High School Capstone Project

Participation in government and in our communities is fundamental to the success of American democracy[1]. Students choose to complete the Civic Readiness Capstone project to demonstrate their readiness to make a positive difference in the public life of their communities through the applied combination of civic knowledge, skills and actions, mindset, and experiences.  Through this project, students will apply knowledge and skills they have learned through their P-12 Social Studies education, as well as other subject areas. 

In this Civic Readiness Capstone project, students will:

• Identify a civic issue (problem) facing them, their school, or their community.

• Analyze a civic issue (problem), evaluate alternative solutions, design and/or execute a solution for this problem.

• Take informed action to address the civic issue.

• Reflect on what they have learned about their school or community from the Capstone project.

• Make a presentation about their Civic Readiness Capstone project.

1Based on the New York State Social Studies Practices, Grades 9-12, the New York State Performance Level Descriptors for the Global History & Geography II and the U.S. History & Government Regents exam, the NYSED Definition of Civic Readiness, and the American Association of Colleges and University VALUE Rubric for Civic Engagement.

High School Civic Readiness Capstone projects completed for the Seal of Civic Readiness include these essential elements based on the definition of Civic Readiness: 

Participation in government and in our communities is fundamental to the success of American democracy6 . Students choose to complete the Civic Readiness Capstone project to demonstrate their readiness to make a positive difference in the public life of their communities through the applied combination of civic knowledge, skills and actions, mindset, and experiences. Through this project, students will apply knowledge and skills they have learned through their P-12 Social Studies education, as well as other subject areas.

 In this Civic Readiness Capstone project, students will:

 ● Identify a civic issue (problem) facing them, their school, or their community 

● Analyze a civic issue (problem), evaluate alternative solutions, design and/or execute a solution for this problem. 

● Take informed action to address the civic issue. 

● Reflect on what they have learned about their school or community from the Capstone project. 

● Make a presentation about their Civic Readiness Capstone project 

• Organizing students to meet with the school principal to present petitions about changing school rules

• Meeting with local legislators to lobby for a change in local laws

• Organizing and participating in a debate

• Writing editorials or creating social media campaigns to raise awareness about a local issue such as a transportation desert

• Organizing a campaign to raise awareness of mental health support systems that might be available at a school or school district

• Starting a sustainable community garden for a school or community.

• Inform high school principals and teachers of their desire to provide high school students with civic learning opportunities. At most high schools, an expressed willingness to serve often leads to an invitation to serve.

• Inform high school students, their parents, teachers, and administrators about upcoming high quality civic learning opportunities. Often, such opportunities are missed for no other reason than lack of notice.

• Find someone willing to help oversee the implementation of civic learning opportunities. There are so many available today that teachers simply don’t have the time to oversee their implementation.

• Find someone willing to serve as a tutor/mentor/coach for students working on civic learning opportunities. In most instances, this does not have to be a teacher. The fact is that most high quality civic learning opportunities today permit someone other than a teacher to tutor/mentor/coach the students. Better yet, many of these opportunities require no in-class seat time. They are increasingly structured to permit a tutor/mentor/coach to work with students away from school, in some cases even remotely, via Google Docs.

• Create an award for a teacher (other than a social studies teacher) who provides high school students with quality civic learning opportunities.

• Create an award and/or scholarship for a senior who has engaged in a large number of civic learning opportunities.

Each district can develop their own, however the state did released this as a jumping off point.  It just needs to include all the required elements of the project (ie. research, analyzing data, taking informed action, etc.)  You do not need to get state approval for anything, they use a model of local decision making. (Though you can get audited to keep people accountable)

PROJECTS:

1. Project: Anti-litter Measures for Brookhaven Town 

2. Project: Writing grants to improve youth sports and music participation 

3. Project: Removing School Identifiers from Parking Stickers 

SOURCE: Unpacking the  Civic Readiness Manual and  Voices from the Field.PPTX

RUBRICS:

NYSED Civic Engagement Value (HS Capstone) Rubric

H.S. Capstone Project Pilot School Lesson & Resources 

Considerations: Use this Tool to help your committee ->  (Tool- Issues to Tackle)

• How will you structure the facilitation of the project? 

• How will it be graded?  What will the rubric include? 

• What is the seal to students? How can we motivate students to want to try to achieve the seal?

• How can we create a schedule that gives students more time to do meaningful research? 

• How can the taking action piece be authentic, relevant and meaningful?  

• Should students work in groups or individually? 

• Would it be beneficial to create a bank of final projects to show students before they begin? 

• In what ways will this project demonstrate the rigor merited for students to earn 4 points towards the seal of civic readiness? 

• How will we create the opportunity for students to present to an authentic audience?

NYSED Suggested Ideal Circumstances:

What are the ideal circumstances for implementation of a Civic Readiness Capstone Project?

• Ideally, the Civics Capstone Project is completed in a course that is dedicated solely or partially to this project - i.e., a semester or trimester course dedicated to the Civics Capstone Project

• Ideally, students are matched with faculty advisors or mentors to help them present the Civics Capstone Project to the Civic Readiness Committee at a midpoint evaluation for feedback

• Ideally, students present their civics capstone project to the School’s Civics Readiness Committee at the end of the course

• Students partner with community organizations or community leaders to take action