{"id":2536,"date":"2014-11-04T09:40:09","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T13:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=2536"},"modified":"2015-03-26T15:17:05","modified_gmt":"2015-03-26T19:17:05","slug":"independence-students-know-vote-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/independence-students-know-vote-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"Independence students know &#8216;Your Vote is Your Voice&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In collaboration with the Youth Leadership Initiative (YLI), a national civic education program based at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, Independence Middle School eighth-grade students participated in the 2014 National Mock Election and Constitutional Convention.<\/p>\n<p>The YLI Mock Election is the largest secure, student-only online mock election in the nation, with thousands of students all over the country voting during a two-week period prior to Election Day. Independence held its mock election and constitutional convention on Tuesday, Oct. 28.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Vote.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2540\" src=\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Vote.jpg\" alt=\"Vote\" width=\"598\" height=\"370\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Vote.jpg 598w, http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Vote-300x185.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Vote-484x300.jpg 484w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 598px) 100vw, 598px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Independence teachers (Kelli Scarborough, Marco Mercado, Kasie Baker and Norma Wilson) diligently prepared students for voting in their civics classrooms. In addition to being introduced to the candidates and their platforms for the national and local election, students learned about representative government in the Constitution, why it is important and how civic engagement involves voting. Discussions included why voting is an important responsibility and how it can impact the local community.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/civics-5.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2539\" src=\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/civics-5.jpeg\" alt=\"civics 5\" width=\"1280\" height=\"1160\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/civics-5.jpeg 1280w, http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/civics-5-300x271.jpeg 300w, http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/civics-5-1024x928.jpeg 1024w, http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/civics-5-331x300.jpeg 331w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The decision to participate in the event was based on a national research study conducted by University of Virginia Center for Politics Director Larry J. Sabato and Chief of Staff Ken Stroupe, in which they found conclusively, that the instructional components of the Youth Leadership Initiative can have a positive impact on students. According to the study, Stroupe found that \u201cstudents in classes where teachers used the YLI Mock Election and the related lesson plans reported a higher tendency towards future political participation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/civics-4.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2538\" src=\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/civics-4.jpeg\" alt=\"civics 4\" width=\"1226\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/civics-4.jpeg 1226w, http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/civics-4-287x300.jpeg 287w, http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/civics-4-980x1024.jpeg 980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1226px) 100vw, 1226px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cPrograms such as the YLI Mock Election and Constitutional Convention have the opportunity to excite students about our democracy and teach them about their rights and responsibilities as citizens. Students are empowered with a sense of \u201cI can\u201d optimism that will lead to a lifetime of civic involvement,\u201d Sabato said in the study.<\/p>\n<p>Results of the YLI National Mock Election and Constitutional Convention will be available the morning after Election Day &#8211;\u00a0\u00a0Wednesday, Nov. 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In collaboration with the Youth Leadership Initiative (YLI), a national civic education program based at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, Independence Middle School eighth-grade students participated in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[90,88],"class_list":["post-2536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-civics","tag-independence-middle-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2536"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2543,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2536\/revisions\/2543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}