The Philadelphia Public School Notebook is a nonprofit news service that often breaks regional educational news and provides interesting commentary about educational issues that extend beyond the Delaware Valley.

Read Marc’ commentary at the following link:

http://thenotebook.org/blog/125418/why-students-should-have-voice-in-school-reform

Marc was a founding social studies teacher at Constitution High School in Philadephia. He is now pursuing a doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies and teaches pre-service teachers at Temple University. Brasof is also the National Constitution Center’s Education Fellow and on the Pennsylvania Council for Social Studies’ Board of Directors.

Jeb Bush at the National Constitution Center announcement

“I am honored to have this opportunity and am humbled to follow in the footsteps of my beloved father, President George H.W. Bush, who first exemplified to me what it means to be a good citizen and to uphold the ideals expressed within the U.S. Constitution,” said Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida from 1999-2007.  “The National Constitution Center’s mission to improve civic education and engagement and inspire active citizenship is filling a critical void in our country.  I will do my best to advance the Center’s mission and continue the vision set forth by President Clinton’s leadership these last three years.”

“It has been a great honor to serve as the Center’s Board Chairman for the past three years, and I couldn’t be more pleased that Governor Bush will lead this world-class museum into the future,” said President Clinton.  “Governor Bush will be an eloquent spokesman for the Center’s mission and will work well with all of the Center’s supporters regardless of party.”

“In the tradition of the Center’s extraordinary leaders, Governor Bush will be integral in advancing the museum’s Strategic Plan, expanding our community of supporters, and continuing to raise our national profile,” said Doug DeVos, Chairman of the Center’s Executive Committee.  “As someone who has carried on the legacy of active citizenship set forth by our Founding Fathers, Governor Bush embodies the Center’s core values.”

“Governor Bush’s dedication to education and civic engagement is directly aligned with the National Constitution Center’s mission of illuminating constitutional ideals and inspiring active citizenship,” said Vince Stango, Interim President and CEO.  “As we build a world-class museum experience, a national town hall for constitutional discourse, and a top-notch civic education hub for students and teachers, Governor Bush’s leadership will guide us to an exciting, thriving future.”

“The Center’s Board represents a broad spectrum of political views, and Governor Bush’s unanimous election reflects his appeal across party lines,” said Governor Edward G. Rendell, Vice Chairman of the Center’s Board of Trustees.  “We look forward to welcoming him as an engaged leader and an active participant in museum affairs.”

Described by The Washington Post as a “successful two-term governor, with a record of reform and an inclusive attitude when it comes to courting voters and governing,” Jeb Bush was elected Florida’s 43rd Governor in 1998, and was reelected in 2002, making him the only Republican in Florida history to be reelected as governor.  He has been hailed by President Obama as a “champion of education reform” and a member of a family that “exemplifies public service.”

Prior to serving as Governor, Bush worked in various positions at Texas Commerce Bank in Houston, Texas and Caracas, Venezuela.  He also was Secretary of Commerce for the State of Florida from 1987 to 1988.  He co-authored Profiles in Character, a book describing 14 of Florida’s civic heroes – people making a difference without claiming a single news headline.

Since 2007, Bush has served as President of the consulting firm Jeb Bush and Associates.

He formed the Foundation for Florida’s Future, a not-for-profit public policy organization, and the Foundation for Excellence in Education, a not-for-profit charitable organization.  He and his wife Columba live in Miami and have three grown children.

The National Constitution Center is the first and only nonprofit, nonpartisan institution devoted to the most powerful vision of human freedom ever expressed: the U.S. Constitution.  Located on Independence Mall in Historic Philadelphia, the birthplace of American freedom, the Center illuminates constitutional ideals and inspires active citizenship through a state-of-the-art museum experience, including hundreds of interactive exhibits, films and rare artifacts; must-see feature exhibitions; the internationally acclaimed, 360-degree theatrical production Freedom Rising; and the iconic Signers’ Hall, where visitors can sign the Constitution alongside 42 life-size, bronze statues of the Founding Fathers.  As America’s forum for constitutional dialogue, the Center engages diverse, distinguished leaders of government, public policy, journalism and scholarship in timely public discussions and debates.  The Center also houses the Annenberg Center for Education and Outreach, the national hub for constitutional education, which offers cutting-edge civic learning resources both onsite and online.  Freedom is calling.  Answer it at the National Constitution Center.  For more information, call 215.409.6700 or visit www.constitutioncenter.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACTS:    Ashley Berke                 Lauren Saul

Director of Public Relations                 Public Relations Manager

215.409.6693                                          215.409.6895
aberke@constitutioncenter.org lsaul@constitutioncenter.org

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Channel One, the education media service, ran the elaborate polls in 1992, 2000, 2004, and 2008, and the middle- and high-school students picked Bill Clinton, George Bush (twice), and Barack Obama correctly.

The students and teachers involved in the OneVote project aren’t taking a simple straw poll.

Students across the country are filling out ballots this week, which are vetted in the classroom by their teachers. The educators file the votes on the OneVote website. Voting ends at 10 p.m. ET on Friday.

A team at OneVote then looks at polling patterns to make sure there aren’t any irregularities.

The final results will be listed at onevote.channelone.com.

It’s unknown if political pollsters and the campaigns will slice and dice the OneVote results like they examine political tracking polls.

But OneVote could be a window into the future of voting, since all the votes are submitted electronically after the students fill our paper ballots (no hanging chads here).

The OneVote project also mimics other institutions in the mainstream voting world. Teams of students work on videos throughout the fall, which classes watch as students prepare to research issues.

The candidates have student “surrogates” who write about their parties, and there will be a post-election spin room where the results are argued about and analyzed.

The results from past elections, though, varied greatly from this year’s election.

For example, in 2000, Bush won the student election with 58.9 percent of the 877,497 middle- and high-school students who voted. The biggest issue to students then was crime and violence.

In 2004, Bush won again with 55 percent out of 1.4 million student votes. He even won Pennsylvania and had a near sweep of the swing states.

In 2008, Obama had a big win with 58.5 percent of the student vote, according to OneVote’s press release. The economy was the biggest issue, followed by the war in Iraq.

Currently, the economy is the biggest issue on students’ minds, based on survey data from OneVote.

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For the past week, we’ve been asking readers our website and on partner sites like Yahoo!, Philly.com, and CoverItLive to take the 10-question test as part of Constitution Week.

The results are in, and over 11,000 people took the quiz. And the average grade was a 70.3 percent, which comes out to a C- on a traditional grading scale.

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The 10 questions ranged from easy to somewhat difficult, but most topics were very basic civics questions that are–or should be–covered in schools.

For example, we asked where the Constitutional Convention was held in 1787 and how old a person must be to run for president. Most people answered those two questions correctly, but they weren’t the questions with the most correct answers.

A full 96 percent of test takers knew that the Fifth Amendment protected people from self-incrimination. About 85 percent knew the Constitutional Convention was in Philadelphia, and 87 percent knew a presidential candidate needed to be 35 years of age.

The worst response was about who was the first person to sign the Constitution. Only 30 percent knew it was George Washington.

Only 45 percent of people knew James Madison drafted the Bill of Rights, while 40 percent incorrectly guessed it was Thomas Jefferson.

Another 40 percent of test takers had to guess, also incorrectly, about the basic rights in the First Amendment, will 33 percent failed when it came to the president’s role in the amendment process.

And there were some areas where people knew their history. About 79 percent knew about the Federalist Papers and 81 percent understood the Articles of Confederation preceded the Constitution.

But only 73 percent of people could name the number of amendments in the Bill of Rights.

Of the 11,394 people who took the quiz as of Tuesday morning, about 98 percent were in the United States.

Results from Constitution Daily’s Constitution Basics Quiz

At least Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, wasn’t wearing a Boston Celtics jersey during his appearance in West Philadelphia, a section of the city that is beset with economic and education problems.

But given his welcome from local Democratic leaders, it wouldn’t have mattered.

Romney had heavy security and the block surrounding a charter school where he spoke was cut off from the public.

Kenny Gamble, the famous music producer who is associated with the charter school, told Romney that despite his record for improving education in Massachusetts, Romney had a lot to learn in Philadelphia.

“Governor, you’ve got to go back and remember how the whole concept of education has failed. You go back a few years, even in Boston, when they were trying to integrate schools and they had young black children going to white neighborhoods and they were throwing eggs at the little black children, spitting on them, calling them all kinds of names, Gamble said.

Outside, prominent local Democrats Michael Nutter, the city’s mayor, and Seth Williams, its district attorney, chided Romney in front of protesters in a heavily Democratic city battling with a GOP-controlled state legislature.

“I don’t know that a one-day experience in the heart of West Philadelphia is enough to get you ready to run the United States of America,” Nutter said.

Inside the school, Romney debated the merits of class size with some of the educators invited to a  private meeting.

The event was unusual in that Romney chose to appear in an area where he’s expected to get few votes this fall.

He also spoke with students inside the school and took part in some classroom activities.

After the event,  the AP reported that Gamble was asked if he thought Romney understood the black community.

“I don’t know yet,” Gamble replied.

Question: Tell us your name, title, and how you came to be at the Rock Hall?

Henke: Vice President of Exhibitions and Chief Curator at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, and it’s my 19th year at the museum. I was music editor at Rolling Stone magazine during most of 80s and 90s.

Henke (right) with National Constitution Center President and CEO David Eisner.

Question: When was the first time you met Bruce Springsteen?

Henke: At the 1988 Amnesty International Human Rights Now tour. I wrote a book about the tour, and spent six weeks on the road and got to know Bruce. Bruce’s manager, John Landau, was a writer and worked at Rolling Stone, his wife worked there, too.

Question: How did the Springsteen exhibition at the Rock Hall come to be?

Henke: In late 2008 they were looking for new exhibit…we got in touch with Landau and they took the idea to Bruce. Essentially Bruce was into it and agreed. Bruce got personally involved. He had saved a lot of stuff over the years, and basically had a warehouse. Bruce has a table where he wrote 90% of his songs and Bruce thought it should be in the exhibit. One day we got an email from Toby Scott, his recording engineer, letting us know that Bruce wanted us to have the Esquire guitar from Born to Run…Bruce took it from a good exhibit to a really great exhibit.

Question: Can you briefly describe the thought behind the thematic layout of the exhibit and why you made some of the choices you did?

Henke: It starts chronologically with family photos…pretty rare pictures of him as a child…for example, there’s a photo of his first communion from the Catholic church in New Jersey.

You can see the progression of bands that Bruce played in before the E Street Band was formed. He joined the Castilles when he was 14 years old and there is a set list from one of their shows, handbills, flyers, etc. He recorded two songs that were never released…there’s an acetate of what would of been the record had it come out. There are a lot of unreleased songs in this exhibit.

There are handwritten lyrics from the first two albums, lyric manuscripts. It is interesting to see how things change, track listings of songs you never heard of that didn’t make it on the album.

The second part is the tour section, includes outfits from various tours, different stage items, programs, ticket stubs.

In the songwriting section, you’ll see that as he progresses he’ll write the song from start to finish, then when you page through he’ll go back and re-write from top to bottom.

There are awards and personal items: the Oscar for “Streets of Philadelphia,” Grammy Awards, a beautiful lips award from Blistex because he had the “bossest lips,” the Kennedy Center Arts Awards.

Bruce is very active in keeping the exhibit up to date.

The last section contains Bruce’s guitars, like the Fender Esquire, the two he played during the Seeger Sessions tour, and the guitar he played on “Nebraska.”

Question: It may seem a like a big switch to have this exhibit come from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to the National Constitution Center; can you explain why you think Springsteen is a good fit here?

Henke: I thought it made sense on a few levels, geographically in the area where he grew up, where his roots are, and the music makes him an archetypal American…Springsteen says that he tries to sing about the American dream.

Question: Now, wearing your recording academy hat, I’m wondering what role you think music plays in affecting public opinion on current issues?

Henke: Rock and roll captured this huge audience…the music became a big part of people’s lives, and people like Springsteen can effect public opinion. He’s supported Presidential candidates. There is a poster from 1972 when Bruce played a benefit for [George] McGovern. He has always been politically active and you can see that from his actions as well as his music. It does ultimately have an impact…it brings issues to a broader audience.

Question: What is Bruce’s greatest contribution to recorded music?

Henke: He is one of the most dramatic live performers, few can match him on stage. But what makes the difference is his songwriting, his lyrics. He grew up in average working-class type family, and he didn’t have a lot of money, but he worked hard. He writes about the working class America, what it is to have dreams and try to live out those dreams. He does have an American touch and its very thoughtful songwriting, and touches on a lot of things related to life in America.

Every Friday throughout the run of From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen, we will publish dedicated content inspired by Bruce Springsteen and the First Amendment. “Freedom of Expression Fridays” will feature unique and original posts by staff writers, musicians, visual artists, and more, with a focus on a range of issues including protest, dissent, and the role of art in politics and political campaigns.

Each week, Ryan Seacrest proudly boasts of the “over 40 million votes” viewers cast for the American Idol finalists. And this number will surely increase as this season’s finals progress. People of all ages are excited – we’re talking about American Idol in schools, with our neighbors and at the water coolers. We care. We’re engaged. We vote. We’re involved. But when it comes to voting in elections for those that will lead our communities, our states and our country, we’re uninterested.

This week, the National Constitution Center released the Pennsylvania Civic Health Index, an annual report measuring a number of civic habits including voting, volunteering, and community connectedness. The study is a partnership with the Center for Democratic Deliberation at Penn State University and the National Conference on Citizenship.

Taken collectively, the behaviors highlighted in the report indicate how well we’re preserving our republic – the citizen-centered democracy our founders envisioned. And the news isn’t great.

Even with a pivotal presidential primary election nearing on April 24 and the 2012 presidential campaign in full swing, the Civic Health Index reveals that Pennsylvania’s citizens are less politically engaged than citizens in virtually every other part of the country. In fact, Pennsylvania ranks dead last in the nation in the percent of citizens who talk frequently about politics with friends and family. Compared with other states, Pennsylvania ranks 33^rd in voter registration, and 35^th in voter turnout. As a state, we’re faced with a challenging political engagement deficit.

Pennsylvania is the birthplace of American democracy, and the foundation of our republic is active citizen participation. Perhaps, if Ryan Seacrest were running for president, we’d be more inclined to show up at the polls. But given the current state of our economy, rising unemployment rates, decreasing graduation rates and important policy debates over health care, foreign policy and immigration, We the People have a critical role to play in our communities and our nation as a whole.

The Civic Health Index is a rallying cry for all citizens to get engaged and get involved. And to prove that yes, we can talk about voting for something other than American Idol.

Alison Young is the Vice President of Public Engagement at the National Constitution Center.

President Obama's 2012 State of the Union address. Photo via Pete Souza/whitehouse.gov

News headlines, politicians, and hot-button issues come and go, but one 225-year-old document continues to emerge in our conversations about our nation’s most important questions and challenges: the Constitution. The Constitution is a big buzzword for Election 2012, and more than ever, citizens, pundits, and politicians are turning to the Constitution for answers–and sometimes ammunition, as they try to prove the Constitution is on their side.

Here’s a brief look at the top constitutional news stories and commentaries from this week.

1. The Constitution and… Abortion

Jan. 22 marked the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court case that legalized abortion on the grounds of privacy. The Obama administration issued a statement affirming the decision, while others voiced their disapproval–for various reasons.

2. The Constitution and… the State of the Union

On Jan. 24, as prescribed in Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution, President Obama gave his State of the Union address. What do you think about Obama’s plans for the year?

3. The Constitution and… Civility

On Jan. 25, the photo of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer waving her finger at a frowning President Obama went viral. Both Brewer and Obama have tried to downplay the encounter. At least the dispute prompted some thoughtful commentary, like this NPR piece, on the state of civility in politics.

4. The Constitution and… Supreme Court Nominations

Hendrick Hertzberg praised the idea of instituting 18-year terms, staggered every two years, for Supreme Court justices. (Read more at The New Yorker.)

5. The Constitution and… High School Dropouts

Writer Sam Chaltain said “Not so fast” to Obama’s State of the Union proposal to require kids to finish high school. (Read more at SamChaltain.com.)

Holly Munson is Assistant Editor of Constitution Daily, the blog of the National Constitution Center.

Photo by Bartmoni via Wikimedia Commons

Social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and YouTube have made it simple for users to immediately publish content to connect and communicate with people all over the world. A recent report published by Pew Research Center reported that over 93% of teenagers go online and 73% of online teens use social networking sites. But the public is struggling to balance this newfound freedom of expression with the necessity to keep students safe. There is a growing plethora of cases regarding students’ use of social networking sites to bully others, publicly express their grievances about a particular teacher and/or grade, coordinate fights, set up accounts in order to pose as someone else, and publish lewd photos of themselves and others. These issues and others have led to the disruption of the school environment and, in some cases, teenage suicide.

On the other hand, social networking sites have led to a series of important developments for education. Social networking sites have become an avenue for connecting students from all over the globe, building relationships and communities faster and more effectively than any other medium. Social networking sites have been extremely useful for keeping students informed about current events and politics as well as encouraging and facilitating civic and political activism. Social networking sites have also become a channel for personal expression, making it possible to create positive self-images–a challenge for many teenagers.

The nature of online speech has refocused the debate over students’ protected speech at school, raising the question of whether school officials may discipline students for online speech published off-campus. In this new electronic world in which geographic boundaries are unclear, what is the difference between inside and outside the “schoolhouse gates?” The general rule that many courts have upheld in practice is that students can be disciplined for activities that happen outside of school if the school can prove the activities were disruptive or posed a danger, and that it was foreseeable the activities would find their way to campus. Some civil rights advocates worry about instances when out-of-school, online student behavior does not disrupt the learning environment and yet students are still censored, even reprimanded. What is the line between censoring disruptive behavior and protecting students’ fundamental right to freedom of expression? Do your school’s cyberspace policies strike the right balance between censorship and expression?

Where is the line between censoring disruptive behavior and preserving a student’s fundamental right to freedom of expression? Students themselves will debate the issue, face-to-face and online in a Nov. 30 Exchange program originating from the National Constitution Center @1pm. For more information about the program or take part in this on-line, click here

Grab a seat at the table as we talk turkey! Everyone who loves to eat loves Thanksgiving, so join us as we take a look at what this holiday is all about. Learn the real story of the first Thanksgiving, and find out more about the American Indians who were living in what is now New England. We’ll learn about what kinds of foods our early Thanksgiving dinners did and didn’t have, and discover how the day was made a national holiday during the Civil War. And we’ll check out the background of our favorite Thanksgiving traditions—we’ll even talk a little football! So bring your appetite for knowledge and join us as we explore the History of Thanksgiving!