Students not only experience the administration of justice, they also improve their speaking, analysis, and critical thinking skills. Florida students have also won the national finals in this competition. I know I will never become an American without a voice. This curriculum and academic competition is one of the Association's model performance-based assessment programs. In elementary, middle, and high schools across the state, students study the history and principles of the Constitution and its present-day applicability.
Students utilize complimentary textbooks and study a six-week curriculum.
The culminating activity for the program is a series of mock congressional hearings where students apply their knowledge of constitutional principles to complex, contemporary dilemmas. The program is administered nationally by the Center for Civic Education. Florida students have won the national championship in this academic competition. There is abundant evidence that Americans of all ages lack the knowledge and the intellectual and participatory skills required to act as informed and responsible citizens. In addition, far too many people are not only alienated but hostile to government and politics at all levels - federal, state, and local.