BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The Clay County School District’s superintendent said that the district’s state-leading civics and social studies department is powered by supporting teachers with a curriculum aligned with state benchmarks.
Mary Owen, the district’s K-12 Social Studies specialist, reminded school board members during a Sept. 24 workshop that the district’s seventh graders are ranked first in the state in civics and that Clay County Public Schools is ranked fourth in U.S. History and second in social studies by the state’s Department of Education.
Superintendent David Broskie added that the key to the district’s success in civics and social studies is the support Owen and her department provide to instructors.
“Teachers are very busy,” he said. “They have very little time. It’s a very challenging task with a lot going on. Figuring out content that’s aligned with the benchmarks is a whole thing. Instead, we pretty much provide that to teachers… That’s really the key to success: to have people behind the scenes working on that.”
Owen added that another cornerstone of the program is pushing students to engage with real-life civics.
She said Clay County Clerk of Court and Comptroller Tara S. Green recently spoke to Ridgeview High School students about the importance of the Constitution’s Sixth Amendment, which protects citizens’ rights when accused of a crime. Green also discussed how her office operates and the responsibilities it fulfills.
Owen said criminal justice students at Clay High School attended oral arguments at Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeals in Daytona Beach.
“Our students actually had the opportunity to ask the panel of judges questions and the attorneys who were there as well, so it was a great learning experience for them,” she said.
Owen added that during a recent teacher in-service day, instructors visited Green Cove Spring’s Historic Triangle, which hosts the historic courthouse, jail, railroad depot, and the Clay County archives.
“They also got to explore the courthouse and have a question-and-answer session with one of our judges,” the specialist said, “to kind of learn a little bit more about some of the landmark Supreme Court cases that their students are going to be tested on.”
Owen said that while visiting the archives, the group of teachers gained insights into discussing with their students the differences in evaluating primary and secondary history sources.
