Civics Learning Project

Outreach & communications critical to sustaining and expanding the organizations impact are proactive outreach and communications to increase awareness of and engagement with its programs among teachers across Oregon, as well as collaboration with other Civics and social studies education entities to continuously develop and evolve those programs to ensure relevancy. Communications elements include a monthly newsletter and consistent schedule of social media posts to convey information about programs and upcoming events, as well as maintenance of a database of several thousand email contacts. Three regional program managers have been added to-date, in eugene, medford, and bend, as part of the Oregon Civics reach initiative. Their focus is on developing relationships with local educators and community partners, delivering the full range of the organization's programs and reaching schools in an approximately two-hour radius, including local courthouse experience tours, expanding the high school mock trial and we the people competitions statewide, increasing participation by all grades in classroom versions of our experiential Civics programs, and providing teachers with support including recruitment of local community volunteers. They have also established educator advisory councils in each region to ensure alignment with local needs. The staff reaches additional audiences by presenting regularly at conferences, participating in workgroups, and co-developing new content with other organizations including the Oregon and national councils for the social studies, and the Oregon department of education, while also maintaining long-term partnerships at a national level with icivics, the center for civic education, the national high school mock trial association, and street law, inc.

Student education programs includes the we the people program in which students test their knowledge of constitutional issues in a congressional hearing type session, as well as mock trial which challenges students to assume roles of attorneys and witnesses in a fictional trial. Both of these programs include competitions for high school students at regional, state, and national levels which bring together more than 1,800 students from across Oregon, as well as versions that teachers can directly integrate into their classroom curriculum. Other experiential education programs include community action projects, a curriculum for grades 5-12 in which students identify a public policy issue and develop an action plan to address it; courthouse experience tours where thousands of students each year learn about the justice system and watch the law come alive through real cases during a guided tour of county courts throughout the state; and the law day conference which provides workshops on a variety of legal, social, and political issues concerning youth and taught by scholars, activists and other experts. In addition, for more than 30 years, the organizations staff members have provided instruction for law students from lewis & clark law school, enabling them to teach street law to students in local high schools, covering a wide range of issues with an emphasis on the very real ways in which the law applies to their everyday lives. These student programs benefit from thousands of hours of volunteer support from close to 600 attorneys, educators, and other community representatives and civic leaders from around the state.

Teacher support includes the Oregon Civics conference for teachers, held at the state capitol building in salem, drawing educators from around the state of Oregon and providing them an opportunity to interact with representatives from all three branches of government along with workshops on a range of Civics and law-related topics, as well as the summer institute which provides a multi-day experience featuring content, strategies, and grade-level breakouts with local and national experts in civic education, government, and social studies. Current events provides a weekly online resource of information and supporting materials for teachers to use in their classrooms, with connections to the constitution, state academic content standards and we the people curriculum. In addition, a range of professional development workshops is offered at various locations, as well as virtually, throughout the year, and staff members serve as guest lecturers in social studies teaching methods courses in master of arts in teaching (mat) degree programs at university schools of education across the state. The organization also provides private consultations through which teachers can consult with civic educators, attorneys, and other professionals who provide guidance in lessons ranging from Civics for kindergarten students to the constitution for advanced placement high school classes.