In the late 1980s, an in-depth research study sponsored by a foundation revealed low scores in the area of civics education and found that many students were turned off by civics topics. Recognizing the importance of educating citizens about their local governments, the North Carolina City and County Management Association (NCCMA) began an ambitious project to develop materials. In 1990 NCCMA partnered with the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill to raise the level of awareness about local government, how they work and to interest students in participating in local government.

Local Government: It’s All Around Us!

The first effort was a video for youth. Entitled “Local Government: It’s All Around Us!”, the 12-minute video follows three ninth-grade students as they explore local government. The tape can serve as an introduction to local government or to reinforce or summarize lessons on local government in a civics class.

Local Government in North Carolina 

In 1993, Local Government in North Carolina, a text for ninth and tenth grade students was published. Written by Gordon P. Whitaker, a professor of public administration and government at UNC’s School of Government, this book was updated in 2003. Local Government in North Carolina provides information about the purposes of government and about the organization and operation of counties and municipalities in the state. Two themes run throughout the book:

• Local government directly affects students and their families and friends in many important ways, and
• Everyone should be involved in helping govern the community.

Key terms appear in bold or underlined print the first time they appear in the text; a glossary of these terms is included. Each chapter includes pictures and sidebars illustrating real-life cases of local governments at work and ends with a series of discussion questions designed to encourage further thought and extend learning. The appendix also includes suggestions for further reading.

An accompanying Teacher’s Guide is designed to help teachers incorporate Local Government in North Carolina in the classroom. The Teacher’s Guide includes questions and activities for each chapter; teachers can select only a few of the activities or use the materials as the basis for a two-or three-week unit. Sample tests are also provided, with questions drawn only from Local Government in North Carolina. Finally, an appendix illustrates how the lessons specifically address the skill objectives for the social studies curriculum as outlined in the North Carolina Competency-Based Curriculum Teacher Handbook.

While most of the textbooks used in civics and government courses focus on federal government, Local Government in North Carolina meets the need of students—and teachers—to understand the level of government that is closest to them. “State and local government sections in high school textbooks are usually broad and often incorrect,” says Whitaker. “I have written a specific section on North Carolina for the text used in most high schools in the state.”  

Copies of the updated edition of Local Government in North Carolina are distributed free of charge to North Carolina public schools that have chosen Glencoe/McGraw-Hill's book, Civics Today: Citizenship, Economics, & You, for the Civics and Economics course. Teachers who will be using other textbooks for the Civics and Economics course may obtain a single, reference copy of Local Government in North Carolina and the teacher’s guide free of charge. The textbook chapters are also available online; permission is granted for them to be printed and reproduced for educational purposes by teachers or local government officials or staff.

Other Resources

North Carolina also hosts teacher seminars, using a variety of teaching methods—presentation and interactive learning—to provide teachers with the information about local government they need to teach the topic to students.

Partners continue to build on the materials and add new topics. Last year, for example, suggestions for how to lead more discussions on controversial topics in the classroom were added to the materials. Most recently, North Carolina added a set of 16 lesson plans, display items, and handouts for the elementary school level. Focused on individual topics in local government, the lessons are aimed at students in grades three and four, but they can be easily adapted for other grade levels. The lesson plans provide teachers with step-by-step strategies for introducing each of the local government topics addressed; each plan includes strategies, materials needed, purpose of each lesson, questions for students, in class assignments, interactive activities, suggested homework assignments, and sample tests. NCCMA has also developed a student handbook for grades four through six

Although NCCMA conceived of and spearheaded the project, it sought the support of partners from the beginning. The North Carolina League of Municipalities and the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners both directly funded the textbook project and led fund-raising efforts. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also played critical roles. Hundreds of individual counties and municipalities contributed a fee, based on their population, to pay for printing Local Government in North Carolina. High school teachers and administrators donated time to review and comment on early drafts.

Plans are in place to evaluate whether Local Government in North Carolina and other curriculum materials are having an impact. A telephone survey of adults and youth in North Carolina has been undertaken to establish a baseline, and plans are underway to repeat this survey. North Carolina’s students must pass civics and economics courses to graduate from high school; tracking this progress will begin in the 2006–2007 school year.