High School Case Teaching Initiative in Civics Education
Training, services, and programs for teachers in a USC-CALIS collaborative project to develop case teaching at the high school level for the core courses of World and US History, Government and Economics
 

Teacher Leadership Program
The Center's goal is to support teachers who are committed to and excited about contributing to advances in the field of teaching secondary social studies with respect to:
the study of contemporary international issues
the relevance of history to contemporary challenges
analytical tools of international relations and related fields
active learning strategies including case teaching and student writing

SHARING A VISION
There is a high school classroom where students engage in substantive discussion of longstanding social questions and current global issues. The discussion is uncontrovertibly deep and wide, and grounded in specifics. In a debate of differing views on the topic at hand, students are heard quoting main ideas of philosophers behind these views, citing historical examples, offering and refuting analogies, relating events and trends by applying broad concepts, and evaluating solutions. They listen to each other and often reference what has been said earlier or studied months ago. When the group exchange of information and ideas is ended, they reflect and write.

The CALIS mission is to realize this vision as a typical American classroom. This vision is not our own; it has been described in various ways by founders and proponents of American public education. In this project, the Center works with teachers who share the vision and whose schools and districts wish to be part of a collaborative partnership. These teachers and their administrations are passionate about civic education and want to be part of leadership in the field of social studies and advancements of historic significance in the evolution of American classrooms.

At the heart of this vision and mission is the transformation of the secondary high school history-social studies curriculum. Youth of the 21st century cannot get what they need from the same scope and sequence offered to youth in the 20th century. The process of changing what we have now can only happen when we know what we need. In social studies, there can be no generic approach. Every topic, every lesson, every question must be mapped with materials ready for students to be able to engage directly in reading, analyzing, and responding. For CALIS, teachers must be at the center of this REFRAMING process with the opportunity to implement and hone content-based materials.

  

Next training takes place at a Summer Seminar 2009

USC Leadership in American Civic Education

USC received national recognition from the
Goldman Sachs Foundation Prizes for Excellence
in International Education
Among 100 nominations in 2005, the CALIS outreach program was ranked in the top three in the United States for its direct service in classrooms and effective use of analytical tools at the high school level.

What we have... AN AWARD-WINNING PROGRAM
 a validated approach - intellectually and pedagogically - for engaging America's youth in complex analysis of the lessons of history and in responding to contemporary issues
 a growing database - an extensive foundation of materials to test, build, and hone our strategies, and sharpen our vision

What we do... AN INTERACTIVE COLLABORATION
 outreach programs that engage USC students in local high schools, partnered with teachers - and that bring local students to campus to work with USC student mentors
seminars for professors and teachers to dialog in the ongoing hands-on process of creating new frameworks and clear, substantive materials

What we want… AN INNOVATIVE ALTERNATIVE
 to support leadership of our faculty, students, and partner teachers in the creation of an alternative approach to teaching and learning in high school social sciences
to create a new paradigm, teaching resources, and an ongoing professional dialog needed to realize the vision of a vibrant American citizenry


Resources from Phase 1 will support Phase 2
The Activities Database makes case materials accessible on the world-wide web. National Public Radio granted permission to CALIS to pilot "case customized NPR transcripts" that build critical reading and civic literacy. Each has questions that progress from citing the text to inference and applications, and each has a discussion guide with possible student responses and teacher mnotes. Each is linked directly to the original broadcast which is excellent to promote appreciation and literacy in radio news and to assist English language learners. Search npr to select the collection.

Phase 1 was a 5-day seminar in Spring 2006 followed by partnership work with teachers that have since presented the project at state and national conferences.
 

The Goal of High School Case Teaching

Case teaching engages the heart of an issue. As practiced in law, medical, and business schools, the case is a real life challenge - and students are responsible for applying knowledge from their field to decide, solve, or somehow address a problem.

The purpose of this Initiative is to open a dialog between teachers, administrators, and professors to review the civic mission of schools and to test how case teaching can be implemented in high school history-social science required core courses.

A feature piece of the case teaching method is the case discussion where students are responsible for having read the case and know they will be called upon to contribute to an analytical discussion. Students are expected to listen to the comments of others in order to build upon a point or to argue against an expressed opinion. They are expected to cite specifics or evidence presented in the case. Most importantly, the teacher will have selected the case based on its illustration of complexity of major issues in the course. The case thus affords an opportunity for students to apply concepts or theories, use analytical tools, test assumptions, see relationships, and make connections - the practice of critical thinking to construct deep understanding.

Objectives of Case Teaching
place responsibility/expectations on students for high-level analysis
enable that analysis through identification of guiding questions, frameworks, tools
allow practice of analytical skills through reading, speaking, listening, writing

The goal of project dialog is to identify guiding questions, frameworks, and tools that promote skilled civic engagement in a global age. Topics are integrated in the context of governance in an era of increasing globalization and more complex impacts of technology. The case teaching method, as a problem-solving approach to content, requires the teacher to have a clear road map of course objectives with respect to relevance, significance, precedence, relationships, or multiple perspectives. When students are done with their World History semester that included coverage of WWI, WWII, and the cold war, what should they know about causes of war and security questions facing the world today? After senior semesters of Government and Economics, what should high school graduates be able to discuss regarding challenges to the American political-economy in their lifetime?

The case teaching method, as piloted in this Initiative, is an adaptation of the Pew Faculty Fellowship in International Affairs sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts in the early 1990s at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Our lead instructor, Professor Steven Lamy, was one of the three instructors for the Pew Faculty Fellow program and brought the case teaching method to the USC School of International Relations. A few of the pilot cases in this project are adapted with permission from Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy which now houses the Pew case collection. CALIS has permission to adapt more cases - and teachers are welcome to request a case they wish to adapt as part of this project.

A case is not always what we think of as a 'case study.' The case is an actual historical event, but the case reading may be an article from the newspaper or a primary source document, and is not always an expository account. The best case is an excellent reading - accessible and engaging. Teachers prepare students in advance of the case with a framework by which to approach the issue and concepts. Students prepare for a case discussion by "studying the case reading" - applying the framework as a guide to identify controversies, causes, choices, assertions, or assumptions.

Cases - as good stories - help students see the challenges or trade-offs that faced the players involved in an historic or current event. There are two types of cases:
"A retrospective or narrative case presents a comprehensive history of a problem - complete with multiple actors, contending interests, and the real outcome; students identify alternative options and analyze why this outcome resulted, when other - possibly "better" solutions - existed. A decision-forcing case stops short of revealing the outcome, thus forcing students to identify and assess the range of possible options for action. Typically, these cases have an "Epilogue," which tells "the rest of the story"" again, students analyze why this was what happened."*

There are a variety of materials ready to jumpstart the process of classroom implementation, but as highlighted in the name - and the key to case teaching - is the teacher. Who would have guessed? Since we learn best by doing, teachers in this Initiative are asked to dive in. It is a developmental process. As we continue in Phase 2, there are many more resources and lessons that have been created and implemented, but a vast set of topics remain as well as the tasks of better sequencing, overall integration and interdependence of issues, appropriateve assessments, and the best guiding questions for students in today's high school social science program.

While teachers will end up with "lesson plans" of how to use sample project cases to help students analyze an issue, the goal of the project is not simply to develop a collection of case teaching lesson plans. More important is the dialog - to develop questions, frameworks, and tools that address the core curriculum - and the modeling of a wide variety of case readings and ability to build and guide a rich case discussion around these vital questions and employing these analytical tools. It is the case teaching method we wish to develop at the high school level where teachers are equipped to engage students in analytical reading, speaking, listening, and writing - whatever the event, topic, or enduring social question.

* From The ABCs of Case Teaching: Pew Case Studies in International Affairs by Vicki Golich, Mark Boyer, Patrice Franko, Steven Lamy, published by the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, 2000.

  
  Local teachers are encouraged to participate in an integrated program of services:
preferred enrollment for one of your classes each semester in the Teaching International Relations Program (TIRP) where USC undergraduates teach four sessions in your classroom. We must clarify that TIRP is restricted to a 12-mile radius of USC in order for volunteers to conduct school sessions where travel time to and from campus during the school day does not conflict with their courses, jobs, and other commitments.
preferred enrollment for two teams of students to particpate in the High School Leadership Conference
guest invitations for special campus events
 personal assistance with USC Library resources
 staff support to present project strategies and materials to school and district colleagues and opportunities to act as consultants in other CALIS programs, new grant projects, professional conferences, etc.
 official launch: 04-08-08
 
CALIS is an outreach project of the School of International Relations (SIR) at the University of Southern California