National Civics Education Programs

Below is a selected listing of links to major national civics resources.

• American Bar Association Special Committee on Youth Education for Citizenship - The mission of the American Bar Association's Division for Public Education is to promote public understanding of the law and its role in society.
• America Speaks - American Speaks is committed to engaging citizen voices in local, regional and national governance in new ways. Their approach integrates
  communications technologies with face-to-face deliberative process to promote citizen governance, deliberation and collaborative, partnership-based leadership.
• Bill of Rights Institute - Founded in 1999, the Bill of Rights Institute's mission is to educate high school students about the Bill of Rights through classroom material and programs that teach:
  --what the Bill of Rights protects, both explicitly and implicitly,
  --how the Bill of Rights affects our daily lives, and
  --and how the Bill of Rights shapes our society.
• Campus Compact - Campus Compact is a national coalition of more than 740 college and university presidents committed to the civic purposes of higher education. To support this civic mission, Campus Compact promotes community service that develops students' citizenship skills and values, encourages partnerships between campuses and communities and assists faculty who seek to integrate public and community engagement into their teaching and research.
• Center for Civic Education - The Center specializes in civic/citizenship education, law-related education, and international educational exchange programs for developing democracies. Programs focus on the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights; American political traditions and institutions at the federal, state, and local levels; constitutionalism; civic participation; and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
• Center for Civic Networking - The Center for Civic Networking (CCN) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to putting information infrastructure to work for community economic development and civic participation.
• Character Counts - The Character Counts is a nonpartisan, nonsectarian coalition of schools, communities and noprofit organizations working to advance character education by teaching the Six Pillars of Character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, citizenship.
• Civic Practices Network - Civic Practices network (CPN) is a collaborative and nonpartisan project bringing together a diverse array of organizations and perspectives within the new citizenship movement. It is designed to bring schooling for active citizenship into the information age.
• Civnet - Civnet is a website of Civitas International for civic education practitioners
  (teachers, teacher trainers, curriculum designers), as well as scholars, policy makers, civic-minded journalists, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) promoting civic education all over the world.
• Close Up Foundation - The Close Up Foundation works to promote responsible and informed participation in the democratic process through a variety of educational
  programs.
• Constitutional Rights Foundation - Constitutional Rights Foundation (CRF) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, community-based organization dedicated to educating America's young people about the importance of civic participation in a democratic society. Under the guidance of a Board of Directors chosen from the worlds of law, business, government, education, the media, and the community, CRF develops, produces, and distributes programs and materials to teachers, students, and public-minded citizens all across the nation.
  
  
• DEBATE/LEGAL RESEARCH
  The following web sites are recommended for legal research. They are especially helpful for student debaters, those working on mock trials, and those involved in Youth Court or any other law-related education program.

Commercial Websites http://www.findlaw.com/ FindLaw is the highest-trafficked legal Web site, providing the most comprehensive set of legal resources on the Internet for legal professionals, businesses, students and individuals. These resources include Web search utilities, cases and codes, and legal news. Easy to use. http://www.lawcrawler.findlaw.com/ The LawCrawler is a search engine that searches legal websites only. http://www.hg.org/index.html Provides links to legal information websites, arranged by subject and jurisdictional categories. http://www.lexisone.com/ Free access to LEXIS-NEXIS® case law dating back to 1996, with U.S. Supreme Court decisions from 1790. Registration required. Government Websites http://www.firstgov.gov/ FirstGov.gov is the only official U.S. Government portal to 47 million pages of government information, services, and online transactions. The site offers a powerful search engine that searches every word of every U.S. government document in a quarter of a second or less. FirstGov.gov also features a topical index, online transactions, links to state and local government, options to contact your government, and other tools. http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/index.html GPO Access provides free electronic access to information products produced by the Federal Government. The information provided on this site is the official, published version and the information retrieved from GPO Access can be used without restriction, unless specifically noted. GPO Access databases include popular regulatory materials such as the Federal Register and The Code of Federal Regulations, and critical Congressional products such as the Congressional Record and Congressional Bills. http://thomas.loc.gov/ THOMAS provides detailed information about federal bills and their legislative history. Academic Website http://www.law.cornell.edu/ Legal Information Institute hosted by Cornell Law School provides access to a wide range of legal information.



• Democracy in Action- Arsalyn's Democracy in Action civic education project brings high school students trained by their teachers into elementary schools to teach students about democracy and voting. Democracy in Action entails four lessons addressing key aspects of American citizenship and a fifth session devoted to a voting simulation with real voting equipment. The voting simulation is timed to coincide with real elections. Participating students simulate voting on the same candidates/initiatives as qualified voters in their area. For more information on Democracy in Action, see www.arsalyn.org/DIA.asp.
• Do Something - Do Something is a nationwide network of young people who know they can make a difference and take action to change the world around them. As part of the Do Something program in schools, young people join together to identify the issues that are most important to them and create community projects to turn their ideas into action. Do Something provides resources and support to help young people take meaningful community action.
• Educational Resources Information Center - The mission of the ERIC system is to improve American education by increasing and facilitating the use of educational research
  and information to improve practice in learning, teaching, educational decision making, and research, wherever and whenever these activities take place.
• Educators for Social Responsibility - ESR's mission is to make teaching social responsibility a core practice in education so that young people develop the convictions and skills needed to shape a safe, sustainable, democratic, and just world.
• Federal Resources for Educational Excellence - This site provides links to hundreds of educational resources for civics/social studies supported by agencies across the U.S. Federal
  Government.
• First Amendment Schools - First Amendment Schools: Educating for Freedom and Responsibility, co-sponsored by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and the First Amendment Center, is a national initiative designed to transform how schools model and teach the rights and responsibilities of citizenship that frame civic life in our democracy.
• Freedom's Answer - Freedom's Answer is a non-partisan, non-profit program designed to organize high school students as part of an effort to increase voter turnout. High school students will be organized in schools to do three things: Register eligible classmates, contact neighbors to get them registerd and voting, and volunteer to serve as non-partisan poll workers on Election Day.
• Kids Voting - Kids Voting USA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots organization
  dedicated to securing democracy for the future by involving youth in the election process today.
• Law-Related Education Resources- See under "Debate."
  
• The League of Women Voters - The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization, encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in
  government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.
• National Council for the Social Studies - The mission of National Council for the Social Studies is to provide leadership, service, and support for all social studies educators.
• National Institute for Civic Education in the Law - The National Institute for Citizen Education in the Law (NICEL) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening democracy and justice through education about law and democratic values.
• Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity - Phi Alpha Delta is the world's largest Law Fraternity. Its extensive network of law students, attorneys, judges and legal educators can help answer questions about law school and career options within the legal arena.
• Project Vote Smart - Project Vote Smart is a national library of factual information on over 13,000 elected offices and candidates for public office --- President, Governors, Congress and State Legislatures.Candidates are covered in five basic areas: backgrounds, issue positions, voting records, campaign finances and the performance evaluations made on them by over 100 conservative to liberal special interests.
• State of the Vote - The site contains a wealth of information on actual candidates, as well as "election FAQs," a collection of frequently asked questions that pertain to topics such as voter registration and absentee voting.
• Teaching Tolerance - Teaching Tolerance is a national education project dedicated to helping teachers foster equity, respect and understanding in the classroom and beyond.
• Teledemocracy Action News & Network -The Teledemocarcy Action News & Network (TAN&N is the website of the Global Democracy is dedicated to the creative use of modern technologies (ICT) and face-to-face deliberative techniques in all forms that directly empower citizens to have authentic input into political systems at all levels of governance around the world
• United Nations - This site is a comprehensive introduction to the organization and workings of the United Nations.
• Young Politicians of America - The Young Politicians of American is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded to expand the democratic experience to the youth of our society. Their goal is to further democracy, participation in government, and good citizenship. Through nationwide clubs, the YPA seeks to spread its word of youth empowerment by combining community service and political inquiry.
• Youth Service America - Youth Service America (YSA) is a resource center and alliance of organizations committed to increasing the quantity and quality of
  opportunities for young Americans to serve locally, nationally, or globally.
• Zaricor Flag Trust - The Zaricor Flag Trust has agreed to loan out a limited number of flags from its American Historical Collection for display at qualified events.
  The Zaricor Collection consists of over 1000 flags and 200 flag related items. It is eclectic assemblage covering flags from the late 18th century to contemporary times. There are over 350 U.S. flags, including a unique Civil War collection and numerous U.S. military flags.
  For additional information, please call Perry S. Krevat at 973-473-5042.