Eric.ed.gov – Charter Schools as Nation Builders: Democracy Prep and Civic Education. Policy Brief 4

This policy brief is the first in a series of in-depth case studies exploring how top-performing charter schools have incorporated civic learning in their school curriculum and school culture. This paper introduces Democracy Prep, a network of seven public charter schools with a civic mission at its core. Democracy Prep’s founder and superintendent is Seth Andrew, an energetic former teacher born and raised in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. Andrew’s passion for civic activism and academic rigor are at the center of Democracy Prep’s model. The network’s motto–“Work hard. Go to college. Change the world!”–couples the “no-excuses” charter school movement’s emphasis on student achievement with a decidedly civic focus. The fact that Democracy Prep is a charter school is crucial to its civic mission. Andrew views charter schooling as an ideal venue for experimenting with exactly “how” to teach citizenship. In this brief, the authors describe Democracy Prep’s unique approach to teaching citizenship and discuss the lessons that other schools might learn from one charter school network’s experience. With civic education increasingly marginalized because of testing and accountability demands that focus on reading and math, insights from schools built around citizenship are much needed. (Contains 21 notes.)