Tom Birmingham

Easthampton High Scores A National Educational Victory During The COVID-19 Pandemic

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by Tom Birmingham
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

This op-ed originally appeared in WGBH News.

Since COVID-19 arrived, the bad news seems unending and recently released scores for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) civics test were no exception. But thankfully, we have some fantastic news about civics education, and it comes from right here in Massachusetts.

This spring, Massachusetts’ Easthampton High School was crowned national champion in the “We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution” contest. The competition brings together about 1,200 students from across the country to answer civics questions based on America’s Founding Documents including the U.S. Constitution; The Federalist Papers; and U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

The Easthampton High School team, under the leadership of teacher Kelley Brown, won the state competition that was held in January at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Boston. Ordinarily, the students would have headed to the Washington, D.C. area to compete in the national finals.

But the COVID-19 pandemic intervened. Instead, the “We the People” finals were held via Zoom, with students participating from their homes.

None of this stopped Kelley Brown or her team. The competition requires painstaking preparation. Students prepare statements, work on oral presentations, and anticipate questions from the judges, who include academics, lawyers, and state supreme court judges. All the while, Brown coordinated a team that was working online from disparate locations across their small city.

All that effort earned Brown and the Easthampton team the 2020 national championship.

I was pleased and fortunate to play a role in co-authoring Massachusetts’ 1993 Education Reform Act. One of the provisions of the law that I’m most proud of is the requirement that the Commonwealth’s students study our nation’s Founding Documents, as well as state and national history.

The Founding Fathers saw public education as the means for teaching students to become active citizens in American democracy, and civics is the most central expression of that mission.

But as the recent NAEP scores show, civics has hit upon hard times in American public education. For years, “We the People” received federal funding, but that ended in 2011 and it now relies entirely on private donations.

Here, retired Millbury High School social studies teacher and “We the People” statewide coordinator Roger Desrosiers and his late wife Claudette have served as Massachusetts’ first family of civic education, by keeping this vital program together body and soul in the Bay State.

Today, as the nation seems hopelessly polarized and long-accepted tenets of American democracy are being challenged, the decline of civics education is becoming even steeper. This is especially true during COVID-19.

That’s what makes the work of “We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution” and Easthampton’s success more important than ever. The program isn’t just a competition. It includes an academically rigorous curriculum about the history and principles of our constitutional republic, as well as congressional-style hearings that keep students and teachers engaged. Since it began in 1987, over 30 million students and 75,000 educators have participated.

Anyone who believes American history is the civic wellspring of our country should applaud this program’s indispensable teachers and students for promoting the ideals of constitutionalism and self-government.

This year, I’m particularly proud to congratulate Kelley Brown and her students at Easthampton High School for overcoming the worst pandemic in a century and emerging as national champions of the “We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution” contest.

 

Get Our COVID-19 News, Tips & Resources!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

 

As COVID-19 Emergencies Ease, Some Progress on Telehealth Rules

A new report from Reason Foundation, Cicero Institute and Pioneer Institute rates every state’s telehealth policy for patient access and ease of providing virtual care. The report highlights telehealth policy best practices for states.

Khan Academy’s Sal Khan & ASU Prep Digital’s Amy McGrath on the Khan World School @ ASU Prep

This week on “The Learning Curve," Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Sal Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy, and Amy McGrath, the Chief Operating Officer of ASU Prep and Deputy Vice President of ASU Educational Outreach.

Pandemic Dead Reckoning: Unseen Casualties of Public Health Interventions

Hubwonk host Host Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute’s Senior Fellow Dr. Bill Smith about new evidence that during the past two years of the pandemic, there were as many unseen excess deaths from non-Covid-related diseases as seen from Covid. They discuss the need for public health leaders to pivot their messaging to address this hidden mortality.

Why the jump in non-COVID deaths?

The Wall Street Journal echoes our warning about the rise of non-COVID-related deaths.

Mandate’s Constitutional Collision: Court Offers Civics Lesson with Vaccine Rulings

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with Cato Institute Vice President Ilya Shapiro about the recent Supreme Court vaccine mandate rulings and what they tell us about the limits of executive branch power and the sitting justices’ views on the guidance of the U.S. Constitution.

How did COVID impact Massachusetts’ long-term care facilities?

Pioneer Institute has filed a Public Records Act request related to COVID's impact on Massachusetts’ long-term care facilities because the Institute believes this is a matter of obvious importance, both on principle (the public has a right to know the facts), and for purposes of evaluating – and where possible improving – public policy. 

Massachusetts Telehealth Report Card: Are We Embracing Disruption for Better Quality of Care?

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Senior Fellow in Healthcare Josh Archambault about his newest research paper, produced with the Cicero Institute and the Reason Foundation, on states' success in implementing telehealth to improve healthcare outcomes. They discuss how Massachusetts has used remote medicine to better reach patients and serve their needs.

Am I Contagious? Divining Covid’s Community Conundrum

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with Alva10 CEO and precision medicine expert Hannah Mamuszka about which tests are best for determining who is contagious and the implications for the CDC’s new isolation recommendations.