ENACT Digital Platform

Description:
A National Evaluation of the ENACT Course on Student Attitudes, Knowledge, and Behavior. Students who enrolled in ENACT courses between January 2022-May 2023 were surveyed immediately following completion of their course (or as a final course activity). The survey asked about students’ attitudes, knowledge, and behavior around civic engagement, as well as their perceptions of the impact the ENACT course had on them. During this period, 32 ENACT courses ran with approximately 333 total students enrolled across courses. In total, 143 students (31%) from 16 schools (73%) completed the survey. Authored by Kaitie Chakoian, Ph.D. Candidate Social Policy: Economic & Racial Equity, The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University and Melissa Stimell, JD, Professor of the Practice, Director ENACT, The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation Brandeis University.
State:
Not state-specific
Year:
2023
Link:
click me
Institution:
Brandeis University
Author:
Kaitie Chakoian, Melissa Stimell

Description:
Key Findings • ENACT Alumni feel competent to participate politically and feel that their participation can have an impact on political outcomes. This political efficacy translates to heightened levels of civic engagement. • ENACT Alumni are more civically engaged than a national sample of U.S. residents. They vote in national, state, local, and primary elections at very high rates, as well as participate in various other forms of civic engagement such as attending public rallies and demonstrations and donating money to campaigns or causes that are important to them. • ENACT Alumni retain knowledge and skills from the Advocacy for Policy Change course. The knowledge of the political process they learned in the ENACT course allows them to continue to engage with it. They use the skills they learned through hands-on advocacy projects in their professional careers. • ENACT Alumni credit the course with impacting their professional journeys in various ways. Alumni have gone on to graduate school, and many have pursued law degrees. They note the impact of what they learned in the class, the networks they developed, and the mentorship of ENACT faculty.
State:
MA
Year:
2022
Link:
click me
Institution:
Brandeis University
Author:
Kaitie Chakoian, Charlotte Powley, Melissa Stimell

Description:
"ENACT-ing Leadership at the State Level: A National Educational Network for Engaged Citizenship in State Legislatures" - article by three ENACT Faculty Fellows, in "Maine Policy Review" - a publication of the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, University of Maine. Abstract: The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation (ENACT) is a nationwide network that serves as a hub for the pedagogical efforts of educators in 16 different states, with the ambitious goal of having an ENACT Faculty Fellow in all 50 states. However, ENACT courses go a step further engaging students directly in experiential learning exercises designed to affect policy change by working with policy advocacy groups, preparing policy briefs, engaging in strategic outreach and messaging, and meeting directly with policymakers in their state capitals to advocate for political change. In this paper, we argue that state politics represents a fruitful, yet often neglected, space for the development of political leadership skills. Accordingly, we will present ENACT as a pedagogical model for empowering students, enhancing their capacity for political leadership. Yet we also remain attuned to localized variation in the policy-making environment and state political culture.
State:
Not state-specific
Year:
2018
Link:
click me
Institution:
University of Maine
Author:
Rob Glover, Katharine Owens, Kathleen Cole