View 2008 Award Recipients

Awards and Recognition Program

Overview

Purpose
One of the major goals of our state campaign is to create interest and support for the civic mission of schools at the district and school site levels. Our state legislature and governor are urging action through Assembly Concurrent Resolution #30 which calls for school board members, administrators and teachers to regularly examine and strengthen the six research based promising approaches that prepare young people to become engaged citizens. These recommendations are found in The Civic Mission of Schools, published by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and CIRCLE.

To promote this goal, the Campaign has created an awards and recognition program. Schools that elect to systematically review and improve their current efforts to develop engaged citizens will be recognized by the Campaign with one of two designations of excellence. Schools that implement a plan to strengthen current practice and/or that already have programs that operate at a high level of excellence will be designated Schools of Distinction. These activities must be based on the six promising approaches to civic education made by the Civic Mission of Schools report. Those carrying out a school-wide assessment and planning process to identify strengths and weaknesses of present practice will be designated Schools of Merit. A number of special awards will also be given for excellence in individual program areas.

The Campaign is providing resources to support schools interested in applying for an award. Visit the Awards and Recognition Toolkit on our web site:

Sponsors
The Campaign is co-sponsored by the California Department of Education, the California School Boards Association, the California County Superintendents Education Services Association, the Association of California School Administrators, the California Council for the Social Studies, California Teachers Association, California Federation of Teachers, and the California State PTA .

Awards
Schools of Distinction will receive decals to publicize their awards, plaques, and flags. Schools of Merit will receive certificates and decals to publicize their award.

For each award, the Campaign will recognize the schools by notifying their district and county offices of education, superintendents, and local school boards. Each state department of education administrative region will select one school for special recognition by the state. Those schools will be invited to the California Department of Education and recognized by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jack O’Connell.

Through the recognition program, we hope to increase the number of California schools and districts that focus on preparing their students to be engaged and responsible citizens.

Deadline
The submission deadline for 2009 will be announced soon..