Civitas-Russia: An International Civic Education Exchange Program

Civitas is administered by the Center for Civic Education and funded by the U.S. Department of Education under the Education for Democracy Act approved by the United States Congress. The program is implemented worldwide in cooperation with the United States Department of State.

U. S. National Partners

American Federation of Teachers Educational Foundation, Washington, D.C.

Council for Citizenship Education, Russell Sage College, Troy, New York

School of Education, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts

Maryland We the People. Program

Russia National Partners

Russian Association for Civic Education, Moscow

Uchitelskaya Gazeta (Teachers Newspaper of Russia), Moscow

Grazhdanin (Citizenship) Training Center, Moscow

Civitas@Russia Office, Moscow

Samara Center for Civic Education

St. Petersburg Law Institute

Civitas-Russia was established in 1995 as a U.S.-Russian partnership in civic education. Today, it is one of the largest coalitions of civic education programs and organizations in Russia. Its components in Russia include: a professional association of 10,000 members with a weekly newspaper supplement; good working relations with federal and regional ministries; an extensive in-service teacher education program with a teacher's guide and mobile seminars; a model pre-service teacher education program with a sequence of courses and accompanying textbooks; a national co-curricular program adopted by the Federal Ministry of Education; a variety of publications for classroom use; and national dissemination through the Teacher's Newspaper of Russia with a circulation of 100,000. In the U.S., Civitas-Russia is focused on the introduction of comparative civics into American classrooms through its Civics Mosaic program. The Russia partnership is funded partly through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education administered by the Center for Civic Education of Calabasas, CA.

Program Impact 1995-2004 (through 02/28/04)

Civitas-Russia Program Highlights

.Professional Association
Assisted in the establishment and development of the Russian Association of Civic Education, a 10,000-member professional association for civic educators, with a national office, 20 regional offices, and a weekly newspaper, The Civic Education Supplement, published by the Uchitelskaya Gazeta.

.Co-Curricular Program
Assisted in the development of I am a Citizen, based on Project Citizen, involving over 100,000 students in over 60 regions of Russia's 89 regions undertaken with sponsorship and funding from the Russian Ministry of Education and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

.Federal, Regional Relations
Worked with regional and city ministries of education to establish centers for civic education in four regions: Samara, St. Petersburg, Oryol, and Volgograd. Developed wider network of programs in 12 regions. Trained educators in over one-third of Russia's 89 regions. Organized study tours and exchange programs for Russian local and regional leaders in civic education. Close working relations with federal and regional ministries of education and with Russian State Duma Working Committee on Civics.

.Materials Translation
Translated We the People. The Citizen and the Constitution into Russian primarily for use in American studies and comparative civics classes in Russian schools. The text has been used as a model for the development of the first comprehensive student text on the Russian Constitution.

.In-Service Teacher Education
Published 12,000 copies of The Active Classroom , a teaching methods book. The book is used in dozens of teacher workshops knows as mobile seminars. These seminars are the first steps by which more than 30 Russian regions have become actively involved.

.School Administration
Co-published with American Councils for International Education (formerly ACTR) an administrators' guide, The Active School , providing the basis for seminars for school administrators on how to develop a more interactive school community.

.Pre-Service Teacher Education
With a prestigious University Partnership grant from the U.S. Department of State, worked with universities in Samara to develop a university-based pre-service teacher education program in civic education that is now being adopted by other Russian regions.

.Outreach in Russia
Uchitelskaya Gazeta , Russia's leading newspaper for teachers with a readership of 100,000 subscribers, provides continuing awareness of partnership activities and programs. The Gazeta has published 10,000 copies of the Center's National Standards for Civics and Government and the International Framework for Education in Democracy.

.Programs in the U.S.
Received a five-year grant in 2002 from the U.S. Department of Education to develop Civics Mosaic an extensive program in comparative civics for 12 American and 12 Russian regions. AFT produced a curriculum on American foreign policy-Help Your Neighbor, Help Yourself: Global Democracy Promotion and U.S. National Interest.