This resource offers educators six lesson plans for high school aged students that challenges them to explore the range of complex issues reflected in the marriage debate. The resource was developed at the time when the U.S. was awaiting the decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Court on the right of same-sex couples to civil marriage. (continue)

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the school experiences of LGBT youth, and existing policy interventions aimed at making schools safe and affirming environments for all students. It also examines recent federal policy changes that complicate these efforts, and offers a research agenda to fill these gaps in our understanding of the experiences of LGBT youth and children of LGBT parents. (continue)

The full title of this 39-page report is "Safe Place to Learn: Consequences of Harassment Based on Actual or Perceived Sexual Orientation and Gender Non-Conformity and Steps for Making Schools Safer." Produced by the California Safe Schools Coalition and the 4-H Center for Youth Development, the report is the largest-ever study of harassment in schools based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and it shows that this is a widespread, dangerous and preventable problem. (continue)

Eradicate discrimination and harassment on your campus. With the help of this publication, you can make sure that your college or university has strong and effective protections for gay and lesbian members of your campus community. (continue)

This wiki is an effort to foster dialogue between people committed to the idea that a high school diploma means everything to both individuals and communities. A wiki is a type of website that any user can add, edit, or remove information from -- we built the basic website and have handed it over to anyone interested in sharing what they know about the dropout crisis. With categories ranging from alternative education to incentives, from literacy clubs to mentorship, and from parenting education to teen pregnancy, this resource offers numerous opportunities for users to learn from, and contribute to, dialogue on this pressing issue. (continue)

The problem of high school dropouts is becoming more urgent as the formulas for calculating dropout rates are being changed and communities discover that a problem previously described as minor is actually reaching crisis proportions. How do we begin to address the dropout problem? What solutions are available? What can communities do to help their young people stay in school and get a diploma? Our dropout discussion guide can help answer these questions and more. (continue)

Mobilize.org, formerly Mobilizing America's Youth, is an all-partisan network dedicated to educating, empowering, and energizing young people to increase our civic engagement and political participation. We work to show young people how their lives are impacted by public policy and in turn, how we can impact public policy. (continue)

This 10-page document was distributed during Jim Knauer and Paul Alexander's workshop of the same name at the 2006 NCDD Conference in San Francisco. Deliberative dialogue can be used across the curriculum to integrate civic education without sacrificing disciplinary content or traditional learning objectives. The document not only outlines Democracy Lab (an online deliberation program for college students) and where it is headed, it also outlines existing research on dialogic pedagogy, describes William Perry's Scheme of Intellectual and Ethical Development, and explores the relationship between deliberative dialogue and learning. (continue)

This resource from the Choices Program at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies provides a great introduction to deliberation. The resource, which is designed for use in high school classrooms but is useful for any group that is unfamiliar with deliberation, provides a jargon-free definition of deliberation, describes how deliberation is different from debate, explains why it is important to know how to deliberate, and lists guidelines and tips for deliberation. (continue)

Utilizing new web-based videoconferencing technology, small groups of university students from the US and predominantly Muslim Countries in the Middle East meet weekly on-line with the help of skilled facilitators. Together they engage in intensive dialogue about the relationship between the U.S. and the Arab and Muslim World, with a particular emphasis on the role of the media in shaping perceptions of the "other." (continue)