The Tufts Daily - Wednesday, March 24, 2021

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T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXXI, ISSUE 31

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

tuftsdaily.com

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Educating for American Democracy initiative releases roadmap to strengthen civic education by Ria Agarwal

Assistant News Editor

A team of 300 civic leaders and scholars involved in the Educating for American Democracy initiative, an unprecedented effort to improve and advise history and civics classes at all grade levels nationwide, recently released a roadmap and report of their findings. The materials aim to strengthen the nation’s civic education and create civically-engaged citizens during this period of heightened political polarization and inequality. The EAD project report was authored by the initiative’s executive committee, which includes scholars from various universities and organizations, including Kei KawashimaGinsberg and Peter Levine of Tufts. Kawashima-Ginsberg is the director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life and Levine is the associate dean of academic affairs and the Lincoln Filene professor of citizenship and public affairs at Tisch College. Tr u m b u l l Pr o f e s s o r of American History and Pforzheimer Foundation Director at Harvard University Jane Kamensky, who is also on the executive committee with Kawashima-Ginsberg and Levine, outlined multiple indications of the United States’ failing civic education standards in a livestreamed EAD national forum. “One indicator is that the 2018 Napes civics exam shows that less than a quarter of eighth-graders scored proficient or above in civics and that the

PATRICK MILEWSKI / THE TUFTS DAILY

West Hall is pictured reflected on the door to Tisch College at Barnum Hall on Feb. 21, 2020. history results were even worse: only 15% as proficient or above,” Kamensky said. She added that a further issue with civic education in the United States is the lack of investment. “We now invest about $50 a student each year in the important STEM fields, yet only five cents per student per year on civics,” Kamensky said. As a result, Kamensky highlighted how the current citizenry and electorate are poorly prepared to understand, appreciate and effectively engage in the

country’s demanding form of self-government. In response to these failing standards, the roadmap aims to strengthen the civic education of the United States and offers guidance for educators, scholars and legislators to effectively teach civics. The roadmap contains seven themes, including “civic participation,” “we the people,” “a new government and constitution” and “a people in the world.” Each of these themes consists of overarching questions and key concepts divided by grade level.

The roadmap is not a curriculum but an advisory framework with content guidance and educational strategies to help state and city governments improve civic education. Kawashima-Ginsberg explained how EAD’s work will be beneficial. “The main purpose of EAD is to envision a more bold and comprehensive civic preparation of all students in the United States, so that they have all the knowledge skills and disposition necessary to effectively participate in a democratic society,”

Kawashima-Ginsberg wrote in an email to the Daily. Louise Dubé, the executive director of iCivics and another member of the executive committee, echoed KawashimaGinsberg in the national forum. “We want 60 million students to have access to high quality history and civic learning opportunities, a million educators to be EAD ready and 100,000 schools to be civic ready by 2030,” Dubé said. Levine emphasized that, due to the decentralized nature of see DEMOCRACY, page 2

Somerville Human Rights Commission to spotlight immigrant restaurant owners in new project by Jack Maniaci

Assistant News Editor

The Somerville Human Rights Commission is planning the production of a video documenting the experiences of the city’s immigrant restaurant owners. Work on the project, which is called the “Immigrant Stories Project,” began at the commission’s supplemental meeting on March 3. Members of the commission delivered an update during a regularly scheduled meeting on March 17.

“[The project] would like to celebrate the enrichments given to the community, from the diversity brought from immigrants … to highlight their own stories, their backgrounds, but also in order to achieve a better understanding of how we as a community, and especially specifically from the Human Rights Commission, can be supportive of their needs and their challenges,” Human Rights Commission commissioner Lara Versari said at the March 17 meeting.

Much of the project’s work so far has focused on composing letters to the immigrant business owners. Sidd Pattanayak, the member of the commission who ideated the project, has written a preliminary draft that includes questions for restaurant owners as well as directions for how to contribute to the project. The draft of the letter that will be sent to restaurant owners reflects the Commission’s commitment to sharing the stories of immigrant business owners.

“The Commission’s purpose is to work towards achieving mutual respect and understanding among all individuals and groups in the City of Somerville, including the improvement of quality of public discourse,” the draft reads. Versari explained why this project is important to her. “I am mostly interested in inclusion and protection of the rights of immigrants and other minority communities,” Versari said.

FEATURES / page 3

ARTS / page 4

OPINION / page 7

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Space travel to perpetuate inequities, if we aren’t careful

Michael Henson, one of the commissioners of the Human Rights Commission, echoed Versari and reaffirmed his dedication to supporting the immigrant communities. The planned letter to immigrant business owners also reflects this passion, highlighting the Commission’s appreciation of Somerville’s diverse immigrant community. “We would like to showcase see COMMISSION, page 2 NEWS

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