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No Citizen Left Behind
While teaching at an all-Black middle school in Atlanta, Meira Levinson realized that students' individual self-improvement would not necessarily enable them to overcome their profound marginalization within American society. This is because of a civic empowerment gap that is as shameful and antidemocratic as the academic achievement gap targeted by No Child Left Behind. "No Citizen Left Behind" argues that students must be taught how to upend and reshape power relationships directly, through political and civic action. Drawing on political theory, empirical research, and her own on-the-ground experience, Levinson shows how "de facto" segregated urban schools can and must be at the center of this struggle.
Recovering the civic purposes of public schools will take more than tweaking the curriculum. Levinson calls on schools to remake civic education. Schools should teach collective action, openly discuss the racialized dimensions of citizenship, and provoke students by engaging their passions against contemporary injustices. Students must also have frequent opportunities to take civic and political action, including within the school itself. To build a truly egalitarian society, we must reject myths of civic sameness and empower all young people to raise their diverse voices. Levinson s account challenges not just educators but all who care about justice, diversity, or democracy.
Recovering the civic purposes of public schools will take more than tweaking the curriculum. Levinson calls on schools to remake civic education. Schools should teach collective action, openly discuss the racialized dimensions of citizenship, and provoke students by engaging their passions against contemporary injustices. Students must also have frequent opportunities to take civic and political action, including within the school itself. To build a truly egalitarian society, we must reject myths of civic sameness and empower all young people to raise their diverse voices. Levinson s account challenges not just educators but all who care about justice, diversity, or democracy.
388 pages, Hardcover
First published April 23, 2012
About the author
Meira Levinson
17 books8 followersMeira Levinson is a normative political philosopher who writes about civic education, multiculturalism, youth empowerment, and educational ethics. In doing so, she draws upon scholarship from multiple disciplines as well as her eight years of experience teaching in the Atlanta and Boston Public Schools. Her most recent books include the co-edited Making Civics Count (Harvard Education Press, 2012) and No Citizen Left Behind (Harvard University Press, 2012). The latter book shows how schools can help tackle a civic empowerment gap that is as shameful and antidemocratic as the academic achievement gap targeted by No Child Left Behind. In 2013, it was awarded the Michael Harrington Award from the American Political Science Association, the Exemplary Research in Social Studies Award from the National Council for the Social Studies, and a Critics Choice Award from the American Educational Studies Association. It also won the 2014 North American Society for Social Philosophy Book Award. Levinson fosters civic education scholarship at Harvard as co-convener of HGSE's Civic and Moral Education Initiative.
Levinson has been awarded a 2014 Guggenheim Fellowship to support her newest project, on "Justice in Schools." In this work, she combines philosophical analysis and school-based case studies to illuminate the complex dimensions of evaluating, achieving, and teaching justice in schools. The project is intended to give educators tools for making just decisions in their own practice, and also to push political theorists to develop theories of justice that are robust enough to address complex school-based dilemmas. This project, like her previous research, reflects Levinson's commitment to achieving productive cross-fertilization without loss of rigor among scholarship, policy, and practice.
Levinson has been awarded a 2014 Guggenheim Fellowship to support her newest project, on "Justice in Schools." In this work, she combines philosophical analysis and school-based case studies to illuminate the complex dimensions of evaluating, achieving, and teaching justice in schools. The project is intended to give educators tools for making just decisions in their own practice, and also to push political theorists to develop theories of justice that are robust enough to address complex school-based dilemmas. This project, like her previous research, reflects Levinson's commitment to achieving productive cross-fertilization without loss of rigor among scholarship, policy, and practice.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 12, 2020
I loved this book as it is rezesting my view on civics education. I was a bit nervous with some of Levinson's hot takes in the beginning, but as she recognized her whiteness in mostly BIPOC classrooms of Boston and Atlanta I settled in for a deeper read.
Informed by normative, quantitative, and analytical reviews, she asks and seeks to answer a series of provocative questions: What does civics education look like in minoritized communities? Why should we (as in all Americans, and civics educators in particular) care to empower students in these communities when these communities may not be our own? Can we create environments that focus on gaining knowledge and skills to build efficacious communities?
These communities reflect the collective American identity as much and maybe even more than what we are shown in the popular media's take of civic culture may be. In those suburban, mostly white suburbs students who communicate culture differently may be branded as troublemakers for talking to their peers and questioning authority; all of these components are what we beg for in civic engagement. We smack the hands of those who know their community, and then we are shocked when communities do not know how to or will not engage civically.
Levinson tears through life in a civics classroom for the typical BIPOC, pointing out how difficult it is for them to find meaning in the white suburban school. Additionally critical is the need for those white suburban schools to recognize leaders of minoritized communities, contemporary and historical. This creates a lush tapestry of American civic culture that places all communities on equal footing of recognizing familiar culture and becoming culturally literate. More importantly, approaching instruction in manners that recognizes community connection and advocacy across all cultures is critical. Being a good citizens is so much more than voting and jury duty. It is learning to engage power holders and policy makers, it is engaging the people of the community in situ. It is speaking up. Levinson points out that no standardized tests teach these practices; that the move towards standardized tests both puts the ability to assign value to American history and civics in the hands of the majority often at the expense of the minority AND does nothing to incentivize engagement.
This book really challenges all educators to think long and hard about how we model power and persuasion. An image that sticks with me are the citizenship awards granted to students in classrooms: students who often exhibit good work habits like staying in line, being polite, staying seated, being quiet... all of which are skills of obedience, not civic engagement. The kids who are loud, talkative, mobile, and critical are often in trouble. As community activists these students are told at a young age that school as a democratizing agent and a source of power in the community does not value their engagement. Their civic engagement withers at the doors of the schoolhouse well before they begin to voice concerns of their community.
A worthy read.
Informed by normative, quantitative, and analytical reviews, she asks and seeks to answer a series of provocative questions: What does civics education look like in minoritized communities? Why should we (as in all Americans, and civics educators in particular) care to empower students in these communities when these communities may not be our own? Can we create environments that focus on gaining knowledge and skills to build efficacious communities?
These communities reflect the collective American identity as much and maybe even more than what we are shown in the popular media's take of civic culture may be. In those suburban, mostly white suburbs students who communicate culture differently may be branded as troublemakers for talking to their peers and questioning authority; all of these components are what we beg for in civic engagement. We smack the hands of those who know their community, and then we are shocked when communities do not know how to or will not engage civically.
Levinson tears through life in a civics classroom for the typical BIPOC, pointing out how difficult it is for them to find meaning in the white suburban school. Additionally critical is the need for those white suburban schools to recognize leaders of minoritized communities, contemporary and historical. This creates a lush tapestry of American civic culture that places all communities on equal footing of recognizing familiar culture and becoming culturally literate. More importantly, approaching instruction in manners that recognizes community connection and advocacy across all cultures is critical. Being a good citizens is so much more than voting and jury duty. It is learning to engage power holders and policy makers, it is engaging the people of the community in situ. It is speaking up. Levinson points out that no standardized tests teach these practices; that the move towards standardized tests both puts the ability to assign value to American history and civics in the hands of the majority often at the expense of the minority AND does nothing to incentivize engagement.
This book really challenges all educators to think long and hard about how we model power and persuasion. An image that sticks with me are the citizenship awards granted to students in classrooms: students who often exhibit good work habits like staying in line, being polite, staying seated, being quiet... all of which are skills of obedience, not civic engagement. The kids who are loud, talkative, mobile, and critical are often in trouble. As community activists these students are told at a young age that school as a democratizing agent and a source of power in the community does not value their engagement. Their civic engagement withers at the doors of the schoolhouse well before they begin to voice concerns of their community.
A worthy read.
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July 16, 2019The case for Action Civics
December 28, 2017
Perfectly timely and inordinately relevant for both my work and where we are as a city and as a public school district. I appreciated Levinson's multiple threads of analysis (as philosopher, practitioner, erring human) and carefully articulated positions on civics education, the role of a school in a democracy, and the challenges to implementing something outside of tested areas. Even just the few years that have passed since the book's publication have made the world a slightly different place. Would love to hear Levinson give a lecture today, based on current contexts at the city, state, and federal level.
January 10, 2015
Assigned this in my civic engagement class. I found it practical, detailed, well-researched, reasonable, and smart -- but focused more on granting access to power more widely (in part through cultural fluency) rather than fundamentally changing existing power structures. Still, she makes more concrete proposals for change than I've read most places.
One of those books that may be a useful object of critique in a weekly three-hour seminar, but in the end actually describes achievable policy change.
One of those books that may be a useful object of critique in a weekly three-hour seminar, but in the end actually describes achievable policy change.
June 28, 2014
Some very well argued points and lasting anecdotes. Lots of time spent making rather obvious points using overly complicated language and not a ton of specific recommendations, IMO. One concrete takeaway for me is the shift in our country from heroes to role models.
February 23, 2016
A fabulous book blending pedagogy, theory, teaching anecdotes and suggestions that can immediately inform teaching practices.
Want to Read
June 25, 2012Main LC1091 .L39 2012
March 14, 2014
I didn't finish it. The material is really dense. i wish there are more anecdotes to make it more interesting. I really like the introduction but after that i feel like it's too dense for me.
April 29, 2017
This was a pretty informative book I used for a paper.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews