The Social Studies department has brought another exciting opportunity for the 2024-2025 school year to allow students to demonstrate their civic knowledge and experience.
This year, the Seal of Civic Readiness (SOCR) became an option for all students to achieve. The seal is exclusive to New York State and exists in several other schools around the state.
“The Seal of Civic Readiness is a formal recognition that a student has attained a high level of proficiency in terms of civic knowledge, civic skills, civic mindset, and civic experiences,” according to nysed.gov.
In order to get the seal, students need to obtain six points, with a minimum of two from the categories; Civic Participation and Civic Knowledge. These points can be obtained through various means including; taking social studies courses, passing or getting mastery on social studies Regents exams, completing a capstone project or a civic readiness project, and participating in clubs, jobs, or electives that relate to civics.
The seal’s origins at CHS began with Jeffrey Sautner, Director of Humanities, and Timothy Russo, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction, & Assessment.
“They discussed how there are other schools on Long Island that have it [The Seal of Civic Readiness], so they wanted to bring it to Commack High School as […] another pathway that students could get for their diploma,” said Holly Bellisari, co-lead teacher of the social studies department.
A group of social studies teachers, Holly Bellisari, Richard Suchopar, Crystal Curcio, and Michael Jeziorski, worked towards integrating the SOCR before students returned in September.
“Over the summer we worked towards writing up a […] proposal of how to implement it […] for the school for students to start being able to get this [Seal of] Civic Readiness,” said Bellisari.
For the time being, the way in which students obtain the SOCR will be individualistic, but there are different plans for the future.
“The hope, and what Mr. Sautner hopes, is that eventually [the capstone project] will become a class because in other schools it’s a capstone class in which students can actually work with other students in order to create some sort of civic project, that not only are they researching it, but then they go out and actively implement it…,” said Bellisari.
Each grade level has a Google Classroom, where all information regarding the Seal of Civic Readiness can be found.
“If [students] have not joined that Google Classroom, I would tell them to do that first,” said Bellisari.
This process is meant to be different for every student, as there are many different ways to attain the six points that students need.
“…It all depends on what their interests are. So if they are interested in a specific topic, they might want to do that civic research […], but there’s also other pathways to go about it. […] So there’s different avenues to go about getting this Seal of Civic Readiness,” said Bellisari.
Many students have already joined their grade’s Google Classroom and are considering working towards the SOCR.
“I think [getting the seal is] a good idea. I think it will look good on college applications and resumés and it doesn’t seem like too much work either,” said junior Madeleine M.
“I’m doing [the seal] since it’s such an accessible […] program to do. I’ve already completed a majority of what I need to [by] just being involved at the school…,” said junior Kevin S., via text message.
The Seal of Civic Readiness is an exciting academic opportunity for Commack students, which will continue to evolve in the coming years.◼️
