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Letter to the Hon. Betsy DeVos, Secretary of the US Department of Education - Lewis, McCarthy Champion Civic Education for Students

Letter

By: Donald Young, Rick Crawford, Raul Grijalva, Doug LaMalfa, Jerry McNerney, Eric Swalwell, Devin Nunes, Julia Brownley, Tony Cárdenas, Karen Bass, Diana DeGette, Ed Perlmutter, Jahana Hayes, Neal Dunn, Kathy Castor, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Hank Johnson, Jr., Robert Aderholt, Tom O'Halleran, Greg Stanton, Paul Cook, Barbara Lee, Anna Eshoo, Mike Garcia, Adam Schiff, Ted Lieu, Alan Lowenthal, Jason Crow, Jim Himes, Lisa Blunt Rochester, Darren Soto, Alcee Hastings, Sr., Lucy McBath, Russ Fulcher, Danny Davis, André Carson, Thomas Massie, Dutch Ruppersberger, Jamie Raskin, Bill Huizenga, Andy Levin, Tom Emmer, Trent Kelly, Steven Palazzo, Donald Bacon, Don Payne, Jr., Deb Haaland, Steven Horsford, Thomas Suozzi, Grace Meng, Yvette Clarke, Adriano Espaillat, Paul Tonko, Brad Wenstrup, Bob Gibbs, Marcia Fudge, Steve Stivers, Peter DeFazio, Mary Scanlon, GT Thompson, Jr., Jim Langevin, David Kustoff, Michael McCaul, Bill Flores, Eddie Johnson, Dan Newhouse, Denny Heck, Mike Gallagher, Martha Roby, French Hill, Debbie Lesko, John Garamendi, Mark DeSaulnier, Ro Khanna, Kevin McCarthy, Judy Chu, Brad Sherman, Ken Calvert, Joe Neguse, John Larson, Eleanor Norton, Mike Waltz, Brian Mast, Sanford Bishop, Jr., Doug Collins, Robin Kelly, Susan Brooks, John Yarmuth, Jim McGovern, David Trone, Jack Bergman, Dan Kildee, Jim Hagedorn, Billy Long, Michael Guest, David Rouzer, Albio Sires, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Susie Lee, Pete King, Gregory Meeks, Hakeem Jeffries, Carolyn Maloney, Eliot Engel, Steve Chabot, Bob Latta, Mike Turner, Tim Ryan, Tom Cole, Dwight Evans, Guy Reschenthaler, David Cicilline, Chuck Fleischmann, Ron Wright, Randy Weber, Sr., Michael Burgess, Abigail Spanberger, Kim Schrier, Mark Pocan, Rob Woodall, Bobby Rush, Brad Schneider, Roger Marshall, Richard Neal, John Sarbanes, Chellie Pingree, John Moolenaar, Brenda Lawrence, Lacy Clay, Jr., Bennie Thompson, Greg Gianforte, Jeff Van Drew, Mikie Sherrill, Dina Titus, Lee Zeldin, Kathleen Rice, Nydia Velázquez, Jerry Nadler, José Serrano, John Katko, Joyce Beatty, Marcy Kaptur, Troy Balderson, Kevin Hern, Brian Fitzpatrick, Lloyd Smucker, Mike Kelly, Jr., Dusty Johnson, Steve Cohen, Mac Thornberry, Joaquin Castro, Rob Bishop, Derek Kilmer, Bryan Steil, Carol Miller
Date: July 17, 2020
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: K-12 Education

Dear Secretary DeVos:

We write in strong support of two grant applications submitted by the Center for Civic Education (the Center) for U.S. Department of Education Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) Program funding. These grants, which total $25.9 million over three years, would provide teacher professional development in the fields of elementary, middle, and high school civics and government across the country.

There is universal agreement that improving student outcomes in civics or any subject takes dedication, commitment, and perseverance. Educating America's youth --the next generation of leaders of our country --on the principles enshrined in our Nation's founding documents, including the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and the Bill of Rights is critical.

In 2015, the U.S Department of Education awarded the Center a multi-year SEED Program grant to fund a nationwide teacher professional development program in the fields of civics and government to increase student achievement in these subjects. It is our understanding that prior SEED Program grant funding allowed the Center to provide professional development to over 2,000 teachers. Teacher expertise, as research has consistently shown, is one of the most important factors in raising student achievement. Unfortunately, the Center's 2015 SEED Program grant funding is essentially exhausted.

For these reasons, the Center is applying for new SEED Program grants for its Strengthening Democracy in America (SDA): A Professional Development for Secondary School Teachers proposal, as well as its James Madison Constitutional Democracy Project (JMCDP) proposal. If funded, these two programs would build on the success of the Center's previous work that was funded through the 2015 SEED Program grant, allowing for continued evidence-based teacher professional development in civics and government to continue improving student outcomes in these subjects.

Specifically, the SDA proposal is designed to supplement the Center's evidence-based We the People professional development program with additional curricular materials for students and an online professional development program for middle school and high school teachers to promote responsible deliberation and principled responses to current issues in our Nation's representative democracy. The JMCDP proposal would continue to build the newly developed online professional development program, which was created under the Center's current SEED-2 funded James Madison Legacy Project, to provide 4th through 8th grade teachers with professional development in civics.

The Center estimates the SDA program will reach 1,500 middle school and high school teachers and increase the achievement of at least 117,900 students nationwide. The JMCDP program would likely reach more than 1,500 elementary school and middle school teachers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, benefitting over 90,000 students, according to the Center. Furthermore, the Center believes these updated proposals reflect an approach validated by numerous research studies and evaluations throughout the years, including a Georgetown University study that found the programs had significant positive outcomes, including greater improvement in middle and high school students' civic knowledge test scores.

We believe the Center's SEED Program applications for the SDA proposal and the JMCDP proposal are consistent with the intent and priorities for nationwide programs laid out in the Federal Register for this grant program.The applications also reflect congressional priorities as outlined in the Explanatory Statement accompanying the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (Public Law 113-235), which call for the SEED Program to support nationwide programs pertaining to civics education.

If awarded the SEED grants, the Center's proposed SDA and JMCDP programs would provide critical support for the training of a new corps of highly effective elementary school, middle school, and high school teachers of civics and government. It is of the utmost importance to give students the knowledge, skills, and dispositions they need to become competent and responsible citizens guided by a reasoned commitment to the fundamental values and principles of American democracy. Accordingly, we strongly support both of the Center's SEED grant applications and respectfully ask for your full and fair consideration of these proposals.


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