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Welcome to the Jefferson County, Alabama School Violence Prevention Demonstration Program Website.
// JefCoEd //// School //// Violence Prevention Demonstration Project! //  The Center for Civic Education will conduct a year-long seminar for teachers in the Greater Birmingham Community with a focus on civic education and violence prevention. The seminar is open to teachers in grades k-12 and is administered locally by My Father’s House Foundation. In addition to the training, teachers receive a $1200.00 stipend for program implementation and training, and $1000.00 worth of educational resources. The program is funded by the United States Department of Education by act of Congress. This revolutionary approach to teaching and learning has been in JefCoEd schools for eight years.

The Center's School Violence Prevention Demonstration Program is a core curricular and research based program that provides students with opportunities to engage in high quality civic education and group participation exercises. The program is designed to improve students' civic knowledge, skills, and attitudes. It provides training opportunities for teacher participants that support the curriculum and emphasizes critical thinking, cooperative learning, group problem-solving, and performance-based assessment. The program also provides research and evaluation of changes in students' civic knowledge and attitudes as they relate to tolerance for the ideas of others; civic responsibility; authority and the law; and social and political institutions. Curricular products used in the program include:

//We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution// is an instructional program on the history and principles of American constitutional democracy for elementary, middle, and high school students. The program is based on curricular materials developed by the Center for Civic Education and acclaimed by local and national legislators and leading educators across the nation. Simulated congressional hearings, excellent for performance assessment, are built into the curriculum. At the high school level, classes enter a national competition structured as a simulated Congressional hearing where their knowledge of the Constitution is tested. Several studies by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and Professor Richard Brody, Stanford University, indicate that students who used the curriculum "significantly outperformed comparison students" on every topic studied.

We the People: Project Citizen is a middle/high school civic education program designed to develop interest in public policymaking as well as the ability to participate competently and responsibly in state and local government. The project is administered by the Center in cooperation with the National Conference of State Legislatures. In an assessment by Professor Kenneth Tolo, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, one conclusion reached was that "students using Project Citizen do make a difference in their communities."

//Foundations of Democracy Series// provides curricular materials for grades K-12 on basic concepts and principles of constitutional democracy focusing on the concepts of authority, privacy, responsibility, and justice. This multidisciplinary curriculum draws upon political philosophy, political science, law, history, literature, and environmental studies.

Jefferson County Schools School Violence Prevention Demonstration Program 2010-2011 The Cohort Meets at Samford University, Student Union – Flag Colonnade Martha Bouyer, Site Coordinator 6209 9th Street SouthLipscomb, Alabama 35020205-919-1761 mmvjb@aol.com

**For More Information Contact Martha Bouyer Site Coordinator**
mmvjb@aol.com 205-919-1761