Ex-Justice O’Connor: No Child Left Behind leaves civics education behind

O’Connor, in NY, gives schools poor civics marks

NEW YORK — An “unintended consequence” of the No Child Left Behind initiative has been a decrease in civics knowledge, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said Wednesday, promoting computer games that try to put a fun spin on learning about government.

The federal education program appropriated funds “based on good test scores in math, science and reading,” she said, but did not distribute money for history or civics.

She made the remarks at a conference where she was promoting iCivics.org, a website designed to remedy civics ignorance among middle-school students.

“Barely one-third of Americans can even name the three branches of government, much less say what they do,” O’Connor said. “Less than one-fifth of high school seniors can explain how civic participation benefits our government. Less than that can say what the Declaration of Independence is, and it’s right there in the title. I’m worried.”

Games on iCivics include “Do I Have A Right?”, in which the player runs a firm specializing in constitutional law; “Executive Command,” which offers a chance to play president; “Supreme Decision,” about the Supreme Court; “Branches of Power,” which gives the player control of all three branches of government; and “LawCraft,” in which the player is a member of Congress.

The iCivics program is based at Georgetown University Law School. O’Connor is the project founder and leads the board of the nonprofit iCivics Inc., iCivics spokesman Jeffrey Curley said. The project began in 2007 and is in use at schools around the country, he said.

The games on iCivics are free, teacher-friendly and effective, and kids like them so much in school that they play them at home, too, O’Connor said.

“I’m an old grandma; I’m not a techie,” O’Connor said, but noted she has been converted to the notion that kids can learn through playing the games.

Ted McConnell, executive director of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, of which O’Connor is co-chairwoman, said that the decline in civics education started before No Child Left Behind but that “studies have shown that the emphasis on raising reading and math scores has had an effect in narrowing the curriculum further.”

A handful of state legislatures in recent years have imposed requirements on schools to teach civics, most recently Florida, which this session passed what it called the Sandra Day O’Connor Civic Education Act, McConnell said.

O’Connor got a good round of laughter from the audience when she said iCivics is aimed at middle-school students because “by the time they go to middle school, the light bulb has turned on if it’s going to, and they’re eager to learn, but they’re not spoiled rotten teenagers yet.”

The conference was organized by Games For Change, a project to promote computer and video games for social change.

The iCivics website was launched Monday. It is a rebranded, expanded version of an earlier site called OurCourts.org.