class act
Best practices in action
rom providing input on potential walkways for pedestrians to contributing to beautification efforts around the city, Hacienda La Puente Unified School District’s Project Life Experience About Democracy (Project LEAD) is shaping the next generation of civically minded citizens.
The program, which won a Golden Bell Award in 2023, has introduced students at participating elementary, middle and high schools to local government and teaches them that their voices can make a difference, Jimenez explained.
“What we are working really hard to do is to ensure that they are productive citizens in their community,” he said. “I think projects like Project LEAD do that because it comes full circle for the students where they see what they are learning in the classroom with respect to civic learning, civic education and government history played out in their local community and they’re living it. This is a win-win for our students because it does prepare them for that next step, whether it’s going right into the workforce or to college, it gives them that confidence that they need to be able to have self-agency and be able to advocate for themselves.”
When the city has a topic it wants feedback on, students serve as a focus group. In one recent example, students contributed to a project to create murals. The final art inspires hope and captures the area’s history, Jimenez said.
“They worked with a local muralist who is a graduate of our school district, and they beautified this whole area near one of our schools,” he recalled. “That was a really nice project because the students got to collaborate, they got to work with the city, they got to learn about what it takes to do a project like this and about more aspects of local government.”
On a more regular basis, students attend City Council meetings when there is an agenda item they want to speak on. Because the local educational agency spans multiple cities and unincorporated communities within the county, it has expanded over the years to include collaboration with governing bodies in the cities of Industry and West Covina as well as the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
Project LEAD fits into the district’s learning framework, New Pedagogies for Deep Learning, which requires capstone projects that tie into the community. For that reason, many schools forge partnerships with surrounding businesses, nonprofits and other organizations, which furthers students’ interactions with pillars of the community.
Overall, the program “ties in with our learning framework, which really focuses on what we call the Six Cs [of Deep Learning]; communication, creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, citizenship and character. Those are the key components that kids learn in school every day with respect to any lesson that they’re learning,” Jiminez said. “The teachers embed most of the Six Cs in their lessons and we know by doing that and by forming those partnerships, it really gets kids to think civically.”
Jimenez said that neighboring LEAs have heard about the program and expressed a desire to create something similar. Costs associated with the program are minimal, and are mostly associated with transportation for students and paying teachers if they work additional hours to go on field trips like government meetings. He noted that the school board is very supportive of the project.
“I think it is easy to replicate because city governments and county governments want students to be engaged,” Jimenez said. “And I think it’s easy to replicate if you have a clear vision that you want students to be involved in their community and also the minor funding support that is necessary to get kids to certain places and to get them involved.”
Project LEAD is a promising lead to follow for LEAs interested in launching their own programs. Jimenez noted that Hacienda La Puente USD schools were recognized with more California Civic Learning Awards than any other district in the state in 2023 and 2024.
— Heather Kemp