With election day just one month away, the effort to register more young people to vote continues to be a priority for many across the country.
At Laguna Beach High, a campaign to register voting-age students ahead of the Nov. 6 election has already netted more than 200 students.
The Indy chronicled this week how 12th-grade social studies teachers Mark Alvarez and Jonathan Todd are promoting civic engagement through a voter registration drive.
Each year, the PTA provides voter registration packets to high school seniors in their U.S. government/economics classes to educate students about their rights and responsibilities when they turn 18 and encourage them to register or pre-register to vote (students who are 16 or 17 years old may pre-register and then vote when they turn 18), according to The Indy.
The teachers incorporate the information into their lessons and offer extra credit to students who register or pre-register to vote. The process prompts in-class discussions of civic engagement and upcoming elections, and gets the students thinking about the adult world they will enter after graduation.
“It was pretty easy to register,” high school senior Drake Fay told The Indy.
In California, the deadline to register to vote for the upcoming election is Oct. 22. For online registration and other info, visit the California Secretary of State’s website.
Here are some other news articles from throughout the region for the week ending Oct. 5.
- For the fourth consecutive year, Orange County students outpaced their peers statewide on math and English standardized tests, according to figures released this week.
- OCDE’s new special education chief brings a strong vision for the continuing success of special schools and programs.
- Both candidates vying to be the next lieutenant governor of California agree that the state and its universities must do more to help students afford college, but are proposing different strategies to reduce the cost of higher education.
- Golden Elementary in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District was awarded Monday a 2018 National Blue Ribbon, the country’s top prize for schools based on students’ academic performance.
- Ten districts in California received Bilingual Teacher Professional Development grants to improve the skills of bilingual teachers.
- A financial expert from Boston started a five-principle learning campaign to provide parents with tools to support brain development in their children.
- The Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s fifth annual State of the Schools breakfast brought together community leaders to reflect on the district’s recent changes, challenges and achievements.
- An analysis of the California LCFF funding reorganization concluded that student performance has progressed over an 8-year period.
- Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill that would have allowed some districts to start a pilot program requiring ethnic studies.
- During the SAC Surf-a-Rama on Saturday, the Edison High School surf team devoted their Saturday to teaching students with special needs to surf.
- Teachers say technological and digital tools give young students more creative freedom in music classes and offer older students who haven’t participated in band or choir an entry point into the subject.
This is the part where we encourage you to keep up with local education news stories by bookmarking the OCDE Newsroom, subscribing for emailed updates or following us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.