The Civic Leadership Academy Curriculum

The curriculum is divided into three major components:

The Informed Citizen understands how state and local government works in Florida - who the players are, how government functions, and the important issues facing the state.

• The Informed Citizen component of the program seeks to teach students the core functions of state and local government in Florida and the basic policy issues facing the state. Emerging global forces are also considered along with the impact of increasing diversity. Students spend half of their classroom time becoming more informed citizens, focusing on the structure of Florida's government, the debates around Florida's most salient issues and the relationship between state and local government. Students complete in class exercises and use a reading packet assembled from the core textbooks on Florida government, news sources and government documents.

The Thoughtful Citizen understands how policy is formulated in the state and has the skills to engage in civil debates and discussions about the best course for the state to follow.

• The Thoughtful Citizen builds on the first part of the curriculum by going beyond a basic understanding of the policy issues facing Florida and examining how public policy is formulated. Students are challenged to understand the specific public policy issues facing Florida in greater depth and be able to discuss them in terms that would make sense to policy makers. Classroom time in The Thoughtful Citizen has more of a focus on discussion, simulations and debates that help students articulate their public policy ideas and defend them.

The Active Citizen has the practical tools and skills of effective policy advocacy; the abilities that are necessary to make ideas a reality.

• The Active Citizen seeks to give students the tools to make their voices heard. Unlike the other components of the curriculum, this section is not taught in the traditional sense with readings and classroom instruction. Rather, students hear from a variety of experts and complete workshops on practical skills that they can use to effect change in Florida. This may include such activities as giving a television interview, writing an Op-ed, briefing a member of the Legislature on an issue, working as a Legislative Assistant, lobbying techniques, ethics training and grassroots campaign skills. The Civic Leadership Academy goes beyond presenting these skills to the students by asking them to practice them as part of their culminating project, discussed below.

The Culminating Project

Students work in groups on a Culminating Project, designed to integrate the knowledge gained as Informed and Thoughtful citizens with the skills developed to become Active citizens. Each class decides as a whole on several public policy issues that they want to address, and then working in small groups they develop concrete policy proposals to address these issues. Each group researches and writes a full report on the public policy issue and presents their solution, in addition to developing a plan for how to best address the issue. Students develop supporting materials, such as Op-eds, and practice skills with mock interviews on their proposals or presentations to legislators. Each group presents their policy proposal to a group of practitioners at the end of the program and receives feedback on both their proposal and their ideas for making it into policy.

To view the complete program for last year's CLA, click here.