Deliberating in a Democracy

Deliberating in a Democracy ( 2007-2009) was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. The Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago (CRFC) , The Constitutional Rights Foundation in Los Angeles (CRF) and StreetLaw, Inc. were conducting a major teacher-based initiative, Deliberating in a Democracy (DID), designed to improve teaching and learning of democratic principles and the skills of civic deliberation. Funded by grants (#Q304A040003 and #Q304A070005) from the U.S. Department of Education, Deliberating in a Democracy’s overall goal is to increase the knowledge, ability and dispositions of teachers and students to effectively participate in deliberations related to democratic principles as applied in their countries.

The main components of DID are:

Lessons on Controversial Public Issues
Classroom Civic Deliberations
Staff Development Sessions
Online Polling and Discussion Boards
Exchanges between U.S. and Partner Countries
Student Conferences
Evaluation

The schools in Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, Estonia (Tallinn English College), Lithuania, Macedonia, Serbia, Romania, Russia, Ukraine , and Bloomington (IN), Chicago , Columbia (SC), Denver, Fairfax County (VA), Los Angeles, Montgomery County (MD), North Jersey (NJ) were chosen based on their prior experience with civic education and their commitment to deliberation.