1. Building Bridges: Civics Education
through Collaborative Inquiry
Karon LeCompte!
Pat Sharp!
Betty Ruth Baker!
Baylor University!
!
Karen McDonald!
Waco ISD!

2. Session Overview
Partnership Program Background
PDS Model
District Perspective
Parkdale Elementary
iCivics in Action

3. Baylor University Teacher
Education Program
Four year program with three phases:
1. 2 Novice years with one semester field
experience annually
2. Teaching Associate Year with full year one
hour teaching daily and pedagogy classes in
the PDS
3. Intern Year with full year, all day co-
teaching and 9 weeks full teaching in a PDS.

4. Parkdale PDS
Waco, Texas
Economically
Disadvantaged-82%
Limited English
Proficiency-9%
At Risk-54%
Mobility Rate-28%

5. Parkdale PDS
Waco, Texas
Ethnic
Groups
African
American-­‐42%
Hispanic-­‐31%
White-­‐24%
Na<ve
American/Asian/
Pacific
Islander-­‐3%

6. The Baylor Model
Collaborative partnership between the Baylor School of
Education, Baylor Law School, and local area school
districts. Designed to leverage the unique expertise
and resources of all involved parties
— School of Education: provided professional
development for teachers, supported
implementation of iCivics, conducted research
— School of Law: provided content experts to assist
teachers
— School Districts: provided the venue in which to
implement iCivics, support from top level
administrators, content area champions

7. Why did Waco ISD endorse
iCivics?
According to the NAEP
Report A Nation s Report
Card: Civics 2010:
There has been a marginal
increase in 4th grade students
with a basic understanding of
civics. There is no increase in
8th and 12th grade students
since the previous 1998 study.

8. Citizenship
Building Bridges: Civics Education in a new
format. Can children learn from playing video
games?

9. What is iCivics?
— Free, online civics education program
— 16 online games (citizenship, Constitution,
separation of powers, branches of government)
— Teacher materials (curriculum, state alignment,
game guides, etc.)
— Vision of former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day
O’Connor
— Designed to prepare young Americans to become
knowledgeable, engaged 21st century citizens by
creating free and innovative educational materials.

11. Justice O’Connor Senate
Judiciary Hearing

13. Our Research

14. Pretest/Posttest Scores and Mean Change by Grade Level
Grade
Pretest
Mean
Pos-est
Mean
Change
Score
4
9.9
(3.9)
19.4
(4.9)
+9.53
5
13.9
(4.1)
17.4
(4.4)
+3.54
6
10.6
(3.7)
12.1
(3.4)
+0.64
8
20.4
(3.1)
22.8
(3.8)
+1.35
12
17.2
(4.7)
16.8
(5.0)
-­‐0.36
(Standard
Devia<on)

15. What Students Say…
— They loved the games
— They learned civic
knowledge
— They learned about civic
processes
— Their civic attitudes and
dispositions increased

16. What Teachers Say…
— Students loved the games
— Extended student learning outside of the classroom
— Classroom management was a non-issue
— They were pleasantly surprised by the benefits of
iCivics in regards to content knowledge and
students attitudes towards civic learning
— They needed more time to play and understand the
games & additional professional development

17. What Teachers Say…

18. Community Engagement
Experience
— Over 60 children
came to the Baylor
Law School to
participate in a
community
engagement day
— Visit with Justice
O’Connor
— Mock Trial
— Law Library
— Tour of City Hall

19. Parkdale – Professional
Development
Overview of iCivics
Civics Education for Young Children – Making
the case for starting civics education with young
children
Vocabulary
Let’s Play – Immigration Nation
Role Play the game
19

20. iCivics at Parkdale and
Beyond…

23. Hands on, Hearts on,
Minds on

24. How to Implement iCivics in
School Districts
— Identify a Champion
— Zero funding investment
— Establish the parameters and the effect on classroom instruction time
— Align correlation to TEKS/state standards
— Ensure support from district supervisors
— Choose the optimum schools and teachers
— Identify technology challenges and their resolutions
— Ensure principal support
— Conduct professional development for teachers
— Provide classroom support and follow through

25. Seamless Integration of
Curricula
• The Constitution
• Separation of Powers
• Legislative Branch
• Executive Branch
• Judicial Branch
• Persuasive Writing
• Local Government
• Principles of Government (Federalism)
• Voting/ Civic Participation
• Budgeting
• Foreign Policy & National Defense

26. iCivics in Action

27. So What?
— iCivics does have a positive impact on both students’
civic knowledge and dispositions
— In many ways it became a great equalizer
— Requires a shift thinking about how children learn—a
shift towards a more technologically driven curricula
— Highly dependent on teacher’s engagement with and
implementation of the game in the classroom
— Professional development is key
— Successful implementation in classrooms, requires a
commitment from school district, state, and national
leaders

28. iCivics Symposium
Participating teachers and local area school district
representatives attended

29. Going Beyond the Games
— Teachers are crucial in making iCivics
— Powerful
— Authentic
— Integrative
— Meaningful
— Value Based
— Take 2 - Turn to a partner
— Content experts and community engagement

30. Learning Can be Fun…

31. The PDS Model
21st Century Learning
Strong Partnerships
Teaching for deep understanding
Teaching with Technology

32. Conclusions
Karon LeCompte, Assistant Professor
karon_lecompte@baylor.edu
Pat Sharp, Professor
pat_sharp@baylor.edu
Betty Ruth Baker, Assistant Professor
betty_ruth_baker@baylor.edu
Karen McDonald, Curriculum Specialist
kmcdonald@wacoisd.org