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PHILADELPHIA – Pennsylvania’s First Lady, the Honorable Marjorie O. Rendell, announced her broad-based initiative to promote civic education this morning at a press conference held at the National Constitution Center.   As part of the initiative,  First Lady Rendell declared her support to establish the objectives of the Pennsylvania Coalition for Representative Democracy (PennCORD) in school districts and communities across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

"Traveling across the Commonwealth as First Lady, I have developed a strong personal commitment to citizenship education.  I have seen some outstanding classroom and community programs that teach our children about the importance of being good citizens and I want to make excellent civics content and teaching tools available to every teacher in the state,” said First Lady Rendell.  “PennCORD is the perfect vehicle to give the needed resources, organization and advocacy to this effort.  As a judge and as First Lady, I welcome the opportunity to be involved in this coalition, and to help inspire our youth with a better understanding of their critical role as citizens in our democratic republic."

PennCORD is a coalition of state and national organizations committed to implementing civic education in classroom and extracurricular environments in every Pennsylvania community, following the approaches recommended in the Carnegie Corporation’s Civic Mission of Schools Report (2003).  Lead partners in the coalition include the Office of the Governor of Pennsylvania, under the leadership of the First Lady, the National Constitution Center and the Pennsylvania Bar Association.  Other statewide organizations have already aligned themselves with the coalition and additional partners are being sought.

PennCORD will provide teachers access to civic education materials from coalition partners and training on integrating them into the curriculum for Pennsylvania’s teachers in grades K-12.  PennCORD will also coordinate state advocacy efforts for students, parents, educators and community leaders and conduct yearly assessments of the state of civic education in Pennsylvania.

"One of the core missions of the National Constitution Center is teaching the value of citizenship and civic engagement," said Stengel.  "With the help of First Lady Rendell, the Pennsylvania Bar Association and our other partners, we will be able to take this effort to the next level and expand our reach around the Commonwealth."

Michael H. Reed, President of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, also commended First Lady Rendell for partnering with PennCORD, and reinforced the commitment of the Pennsylvania Bar Association to helping young students develop a better understanding of democracy and the skills needed to fulfill their role in it.

Tom Brown, 2002 President of the Pennsylvania Association of Student Councils and sophomore at Princeton University, also spoke of the influence of civic education on students in the state.

First Lady Rendell was also selected to be a guest speaker today at the Pennsylvania Department of Education is 2004 Governor’s Institute for Social Studies Educators, which is being held at the National Constitution Center this week.  The annual summer program involves a week of intensive professional development seminars and workshops for private and public school educators in Pennsylvania.  This year’s Institute focuses on K-6 educators and underscores the importance the First Lady sees in promoting early lessons in civics.

For more information about First Lady Rendell, please visit her website at http://www.firstlady.state.pa.us/

About the Pennsylvania Bar Association
Founded in 1895, the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) exists to promote justice, professional excellence and respect of the law; improve public understanding of the legal system; facilitate access to legal services; and serve the 29,000 lawyers who are members of the association.  The Pennsylvania Bar Association was the first statewide organization to endorse the Pennsylvania Standards in Civics and Government and the PBA conducts programs and produces materials that allow educators across the Commonwealth to learn about the law.

About the National Constitution Center
The National Constitution Center, located at 525 Arch St. on Philadelphia’s Independence Mall, is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization established by Congress in 1988 to increase understanding of the U.S. Constitution and its relevance to the daily lives of Americans.  It is the first museum in the world devoted to dramatically telling the story of the Constitution from Revolutionary times to the present through more than 100 interactive, multimedia exhibit components, film, photographs, text, sculpture and artifacts.  The Center also houses the Annenberg Center for Education and Outreach, which serves as the hub for national constitutional education and debates; and as a home for visiting scholars and experts.  The National Constitution Center is the first museum in the country designated as a member of the National Archives Experience Alliance Initiative. For more information, please call 215.409.6600 or visit the Center’s Web site at www.constitutioncenter.org.