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Over the past decade, public attention on the importance of the civic development and education of youth has grown. To address these concerns, the East Bay Conservation Corps (EBCC) Charter School opened in 1996 with the explicit mission to prepare and engage students grades K through 12 as caring citizens who are capable and motivated to fully participate in our democracy. While content standards and assessments readily exist to articulate the academic and artistic development of students, youth civic development, especially at the elementary level, has been under-conceptualized. What is needed is a more robust, comprehensive developmental framework for citizenship education that begins with younger ages and addresses civic skills and dispositions to the same degree as civic knowledge. The product from this project is a set of tested, reliable measures of civic knowledge, civic thinking skills, civic participation skills and civic dispositions that are referenced to recent efforts to provide frameworks of competencies in civic education. Two sets of instruments were developed using a comprehensive conceptual framework for civic indicators at the elementary level. The measures include a student survey of student civic knowledge, skills and attitudes that relate to dispositions, which is the focus of this report; a set of corresponding grade level observation checklists of student skills and behaviors was also developed. Starting at a young age to foster developmental foundations for civic engagement includes a democratic orientation to others and identification with them as fellow members of a community and body politic. This focus is not only developmentally appropriate but also consistent with the goals of many elementary schools to foster prosocial skills and behaviors. In addition, there is a need for greater attention to age-appropriate, instrument identification and development for elementary aged students to document student civic development by focusing on what they can do, an important and often overlooked facet of K-12 civic education research and practice. Addressing this need will also assist other public elementary schools interested in recapturing their civic mission and in creating a K-12 developmental framework for civic development. Appended are: (1) Student Survey Used in National Pilot; (2) Student Observation Checklists for Grades K/1, 2/3 and 4/5; (3) Pearson Correlations between Scales; (4) Tests of Significance for Findings by Gender; (5) Tests of Significance for Findings by White and Non-White Subpopulations; and (6) Descriptive Statistics of Full National Sample. (Contains 3 figures.) [This Working Paper was produced by CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement). For CIRCLE Working Paper 46, see ED494037.]

The impact of the Conservation and Youth Services Corps on communities and program participants was evaluated by studying eight corps programs, which were located in the following areas: Washington State; New York City; Greater Miami, Florida; Santa Clara, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Camden County, New Jersey; Baltimore, Maryland; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Collectively, the 8 programs enrolled 2,382 participants (14% of all participants funded by the Commission on National and Community Service during the study period). Information collected through site visits and surveys of participants, sponsoring/host agencies, and service beneficiaries was used to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the programs and estimate their impacts on participants and the community. The programs' overall net monetary benefit to participants was estimated at $4.03 per service hour, whereas the net costs to the rest of society were estimated at $2.99 per service hour. Nearly 80% of program sponsors rated the quality of services provided by participants as good or excellent, and 69% of the program beneficiaries (including students, disadvantaged populations, senior citizens, and disabled individuals) rated the quality of work performed as good, very good, or excellent. The corps programs were found to have generally positive, albeit somewhat limited, impacts on program participants. (Fifteen tables/figures are included.) (MN)

To understand better the role a principal plays in the success or failure of a federal program, this study was conducted of the role of principals in Teacher Corps projects. An introductory chapter discusses the changing role of the principal in general and the role of the principal in change efforts and then more specifically discusses the emergent role of principals in Teacher Corps projects. Next comes a synthesis of case studies of four Teacher Corps projects and an analysis of factors affecting the role of principals in the projects, with implications for policy makers, project managers, and principals themselves. One appendix briefly describes the methodology for conducting the case studies and a cross-site analysis. The other consists of two commentary chapters written by experts in the fields of educational administration and school change who reviewed the case studies and synthesis chapter and, drawing on their own disciplinary perspective and experience, made recommendations for program improvement and training. A companion volume applies the lessons learned from this study to training materials for administrator inservice education. (Author/JM)

The ways in which principals have influenced or been influenced by four Teacher Corps projects are described and explained in case studies based on field interviews, observations, and a review of the documents produced in the course of the projects. The studies also provide the background both for an analysis of factors affecting the role of the principal and for the compilation of a user's manual for administrators and project staff. The studies were conducted in the second year of a five-year project lifespan. They report the observations of two-person teams who observed their assigned schools for a total of five days during two site visits. Within all four projects, the teams observed changes taking place in the organization, substantive direction, and distribution of authority. (Author/WD)