The following are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions:

• What is the First Amendment Schools Project?
• How can the First Amendment Schools project serve as a national resource?
• What is the First Amendment Schools Grant Award Program?
• What is the First Amendment Schools Affiliate Program?
• What is required to successfully implement the guiding principles of the First Amendment Schools vision statement?
• What is the role of the community in a First Amendment School?
• How do the guiding principles of the First Amendment Schools vision statement fit with the academic mission of schools?
• What evidence demonstrates a First Amendment School's success?

• Create consensus guidelines and guiding principles for any school interested in creating and sustaining First Amendment principles in the school community.
• Establish project schools, in every region of the nation, where First Amendment principles are understood and applied throughout the school community.
• Encourage and develop curriculum reforms that reinvigorate and deepen teaching about the First Amendment across the curriculum.
• Educate school leaders, teachers, school board members and attorneys, and other key stakeholders about the meaning and significance of First Amendment principles and ideals.

The First Amendment Schools project serves as a national resource to all schools committed to transforming how First Amendment principles are modeled and taught. Currently, the project is sponsoring a grant award program that has identified 11 project schools. FAS staff is working with those schools to develop school communities that serve as laboratories of democratic freedom.

The project's Web site is designed to provide resources that can help all schools implement the guiding principles of the First Amendment. Online resources include frequently asked questions about the First Amendment in schools; instructional materials designed to enhance the teaching of the First Amendment; strategies to promote active citizenship; and First Amendment research tools, complete with primary sources and U.S. Supreme Court opinions. Additionally, the Web site provides access to consensus guidelines that inform schools of the contours of First Amendment case law and suggest how student rights can best be understood and affirmed.

The First Amendment Schools project awarded grants to 11 schools--public and private; elementary, middle, and high; from communities across the country--who are participating in a multiyear collaboration. Project schools are working to teach and model more completely the democratic principles of the First Amendment. The grant awards are designed to support these efforts and to promote the knowledge, skills, and virtues required for thoughtful and effective participation in civic life. The first network of First Amendment Schools is working to generate models of educating for democratic citizenship that other schools can adapt to their own communities. Program evaluation will aid future decisions about how school communities can best model and apply the democratic first principles they are charged with teaching.

The First Amendment Schools Affiliate Program is a national network of K-12 public and private schools committed to educating for freedom and responsibility. FAS Affiliate Schools agree to the guiding principles of the First Amendment Schools Vision Statement, and apply to become First Amendment Affiliate Schools by completing the Affiliate application and submitting it to the FAS staff for consideration. Visit the Getting Involved page to learn more about how to become an Affiliate School.

• How closely the school's core values align with the vision statement.
• How well ongoing schoolwide initiatives complement the project.
• How extensively diverse voices are heard.

For example, how well do the guiding principles align with existing school programs such as character education, law-related education, and service learning initiatives? In addition to capacity and commitment, schools need to have a supportive infrastructure to extend their efforts. For that reason, central office administrators and school board members need to endorse and support the school's work with the project. Schools must also give voice to students and teachers. The project's guiding principles affirm the centrality of the perspectives of students and teachers on the important issues of teaching and learning, school governance, and community building. The project affords schools a vehicle to address student alienation, to challenge the achievement gap with schooling that relates to students' experiences, and to champion students, who too often are an untapped resource in the community.

The community, especially the parents, must understand what it means to live up to the guiding principles of the vision statement. They must be involved in discussions that result in policy changes and new school practices. Setting the boundaries on student freedom, creating a climate of respect for the rights of others, and learning to live with our deepest differences cannot be an assignment left to the school alone. Rather, community support for First Amendment Schools must start in the homes of students and spread across the neighborhoods. Then a commitment to the civic framework that flows from the First Amendment can be widely shared.

First Amendment Schools assert that First Amendment principles frame "the highest standard" as they work to complement the national focus on standards, accountability, and student achievement. Explicit alignment can be made with both content standards and process standards across and beyond the core disciplines. By focusing on critical thinking, decision making, and problem solving, a democratic learning community can align the instructional program with curriculum frameworks that flow from national, state, and local standards. By paying attention to the whole student, First Amendment Schools build communities of active learners who share a commitment to the common good. The quality of relationships within a role group (for example, student-to-student, teacher-to-teacher, and parent-to-parent interactions) and respectful relationships across role groups provide the context in which teaching, learning, and collaborative inquiry can thrive.

• School policies align with the guiding principles.
• School leadership has been shared.
• Student exhibitions are part of a balanced assessment program.
• Service learning is a curriculum requirement.
• Survey results reveal both a heightened understanding of First Amendment principles and evidence of a deeper commitment to civic engagement.
• Parents and community members are involved in the life of the school.
• Students and faculty members value project goals.
• Central office administrators and school board members support the project school.

To realize success, all schools must be deliberate in their planning, execution, and evaluation. Schools need to organize a diverse FAS team that is dedicated to keeping the project moving forward amid the press of competing claims on time, energy, and resources. Schools must work to keep the community informed and engaged. And schools especially need to recognize that living up to the guiding principles of the vision statement requires focused leadership, broad-based support, and time.