The Problem:

In September, 2006, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Justice Stephen Breyer chaired “Fair and Independent Courts: A Conference on the State of the Judiciary” at Georgetown University Law Center.  This conference brought together leaders from across the country to discuss increasingly vitriolic public attacks on the judiciary, and the threat that these attacks pose to judicial independence. During the conference, there was a striking degree of consensus regarding a root cause of the judiciary’s present difficulties: lack of effective civics education in our schools.  One outcome was a determination to address this deficiency.  

The evidence is clear–and should be profoundly disturbing: we are failing to impart to today's students the information and skills they need to be responsible citizens. A recent national survey conducted by the National Constitution Center (NCC), for example, demonstrated that more American teenagers

• could name three of the Three Stooges than can name the three branches of government (59% to 41%);
• know the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air than know the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (94.7% to 2.2%);
• know which city has the zip code "90210" than the city in which the U.S. Constitution was written (75% to 25%)

However, the news is not all bad.  In 2004 there was an increase of 9 percentage points in voters aged 18-29 from the 2000 election.  A recent Pew/Circle survey indicates that the 2008 election is shaping up to be another groundbreaking election year for young people participating in campaigns and at the polls. Politicians and entertainers are learning how to excite young people about politics and public affairs by speaking to them in their language and through their media about issues that they care about. Our Courts seeks to bring this approach to the educational arena in order to supply the next generation with the tools they will need for informed civic engagement and leadership.

The Project:

Justice O’Connor recruited experts in law, history, education and technology to develop Our Courts, a collaborative project of Arizona State University (ASU) and the Georgetown University Law Center.  In creating Our Courts, we considered the way 21st century students learn, the practical needs of teachers and schools, and what is missing from basic civics understanding.  The result is an online, interactive civics curriculum for middle school students that will be free to all users. None of the numerous civics curricula currently available successfully offers such interactive online activities with engaging multimedia features.  The first module for this curriculum will focus on the application of the First Amendment freedom of speech in schools, and will serve as an engaging introduction to legal reasoning and the judicial system.   A prototype of this module will be available in early 2009.