting behavior 

by preparing young people to be educated, engaged voters.”

Maida Buckley, director of the Kids 

Voting North Alaska affiliate, says 2008 

saw a record turnout with 7,000 Fairbanks students (or 49 percent) casting 

ballots. Buckley hopes that level of interest will carry over to next year’s municipal elections, noting that the mock 

election “is truly a practice for the reallife experience.”

In fact, Kids Voting is very close 

to real life. Students from kindergarten through high school receive voter 

registration cards listing their House 

district. Each child has a unique access code for the online ballot, which 

is identical to the one used by adults 

(with the addition of photos next to 

candidates’ names). At North Pole Elementary, Mayor Doug Isaacson even 

showed up to check students’ registrations and ask them to sign in to vote. 

North Star Borough invests in the 

program in a big way—providing training to teacher liaisons in every school; 

recruiting PTA members to staff polling places; and encouraging students 

to enter contests for the best electionthemed posters, political cartoons, 

and essays. Kathy Port, the district’s 

elementary curriculum coordinator, 

served as the point person this year. 

She conducted separate trainings for 

elementary, middle, and high school 

teachers to walk them through the Kids 

Voting USA curriculum.

During the period leading up to the 

election, Port sent a weekly note to the 

school liaisons, with a sample lesson for 

each grade level. “What I like about the 

activities is that they’re easy to use with 

the instructions and materials needed 

right there,” says Port. “They have 

great discussion questions, which—as a 

teacher—was always the hardest thing 

for me to come up with, to make sure 

my kids understood the purpose of the 

activity and could communicate what 

they learned.”

Port’s help made it “a million times 

easier” to use the curriculum, according to West Valley High School teacher 

Amy Gallaway. Along with fellow civics teachers, Gallaway asked senior 

government students to research campaign issues and become “experts” who 

then taught younger students. “We 

combined two or three history classes 

and organized learning stations where 

seniors taught the sophomores and juniors in small groups,” says Gallaway. 

Kids Voting: A District Effort

Fairbanks students cast ballots for the 17th year in the Kids Voting mock election. Photos for this 

story by Bill Bailey, Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.

A record 7,000 Fairbanks students voted online. 
Northwest Education / winter 2009 9

a teachable moment

“The younger students thought it was 

amazing and got to see a lot of different issues. The seniors felt a great sense 

of efficacy. It really motivated them to 

be experts because they didn’t want to 

look stupid.”

Gallaway reports that the research 

led to “a lot of epiphanies.” Students 

discovered conflicting claims on candidates’ Web sites and found it difficult to 

get responses from some incumbents’ 

offices. “My seniors started to realize 

it can be very difficult to get unbiased 

information,” she comments. 

At North Pole Elementary, fifthgrade teacher Mat Wade used a number of Kids Voting activities, including 

one voter apathy lesson that made a 

strong impression. Each day featured a 

vote on a different classroom practice, 

such as whether students could go to 

recess, have a no homework day, or get 

to write with markers all day. “I set up 

the ballot box at the beginning of the 

week and told my kids there would be 

a different issue every day and be sure 

to vote,” he recounts. “The first day everyone voted but as the week went on, 

more and more kids stopped.” That led 

to classroom discussions about whether 

people should be reminded to vote and 

the role of advertising in campaigns. 

For Buckley, the mock election and 

other Kids Voting activities bring home 

the message that “rights might be inherent, but in a society based on ideals, 

those ideals need to be taught. Voting 

needs to be taught, and we have to give 

kids practice in doing that.” 

PORTLAND, Oregon—A tape of the previous night’s 5 o’clock news flashes on 

the television set in Jim Keiter’s eighthgrade classroom. A rash of attacks on 

campaign signs leads off the broadcast. 

One Senator McCain supporter in the 

Portland suburb of Gresham has replaced his lawn signs four times because 

of thefts; a farmer had billboards stolen 

from his fields; and in the middle class 

neighborhood surrounding this middle 

school, vandals tossed a Molotov cocktail at a large McCain sign, charring the 

bottom. “How many of you believe 

you have the right to set up a lawn sign? 

How about bumper stickers?” Keiter 

asks his students. The class ruminates 

over free speech and one girl reports 

that her family’s Obama signs are positioned inside the windows “where 

nobody can get to them.”

Keiter is in his element. He worked 

as a television news producer and cameraman before becoming a Sellwood 

Middle School teacher 19 years ago. 

Now, he draws on his news instincts to 

engage students in his history/language 

arts block. “We go downtown and I interview people on the street [while] the 

kids gather round. We walk into City 

Hall and meet the mayor, go to City 

Council meetings,” he says. “At every 

step I try to show them how relevant 

this stuff is.” While current events are 

a constant in Keiter’s classroom, the 

Focus on Issues

Eighth-graders study the candidates’ positions on issues from immigration to abortion and share 

them with classmates. Photos for this story by Jim Keiter, Sellwood Middle School.

Prize-winning posters were created by Abby 

Church, North Pole Elementary (top) and 

Katie Robinson, Randy Smith Middle School 

(bottom).
10 nwrel.org/nwedu/

VANCOUVER, Washington—A quote from 

Theodore Roosevelt greets students as 

they walk into Patti McMaster’s classroom at Evergreen High School. It reminds them, “The government is us; 

WE are the government, you and I.”

McMaster’s Advanced Placement 

history classes take those words seriously. Last year, her students wrote 

a bill to require the teaching of state 

government and politics in Washington schools. HB 2781 was conceived 

when McMaster was helping a group 

of seniors in AP Government prepare 

for the We the People competition (see 

page 22). She recalls, “We were writing 

[answers to] state questions and one of 

them said, ‘Compare your state constitution with the U.S. Constitution.’ My 

kids sat there like deer in the headlights 

and looked at me as I said, ‘What is your 

problem? You should have learned that 

in the eighth grade when you took state 

history.’” Students replied that their 

state history lessons consisted of making covered wagons out of shoeboxes, 

coloring rain shadow maps, and tracing 

Lewis and Clark’s journey—not a word 

about state government.

When McMaster asked, “What can 

we do about it?” students got busy 

drafting a bill. They convinced Deb 

Wallace, their state representative, to 

sponsor it in the House. They met with 

the social studies specialist at Washington’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to win the department’s 

approval, and they asked one of McMaster’s former students, state Senator 

Craig Pridemore, to bring the legislation to the Senate. Students dove into 

a lobbying campaign, writing to all legislators. They even traveled 120 miles 

to the state capitol to testify for the bill, 

which passed unanimously. McMaster 

and her students were guests of honor 

when Governor Chris Gregoire signed 

the law, which went into effect on their 

graduation day. 

Activism also marked McMaster’s 

approach to the 2008 election. She required students to volunteer a minimum of five hours on a political campaign of their choice, local or national. 

McMaster volunteered as well, working 

on one Democratic, one Republican, 

election provides even more of a platform for exploring the issues behind 

the headlines.

Capital punishment, abortion, Iraq, 

and immigration are just a few of the 

hot topics that students are puzzling 

over this morning. The assignment: 

In small groups, conduct background 

research on your assigned issue using 

classroom materials and library computers; highlight and define terms you 

don’t know; figure out where the two 

presidential candidates stand on the issue; and be able to present your findings to the class. “Put it in fifth-grade 

language so everyone understands,” 

instructs Keiter. Each group must also 

write a summary of the candidates’ 

positions that will be tacked to giant 

cutouts of McCain and Obama on the 

classroom walls.

Like millions of their peers, Sellwood 

students vote online for their presidential picks in the National Student/

Parent Mock Election. The Tucsonbased organization (www.nationalmock

election.org) offers customized ballots for every state, along with voting 

curriculum lessons, suggestions from 

award-winning teachers, and links to 

useful Web sites. The group aims to educate tomorrow’s voters and ultimately 

improve America’s voter participation 

rate, which is the lowest of any of the 

world’s democracies. 

Keiter believes that middle school 

students are still malleable enough to 

be influenced by civic participation lessons. “There’s a reason I teach middle 

school,” he says. “I think this is the 

last chance to really get them before 

they reach high school and become too 

institutionalized ... too detached.”

Out of the Classroom, Into the Trenches

Sellwood Middle School students examine 

party platforms. 

Evergreen High students participate in the 

national VOTES 2008 election, organized 

by two Massachusetts teachers. Photos for 

this story by Jonathan Keel, Evergreen High 

School.
Northwest Education / winter 2009 11

a teachable moment

and one nonpartisan race. “That way no 

one can accuse me of bias,” she notes. 

“It’s been eye-opening, fun, and frustrating at times, especially when you’re 

doing phone banking and people say 

snotty things!”

Jaclyn, a student who worked the 

phones for Rep. Wallace’s reelection bid, 

got a taste of voter talk back, too. “Some 

people were really uncooperative,” she 

says, “and I was surprised at how set 

they are along party lines. I had people 

ask, ‘Is [Wallace] a Democrat or Republican?’” Jeff, who rang doorbells for the 

Wallace campaign, adds, “I learned about 

the mind of the common voter and I realized that some voters don’t base their 

vote on what they know but on who 

they’ve heard about more.”

Working for state Rep. Jamie Herrera’s campaign gave Anne renewed 

faith in politicians. “We say everyone 

is working for the common good, but 

then you see so many negative ads on 

TV,” she says. “When I spent time with 

Jamie it was encouraging to hear about 

the passion she has for serving people. 

I learned all good isn’t lost in our government—especially at the state level.”

 “This election has been a great learning tool,” says McMaster. “A woman on 

the ticket, the oldest potential president, and an African American: It’s 

been wonderful.” Beyond that though, 

she hopes her students have learned 

lessons that will shape them as citizens 

and leaders in the future. “What I’m 

trying to instill in them is it’s not just 

about having your own political voice,” 

she explains. “You have to step out and 

do something for the common good. 

Working on a campaign gives them a 

bird’s eye view of what that is.” 

Down the hall from McMaster’s 

classroom, Steve Nowacki works to 

help students see how they’re part of the 

system. His Contemporary World Issues 

class spent six weeks discussing everything from the concept of a “straw man” 

to the phenomenon of Joe the Plumber. 

They answered questions about the national candidates’ job qualifications and 

views on everything from gay marriage 

to relations with China. Their research 

culminated in extended essays on who 

they would vote for and why.

Lara Bui picked Senator Obama. She 

wrote, “One of the principal reasons 

why I am a supporter of Obama winning this election is because of the war 

in Iraq. I fully agree that we need to pull 

out of there because for how much effort, money, and troops we are putting 

into this war, the results we are getting 

are not worth it. Our economy is on a 

low right now and one of the key reasons for it, as I have learned, is because 

of the war. Our country could be spending so much wasted money on a number 

of things to improve America as a whole 

such as health care, education, and roads/

bridges just as Obama has said.”

Shayla Sharp took a different view. 

Her essay stated, “Based on what I have 

learned, I would vote for John McCain 

because my personal views correlated 

mostly to his policies on the issues. I 

support the war in Iraq and I do not believe that America should just run away 

from this war. I think if we do retreat 

from Iraq there is a great possibility for 

the terrorists to follow us home.”

When it came time to make their 

choices for the national ticket, Nowacki 

and McMaster’s classes participated in 

VOTES 2008 (www.votes2008.org). 

VOTES (Voting Opportunities for 

Teenagers in Every State) is a national 

mock election for high school students. 

Started two decades ago by history 

teachers Jim Shea and Lorrie Byrom 

of Northfield (Mass.) Mount Harmon 

School, the project includes teen voters from at least one public and one 

private school in each state. This year, 

John McCain’s high school was one of 

the participants, but it still didn’t help. 

VOTES students gave Barack Obama a 

64 to 29 percent win over McCain. Evergreen High followed that trend with 

an overwhelming endorsement of the 

Democratic ticket. 

“This election is the most excited 

I’ve seen this age group and I attribute 

that to Obama,” says Nowacki, who has 

taught social studies for 31 years. “But, 

they have to translate that excitement 

into action. If they don’t register or if 

they register but don’t vote, it doesn’t 

matter.” For Nowacki and McMaster, 

showing students just how much each 

vote matters could be the most important lesson of all. n

Patti McMaster challenges her AP history students to get involved by volunteering for local and 

national campaigns. 
12 nwrel.org/nwedu/

Peter Levine is the director of the Center for Information and 

Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), as well as 

the research director of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University. A graduate of Yale University and a former Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, Levine 

is active in several other national organizations that promote participatory democracy and civic engagement for youth. Levine is 

also the author of several books, including The Future of Democracy: Developing the Next Generation of American Citizens, and 

coeditor of the forthcoming Forging Citizens: Policy for Youth 

Civic Engagement. He spoke with Northwest Education from his 

office at Tufts University, just north of Boston. 

Why is civic engagement so hard to define? And how is 

that related to the difficulty of measuring or evaluating 

the success of civic engagement programs? 

It’s difficult to define civic engagement because it involves 

virtually any activity related to public issues. A lot of activities 

could be counted as civic engagement, even things that take 

place in the workplace or in the private home. So, it’s hard to 

draw limits around it. And then it’s hard to measure partly 

because it’s hard to define, but also because when you measure things you tend to lose the quality dimension. You just 

end up counting. For instance, it’s easy to count the number 

of service hours that people have contributed, but it’s hard to 

differentiate between service that was valuable versus service 

that was very superficial. 

CIRCLE recently posted two studies on its Web site: The Civic 

Opportunity Gap and The Civic Achievement Gap. Both are 

concerned with the issue of equity in civic engagement. Is equity the 

biggest problem facing civic engagement? 

The issue of equity in civic engagement is absolutely huge. 

To simplify or overgeneralize a bit, we typically give the opportunities for civic engagement to students who are already 

more successful in school. And, on the whole, schools that 

perform better tend to offer those opportunities, whereas 

schools that are extremely challenged do not. And that’s a terrible thing, because there are many other ways that politics 

and civic engagement are stacked against the less advantaged. 

The last thing we should do is make the unequality worse 

by actually using public schools to give the more advantaged 

students a leg up. 

What can schools do to close that opportunity gap? 

There are innovative programs, and CIRCLE is definitely 

interested in tracking those. But more important than focusing on innovative programs is to offer very well-established, 

well-known, well-researched activities more equally and better. That means things like the discussion of current events in 

the classroom, the availability of a wide array of solid student 

organizations in a school (such as an active school newspaper 

and student government), and a high-quality service-learning 

program. Those things don’t have to be invented. They’re 

all roughly 100 years old. The problem is that, typically, everything about them is done more effectively for the more 

advantaged kids. They’re more likely to have those opportunities in the first place; their teachers are more likely to have 

had professional development opportunities related to those 

things; and they’re more likely to be able to spend time on 

them. 

Does research show that the equity gap is widening over time? 

Regarding what we offer in schools, I don’t know the answer, and I doubt there are data. I don’t know whether we’re 

reserving the civic opportunities for the “best” students more 

now than in the past. What I do know is that the civic engagement gap for young adults, between those in the working class 

and those who are in the middle class, is much worse. But I 

don’t think you have to explain that in terms of schools. You 

could explain it in broader social terms. For example, a young 

adult who left high school and didn’t go to college in 1970 

would typically continue to get civic-learning experiences 

from the union, from the church, from the local newspaper. 

Now, all of those entities are in trouble. For example, it’s very 

unlikely that there will be a union at today’s blue collar jobs—

in fact, you’re more likely to belong to a union now if you 

have a college degree. So, the working class is much more 

on its own. We don’t have to lay that at the door of schools, 

which are not responsible for it. But I do think that the need 

for equity in the schools is even greater, given those realities. 

Civic Engagement for all

A Conversation With Peter Levine

Q:
Northwest Education / winter 2009 13

Some schools are experimenting with making service-learning a 

requirement for all students. Is that an effective approach? 

I’d be very cautious about it. I think it can be positive, 

and there have been some studies of schools where servicelearning was required and the results were positive. For example, there was a study by Metz and Youniss of a school 

in Massachusetts where it was required and there were good 

effects. I think the requirement itself can be fine. The thing 

that I worry about is that if you have a requirement on a large 

scale—a large district or an entire state—the implementation 

is often extremely unequal and basically poor. Maryland, for 

instance, has a requirement of 75 hours of service-learning 

for every single student in the high schools, and I fear it’s 

counterproductive. The kinds of experiences that inner-city 

Baltimore kids get under the heading of service-learning can 

be demeaning and disempowering. 

On the other hand, if a school has built up a really good set 

of practices and they have the whole school invested in the 

process and they decide that every student should do it, then 

that can be great. But if you just slap a requirement on schools 

that aren’t currently doing anything, then all you’re going to 

do is put a lot of working class kids in a position where they 

have to do menial labor under the guise of civic engagement. 

If you want to promote service-learning, what’s a better way to go 

about it?

That’s the big question. I think part of it is working civic 

outcomes into other outcome measures and evaluations and 

tests in a way that doesn’t let it turn into trivia. In your region, 

Washington state has tried classroom-based assessments of 

civic engagement—where kids are doing projects and outsiders come in and observe the projects. I think that’s a great idea, 

at least to try that. There was a time when Idaho had a kind 

of input assessment where they required schools to explain 

what they were offering in terms of civic engagement, which 

is an interesting approach. It shifts the focus from ensuring 

that the students are going through certain hoops to ensuring 

that the students are being offered meaningful opportunities. 

The idea is that if you ensure worthwhile inputs you’re more 

likely to get effective outcomes. We need more research, but 

those are interesting approaches. 

From your perspective was there anything enlightening about the 

data that came out of the recent election?

Definitely. While we try to emphasize the problem of inequity and the disadvantaged, this election was basically a 

lot of good news. Youth voter turnout has increased in each 

presidential election since 1996. That’s a definite trend. And 

also, I think young people found a lot of other ways to participate in this election. One presidential candidate happened 

to win largely on the strength of the youth vote. His margin 

was really dependent on young voters, and so I see, already, 

a lot more interest in young people and their civic engagement than we have ever had before. Obama’s transition team 

has youth liaisons, for example, and is treating youth as an 

important constituency, more than most previous administrations. So, yes, I think there’s a lot of positive news there.

You mentioned a kind of deterioration in our country’s civic skills. 

Do you think some of the positive effects of this election will translate 

into an improvement in those skills?

It raises two questions. Since millions of people participated 

in the election, can we find ways to keep them participating 

now that the election is over? And second, can we find ways 

to engage those who weren’t backers of Barack Obama? The 

numbers are uneven—66 percent of young people voted for 

Obama. That means that those who were more conservative 

probably sat it out, on the whole. If we’re interested in engaging everybody then we have to make sure that there are opportunities for those youth who weren’t on the winning side. 

A recent study on the CIRCLE Web site looked at the K–12 curriculum in the era of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The popular 

perception is that social studies and several other subjects are suffering 

under NCLB, but the study seemed to show otherwise. 

We were actually trying to document a trend toward a narrowing of the curriculum, but we simply didn’t find it. We 

found a much more complicated story in which the narrowing is limited to the early grades, and even there is not directly 

attributable to NCLB. I think the message is: If you think the 

curriculum is too narrow, then your solution has to be a lot 

broader than simply amending NCLB. The real problem is 

caused by things like parent and teacher expectations, textbooks, and state laws. But we should also recognize that it’s 

not all bad news. For instance, the high school curriculum 

has actually gotten richer and more diverse. 

If inequity is the major problem facing youth civic engagement, what 

are the biggest positives? 

We’ve already talked about the election and youth voter 

turnout rising. Young people are also volunteering in this decade, overall, at the highest rates we’ve ever seen. The data 

only go back to about 1970, but today’s youth are definitely 

volunteering at higher rates than their parents did. And their 

civic engagement also seems very constructive, generally. I 

think young people are bringing a lot of assets to the table. 

This is not a matter of “what’s wrong with young people?” 

The problems that exist have to do with equity: not with the 

total amount of things that are going on for kids, but with 

how they’re being distributed. The kids themselves are actually doing a pretty good job. They’re getting informed, volunteering, and participating in government at a really encouraging rate. We want to see those opportunities spread more 

equally across race, class, and geographic lines. n
14 nwrel.org/nwedu/

 Leading by Example

The 2009 Montana Teacher of the Year 

has taught hundreds of students—and fellow teachers—

how to make a difference in their school, their community, 

and maybe even their world, one public policy at a time. 

Story and photos by Bracken Reed

FOUR CORNERS, Gallatin County, Montana—“The first time 

I tried Project Citizen in the classroom, I thought, ‘Oh dear, 

what have I gotten myself into,’” says Sally Broughton. For 

any teacher new to the program, it’s a heartening admission. 

Broughton, a middle school social studies and language arts 

teacher at the small, rural Monforton School (K–8) just outside Bozeman, Montana, is one of the most skilled practitioners of civic education—and the Project Citizen curriculum 

in particular—in the country. For the past 10 years she has 

spent a big portion of her summer breaks conducting Project 

Citizen professional development workshops throughout the 

country. In 2008 she was one of three teachers in the nation to 

receive an American Civic Education Teacher Award, cosponsored by the Center for Civic Education, the Center on Congress at Indiana University, and the National Education Association. And in 2009, based largely on her state and national 

leadership in civic education, she was named the Montana 

Teacher of the Year. But at first, even she was intimidated.

We the People: Project Citizen was developed by the nonprofit, publicly supported Center for Civic Education (www.

civiced.org) in the mid-1990s. Already well-known for the 

We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution program 

(see story, page 22), the center developed Project Citizen to 

help youth and adults learn to “monitor and influence” public 

policy. That’s an innocuous description for a program that, in 

the right hands, can be one of the most powerful lessons in 

participatory democracy that a student is likely to receive. 

While the program can be used in many settings—from 

schools to youth organizations to adult community action 

groups—it is most often incorporated into social studies, civics, or government classes. Broughton has been an avid supporter of using the program at the middle school level, or 

even earlier, and she makes it a central part of both her sixthand seventh-grade social studies curricula. 

Civics in Action

Project Citizen is best understood by seeing it in action. And 

despite Broughton’s trepidation, the initial seventh-grade 

project in the fall of 1997 turned out to be a perfect example 

of the “authentic learning and authentic outcomes” that are 

possible when the curriculum is used with fidelity.

First step: Facilitate a discussion about a school or community problem that can be improved through a change in 

policy. As Broughton and her students discussed the most 

pressing problems in their rural, unincorporated community 

that fall, the conversation kept returning to one recent incident: A classmate at the school had become ill from a contaminated well. Her family had been forced to move out of 

their home and out of the one-school district. The students, 

many of whom also got their water from wells, were still upset about it. Although Broughton secretly hoped her students 

would pick a different community problem from the list of 

20 they had brainstormed, the final choice was theirs, and 
Sally Broughton is the 2009 Montana Teacher of the Year. Northwest Education / winter 2009 15
16 nwrel.org/nwedu/

they chose water quality. 

And that’s when Broughton wondered what she had gotten herself into. “Water regulations are very technical and potentially controversial in a rural community,” she says. “I felt 

way over my head. But the students were really into it, so 

that’s what we did.”

Second step: Study the issue and decide on a plan of action. Throughout that school year Broughton and her students 

researched the topic, studied the existing regulations, learned 

which agency had the responsibility and authority to monitor 

and make changes to those regulations, and interviewed local 

residents. It didn’t take long to realize that a comprehensive 

change in water policy was beyond their means. 

Instead, they decided to take a grassroots approach: With 

the help of a small grant they bought water test kits and students collected water samples from their own homes. Aided by 

volunteer experts, they tested each sample for contaminants. 

Third step: Implement your plan. When the results were 

in that spring, Broughton’s class knew they were onto something big. Several of the samples showed high levels of contamination. The problem was primarily caused by an overreliance on septic tanks, especially in areas that used wells for 

drinking water. Until Broughton’s class made a presentation 

to the county water quality officials, the problem wasn’t getting much attention. Afterward, “it got the community pretty 

stirred up,” says Broughton. Some people were outraged 

about the contamination, while 

others were more concerned that a 

nosy teacher and her students were 

poking into their business. 

“A fellow who runs a local trailer park called me up at home one 

night,” remembers Broughton. “He 

threatened to sue me and garnish 

my wages for the rest of my life 

because we were testing water on 

private property. We had students 

who lived in his trailer park, and 

we found that two of his wells were 

contaminated.”

She didn’t get much sleep that 

night, but in the end there was a 

great feeling of satisfaction. She had 

never taught a more dynamic lesson in civic engagement. The students were surprised and excited 

that their school project had caused 

such a public reaction. And although 

it had no immediate impact on public policy—other than raising public 

awareness—you couldn’t ask for a 

more authentic outcome. 

When an actual policy change was 

implemented a year later (the county 

created a Water and Sewer District for the Four Corners area) 

it was almost anticlimactic. By that time Broughton was already well into two new projects, one with her sixth-grade 

social studies class and one with her seventh-graders. And 

there was no looking back. 

“That first time around, people in the community probably looked at me and thought, ‘Who is she? What in the heck 

is she doing?’” Broughton says. “But I was hooked. Right 

from the beginning I thought: This is the way I want to teach 

from now on.”

Creating a Culture of Civics

A decade ago there may have been people in Four Corners 

asking, “Who is Sally Broughton and what is she up to?” but 

by 2009, they almost surely know. Broughton and her students have earned the community’s respect with a long list of 

projects that have changed public policy, improved Monforton School, and even saved lives. “We’ve developed a reputation,” says Broughton. “The response from the community 

is tremendous now. They respect what the kids are doing 

because we’ve shown that we’re not messing around. We do 

quality work.”

Indeed, the list of projects that Broughton and her sixthand seventh-grade students have accomplished in the past 10 

years would make many political action groups envious. Some 

of those projects have been school-focused, such as creating 

Sally Broughton has her students create posters that will help them identify an appropriate public policy.
Northwest Education / winter 2009 17

a new school breakfast program, revamping the lunch program, improving the school’s playground, advocating for a 

districtwide bike helmet policy, getting a sidewalk built along 

the busy road that runs in front of the school, and conducting a yearlong exploration of a four-day school week. Others 

have had a communitywide or even regional impact, such as 

advocating for a new or improved county jail, getting city developers to include public restrooms in downtown Bozeman, 

and bringing to public awareness the lack of an emergency 

warning and evacuation plan at the nearby Hyalite Dam and 

Reservoir. In the latter case, the students’ work directly resulted in a $267,000 Homeland Security grant to the county. 

A 2001 project may have been one of the most important 

of all. Students argued for, and won, a change in district policy 

that made community service, in the form of service-learning, 

a part of the school curriculum in all grades, K–8. Since then, 

civic action and community service have become ingrained in 

the schoolwide culture. And the awards have piled up. 

The school has won the Montana Project Citizen State 

Competition every year since 1999. In 2000, the school won 

the national competition. In 2005, Broughton’s seventhgrade Learn and Serve class received the Governor’s Award 

for Civic Engagement. In 2008, her seventh-graders received 

the school’s most prestigious award to date, the Spirit of Service Award given by the Corporation for National and Community Service. “Operation Save the Playground,” which 

beat out more than 1,000 other Learn and Serve projects, resulted in the construction of a $40,000 climbing wall on the 

Monforton playground for only $5,000. 

But the long-term effect on students is the real reward, 

says Principal and District Superintendent Lynne Scalia, who 

has been a champion of Project Citizen and service-learning 

since coming to the school five years ago. “When kids are truly doing something that changes their school community, or 

the outside community, they’re more likely to be engaged,” 

she says. “The learning is relevant to their lives, and they get 

fired up. We’ve seen that happen. And then when they get the 

tools to truly make a difference—to be able to really change 

a policy or a law—then that experience of how to be a citizen 

in a democracy stays with them. Project Citizen gives them 

those tools.” 

Broughton agrees. “I’m trying to teach them that when 

they grow up, if something’s not how they think it should be, 

then they should get busy and fix it. You don’t just sit around 

and complain,” she says. “How do you fix it? Project Citizen 

takes them through that, step by step. It’s extremely empowering for students.”

Walking the Walk

There’s a story that Superintendent Scalia likes to tell about 

Sally Broughton. Three years ago Scalia was diagnosed with 

cancer during the school year. That summer, the faculty and 

staff put together a team in her honor and participated in a 

local American Cancer Society Relay For Life fundraiser. The 

event called for an all-night relay, during which each team had 

to keep at least one member on the track at all times. From 

7 p.m. that night to 7 a.m. the next morning, the one person 

on the track, with no break, was Sally Broughton. “She was 

the oldest one on the team, but she was the only one who 

made it all night,” says Scalia. “That’s who she is. She’s going 

to go after it with generosity and tenacity. She’s an amazing 

person.”

At an age when most people are readying for retirement, 

Broughton is at the height of her career—teaching a full 

schedule, winning awards, leading annual spring trips to 

Washington, D.C., for every Monforton eighth-grader, mentoring new teachers, conducting summer workshops, and 

now representing her state as its 2009 Teacher of the Year. 

She’s also the Montana Representative on the National Conference for Social Studies Civic Mission of Schools and the 

chairperson for the Montana Civic Mission for Schools. She 

volunteers in her community, walks a marathon every other 

year, and is an avid skier. She is truly indefatigable. This summer she will realize a long-held dream by leading the first 

Humanities Montana-Civic Education Institute, a weeklong, all-expenses-paid professional development opportunity 

for 40 Montana teachers. 

More than anything, though, Broughton is a teacher. 

“Teaching is my joy,” she says. “I can’t imagine doing anything else.” 

On a cold, blustery day this past November, with tiny, 

swirling flakes creating a living snow globe outside her classroom window, you could find Broughton leading her sixthgrade social studies class in the first steps of Project Citizen—

narrowing down a list of community problems, talking about 

the difference between a “civil issue” and a “public policy issue,” and generally diving in with all the gusto of a neophyte 

who doesn’t realize how much hard work lies ahead.

While talking about the problem of hunger in the community, one female student interpreted the issue a little too 

broadly: “What about world hunger?” she said. “There are a 

lot of hungry people in the world.” 

Broughton patiently reined her in. “That’s a good point,” 

she said, “but the world is a little bit too much for us to take 

on this year. Let’s try to focus on our community. What can 

we do right here?”

It was a necessary correction, of course. But with all the lives 

she’s touched, all the teachers she’s trained and mentored, and 

all the students she’s helped become informed and active citizens, it’s not too much to say that Sally Broughton has already 

taken on the world, and changed it for the better. n

leading by example
First Nation, 

18 nwrel.org/nwedu/

The culturally based curriculum at 

Sho-Ban High has helped 

Tyler Bosquez embrace his 

traditional tribal culture. 
Northwest Education / winter 2009 19

FORT HALL, Idaho—On a Thursday afternoon in November, 

two weeks after the 2008 presidential election, teacher Story 

Holston leads her government class in a discussion of civil 

liberties and the Bill of Rights. Previous lessons have covered 

the content of the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and today Holston wants to bring them closer to home. 

She has given her students a handout of a dozen articles from 

the Sho-Ban News, the tribal newspaper of the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. Each piece is to be read aloud by a student, 

followed by a freewheeling group discussion about the issues 

raised and how they relate to a specific civil liberty. 

The first article that seems to fully engage the students is 

a letter to the editor from a fellow Shoshone-Bannock tribal 

member. The letter concerns a large-scale development being 

proposed by the tribal council—a new casino, hotel, restaurant, 

convention center, water slide, and golf course. The development would require the tribe to borrow millions of dollars, in 

the hopes of long-term economic benefits. 

As Gavin Eldridge, a senior, reads the letter, he has his fellow 

students’ full attention. The letter is inflammatory, criticizing 

those tribal members who do not support the development as 

selfish naysayers who hide their heads in the sand, live in the 

past, and only care about instant gratification. It attacks the ShoBan News itself for being biased in its reporting, and it ends 

with a call for tribal members to become more “progressive 

and educated.”

As Eldridge finishes reading, the students shift nervously in 

their chairs. This class, like most at Shoshone-Bannock Jr./Sr. 

High School, has only about a dozen students. Most of them 

have known each other since earliest childhood. They also 

know many of each other’s extended family. They know who’s 

who on the tribal council, who is for the proposed development and who is against it. They know the editor of the ShoBan News, or at least her surname, and they know the person 

who wrote the letter they have just read. 

“So what do you think?” Holston asks the class. 

“He sounds like an apple,” Eldridge says. He says it for 

laughs—and gets them—but he’s also half serious. The derogatory term, meaning someone who is “Indian on the outside but 

White on the inside,” is used almost as a reflex here—part putdown, part defense mechanism. Eldridge has obviously taken 

offense at the writer’s arrogant tone, which seems to imply that 

all tribal members who aren’t for the development are ignorant 

and uneducated. 

Holston, who is non-Native, makes light of the “apple” 

reference, but also presses Eldridge to be more specific. 

“We’re the ones who are going to pay for all this if it doesn’t 

work out,” he says. “This guy talks about the future, but we are 

the future. What if they build all this and nobody comes?” 

As other students join in the discussion—some for development, some against—Holston subtly steers the conversation 

toward larger issues. “What do you think about the claim that 

the newspaper is biased?” she asks. “Do you think that’s legitimate? What civil liberties does this letter bring up?”

Next Generation

At a tribal school in Eastern Idaho, 

a government class is part of a 

culturally based curriculum 

that motivates students by 

appealing to their cultural pride. 

Story and photos by Bracken Reed
“Freedom of speech,” offers one student.

“Freedom of the press,” says another. 

“Freedom to be a jerk,” says Eldridge, under his breath. 

The class eventually moves on to other articles: a letter claiming that the local casino is mismanaged and another about the 

registration of a local chapter of the Native American Church. 

Each one elicits strong opinions and a lot of humor from the 

students, who show a surprisingly nuanced understanding of 

tribal politics and growing understanding of the Bill of Rights. 

As Holston wraps up the class period, one of the students 

says, “Already? Time went by so fast!”

Government as a Survival Skill

Story Holston’s government class is unusual in two ways. First, 

it covers both U.S. government and tribal government. Second, 

it is taught within the context of a culturally based curriculum: 

a schoolwide focus on tribal culture that includes required 

classes in Shoshone-Bannock history, American Indian studies, tribal government, and four years of either the Shoshone 

or Bannock language. Many of the electives at the Bureau of 

Indian Affairs (BIA)–funded, grade 7–12 school are also culturally based, such as a course in traditional beadwork—an art 

form for which the Shoshone are world renowned. Together, 

these classes are a cornerstone of the school’s stated mission 

“to educate Native American students in their heritage, their 

rights and responsibilities, and to prepare them for a lifetime of 

learning and achievement.”

At this school, understanding your cultural heritage and 

knowing your rights and responsibilities are viewed as essential 

not only to living a meaningful life, but also to the long-term 

survival of the tribe. They can also be the best way to motivate students who might otherwise view school as a place for 

“apples.” 

Nationally, American Indian students have one of the highest dropout rates and lowest graduation rates of any ethnic 

group. Even at Sho-Ban High, where the students’ culture 

is not only celebrated but made a centerpiece of the curriculum, the absentee rate for seniors is often as high as 70 percent. 

Both historically and recently, the school has had its problems, 

including low test scores and a staggering 16 administrative 

changes in the last 18 years. The 2008–2009 school year marks 

its second year in restructuring status. Many parents see these 

problems and choose to send their children to off-reservation 

schools in Blackfoot or Pocatello. Appealing to both the parents’ and the students’ tribal and ethnic pride—and to their 

understanding of political power and influence—can be a key 

to turning that around. 

“The best way I’ve found to motivate students educationally—to get them to take part in school—is to explain how important it is to their tribe that they get an education,” says Holston. “The students relate to that almost more than appealing 

to the importance to their individual lives. They can see themselves in that role: as protectors of their land, their sovereignty, 

and their tribal rights. When you put school in that context it 

can be very motivational.”

For Holston, teaching tribal government is a welcome 

challenge. “It’s every bit as complicated as U.S. government, 

or even more so,” she says. “You have to know the tribal history, you have to be very familiar with the Shoshone-Bannock 

Constitution, and you have to understand how that constitution is both different and similar to the U.S. Constitution. In 

addition, you have to understand sovereignty and all the ins 

and outs of sovereignty. That’s not typically something you’re 

taught in high school or in your teacher training.” 

In the past, tribal government and U.S. government were 

taught separately, but this year they have been combined. Holston, who has taught English and other subjects at the school 

for four years, is teaching government for the first time. 

“At first, it felt like I just didn’t have enough time to teach 

both [U.S. and tribal government] in one class,” she says. 

“But I found that if I use a compare/contrast approach, then I 

can build one off the other. In that way, they work very well 

together.”

 The best approach, Holston says, is to work from strengths. 

“The students’ basic understanding of tribal government is 

much stronger than their understanding of U.S. government. It’s more immediate and more personal for them. So, 

as a teacher, what I try to do is help them make the connection between U.S. government and what they already know. 

For example, I can say, ‘What if you did such-and-such on the 

reservation? What would happen?’ And then, ‘What if you did 

that in Pocatello [off reservation]? What would happen?’ Right 

off the top of their heads they can give me a lot of examples 

of things that would be different. And from there, I can talk 

about why that is and how those differences are written into 

the laws or even into the separate constitutions. If you do that 

effectively they begin to see its importance.”

Sit in on Holston’s class and you quickly notice one thing: 

The students are acutely aware of, and interested in, tribal politics and the concept of tribal sovereignty. “The reservation is 

such a political place,” says Holston. “I think these kids get very 

politically savvy and skeptical a lot quicker than the average nonNative student. They’re very good at that. It’s a survival skill.” 

Empowering the Next Generation 

Leela Abrahamson, a senior at Sho-Ban High, is one student 

who fully understands the importance of knowing your tribal 

culture, history, and rights. Abrahamson’s talent, intelligence, 

natural beauty, and bubbling personality have repeatedly put 

her in the regional and national spotlight. She has been featured in a photo spread in Teen Vogue magazine, played a role 

in a documentary film about her great-great-great-great aunt, 

Sacajawea, and traveled all across the country as Miss Shoshone-Bannock, the tribe’s national youth representative. In 

the course of those experiences Abrahamson is often asked 

questions about her tribe. “Luckily, because I went to ShoBan, I know the answers,” she says. 

Occasionally, Abrahamson is also put in the position of correcting falsehoods and misperceptions about Native American 

20 nwrel.org/nwedu/
Northwest Education / winter 2009 21

people, or simply ensuring that a Native perspective is included. 

In the summer of 2008, for example, she was selected to participate in the Congressional Academy for American History 

and Civics, a 12-day event held at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. While she calls it “an amazing experience,” she also notes that she was the only Native American 

out of the 102 students selected to participate. “I felt like I had 

to be a voice for all Native people,” she says. “It’s sad how blind 

most people are to Native American culture and history.” 

Because of her knowledge about that culture and history, 

Abrahamson was able to be a strong advocate. “There were a 

lot of times [at the academy] when I spoke up about things, 

like how the Declaration of Independence talks about ‘savages’ 

and how it refers to ‘virgin lands’ as if no one was here before 

the whites came,” she says. “I was able to point out things like 

the fact that the founders got a lot of their ideas for the American system of government from the Iroquois. I had some of 

the kids with their eyes wide open, saying ‘What are you talking 

about?!’ But I think I had a real impact. If I wasn’t there, none 

of those issues would have even been raised.” 

Much of Abrahamson’s knowledge about her culture comes 

from having a mother who is a teacher and political activist 

and three older sisters who are all college graduates. “My mom 

made sure that was drilled into my head—you’d better know 

what your people did and where you come from and how 

strong Native American women are. I was raised to have a lot 

of pride in that and to be able to talk about it intelligently.” 

But Abrahamson also says she has benefited from four years 

at Sho-Ban High. “At this school you have to learn about your 

tribal government, you have to learn about 

American Indian studies; you have to take 

Sho-Ban history. We have more opportunities here than a lot of schools have.” 

Tyler Bosquez, who is also a senior, agrees. 

Unlike Abrahamson, Bosquez was not immersed in traditional culture from childhood. For him, learning about his Shoshone-Bannock culture and heritage at school 

has been a unique and valuable experience 

he may otherwise not have had. 

In his four years at the school Bosquez has taken all of the 

culturally based, required courses, including four years of Shoshone language. He has visited other reservations as part of an 

intertribal program, has earned college credits via dual-enrollment classes at nearby Idaho State University, and has attended 

the HOIST (Helping Orient Indian Students and Teachers) 

summer program at the University of Idaho, which encourages Native American youth to complete high school and pursue 

science- and technology-related postsecondary studies. 

“Some people think of this school as a second chance school 

for kids that didn’t do well in other schools,” he says, “but I 

see it as a school that helps us learn about and interact with 

the things we really should be learning about—our languages, 

which are dying out, our traditional culture, our history, our 

tribal government. For me, it’s where we should be headed. I 

feel good about being here.” 

Abrahamson and Bosquez are only two of the many success 

stories at Sho-Ban High. Both plan on attending college and 

both express a desire to someday help improve life on their 

reservation. “I want to make a difference,” says Abrahamson. 

“I want to be a positive example. School is ultimately what you 

make of it—if you don’t want to learn, you won’t. If you do, 

you can go above and beyond. That’s true everywhere, and it’s 

true here.” n

First Nation, Next Generation

(Clockwise from top left) 

Story Holston (far left) 

leads her government class 

in a discussion of current 

events. Leela Abrahamson 

plans on pursuing a medical degree. Gavin Eldridge 

reads an article from the 

Sho Ban News.
22 nwrel.org/nwedu/

Passing the 

Torch

Grant High School’s We the People Constitution Team Learns to Win (or Not) 

Story by Jacqueline Raphael

Photos by Katie Gleason
Northwest 

Education /winter 2009 23

Image © Jaap Hart/iStockphoto
24 nwrel.org/nwedu/

PORTLAND, Oregon—On a cold Wednesday evening in November about 30 teenagers are packed into a small basement 

classroom at Grant High School. The room is abuzz with 

nervous chatter and a palpable excitement. Six adults—all but 

one male and most in business suits—mill about, joking and 

catching up with individual students.

At precisely 6:30 p.m. it’s down to business. Five students 

take their place, side by side, at the front of the room, while 

two of the adults, serving as moderators, take seats in the front 

row and look up expectantly at the girls. The resemblance to 

a police line-up or an interrogation is hard to miss, which 

causes a brief outbreak of laughter. 

As two female students begin analyzing the constitutional 

issues involved in a drug liability case they have read about in 

the newspaper, one of the moderators quickly interrupts. “Let 

me ask you, more generally,” he says, “could Congress change 

a statute involving the Food and Drug Administration?” 

While the girls consider, other students in the room start 

raising their hands, eager to offer opinions. By 6:35 the entire 

group—students and adults—is deeply immersed in a group 

civics lesson on several articles of the U.S. Constitution and 

obviously enjoying every minute of it.

The next two hours will be a mixture of intense discussion, debate, cross-examination, and occasional discomfort. 

Halfway through this first presentation, a female student 

describes the recent passage of California’s controversial 

Proposition 8, which denies marriage rights to homosexuals. 

After “skimming” the California Constitution and finding 

little to guide her interpretation, she says, she has decided the 

measure is “probably unconstitutional,” based on the equal 

protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“Probably unconstitutional?” bellows one of the moderators. Laughter helps soften the blow, and the discussion 

moves on to the legal definition of a “protected class,” but it’s 

clear that this is no normal classroom. The gloves are off. The 

adults scattered around the room, some sitting, some standing, are all attorneys or judges, volunteering their time, and 

they do not tolerate flimsy logic or lack of preparation. 

The result might be surprising to some. Rather than melting into tears or wilting under the pressure, the students are 

energized and engaged. They eat it up. Yes, there is the occasional crimson face and watery eye, but for the most part 

students and adults alike are flush with the excitement of 

rigorous, intellectual group discussion. Laughter, occasional 

groans, and a keen sense of excitement fill the room. And 

once in a while even a bit of admiration slips out. 

“Wonderful point,” says a distinguished-looking man near 

the back of the classroom in response to a student’s statement. 

It’s the kind of hard-won praise that 

can make a student’s entire week. 

Preamble: We the People

Since 1987, students across the 

country have participated in We the 

People: The Citizen and the Constitution, a national civic education 

program funded by the U.S. Department of Education through an act of 

Congress. The program is designed 

to develop students’ understanding 

of American constitutional history 

and constitutional law and is administered nationally by the Center for 

Civic Education and, in Oregon, by 

the Classroom Law Project. The We 

the People program offers curricula 

and classroom materials for students 

in grade eight and above. 

Typically, a high school Advanced 

Placement or honors government 

class participates in the program by 

using the curriculum and materials 

and, if desired, taking part in a competition. Students are divided into six 

separate teams, corresponding to the 

six units used in the curriculum (see 

sidebar at right). Each team receives 

a set of questions on their unit topic 

from the Center for Civic Education. 

Grant High School’s 2008 team placed 

third in the national competition. Photo 

by Memory Makers Photography.
Northwest Education / winter 2009 25

Teams must prepare a written response to the questions and, 

if they compete, be ready to answer challenging follow-up 

questions. 

The program culminates in a simulated congressional 

hearing in which students “testify” before a panel of judges, 

demonstrating their skill at applying constitutional principles 

to historical and contemporary issues. The hearings—occurring at district, state, and national levels—are competitive 

only for high schoolers, with the first-place team from each 

state invited to compete in the national finals held annually in 

Washington, D.C. 

Oregon has done quite well nationally, placing in the top 10 

in all but one year since the program began 21 years ago. Grant 

High School and its archrival, Lincoln High School, also in 

Portland, have traded off victories since 2001. Grant finished 

third in the most recent competition, and has represented Oregon at nationals for the last five years, finishing in the top three 

in all but one of those years. It’s a winning tradition. 

Article I: Members Shall Work Hard and Assemble Often

It’s 6:25 p.m. on Wednesday and a large group of students are hanging outside the basement classroom waiting for someone to unlock the 

door. It has rained steadily for almost 48 hours and rush-hour traffic 

is severely backed up on the freeways. Still, by 6:45, 30 students and 

all nine team coaches stand or sit in the crowded room, drenched but 

ready to work. 

Seniors, who self-select for Grant High School’s We the 

People Constitution Team, or “Con Team,” feel the pressure 

to live up to the Grant High School legend. “We don’t want 

to be the year that doesn’t win state,” says Sam Bendinelli. Although the competitive aspect of Con Team isn’t what drew 

Maddie Potter in, she agrees that it’s a motivating factor. “It 

would be terrible to be responsible for a loss,” she says. “But 

winning is not something that’s just handed to us. We really 

have to try.”

Indeed, the amount of time and work required for Con 

Team is a large part of its legend. In addition to taking a 

half-year government course taught by Grant High School 

social studies instructor Geoff Henderson, students attend 

two-hour practice “moot” sessions every Wednesday night. 

Each time, a different group of students must present a current events issue to the whole group. Student teams must also 

be ready to read and receive feedback and follow-up questions on their written responses, which are revised countless 

times before the competition. Additionally, students meet for 

another two to four hours a week in teams at their coaches’ 

homes. Finally, students convene additional team meetings 

on their own once or twice a week. 

“A lot of people didn’t try out because they were scared 

away by the workload,” says Sam. But Con Team students 

remain undaunted. “My expectations were so high that it 

doesn’t seem that bad,” says Maddie.

These are students who like a challenge. Rosie Kimmelfield, for example, used to sit in the back of her classes so she 

wouldn’t have to speak up. In joining Con Team, she intentionally put herself in an environment where she would have 

to talk. Sam heard since freshman year about the amount of 

work Con Team required, but he wanted a chance to study 

passing the torch

Out of the Book

The We the People textbooks, developed for upper elementary, 

middle, and high schools, examine the history and principles found 

in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Each lesson corresponds to essential questions that guide the National Standards for 

Civics and Government. The high school textbook is divided into 

six units: (1) What are the philosophical and historical foundations 

of the American political system? (2) How did the framers create 

the Constitution? (3) How has the Constitution been changed to 

further the ideals contained in the Declaration of Independence? 

(4) How have the values and principles embodied in the Constitution shaped American institutions and practices? (5) What rights 

does the Bill of Rights protect? (6) What challenges might face 

American constitutional democracy in the 21st century? 

Seniors Rosie Kimmelfield, Maddie Potter, Alice McAdams, and Sam 

Bendinelli (clockwise from upper left) have taken up the gauntlet in 2009.
26 nwrel.org/nwedu/

with lawyers and judges since he’s considering a future in 

law. Maddie, who is interested in international relations, typically excelled academically when working alone but chose to 

participate in Con Team because it would force her to collaborate with her classmates. Alice McAdams, who describes 

herself as a future English major and “no history buff,” relishes the difficult task of revising the group essays each team 

must write in response to questions for the competitions.

“There isn’t one right answer in Con Team,” says Rosie. 

Learning to interpret a text as rich as the U.S. Constitution, 

and to apply that reading to real-world scenarios of import to 

an entire nation, is “a way of learning we don’t experience in 

other classes,” she says. “It’s challenging to boil things down 

in our essays, to make it clear to the judges that we’ve considered every word in the question.” 

Unlike their other advanced courses, Con Team’s curriculum can’t be reduced to a list of knowledge and skills students 

can memorize or master. “The whole world is at your fingertips,” says Maddie. Indeed, when the students compete—in 

the district, state, and (they hope) national competitions—

judges will ask challenging unplanned follow-up questions 

that test their understanding of a vast and complex field of 

knowledge. It is the job of the Grant Con Team coaches to 

prepare the students for this grilling. 

Article II: Members Shall Accept the Challenge (and Receive Very Honest Feedback)

“This competition is not like taking a test,” explains coach Henry 

Breithaupt, the judge of the Oregon Tax Court. “It’s more like learning to ride a bicycle. When you don’t get it right the first time, you get 

right back on the bike. You’re not expected to know the answers to our 

questions the first time. Don’t worry. Get over it. But,” he says with a 

smile, “you are expected to know them the second time we ask.”

Not all We the People schools are as fortunate as Grant in 

having lawyers and judges who devote countless pro bono 

hours to teaching a new crop of seniors each year about the 

U.S. Constitution. These experts aren’t required to participate, and many schools do not have professional volunteers 

serving as coaches (see sidebar at left for an example). But at 

Grant, these coaches have created a highly demanding and 

unusual intellectual environment for students who are willing to accept the challenge. 

“This is not about a grade or knowing enough to get by,” 

explains Shelley Larkins, one of the “founding” attorneycoaches. “We tell them they need to know everything about 

their topic.” 

“They are learning American constitutional history, an amazing amount of law. And, they’re learning to think on their feet,” 

says Timothy Volpert, a partner at Davis, Wright, Tremaine and 

the person most responsible for recruiting lawyers and judges 

to prepare Grant’s team. Volpert and Larkins worked together 

on Vernonia School District v. Acton, a successful U.S. Supreme 

Court case that established the constitutionality of random 

drug testing of student athletes under the Constitution. Both 

attorneys live in the Grant neighborhood and decided to help 

Grant High School challenge Lincoln’s long-standing Con 

Team success. Both of Larkins’ daughters went through Con 

Team, and Volpert’s son is on this year’s team.

A Different Model for We the People

Schools can take a different route through the We the People program. Since 2005, Teresa Osborne and her honors government 

students at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Oregon, have 

developed strong Constitution Teams without the benefit of a 

corps of volunteer lawyers serving as coaches. Each year the students, mostly juniors, are organized into six teams corresponding 

to the units used in the curriculum. Along with traditional classwork and exams, Osborne allots time during the 90-minute block 

period for these teams to research, draft, and revise their written 

responses to their unit’s questions. She also conducts practice 

“moot” sessions in class, where teams answer questions similar 

to those that will be asked in the district competition.

Because so many of Osborne’s students hold jobs or participate in extracurricular activities, she doesn’t expect them to 

attend regular after-school or evening practice sessions—just a 

few in December, as the district competition nears. A dynamic 

teacher admired by students, Osborne cheers and coaches her 

students. She finds ways to stage some of the constitutional 

cases with her students. “Ms. Osborne makes it fun,” says Anna 

Gaittens. “She is an amazing teacher.” Previously, John Garrow, 

currently an assistant principal, taught the We the People class 

from 2001 to 2005.

Although any high school government or history class can use 

the We the People program materials—including the textbook, 

competition questions and guidelines, supplemental court cases, 

primary source documents, and related materials collected on 

the Center for Civic Education’s We the People “companion” 

Web site—Osborne is firm on her students participating in the 

competition. “If the point is to engage students, the only way to 

really truly be fully engaged is to be part of the real competition, 

with real judges,” she says.

Marilyn Cover, executive director of Classroom Law Project, located in Portland, and coordinator for We the People in 

Oregon, says her organization will provide support and help 

in recruiting community volunteers for any Oregon school that 

gets involved with this program. She says We the People is an 

excellent learning tool with or without volunteers. “We believe 

all citizens need to own the Constitution,” she says.

Last year, when Osborne taught three honors government 

courses, students from all three classes took the bus to Lake 

Oswego for the district competition. (A school can have more than 

one class participate on Con Team or require that students apply.) 

Despite the hours of practice, Brittany Pursinger says her unit was 

“going over all our notes, looking through the book, reading our 

essay aloud. We were cramming. We were so scared.”

“The competition gives you a reason to work hard on your 

essays. It wasn’t just for a class. It was for a competition, and 

for a prize,” says Anna. Indeed, three Reynolds unit teams 

took home prizes for their performance in last year’s district 

competition. 
Volpert says the coach-to-student ratio is a big part of their 

success. Larkins says it’s also important that they don’t teach 

like your typical teachers. “We have no idea how students 

should be taught. We treat them like adults, and they respond 

well.” 

Indeed, Volpert calls the Con Team coaches’ style with 

the students “Socratic,” but it could just as easily be called 

“blunt.” He recalls a well-respected Grant teacher sitting in 

on one of the Wednesday night sessions a couple years ago. 

“This is child abuse,” the teacher said of the interactions. It 

wasn’t a criminal charge but an indication of the teacher’s 

surprise. 

Yet, the students crave such unvarnished critiques. Sam 

says, “just tell me what’s wrong” and don’t be “wishy-washy,” 

as high school teachers can be. Alice elaborates: “In some of 

my classes, the teachers will say, ‘Well, almost. That could be 

true. Good job.’” She prefers the coaches’ more straightforward style. “It shows they respect us enough. They’re not just 

trying to boost our self-confidence.”

Students also come to appreciate—and even enjoy—the 

jocular efforts of some coaches to call them on various omissions or infractions. Especially notable are coach Breithaupt’s 

interruptions of students who forget that Con Team classrooms are “like-free” zones, a particular challenge for most 

teenagers. 

“You mean how you would, like, preserve prosecutors’ 

rights to cross-examine witnesses?” he thunders at one 

student in front of the class. 

Coaches must also put in their time. This year Larkins’s 

team is being asked a technical question on U.S. citizenship 

that she knew nothing about. “I spent a full day at a law library reading about the issues, just to get started,” she says. 

She estimates that, besides the weekly meetings, the coaches 

spend four hours a week throughout the school year reading 

and doing research in preparation. “We don’t read any novels 

for about nine months,” she says. 

Con Team students recognize the effort being made on 

their behalf. Sam jokes that his coach must sit at his computer 

all day writing e-mails to his team about cases and current 

events—sometimes five a day. Such modeling of hard work 

pays off: Students learn to put in their time.

“You get much more out of it when you know the material,” says Alice. “You don’t feel uncomfortable, and it’s much 

more fun that way.”

passing the torch

See Torch, page 33

As the school year progresses, coaches (clockwise from 

upper left) Shelley Larkins, Henry Breithaupt, and 

Tim Volpert will be increasingly less likely to pull any 

punches with students.
A Citizen of the World

How lovely to think that no one need wait a moment, 

we can start now, start slowly changing the world.

28 —Anne Frank, March 26, 1944
Northwest Education / winter 2009 29

BOISE, Idaho—The sun warms 60 curving stone slabs, each etched 

with the words of the famous or the barely known. Gandhi, Frederick 

Douglass, Sheena Duncan, Chief Seattle. Elie Wiesel, Dr. Seuss, Daisy 

Gabriella, Former Idaho Senator Frank Church. Tucked in a leafy corner of downtown Boise, the stones form a memorial to Anne Frank and 

human rights that draws up to 100,000 visitors each year—including 

more than 3,000 Idaho schoolchildren. For students who aren’t able 

to stroll through this contemplative space, the memorial’s lessons about 

human dignity, respect, and responsibility are brought to their classrooms 

by the small but far-reaching Idaho Human Rights Education Center.

The Idaho Human Rights Education Center 

brings global consciousness to classrooms from 

Boise to Pocatello, Preston to Rigby.

Story by Rhonda Barton

Photos by Darin Oswald

The center’s compact headquarters 

sits in a sea of asphalt, just steps from 

the memorial. The organization grew 

out of a groundswell of interest in the 

exhibit Anne Frank and the World, 

which came to Boise in 1995 and in 

one month was viewed by 5 percent 

of the state’s population. With pennies 

from local schoolchildren and donations from around the country, the 

center built the permanent Anne Frank 

monument. Then, it set out to make 

the stone and bronze park more than a 

relic of history.

Today the center offers a K–12 human rights diversity curriculum—the 

only core program of its kind in the 

nation—with standards-based lessons 

for social studies, language arts, and 

visual arts courses. The center also underwrites student exchanges and education missions by Idaho teachers to 

countries as diverse as Jordan, Ireland, 

Colombia, and South Korea. And, it 

brings together scholars and educators 

to talk about how to connect young 

people to worldwide contemporary 

P

human rights issues.

hoto by Idaho Human Rights Education Center
Going Global 

Idaho is hardly the first place that comes 

to mind when internationalism is mentioned. In the mid- to late 1990s it was 

home to the Aryan Nations, one of the 

country’s best-known enclaves of antiSemitism and white nationalism. “Even 

though they had less than 20 members 

they still managed to garner significant 

national media attention, creating the 

perception outside of Idaho that we 

were a state of white supremacists,” 

says Amy Herzfeld, executive director 

of the Idaho Human Rights Education 

Center. “Certainly some of the motivation of the exhibition organizers was 

to break that misconception, but I also 

think they knew Anne Frank’s story 

would inspire young people.” 

The Aryan Nations was bankrupted 

by a lawsuit brought by the Southern 

Poverty Law Center and lost its Hayden 

Lake compound in 2001. In the years 

since, Idaho has seen a demographic shift, 

growing more heterogeneous. According 

to the 2006 census, almost 10 percent of 

the state’s population is of Hispanic origin and 9 percent speak a language other 

than English at home. Nearly one in five 

students belongs to a minority group. 

Even more surprising is that Boise, long 

home to a thriving Basque community, 

has become a primary resettlement destination for refugees from Burundi. “I 

think people outside the state would be 

shocked to know who and what Idaho is 

today,” remarks Dan Prinzing, education 

director of the center. 

Prinzing, who racks up more frequent flier miles in a year than most 

people do in a lifetime, has been a 

driving force in bringing lessons from 

around the world to Idaho’s youngest 

citizens. As head of the Office of Civics, 

Service, Character, and International 

Education at the Idaho State Department of Education, he led the charge to 

strengthen K–12 content standards in 

civics and government while adding a 

parallel standard in global perspectives. 

In 2007 the civic education work that 

started at the state under Superintendent Marilyn Howard moved to the 

nonprofit human rights center, where 

it has flourished and drawn an impressive number of private grants.

Howard, now retired but busier than 

ever, serves on the center’s board. She 

explains that civic education remains 

a compelling issue, particularly in 

preparing students for tomorrow’s jobs. 

“We want our children to be smart and 

we want them to be good,” says Howard. “In order to do that, we have to 

look not only at what they’re learning 

but how we’re helping them learn to 

live. If we consider 21st century workplace skills and what employers want, 

they’re skills that come from the civic 

disposition side: commitment to the 

workplace, being responsible, operating ethically, and being able to get along 

with other people.”

“We take seriously that if one in every six jobs is tied to an international 

framework, we’ve got to prepare our 

students with a global sensitivity,” adds 

Prinzing. “They may be living in rural Idaho, but they need to prepare for 

the world of work and sometimes that 

means working out in the world.” 

Curriculum for Teachers, 

by Teachers

Teachers can tap into 70 lessons posted 

on the center’s Web site to help prepare 

Idaho youngsters (www.idaho-human 

rights.org). Activities and resources on 

Anne Frank enrich classroom visits to 

the memorial. Another set of materials 

introduces seven countries with which 

the center has developed relationships. 

A third category offers human rights 

lessons that focus on the themes of respect (grades K–2), community (grades 

3–5), the world (grades 6–9), and 

responsibility (grades 10–12).

One such lesson, for second-graders, 

is built around Woody Guthrie’s classic 

folk song “This Land Is Your Land” and 

a discussion of who “you and me” refers to in the lyrics. The teacher might 

ask, “What does an American look like? 

What is America to you?” In one activity, students fold a paper into fourths 

and create illustrations for the song 

No one can put a

chain around the ankle of 

his fellow man without at last 

finding the other end fastened 

about his own neck.

—Frederick Douglass

Dan Prinzing poses with 

the statue of Anne Frank, 

commissioned with 

donations from Idaho 

schoolchildren. 
Northwest Education / winter 2009 31

with topic sentences that describe each 

child’s vision of an American neighborhood. Next, the teacher directs 

students in small groups to talk about 

who should be allowed to come to the 

United States. 

A seventh-grade social studies lesson uses Margy Burns Knight’s picture 

book Talking Walls: The Stories Continue 

to explore how man-made barriers serve 

different purposes, from the dikes of 

the Netherlands to the so-called Peace 

Wall dividing Catholic and Protestant 

neighborhoods in Belfast. Students 

analyze why communities create physical walls, how individuals build interior 

walls, and how walls can be used to take 

away the rights of others.

All lessons were developed for the 

center by Idaho teachers—a point that 

Director Herzfeld stresses. “We expect 

that teachers will know what’s most realistic in the classroom, and we want to 

be attentive to the nuances of our state,” 

says Herzfeld. “A lesson for a Boise classroom is going to be much different than 

a lesson for a community of 7,000. So, 

we really rely on the teachers to create 

those documents and champion them in 

individual school districts.” 

Graduating With an Expanded 

Worldview

Cynthia Jenkins at Boise’s Borah High 

School is one of those champions. A 

veteran of a half-dozen overseas trips 

sponsored by the center, Jenkins and 

two colleagues were commissioned to 

create a sample senior project on “The 

Role of the United States in an International Community.” Such multidisciplinary projects, long required at 

Borah, integrate three senior capstone 

courses: economics, world literature, 

and American government. Students 

are assigned a country and assemble a 

portfolio with four to eight assignments 

for each course that explore different 

facets of their country. For example, a 

student might write a paper comparing 

the economic systems of the United 

States and Jordan; read and report on 

a novel by a Jordanian author; and research how a kingdom differs from a 

democracy. The project culminates in a 

presentation at a schoolwide summit. 

According to Jenkins and her fellow 

authors, “the primary objective is to give 

each student a thorough knowledge of 

world markets, foreign policy, the dynamics of international diplomacy, and 

how the United States and other nations relate to one another in the complex nature of global interdependency.” 

The expectation is that seniors will 

leave high school with “not only a better understanding of the United States’ 

economy and government, but with a 

broadened sense of civic responsibility 

and understanding of other cultures.”

In Jenkins’s American government 

classroom, the focus on global ties and 

civic action is palpable. Campaign signs 

for local candidates line the walls, along 

with political cartoons. One poster 

has a student tally of all the countries 

where their T-shirts, jeans, and other 

possessions were manufactured: It’s a 

reminder that workers in Asia, Africa, 

and Europe have personal connections 

to the average teen. Handouts explain 

Jenkins’s system of “Citizen Action 

Points.” Students are required to earn 

points by attending a city council meeting, observing cases in youth court, 

writing a letter to a congressman, or 

volunteering in the community. Credit 

is also given for watching telecasts such 

as the presidential debates, and Jenkins 

urges her class to turn to foreign media outlets—for example, the BBC or 

Asian Times—to get another perspective 

on U.S. and world affairs.

Jenkins says she can’t imagine teaching American government without doing comparative studies. “For me, the 

bottom line is we have a great system 

of government. How do we know that? 

Well, let’s look at how other people 

do things and see what their problems 

are,” she says. Any educator can incorporate that international perspective by 

“stretching whatever activity they want 

to do to make it globally applicable,” 

she adds.

Borah High’s commitment to international studies can be felt not just 

in Jenkins’s class but throughout the 

building. Lining the entrance are greetings in Hmong, Japanese, German, 

and other languages—a nod to the 

fact that 21 dialects are spoken by the 

1,400-member student body. In the 

main corridor a glass cabinet showcases 

mementoes from Xiang Ming High, 

A Citizen of the World

At Borah High, Cynthia Jenkins enriches her lessons with experiences gained from educational 

missions overseas.
32 nwrel.org/nwedu/

Borah’s sister-school in Shanghai, 

China. Exchange programs and foreign 

study missions organized by the Idaho 

Human Rights Education Center have 

given Borah students and teachers a richer connection to the world beyond. 

A Charter Dedicated to World 

Studies

The same can be said of Rolling Hills 

Public Charter School, located in the tidy 

Boise suburb of Eagle. The K–8 school’s 

mission emphasizes world history and 

languages. In a hallway decked with flags 

of different nations, Principal Vickie 

Scheuffele explains that “when our charter was formed, we were looking for an 

alternative that involved kids in the bigger pieces—citizenship and global awareness. Our charter is committed to developing how children take in information, 

converse about issues, and share opinions 

in a forum that’s respectful.”

Rolling Hills puts its mission into 

practice by involving students in two 

schoolwide service-learning projects, 

one aimed at the local community and 

one that benefits a community overseas. 

Last year, students held a winter clothing 

drive for low-income children in their 

neighborhood and raised money to purchase a goat for a Third World family.

This year the Chinese city of Tianjin will be on students’ radar, thanks to 

Xiuying Xu. The exchange teacher is 

acting as a resource to Rolling Hills faculty, sharing artifacts she brought from 

home. “I can demonstrate how these 

things are a part of my culture, which 

students won’t find in a textbook,” says 

Xu. “I can also teach about the new 

China, which is quite different from 

the way China is currently depicted in 

American textbooks.” 

Project Citizen, a curricular program designed by the Center for Civic 

Education, also plays a central role at 

Rolling Hills. Through the program, 

students work together to research a 

specific problem in their community; 

identify and weigh alternative solutions; propose a solution that requires 

governmental action; and devise a plan 

to influence the appropriate governmental bodies.

Warren Burda, who teaches world 

history at Rolling Hills, explains that 

the four-year-old school was a perfect 

fit for Project Citizen. Students used 

the process to form a student council, which required school board approval. Students also went before the 

board to advocate for a more relaxed 

dress code. Although they ultimately 

didn’t get permission to wear jeans and 

T-shirts with slogans, Burda says students learned “it’s not all about win or 

lose, but about going through the process.” And, he adds, they earned commendations from board members for 

the way they presented their case.

Although citizenship and international studies play out in different ways 

at Rolling Hills, a small and highly personal charter school, and Borah, a large 

comprehensive high school, both demonstrate that any school can “go global.” To Dan Prinzing that’s the beauty 

of civic education. “There’s no one set 

model,” he believes. “Whether that’s 

the mission in the charter or a teaching approach, there are strategies that 

can bring the world into the classroom 

with the dedicated purpose of making 

students better citizens of the world.” 

Surely that’s a goal that honors Anne 

Frank’s legacy. n

be the change

you want to see in the 

world.

—Mahatma Gandhi

Warren Burda teaches history to Rolling Hills middle-schoolers through the lens of human rights, 

peace, and global conflict.

Xiuying Xu shares her culture with students at 

Rolling Hills Charter School.
Article III: Members Shall Learn To Collaborate

Early in the school year Henderson was out sick. In his absence, the 

Con Team students were supposed to spend the period conducting what 

he calls fishbowls, in which students discuss their textbook reading in 

small groups. But that evening the students knew they’d be quizzed by 

the coaches on Marbury v. Madison, a complicated case that formed 

the basis for the exercise of judicial review in the United States. A 

student pointed out that the substitute teacher didn’t know what a fishbowl was. “Why don’t we bone up on the Marbury case?” he suggested. Students moved all their desks together into a large circle and 

started posing questions to each other, practicing as if the coaches were 

there. “That day made me really love Con Team,” Alice remembers.

Con Team students tackle demanding collaborative tasks. 

They must incorporate all team members’ contributions into 

substantive, well-crafted essays with a strong single voice, and 

they must learn to work smoothly as a team when responding to follow-up questions. All team members are expected to 

answer questions, and there is no set protocol for who should 

speak first. Sam has had to work at not answering too many 

questions, too quickly. Maddie is learning to rely on her teammates. Without trust, she says the team will be “shaky” during 

competition, unable to play off one another effectively. 

She says this experience is much more challenging than 

the typical group work of her high school classes. In Con 

Team, students work on tasks that fill a genuine need for their 

teams. Furthermore, their work resembles tasks performed in 

nonschool settings such as a court room.

 Thomas Craig, a 2004 Grant High School graduate and 

2008 graduate of Reed College, was on the first Grant team to 

place in the top three nationally. Now serving as a coach and 

considering law school for himself, he says the team “became 

his primary academic outlet” in high school.

Con Team demonstrates “group work at its best in a school 

setting,” he says. There may have been some “grumbling” 

about teammates early in the year, but students must learn 

to identify their teammates’ strengths and weaknesses in an 

honest fashion, and to work together as equals. This may be 

because the program requires such a long period of preparation—at least a semester to get to the state championship, 

then another four months if the team qualifies for nationals. 

“At no other time, even as an undergraduate at Reed, have 

I participated in a group project that was nearly as satisfying as 

this program,” he concludes. “Like nothing else during high 

school, I learned from Con Team to respect the intellectual 

endeavors of my teammates.”

Amendment: The Right To Be Secure in One’s Person Shall Not Be Violated

Alice has become so obsessed with the Wednesday night sessions that 

she says she feels like a ‘sycophant.’ “I’m smiling the entire time and 

laughing at the coaches’ corny jokes,” she says. “It’s hard to describe. 

Sometimes I’ll be reading through my binder thinking, ‘Wow, this is 

boring.’ But then I’ll get to my meetings and I’ll just love it.” 

Con Team is one of the most challenging academic experiences these students will have in high school. It may also be 

their only chance to spread their wings among true peers. 

“In this environment it’s okay to be nerdy,” says Maddie. 

She hesitates. “But we’re not stereotypical nerds,” she says, 

making a gesture with her hand that connotes “geeky.” “I 

think we all really value our education. People are here because they want to be. It makes you more comfortable really 

showing how interested you are.” 

“It may sound elitist,” says Alice, “but it’s important that 

the people in this class are some of the smartest people in the 

school.” 

Here, students can “show how smart they are without 

worrying about offending anyone,” adds Rosie. In their regular classes, Con Team members may wonder why the other 

students aren’t trying. “Everyone else in the class wonders 

why you are trying,” says Rosie. “You feel this pressure to not 

try, which is ridiculous.” In their other classes, Rosie says so 

many of the students are unwilling to stand up and participate 

in group discussions. In Con Team, both the students and the 

lawyers jump right in.

A large part of what makes the experience so exciting and 

engaging is the topic. This country’s history and government, 

the Constitution and its relationship to current events, are 

fascinating, say Con Team students, and much more relevant 

to real life than most high school classes. 

Volpert says they’re also learning to be not just good, but excellent, citizens. “They are the leaders of the future,” he says. 

“I agree,” says Larkins. “We’re teaching them to love America, to be realistic about its faults, and to understand their role 

in making this country better.” 

Indeed, despite their braininess, most Con Team students 

had never read the U.S. Constitution before. Now, through 

hard work, they know it well. They’re excited enough about 

it to look directly at the coaches, even when their answers 

start veering off course, and even when the coaches provide 

critical feedback on their fourth draft of an essay. The students and the lawyers become peers, and the camaraderie and 

pleasure gained from the task are evident at every stage of the 

learning process.

“If you were to watch us in competition,” says Volpert, 

“you would see that all of the coaches get these goofy grins on 

their faces—like proud parents—when the students step up 

to the plate and take a swing.”

 The sports metaphor is apt. 

“These are nerdy kids, many of whom don’t play sports,” 

says Larkins. She smiles. “They even sing the Grant Generals’ 

fight song in the bus on the way to the competition.” n

Editor’s note: On January 23rd Grant High School’s Constitution 

Team won first place for the sixth year in a row in Oregon’s We the 

People competition. The team will represent the state in the national 

competition in Washington, D.C., in April.

Northwest Education / winter 2009 33

Torch

Continued from page 27
34 nwrel.org/nwedu/

research brief

“Community service given in a dedicated, 

intensive way changes the person serving—not just for a day or during their period of service—but in a way that has lasting effects on their lives and behavior.” 

—David Eisner, CEO, Corporation for 

National and Community Service

Civic engagement takes many forms 

and can include individual volunteerism, service-learning, community involvement, and electoral participation. 

In general, civic engagement can be defined in the following way: “Individual 

and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern .... It can include efforts to directly address an issue, work with others 

in a community to solve a problem or 

interact with the institutions of representative democracy. Civic engagement 

encompasses a range of specific activities such as working in a soup kitchen, 

serving on a neighborhood association, 

writing a letter to an elected official or 

voting.” (Carpini, n.d.)

Volunteering—in a range of settings and contexts—is one of the key 

tenets of civic engagement. A recent 

study of one federally funded volunteer 

program, AmeriCorps, indicates that 

young people who engaged in as little 

as one year of volunteer service in their 

communities are more civically engaged 

than their peers long after their term of 

service is complete. This longitudinal 

comparison group study (Corporation 

for National and Community Service 

& Abt Associates, 2008) assessed outcomes and impacts on individuals who 

engaged in service in four areas: civic 

engagement, employment, education, 

and life satisfaction, with the most impressive gains occurring in the area of 

civic engagement.

To assess the civic engagement of 

former AmeriCorps volunteers, the 

researchers created a three-stage framework: Assess, Empower, and Act. Outcomes examined in each area include 

the following:

Assess

•	Connection to community

•	Identification and understanding of 

problems in the community

•	Importance of neighborhood participation and civic obligations

Empower

•	Confidence and ability to work with 

local government

•	Confidence in ability to organize 

community activities

•	Constructive personal behavior in 

groups, constructive interaction in 

groups, and appreciation of cultural 

and ethnic diversity

•	Personal growth and effectiveness 

through community service

Act

•	Participation in community affairs 

and voting

•	Social trust

•	Volunteering

•	Donating to charitable causes

In all three areas, former service participants were more civically engaged 

overall than their peers, even eight 

years after completion of service. Results were statistically significant for the 

following outcomes:

•	Connection to community: The 

strength of the individual’s connection to the community as represented by feelings such as attachment, 

awareness, and commitment

•	Identification and understanding of 

problems in the community: The individual’s self-assessed understanding of social problems in his/her 

community, such as environment, 

public health, and crime

Volunteering Leads to Long-Term Civic Engagement By Nicky Martin

•	Confidence in ability to work with 

local government: The individual’s 

opinion about the feasibility of working with local or state government to 

meet a range of community needs, 

from fixing a pothole to getting an 

issue on a statewide ballot

•	Ability to lead a successful community-based movement: The respondent’s opinion about the feasibility of 

initiating a grassroots effort to meet 

a range of community needs, such as 

starting an after-school program or 

organizing a park cleanup

•	Being active in community affairs: 

The frequency with which the respondent participates in communitybased activities, including attending 

community meetings and writing to 

newspapers to voice opinions

While participants in this study were, 

on average, in their mid-20s at the 

time of service, evidence exists to link 

school-based service and service-learning to increased civic engagement for 

school-aged youth, as well. In 2005, the 

Corporation for National and Community Service, the U.S Census Bureau, and Independent Sector surveyed 

3,178 young people between the ages 

of 12 and 18 as part of the Youth Volunteering and Civic Engagement Survey (Spring, Dietz, & Grimm, 2006). 

Analysis of the data linked participation in school-based volunteer service, 

especially high-quality service-learning courses, with increases in several 

measures of civic engagement. Among 

other findings, highlights include the 

following:

•	Youth who had participated in schoolbased service were more likely to have 

volunteered through another organization than those who had not.

•	Youth who reported current or past 

participation in structured servicelearning courses for at least one 
Northwest Education / winter 2009 35

iStockphoto

semester were 63 percent more likely 

to say they take a good deal of interest 

in world events than their peers who 

had never participated in service.

•	Participants in school-based service 

talk about politics with their friends 

and parents more than nonparticipants do—even more so when that 

service is part of a structured servicelearning opportunity.

•	Youth who reported current or past 

participation in service-learning were 

almost three times as likely to believe 

they could make a great deal of difference in their communities than their 

peers who participated in service, but 

not structured service-learning.

The study also found a moderate but 

significant relationship between participation in service-learning 

and youth attitudes toward voting, another key 

tenet of civic engagement. 

Young people 16 years and 

older who had participated 

in service for at least one 

semester were more likely 

than nonparticipants to say 

that they would vote regularly once eligible (84 to 72 

percent). 

While the same study 

showed that youth from 

low-income families were 

less likely to participate in 

school-based service, when 

they did participate, there was a positive 

correlation between that participation 

and indicators of civic engagement, such 

as volunteering attitudes and behaviors, 

interest in political and current events, 

political efficacy, trust, and optimism. 

This finding was reinforced by a 2007 

study (Spring, Dietz, & Grimm, 2007) 

that looked specifically at volunteering and civic engagement among youth 

from disadvantaged circumstances. 

While confirming that youth from 

disadvantaged circumstances are less 

likely than other youth to experience 

“pathways” to civic engagement such 

as service-learning and school clubs, 

those who do serve demonstrate more 

positive civic attitudes and behaviors 

than youth from the same background 

who do not volunteer. n

References

Carpini, M.D. (n.d.). Definition of civic 

engagement. Philadelphia, PA: Pew 

Charitable Trusts. Retrieved November 20, 2008, from the APA 

Education Directorate, Civic Engagement and Service Learning 

Web Site: www.apa.org/ed/slce/civic

engagement.html

Corporation for National and Community Service, & Abt Associates. 

(2008). Still serving: Measuring the 

eight-year impact of AmeriCorps on 

alumni. Washington, DC: Corporation for National and Community Service, Office of Research 

and Policy Development. Retrieved 

November 20, 2008, from www.cns.

gov/pdf/08_0513_longstudy_report.

pdf

Spring, K., Dietz, N., & Grimm, R., Jr. 

(2006). Educating for active citizenship: 

Service-learning, school-based service and 

youth civic engagement (Brief No. 2). 

Washington, DC: Corporation for 

National and Community Service. 

Retrieved November 19, 2008, from 

www.cns.gov/pdf/06_0323_SL_

briefing.pdf

Spring, K., Dietz, N., & Grimm, R., 

Jr. (2007). Leveling the path to participation: Volunteering and civic engagement among youth from disadvantaged circumstances. Washington, 

DC: Corporation for National and 

Community Service. Retrieved 

February 13, 2008, from www.

nationalservice.gov/pdf/07_0406_

disad_youth.pdf

Nicky Martin is a Unit Director 

in NWREL’s Volunteer Leadership Center (VLC). The VLC 

has provided training and technical assistance to national service volunteers serving in schools 

and communities since 1995.
36 nwrel.org/nwedu/

voices

A Political Activist’s Voice: The Path to Public Service By Jefferson Smith

Jefferson Smith, founding chair of the Oregon Bus Project, has 

become one of the Pacific Northwest’s foremost spokespersons 

on voter mobilization and civic leadership development. A magna 

cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, he clerked for the 

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in California before 

returning home to Oregon to work as a lawyer and political activist. The Oregon Bus Project is a nonprofit political action group 

that takes a fun and innovative approach to voter registration, 

voter turnout, freewheeling candidate forums, and a summer 

leadership camp called Politicorps. The Bus Project has engaged 

thousands of people in the political process, including many with 

no prior experience. In May 2008, Smith was elected to represent the 47th District in the Oregon House of Representatives. 

He spoke with Northwest Education about the teachers, family 

members, and civic opportunities that helped turn him toward a 

life of public service. We spoke with him about life influences and 

lessons of service.

The influence of an early teacher

Teachers changed my life. By grade school, I was kind of a 

difficult kid—hyper, getting into some trouble, and not doing well academically. I remember, attached to the wall of my 

first-grade classroom were four work packets. When a student 

finished the four packets, they could move on to the fifth, 

which was scholastic “dessert”—a connect-the-dots game or 

a coloring sheet. Not once that year did I ever make it to the 

fifth packet; I never could finish my academic dinner, so I 

never got my coloring dessert.

In third grade a strong, loud, hilarious teacher named 

Lydia Larson helped me learn that I wasn’t an idiot. She gave 

me a chance. She cajoled, praised, laughed, threatened, and 

scolded. By a fluke of the schedule, and in her career, she was 

my teacher again for fifth grade. After Ms. Larson, and not before, I became an active student, got influenced by several great 

teachers, eventually got addicted to learning, and went on to 

finish among the top of my class at Harvard Law School. But 

for Lydia Larson, I doubt any of that would have happened. 

From Ms. Larson I took at least two lessons: First, even 

I could amount to something. Second, by her example that 

perhaps our highest calling is working to help others. Good 

teachers model that lesson, and Lydia Larson was a wonderful 

teacher.

A father’s commitment to service

My dad taught me commitment to service. His civic activity 

was inspired largely from faith, and he went on to become 

civically and politically active. As a boy I played on House 

Speaker Phil Lang’s floor in the Oregon Capitol. On occasional weekends I walked door-to-door with Pop for important issues. We picked up hitchhikers and helped people on 

the side of the road. At Pop’s suggestion, I spent a summer as 

a cattle hand in Hermiston, Oregon, near where he had been 

a district attorney. That summer a woman approached me at 

the Umatilla County Fair and remembered my dad. She explained that once, years previously, her car had broken down 

on the highway with a flat. To her good fortune, a man in 

a suit pulled over, took off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, 

changed her tire, and drove off without reward or lengthy 

thanks. That man was my dad.

His professional life and his community life shaped how I 

saw the world and our place in it. His example established in 

my mind the notion of civic service and public duty.

The value of early practice

Service begets service. The road toward my own public service was paved with early activity. One chance came when I 

was about 10 years old. I was asked to deliver a speech written by U.S. Senator Mark Hatfield. The speech was about his 

tour of Hiroshima immediately after the fallout had cleared 

from the nuclear bombing. I gave the speech during a public 

rally at Pioneer Square in downtown Portland on the anniversary of the bombing. It was the first speech I remember 

giving, and Hatfield’s words led me to consider, even at age 

10, the power of words and public communication. I started 

to ask some profound questions: Does how we communicate 

with one another have an impact on our lives? Are we stronger together than we are apart? Should we take the time to 

communicate about our common interests? Those are things 

I still think about, and the answers continue to influence the 

direction of my work. 

In Malcom Gladwell’s new book Outliers, he writes of the 

influence of practice on musicians, mathematicians, athletes, 

lawyers, and computer programmers. Practice affects dogooders just as well. For my part, I remained a numbskull for 

years, but seeds were planted.

Learning through loss

My mother was diagnosed with cancer my sophomore year 

at Grant High School and eventually passed away when I was 

a senior. Her illness and death led to intermittent periods of 

reflection—shuffled betwixt periods of stupidity, anger, making other kids cry, and coping. At first, it had a negative effect. 

My grades suffered. I got into fights. I was kind of a goof-
Northwest Education / winter 2009 37

off and probably a repressed basket case in many respects, 

but those periods of reflection were important influences on 

future decisions. 

Every junior in my Grant High School class was asked to 

write a paper called an “I Search.” My paper addressed the 

impact on families when a parent has a terminal illness. As 

part of the accompanying presentation I asked each student 

in my class two questions: “What would you do if you knew 

you only had a year to live?” And “what would you do if a 

close family member had only a year to live?” Students passed 

in written answers, and I shared the results aloud: “Take a 

balloon ride,” “Go to Paris,” “Get right with my faith.” But I 

noticed that no one said “I would make all the money I can,” 

or “I’d save up for a really nice car.” Material importance diminished. That simple observation delivered another lesson 

about life’s real priorities, which included creating meaningful relationships and working for something greater than our 

own material comfort.

High school and beyond

High school activities offer students early chances for civic 

development. Bill Cromley was one of the best teachers 

I ever had. Near the end of my junior year he encouraged 

me to participate in Boys State, a summer leadership camp 

sponsored by the American Legion. I enjoyed it immensely, 

was elected to an office (in part by bringing together both the 

athletic types and the scholastic types), and later ended up becoming a staff member for four years and the program director for Oregon. It was a turning point. When I came back for 

my senior year, I ran for student president at Grant High and 

won. I had never before been elected to an office of any type.

During the same time, I was also recruited by Geoff Henderson, an amazing Grant teacher, to participate in the Mock 

Trial program. That program encouraged me to take school 

more seriously and to view learning as something beyond 

grubbing for grades. We read things that we wouldn’t have 

read otherwise. We thought about the power of ideas and the 

duties of a citizen in a society.

Together, these school experiences built a foundation and 

gave me a meaningful context for the questions I had been 

asking myself about how to live life. It’s not enough to tell 

young people they should live a life of service, or to command them to contribute to the betterment of society. We 

need to give them context, and we need to give them real 

opportunities.

Service-Learning

Much of my family had done religious missionary work. My 

father, in particular, persuaded me that a period of service had 

been of value in defining his own identity and setting his life’s 

course. I spoke to some encouraging teachers, including the 

inestimable Jim Klonoski at the University of Oregon. And, 

in my second year in college, I spent a school year doing fulltime service.

I started as a juvenile youth counselor and youth basketball 

coach in Oregon. From there I went to Washington, D.C., 

and worked in an inner-city program for kids who weren’t 

up to grade level in reading. Reverend Robinson helped me 

navigate the program and the relationships (I was about the 

only white face in a city mile). I started out directing a sports 

program for the center and ended up as the program director. 

(Another lesson here: Service activities offered more chances 

for decision making and leadership than did paid gigs at the 

same age.) Up to that point, I had dabbled in service-learning

–type activities, but during this period I was immersed.

As Pop had predicted, it was a transformative experience. 

During my first year of college I had been merely an adequate 

student. More important, I’d only been an adequate human 

being. Upon return to school I was both a better person and a 

much better student. The experience set me on the path that, 

for the most part, I have traveled ever since—youth leadership, political activism, and community organizing. 

All these things I almost certainly wouldn’t have done—

even with my family background and support and pressure—

if not for a few teachers who saw some potential in me, where 

others might have seen only a troubled and troublemaking 

kid. Maybe because of that I have a strong belief in the potential of young people to transform their lives and, in the 

process, the lives of others. 

A Twin Palms Lunch

After my graduation from law school I clerked for the U.S. 

Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Southern California. By chance, my judge was located within a few miles of 

the home of Lydia Larson, my old third-grade teacher. I took 

her to lunch at the Twin Palms restaurant in Pasadena. I told 

her about what I’d been up to since being one of the more 

unmanageable kids in her class. Then I presented her with an 

acrylic trophy engraved: “To Lydia Larson, the Best Teacher I 

Ever Had.” (I write without offense to my other great teachers ... she got to me first!) I’ve never been as happy seeing 

someone cry. n
38 nwrel.org/nwedu/

region at a glance

The most recent national assessment of K–12 civics took place in 2006. More than 1,500 schools participated. The test was administered to grades 4, 8, and 12. The chart below represents percentages of U.S. students in grades 8 and 12 who studied any of 

nine civics topics during “the current school year.”

Building Civic Knowledge: What Students Are Studying By Richard Greenough

U.S. Constitution

Congress

Parties, elections, voting

How laws are made

State governments

The court system

President and cabinet

Other countries’ government

International organizations

Source: U.S. Education Department, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2006 Civics 

assessment (retrieved through the online NAEP Data Explorer, advanced version, December 11, 2008)

grade 8

43% grade 12

29%

46%

39%

61%

59%

64%

64%

70%

68%

65%

69%

71%

74%

70%

79%

72%

82%

Percentages of U.S. Students in Grade 8 and 12 Who Studied Any of Nine 

Civics Topics During “the Current School Year“
Northwest Education / winter 2009 39

End note

On Election Day, approximately 150 middle and high school students from around the state of Oregon cast 

their votes for U.S. president as part of the Classroom Law Project’s 2008 Youth Summit.

An Election Day Youth Summit

Photo by Andie Petkus 
nwrel news

40 nwrel.org/nwedu/

Research shows young people have a lot 

to gain from volunteering. Increased academic achievement and civic engagement, exposure to positive adult role 

models, a reduction of risky behaviors, 

and a sense of empowerment and connectedness that comes with seeing their 

actions making an impact are just some 

of the benefits. However, as a study 

by the Corporation for National and 

Community Service (CNCS) reveals, 

not all kids are given equal access to 

volunteer opportunities. 

The study found a disturbing class 

gap in volunteer rates—with youth 

from low-income families volunteering at a rate of 43 percent, compared to 

59 percent for other youth. “This study 

highlights that service can turn a young 

person’s life around, especially youth 

from disadvantaged backgrounds,” says 

CNCS Chief Executive Officer David 

Eisner. “Service helps young people 

succeed in school and in life, and fosters a generation of citizens who will 

serve throughout their lifetime.” 

Youth Engaged in Service: How and 

Why To Incorporate Volunteer Projects 

into Your Youth Program is an online 

toolkit developed by the Volunteer 

Leadership Center (VLC) at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory 

in response to the CNCS study.

Nicky Martin, director of VLC’s 

Mentoring and National Service Initiatives describes the Web site as an “effort 

to close the class gap by providing local 

community- and faith-based organizations with the tools and resources needed to engage youth from disadvantaged 

circumstances by incorporating service 

activities into their existing programs.” 

After examining the importance of 

engaging youth in service (including 

information on factors that motivate 

youth to serve and how service fosters 

youth development), the Web site offers strategies for starting and sustaining effective youth volunteer programs. 

“One successful approach to increasing youth volunteerism is to encourage family participation,” says Martin. 

“Youth whose families show interest in 

the service activity or, better yet, contribute to improving their community 

by volunteering alongside their children are more likely to volunteer with 

their own kids when they become parents,” says Martin. The Web site includes strategies for involving families 

as well as copy-ready handouts that 

organizations can give to parents.

The Tools page features a valuable compilation of field-tested forms, 

checklists, and planning guides, and 

other resources collected and vetted by 

the VLC. The site also offers profiles of 

a wide variety of programs from across 

the country that have successfully implemented youth volunteer programs. 

For more than a decade, the VLC 

has provided training and technical assistance to national and regional programs—such as VISTA, AmeriCorps, 

Senior Corps, and Learn and Serve 

America—that engage volunteers to 

meet critical community needs. Primary funding for VLC comes from the 

Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency that 

promotes civic engagement, service, 

and volunteerism.

The online toolkit, Youth Engaged 

in Service: How and Why To Incorporate Volunteer Projects into Your Youth 

Program, is located at www.presidential 

serviceawards.gov/yes/. Learn more 

about the Volunteer Leadership Center 

at NWREL by visiting their Web site: 

www.nwrel.org/vlc/. n

Online Toolkit Helps Programs Engage Low-Income Youth in Service

Patti MacRae Kevin Jahnsen Amy Cannata Sarah Giffrow Rhonda Barton Nicky Martin

NWREL staff who contributed to the toolkit’s development:
Northwest Education / winter 2009 41
42 nwrel.org/nwedu/

A new report by researchers at REL

Northwest, operated by the Northwest 

Regional Educational Laboratory, shows 

that the majority of school improvement 

plans in the region lack parent involvement components mandated by the No 

Child Left Behind Act.

The study, which examined 308 plans 

from five Northwest states, found that 

more than half did not include provisions to:

•	Notify parents of the school’s 

improvement status

•	Collaborate and communicate with 

parents (i.e., provide opportunities 

for parents to be involved in developing and approving the school improvement plan)

•	Include “effective” parent involvement activities 

NCLB requires Title I schools identified as in need of improvement to 

submit a school improvement plan to 

their state education agency with specific strategies for increasing student 

achievement. The act asserts that parent 

involvement is key to increasing student proficiency and bringing schools 

out of improvement status. 

However, researchers Timothy 

Speth, Steffen Saifer, and Greg Forehand found that school improvement 

plans that include parent involvement 

rely on a limited number of involvement activities, including nonacademic communication. They also found 

that while 75 percent of the schools 

in improvement status serve English 

language learner students, only 33 

percent of the school improvement 

plans included activities for communicating with parents in a language 

they could understand. Schools that 

did meet NCLB parent involvement 

requirements were primarily in states 

or districts that provided a template for 

completing school improvement plans.

“The report is intended to, at a 

minimum, help schools meet NCLB 

requirements, but more important, 

it suggests ways schools can plan and 

implement meaningful and comprehensive parent involvement activities,” 

says Speth, the lead author of the study. 

“Schools can include more ‘effective’ 

parent involvement activities in their 

school improvement plans—such as 

parent-led cultural events and studentled conferences—rather than simply 

including traditional activities like parent-teacher conferences or back-toschool nights.”

The report, Parent Involvement Activities in School Improvement Plans 

in the Northwest Region, is part of the 

Institute of Education Sciences’ Issues 

& Answers series designed to connect 

scientifically based research to practice on topics of regional concern. The 

full report, and others in the series, 

can be downloaded at www.nwrel.org/

national/. n

Study Finds School Improvement Plans Lacking in Parent Involvement Activities

nwrel news

Greg Forehand, Steffen Saifer, and Timothy Speth
Northwest Education / winter 2009 43

Three researchers at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) 

are among the national recipients of 

prestigious William T. Grant Foundation 

awards. Dr. Michael Coe and Dr. Makoto Hanita received a $25,000 grant 

for an intraclass correlation study for 

statewide achievement tests in various 

subjects and grade levels and Dr. Steve 

Nelson is co-investigator for a shared 

$108,000 study on the use of research 

in K–12 educational decision making.

Coe and Hanita, who are researchers at NWREL’s Center for Research, 

Evaluation, and Assessment, will look 

at state assessment tests and determine 

the variation that occurs within a school 

or classroom versus the variation that 

occurs between schools or classrooms. 

This is typically expressed by calculating 

or estimating an intraclass correlation 

coefficient (ICC). According to Coe, it’s 

important to be able to accurately estimate ICCs when planning a particular 

research design. The pair’s findings will 

be made widely available to others who 

are planning to use state assessment data 

as outcome measures in their experimental or quasi-experimental studies.

Nelson, who heads NWREL’s Office 

of Planning Service and Coordination, 

will partner with Jim Kohlmoos of the 

Washington, D.C., Knowledge Alliance 

to conduct a series of focus groups with 

state and local educational policymakers 

and practitioners. The goal is to identify the conditions that influence the use 

of research evidence, other sources of 

evidence used in decision making, and 

the factors that impede or facilitate the 

use of scientific evidence in educational 

policy and practice.

The William T. Grant Foundation 

focuses on improving the lives of youth 

ages 8 to 25 in the United States by 

providing grants for high-quality empirical studies. “These awards reflect 

several features of our grant making,” 

says Foundation President Robert C. 

Granger. “These include our interest in 

a range of youth settings, our interest 

in improving policy and practice, and a 

belief that researchers can address practical questions in a way that advances 

fundamental knowledge about critical 

family and organization practices. We 

have moved beyond black-box evaluations to understand the family and staff 

practices that make a difference for 

young people.” n

NWREL Researchers Win W.T. Grant Foundation Awards

Two newly elected state school superintendents have joined NWREL’s Board of 

Directors, along with a representative 

of the Washington State School Directors Association (WSSDA). Randy Dorn 

of Washington and Denise Juneau of 

Montana join the superintendents 

of Alaska, Idaho, and Oregon on the 

29-member board. Frederick Striker, a 

member of the Battle Ground (Wash.) 

School Board, also was elected to the 

board. 

Before being elected to head the 

Washington Office of Superintendent of 

Public Instruction, Dorn served seven 

years in the state legislature. He chaired 

the K–12 House Education Subcommittee and was a key sponsor of Washington’s Education Reform Bill. Dorn 

was executive director of Public School 

Employees of Washington, the second 

largest educational employees’ organization in the state. 

Juneau comes to the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in Montana with teaching and legal experience. 

She was an English teacher on the Fort 

Berthold Reservation in North Dakota, 

where she is an enrolled member of the 

Three Affiliated Tribes. Juneau graduated from the University of Montana 

Law School and earned a master’s degree at the Harvard Graduate School of 

Education. 

Frederick Striker, a retired U.S. Marine Corps captain, has served on the 

Battle Ground School Board for more 

than 11 years. He is treasurer of the 

Washington School Boards’ Educational 

Foundation and has represented the 

WSSDA at the national level. 

“We are excited to welcome Randy 

Dorn, Denise Juneau, and Frederick 

Striker to the board and to be able to tap 

into their broad knowledge of regional 

educational issues,” said Carol Thomas, 

NWREL’s Chief Executive Officer. n

New Members Join Board

Michael Coe Makoto Hanita Steve Nelson
44 nwrel.org/nwedu/

The Region X Equity Assistance Center 

(EAC) at NWREL, which has provided 

services to educators in the Pacific Northwest and Pacific Rim regions since 1978, 

recently had its grant application approved by the U.S. Department of Education. The new grant provides funding 

for a three-year period, which began in 

October 2008. 

“We are very grateful to our clients 

for the letters of support received during the grant application process,” says 

EAC Director Joyce Harris. “Although 

there was a reduction in the funding 

and an increase in the number of states 

to serve, the program will continue to 

meet the training and technical assistance needs of clients throughout the 

service region.”

The Region X EAC is one of 10 equity assistance centers funded by the 

U.S. Department of Education under 

Title IV of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. 

The mission of the centers is to help 

public schools and communities incorporate educational equity into policies, 

procedures, and classroom practices.

Expanded Region

Under the new contract, the EAC service region will include several new 

Pacific entities: the Federated States of 

Micronesia—Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, 

and Yap—and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. These new states expand 

on the previous service region of Alaska, 

Hawaii, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, 

American Samoa, the Commonwealth 

of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, 

and the Republic of Palau. 

In order to provide needed services 

in what was already a vast geographic region, the EAC will make several changes 

aimed at improving cost effectiveness. 

These changes include partnering with 

Pacific Resources for Education and 

Learning (PREL), a nonprofit organization already located in the Pacific 

Rim region; using distance delivery of 

services; developing the capacity of local educators to conduct follow-up services; and collaborating with NWREL 

staff members in other programs to 

provide services in areas such as reading and mathematics.

New and Continuing Priorities

At the request of school boards and 

other responsible governmental agencies, the EAC provides information, 

training, and technical assistance in 

the areas of race, gender, and national 

origin equity. The center’s mission is to 

ensure that each child has equal access 

to quality education and the opportunity to develop high academic standards.

Under the new cooperative agreement, the EAC will focus on the 

following priority areas:

•	Address the overrepresentation of 

minorities in special education and 

the underrepresentation of minorities 

in gifted and talented programs

•	Provide resource materials, services, 

and training on successful strategies 

for giving English language learners equitable access to high-quality 

education

•	Provide information on effective 

strategies, training, and other resources to assist clients in ensuring equal access to highly qualified 

teachers for students who are racial 

and ethnic minorities

•	Provide information, training, and 

other technical assistance on effective 

approaches to school dropout prevention and reentry that promote equity by addressing the special needs 

of high-risk students, especially students from racial and ethnic minority 

backgrounds

In addition to the above priority 

areas, the EAC will continue to provide training and technical assistance 

in Sheltered Instruction Observation 

Protocol (SIOP); harassment/bullying 

prevention and response; improving 

school climate; culturally responsive 

teaching; key components of educational equity; parent involvement; and 

safe schools/crisis response planning.

For more information about the Equity Center and its services, call 800-

547-6339, ext. 603; 503-275-9603; or 

visit www.nwrel.org/cnorse/. n

Equity Center Marks 30 Years With Renewed Contract

nwrel news

Fayra Teeters Kendra Hughes Moses Wambalala Joyce Harris
6+1 Trait® Writing Training of Trait 

Presenters 

March 4–6, 2009

NWREL, Portland, Oregon

This training of trainers’ institute is for 

people wishing to conduct their own 

in-district 6+1 Trait workshops. After 

reviewing the writing traits and examining supporting research, participants 

will explore the practical classroom applications of lesson design and curriculum mapping. Participants will have 

facilitated time to begin planning their 

own workshops. Adult learning strategies will be modeled and discussed 

throughout this advanced three-day 

institute. Previous training in the 6+1 

Trait Writing Model of Instruction & 

Assessment is required.

High School Learning Communities 

National Conference 

June 22–24, 2009

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada

Designed by practitioners for practitioners, this conference provides teachers, administrators, and district staff 

with programmatic tools and strategies 

to strengthen their high school redesign efforts. Sessions will be in workshop format with on-site coaching by 

practitioners and researchers to help 

teams solidify their plans and troubleshoot anticipated barriers. Participants 

will leave the conference with practical 

plans for the support of their school’s 

redesign implementation, which they 

can share with their local school and 

district teams. 

Building on last year’s highly successful conference, this year’s event 

will feature:

•	Presentations by practitioners with 

“in the trenches” experience in transforming high schools

•	Topical workshops and personalized 

coaching sessions that will give teams 

and individuals access to expertise as 

they tackle the intensive work of structural and instructional improvement

•	Strategies for classroom instruction 

such as differentiation, interdisciplinary curriculum and instruction, 

and project-based learning

•	Motivational keynote sessions, networking luncheons, and exhibits 

showcasing a range of resources available to small schools, career academies, 

and small learning communities n

Conference Call

National Expert on Evidence-Based Education Reform Named NWREL Deputy Chief

Steve Fleischman, who has served as a 

vice president at the American Institutes 

for Research (AIR) since 2006, will join the 

Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) as deputy executive officer 

(DEO) beginning in mid-February 2009. 

Fleischman succeeds current DEO 

Robert Blum, who is stepping down after serving NWREL in a variety of leadership positions for the past 25 years.

Fleischman is a nationally recognized expert on evidence-based education innovation and improvement. 

At AIR he created and led a number of 

U.S. Department of Education–funded 

school improvement projects such as 

the Comprehensive School Reform 

Quality Center, Supplemental Educational Services Quality Center, and 

the Scientific Evidence in Education 

Forums. He also provided senior leadership for AIR’s National High School 

Center, What Works Clearinghouse, 

Doing What Works, and 

several Regional Educational Laboratory, Comprehensive Center, and 

National Science Foundation projects. Since the 

mid-1990s, he has served 

as a leader or advisor on 

national standards development and school quality initiatives. 

Fleischman began his nearly 25-year 

education career as a middle and high 

school social studies teacher. Since 

leaving the classroom he has served as 

deputy director of educational issues 

at the American Federation of Teachers; founding executive director of the 

Education Quality Institute; and most 

recently, as a vice president at AIR.

“The board and leadership of 

NWREL are delighted to have someone 

of Steve’s stature and experience joining 

our executive team,” said Carol Thomas, 

NWREL Chief Executive 

Officer. “Steve is passionate about improving education and has spent his 

career making sure that 

evidence helps to guide 

the actions of policymakers and educators alike. 

His breadth of experience 

at the national level will be a great asset to NWREL as we continue to seek to 

provide the best research and technical 

assistance to educators in the Northwest 

and throughout the country.”

“I believe in the transformative power of education to improve individual 

lives and to strengthen society,” says 

Fleischman. “I’m thrilled to be joining the NWREL community of dedicated professionals who work every day 

to link research to practice in order to 

make this belief a reality.” n

Northwest Education / winter 2009 45
nwrel.org/nwedu/

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Look for Web exclusives. 

Up next in the spring issue:

Schools in Restructuring

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