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FCSS members collaborate on a civic education grant: Project Educating Learners to Engage in Civics Today (ELECT)

$2,040,147.00 Civic Education - Improve Public Knowledge of and Support for Democracy CFDA 84.304C grant was just awarded to the Hillsborough County Public Schools through the efforts of the Tampa Bay Educational Partnership (comprised of the David C. Anchin Center/University of South Florida College of Education and the Hillsborough County Public Schools) for Project Educating Learners to Engage in Civics Today (ELECT).  Project ELECT was one of three funded projects sponsored by the United States Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.  Project ELECT received the highest reviewer’s scores in the nation and was awarded over 70% of the total available funding.

Project ELECT is based on the premise that exemplary civics education, which includes an understanding of the U.S. Congress and state legislatures, produces knowledgeable adults who confidently participate in the democratic process.  A major goal of Project ELECT is to actively engage minority students in civic education in order to break the pattern of voter disenfranchisement that currently exists among minority adults in Hillsborough County. To that end, culturally competent instructional strategies will be infused throughout the civic education professional development. Moreover, lessons in cybercitizenship will address the problematic aspects of Internet use and enhance critical skills for managing the information in a digital age.

Principal Investigator, Dr. Michael J. Berson, Professor of Social Science Education, and Project Director, Dennis Holt, Supervisor of Secondary Social Studies, will be joined by past and present politicians throughout the state of Florida. Other partners on the grant include Dr. Peter Levine, Director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Education (CIRCLE); Dr. Mohsen M. Milani, Professor and Chair of the Department of Government & International Affairs with a team of other faculty from his program; and Dr. Phillip J. VanFossen,  James F. Ackerman Professor of Social Studies Education and Director, The James F. Ackerman Center for Democratic Citizenship. The project evaluation team will be led by Dr. Bruce Jones, Anchin Endowed Professor & Director, David C. Anchin Center & Associate Dean for Research with Dr. Liliana Rodriguez-Campos, Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Measurement & Research. Co-Principal Investigator, Dr. Donna Elam, Associate Director for Program Development and External Affairs, David C. Anchin Center will provide formal training in the area of cultural competence and responsive leadership along with former state senator and democratic minority leader Les Miller, Jr.