College, career, and civic readiness: Building school communities that prepare youth to thrive as 21^st century citizens

ABSTRACT

In the United States, advances in information technology and globalization present new social and political terrain for citizens to navigate. Preparing well-rounded young adults who are ready to meet the demands of citizenship in the 21^st century—thinking critically, communicating, collaborating, and creating—is an imperative function of education. Findings from this multiple case study of “positive outlier” schools, or those with better-than-expected graduation outcomes among youth with historically disparate rates, utilize practices that incorporate Positive Youth Development (PYD) and Deeper Learning (DL) strategies. PYD and DL facilitate students’ development of skills, abilities, and dispositions that define 21^st century citizenship. Though the schools in this study were selected for their better college and career preparation as measured by graduation outcomes, educators in positive outlier schools, in contrast to typically performing schools, emphasized student preparation for citizenship along with college and career preparation. The unique features of positive outlier schools include: commitment to pluralism, ethic of shared sacrifice and responsibility, community-directed critical thinking, and democratic school governance. For these schools, the college, career, and civic readiness replaced the exclusive college and career readiness paradigm.

KEYWORDS:

• Civic education
• civic preparation
• deeper learning
• positive youth development

Acknowledgments

A special thank you to district and school leaders, teachers, and support staff who generously gave their time to accommodate us at all positive outlier and typically performing schools. We also want to thank NYKids staff and research assistants (Fang Yu, Kelly Gross, Eva Jones, Effie McBride, Brian Rhode, Lisa Cala-Ruud, Rebecca Shea, Stacy Ward, and Mary Ann Zuccaro) for data collection and analysis support. This study would not have been possible without the analytical contributions of our co-investigator Kathryn Schiller, who assisted in all aspects of the research. Finally, we express appreciation to Aaron Leo for assisting in all aspects of this study.

Notes

1. More information about the New York State Department of Education’s Graduation Rate Database can be found at https://data.nysed.gov/downloads.php.

2. The New York State Department of Education defines as “those who, by reason of foreign birth or ancestry, speak or understand a language other than English and speak or understand little or no English, and require support to become proficient in English and are identified pursuant to Section 154.3 of Commissioner’s Regulations.” These students are also referred to as Limited English Proficient.

3. The New York State Department of Education defines economically disadvantaged students as “those who participate in, or whose family participates in, economic assistance programs, such as the free or reduced-price lunch programs, Social Security Insurance (SSI), Food Stamps, Foster Care, Refugee Assistance (cash or medical assistance), Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP), Safety Net Assistance (SNA), Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), or Family Assistance: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). If one student in a family is identified as low income, all students from that household (economic unit) may be identified as low income.”

4. More information can be found: https://ny-kids.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Methods-and-Procedures.cn_.hs_.study_.2018.Oct-FINAL.pdf.

5. It is important to note that throughout the findings, use of the word encompasses the variety of professionals who participated in the study (e.g., leaders, teachers, student support professionals, etc.)