Policy for Civic Reasoning

Preparing young people for citizenship requires significant change in our public schools, including a commitment to preparation of the education workforce for today’s diverse learners and paying more attention to culture and identity in what is taught. Schools should be designed and organized in ways that help students understand the obligations that members of a society owe one another. Policy can be an important lever in promoting changes that foster civic reasoning and engagement: curriculum policies can support civic reasoning and discourse within and across subject areas, assessments can support civic reasoning through competency-based approaches, and well-designed graduation requirements can reinforce attention to civic learning. This article describes various frameworks to guide policy development, each with the potential to prepare young people more fully for citizenship.