The Civic Blueprint for Illinois High Schools is designed to give educators, policymakers, parents and all residents of Illinois the reasons and inspiration to pursue Democracy School certification for their community high schools. The Civic Blueprint summarizes six promising approaches to high school level civic education.

	Formal classroom instruction in government, history, law and democracy >>
	Discussion of current events and controversial issues >>
	Incorporation of service learning >>
	Participation in extracurricular activities >>
	Authentic student voice in school governance >>
	Participation in simulations of democratic structures and processes >>

Read details about each approach, along with specific indicators and evidence about its effectiveness.

Many schools currently offer programs that exemplify one or more of these approaches – these exemplars, or program summaries, are included in the detailed approach pages. We hope they inspire you to implement a similar program – or create a program of your own that accomplishes the same objective for your high school. Contact information for each exemplar program is also provided.

Get Started! Click to view Approach 1 >>