Giving Compass' Take:

• The EL Education Model is a productive way for students to understand the process of fighting for social change through civics education instruction and youth activism. 

• More than 150 schools participate in EL Education and are able to participate in some sort of activism by directly engaging with their local communities to try to solve neighborhood issues. How will this type of education help cultivate future social change leaders? 

• Calling all funders: why you should start investing in youth power. 

We’ll never forget last year, when survivors of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, became leaders instead of victims, taking their cause all the way to Washington, D.C., and garnering national attention.

But how can all of America’s students become sufficiently equipped and knowledgeable about important issues to get involved and make a difference within and beyond their communities? A recent Brookings Institution report notes that students regularly discuss civics issues in class but have few opportunities for community engagement and participation in our democracy.

The public high school I attended — River Bluff High School in Lexington, South Carolina — has one answer. Civics education was incorporated into daily learning, allowing students to gain the ability to effect positive change, through a model of teaching and learning that embeds civics education in daily schoolwork to solve real-world problems.

At River Bluff and more than 150 schools that implement the EL Education model, students experience “expeditions,” weeks- or months-long “deep dives” into a topic, which culminate in final projects that contribute to their communities. Students collaborate on original research, interview experts and present their findings in public settings.

At my school and other EL Education schools across the country, students learn — and learn to serve — through direct engagement with local community issues. Governments and schools can provide education that enables students to engage in their communities and contribute to a better world.

Read the full article about student activism by Merrit Jones at The Hechinger Report