Jenna Ryle describes accreditation and rigor standards
Jenna Ryle, DOE Director of Civics, says schools must use pre-accredited projects or submit their own for accreditation. She says this process ensures Seal-related projects meet NYSED requirements and maintain rigor.
of civic readiness and supported by the foundations of civic learning built through Civics for All programming, starting in the elementary grades.
While this potential for customization is an asset, ensuring that as many students as possible have the opportunity to earn the seal, we also need to adhere to appropriate standards of rigor.
So we require schools offering the civics project, civic electives, or the capstone project to do so using a pre-accredited product or to submit a school-created version for accreditation prior to implementation.
This process has ensured that our team can vet and accredit SEAL-related projects and programming that external organizations may have created to meet NISID SEAL requirements.
From the initial rollout of the Seal of Civic Readiness, our Department of Social Studies and Civics created a system of support and guidance to successfully implement the seal, while allowing for the flexibility schools need to align their school's context.
With the permission of NYSID, we created a local version of the Seal of Civic Readiness handbook, providing clear and detailed guidance for schools on each criterion of the seal.
Our goal is to ensure that every New York City public school receives the resources and support needed to implement the seal internally.
While some schools do take advantage of external resources, including a subset of the resources that might cost something, all schools receive professional learning, curriculum resources, guidance documents, and support to implement.
the seal.