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Educating for Democracy
Renewing and Elevating the Civic Mission of All Maine Schools
. . . creating whole-school, district-wide culture for developing informed, civically engaged students
November 16, 2009
Augusta Civic Center
Augusta, Maine
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Individual: $150
Team*: $90**
*Team rate ($90 each individual registration): minimum of two (2) registrations sent in the same envelope. Please provide a registration form for each participant.
**The subsidy for teams attending the conference has been provided by a grant from the Center for Civic Education written by the Maine Council for the Social Studies.
Download the Registration Form or call 780-5055 to register.
CONFERENCE OVERVIEW
This day-long conference will address the critical importance of ensuring that all students are prepared for their role as citizens. With schools concentrating more and more of their resources on literacy, mathematics, and science objectives, this day will be devoted to exploring how to make space for “educating for democracy.” Keynote speakers and concurrent workshop sessions will highlight the educational benefits and practical strategies associated with elevating the civic mission of schools. The conference will provide time for participants to interact with conference presenters for considering conference themes in terms of own schools situations and exploring next steps.
CONFERENCE THEMES
• Policies: What policies governing mission, vision, curriculum, instruction, and student voice must be in place to ensure the district gives priority to preparing young people for active and informed citizenship?
• Schools: How can schools ensure that a cohesive, coordinated, and school-wide environment exists to fulfill the civic mission of the public schools? (The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.)
• Teachers: What steps need to be taken to ensure that all teachers provide rich and purposeful civic education instruction, using recommended approaches for building student knowledge, skills, and dispositions?
• Students: How can schools promote a full range of student opportunities to build civic learning outcomes across the instructional program, as well as co-curricular and extracurricular activities, including student participation in governance, student journalism, and service learning?
• Community: What measures can schools and districts undertake to ensure strong community involvement in preparing young people for active and informed citizenship, including opportunities for students to apply civic learning skills in applied community settings?
CONFERENCE KEYNOTERS
Peter Levine
Peter Levine is Director of CIRCLE, The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, which is part of Tufts University’s Jonathan Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service. Levine is also Research Director of the Tisch College. Levine helped to launch CIRCLE at the University of Maryland as its deputy director (2001-5) and then its director. In the late 1990s, he was also deputy director of the National Commission on Civic Renewal. Levine is the author of The Future of Democracy: Developing the Next Generation of American Citizens (University Press of New England, June 2007). He also co-edited The Deliberative Democracy Handbook (2006) with John Gastil and co-organized the writing of The Civic Mission of Schools, a report released by Carnegie Corporation of New York and CIRCLE in 2003. He serves on many governing boards and advisory boards of organizations involved in civic renewal.
Peter Greer
Peter R. Greer has demonstrated success in most areas of education during his 40-year career. He served as a history teacher and history department chairman (MA); elected school committee member (MA); Trustee at St. John's College (MD and NM); Superintendent of the Portland Public Schools (ME); United States Deputy Undersecretary of Education in the Reagan Administration; Dean and Professor at the Boston University School of Education at the time of the unprecedented takeover of the Chelsea (MA) Public Schools; and Headmaster at The Montclair Kimberley Academy (NJ). His schools have earned five National Blue Ribbon Schools awards (one with special honors for the ethics program), one national staff development award, and one National School of Character award. He was cited as an "Outstanding School Superintendent" by Phi Delta Kappan. Since retiring in 2005, he was Headmaster of the Rock Creek International School (D.C.), was a character education consultant in Lithuania and Taiwan, served on the education committee for American Public University School (international online school), and wrote and evaluated a high school semester course about the formation of good character for Imagine Schools, the largest for-profit charter school company in the nation. He served as a platoon leader in the 25th Infantry Division "Wolfhounds."
CONFERENCE WORKSHOP LEADERS
Sam Chaltain
Sam Chaltain is an educator and First Amendment activist. He is the National Director of the Forum for Education and Democracy – a DC-based education think tank – and the founding director of the Five Freedoms Project, a national organization that equips local educators with the leadership development, coaching and support they need to address two of America’s greatest challenges – improving the performance of our public schools, and strengthening the quality of our civic discourse. In addition to his work with the Forum and the Five Freedoms Project, Chaltain works with individual U.S. schools and school districts providing professional development and consulting on issues ranging from First Amendment law to whole-school change.
Maine Educators and Service Providers
CONFERENCE FORMAT
• Keynote Presentations
• Concurrent Workshop Sessions
• Interactive Panel/Audience Discussion
• Participant-time for reflection and planning
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
• Classroom Teachers
• School and District Administrators
• School Board Members
School District teams are encouraged to participate
. . . OF PARTICULAR NOTE
The Maine Council for the Social Studies is especially acknowledged for its services in obtaining grant funding (Center for Civic Education) for the specific use of subsidizing Conference school-teams registration.
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