City Road Podcast

Education is one of the key civil rights struggles of our era, and urban schools need to do more to bridge the 'civic empowerment gaps' between students. How and what we teach children will determine how they engage in civic life for the rest of their life. It's time to rethink the role of civic education in our cities. This goes way beyond tweaking the curriculum. It means upending the curriculum altogether. It's about teaching students about power, justice and the need for collective action, and their role in improving their lives and society. We're talking with Professor Meira Levinson about her teaching and research. Meira's work draws on eight years of teaching in urban public schools in Atlanta and Boston. Educational disadvantage was a reality for many minority or disadvantaged students in these schools. Meira suggests that urban schools in some America cities are suffering from a 'civic empowerment gap', an achievement gap that was targeted by a 2001 government act known as No Child Left Behind. Fo