WyoPCE supports civic education efforts

Individual efforts to promote civic education in the state’s K-12 schools have a new ally in their goals to raise awareness and participation, the Wyoming Partnership for Civic Education (WyoPCE).

Jointly sponsored by the UW College of Education and the UW American Heritage Center (AHC), WyoPCE is designed to support existing civic education programs, facilitate new educational opportunities for K-12 students and their teachers, and foster collaboration between stakeholders with similar goals. It also offers the promise of expanded access to the AHC’s vast archives.

Carol Bryant, associate professor of secondary education, and Mark Greene, AHC director, lead WyoPCE. Kristi Wallin (MA ’92, counselor education) serves as its part-time coordinator. A $15,000 grant from the Constitutional Rights Foundation provided start-up funds for the program’s first two years. During that period, work centered on reaching out to organizers of existing programs (e.g., Youth for Justice, Mock Trial, and We the People) to explore ways to support their efforts.

“These were all alive and well – in isolated pockets – in Wyoming,” according to Bryant. “But there wasn’t always the ability to get the information to schools, to make it as strong as it could be.”

Wyoming joins a growing number of states providing coordination for civics education. After learning that support might be available to establish an effort in the state, representatives of several stakeholder groups met at the Wyoming Supreme Court Building to begin developing a vision of what eventually became the WyoPCE. At the table during early conversations were representatives from the Colleges of Education and Law, the Wyoming Department of Education, the Wyoming Supreme Court, the Wyoming Bar Association, the Wyoming Legislature, public schools, the Secretary of State’s Office and the Governor’s Office.

A $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education will allow WyoPCE’s first significant expansion over the next three years. With the new funds comes increased capacity that takes on multiple forms, Wallin says. Among the initiatives funded by the grant: a series of lesson plans developed by College of Education faculty that incorporate digitized material not readily available to schools in the past; expanding WyoPCE’s summer workshop in Laramie, launched in 2004, to two days; offering a workshop in the northwest part of the state; increasing online access to AHC collections; and creation of fellowships for K-12 teachers, two per year, to support research leading to creation of civics lessons based on primary sources located at the AHC.

“ Everything we do has that civics class in mind,” Wallin explains. “How can we help the teacher be better? How can we reach the students in a way that’s meaningful for them?”

As organizational groundwork proceeds, WyoPCE continues to build support for classroom teachers and their students via its second Summer Workshop for Civics Education. That event expands to two days in 2005, focusing on state government. Civics and social studies teachers attending the workshop will participate in tracks featuring the executive, legislative and judicial branches. Experts from each area are developing and delivering the workshop curriculum. Highlighting the 2005 program: the invitation and anticipated participation of all five of Wyoming’s elected officials.

WyoPCE’s programs offer potential to benefit pre-service teachers as well as professionals already in the classroom, according to Bryant. One of those benefits: easier access to the expanding pool of digitized materials from the AHC’s collections as they prepare for classroom careers and develop their individual teaching philosophies. Exposure to new resources will expand tools available for their student teaching experience and offer new ways to impact the lives of children.

Ultimately, contributing to an educated citizenry is the goal WyoPCE.

“If we can get one 18-year-old to make an informed vote, then it’s worth it,” Wallin says.

WyoPCE supports civic education efforts

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