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The Civic Mission of Schools (Carnegie Corporation of New York & Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, 2003) points to a continuing decline in civic knowledge and
participation among young people. It calls on educators and policymakers to correct this trend through a variety of education-based interventions. This report suggests the potential value of several specific strategies. One is to "give students
opportunities to contribute opinions about the governance of the school -- not just through student governments, but in forums that engage the entire student body or in smaller groups addressing significant problems in the school" (p. 21). Although some research supports this idea (Power, Higgins, & Kohlberg, 1989), there
is a general lack of evidence about the impact of engaging the entire student body in democratic deliberation.
Changes in the structure and governance of Hudson High School, in Hudson, MA, provide an opportunity to study this type of intervention
on students' civic attitudes, skills, knowledge, and behaviors. Hudson is an industry-based town where about one third of the population is of Portuguese/ Brazilian decent (Berman, 2004). The high school serves about 1,000 socially and economically
diverse students. Since 1993 the school has worked to strengthen academic performance by, for example, extending the school day, shifting to a semester-based block schedule, and creating new
learning opportunities through programs such as school-to-career and the Virtual High School, which offers online courses from other high schools in the nation. (authors)
