When up against an unpopular rule, most students know their options: submission, negotiation, covert disobedience or brazen rebellion. Voting usually isn't an alternative.

In the push to improve education, test scores get most of the attention. That, many educators say, obscures other ways in which children can be inspired to learn. Here is a report card on the innovative methods three schools use to ensure students make the grade.

A small but growing number of schools has begun to inculcate students in the fundamentals of democratic freedom by teaching and practicing the principles of the First Amendment.

Teacher Rich Curtain at FAS Affiliate Palo Verde Middle School in Arizona shares his teaching philosophy.

Students at First Amendment Schools not only study history, civics, and democracy; they also actively experience the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

These days, some kids at Kennebunk High School are taking up an old fashioned cause that is as American as American can be: the First Amendment.

For the students and staff of Hudson High School, civics isn't just a class.

Freedom rules at new First Amendment Schools says Rachel Troy a student at City Academy.

Affiliate school Southwest Law Academy hosts the first of several dialogues on the First Amendment

Southwest Law Academy, an Affiliate School in Macon, Georgia, will host the first of several “Difficult Dialogues” on First Amendment issues Thursday.

Schools need to become laboratories of democracy where students learn and begin to practice the basic ideals of self-government. Students must have the opportunity to acquire, practice, evaluate and synthesize democratic principles. Communication skills are enhanced as students discuss and defend their points of view.

Modesto City Schools including several from the FAS Network discuss the Constitution Day National requirement for schools.

"We want students to stand up, not sit on the sidelines. We want students to get out; to help victims of floods, earthquakes and tsunamis; to participate in local political campaigns and in public debates about funding libraries, creating livable neighborhoods and helping those who need it," says Rob Williams, Principal, Fairview Elementary.

This First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the first of 10 known as the Bill of Rights, has been taught at some point in classrooms across the country since its inception. However, for students and faculty at Hudson High School (HHS), it is treated not just as a historical paragraph to be forgotten by the next quiz, but rather as a tool for sparking interest in future voters on the workings of democracy.

Watch students from Nursery Road Elementary School share what they know about their First Amendment rights to some of the 7,000 or so state legislators attending the conference. The FAS part of the program comes in at the 11:30 mark.

Kennebunk High School encourages students to be involved in making a wide range of decisions at the school, from typical student-council-type decisions to questions about rules and procedures.

Price Laboratory School became one of only 20 schools designated as project schools by the First Amendment School Project.

Federal Hocking High School in Stewart, Ohio is featured in the Ohio Center for Law Related Education’s spring publication.

Recent research has shown that our students’ knowledge of the First Amendment is severely deficient. FAS Co-director, Sam Chaltain explains how schools can play a major role in turning this around by becoming more open to debate and the exchange of ideas.

Fairview, a First Amendment school that incorporates civil liberties in the curriculum and campus life, launched a protest this week against ice cream truck vendors selling guns.

Students at Fairview Elementary Schoool in Modesto, CA are banding together with a campaign to keep ice cream trucks from selling BB guns.

FAS Co-directors Sam Chaltain and Molly McCloskey offer commentary on the Red Lake school shooting.

The signs in front of Fairview Elementary make it clear this is no ordinary school.

California high school students and FAS Co-director Sam Chaltain comment on the results of the Knight Foundation Survey.

Affiliate Cherry Hill West High School is featured in an article about South Jersey schools.

Mary Beth Tinker speaks to students at three First Amendment Schools in Modesto, California about wearing a black armband to school in 1965 to protest the Vietnam War.

ASCD Executive Director Gene Carter responds to the Knight Foundation’s recent study, The Future of the First Amendment: What American High School Students Think About Their Freedoms, with examples of hope from the First Amendment Schools Project.

For the third consecutive year, children from Nursery Road Elementary School conducted a voter registration drive targeting Irmo High teens.

In response to troubling statistics revealed by the Knight Foundation’s Future of the First Amendment Survey, First Amendment Schools project offers glimmer of hope for America’s students.

Meeting the needs of the whole child means providing a balanced curriculum, linking health needs with learning expectations, and ensuring fair and comprehensive assessments.

Practicing civic involvement at a young age helps prepare students to be active citizens as adults.

A look at the reform initiative to help schools teach democratic principles throughout their communities.

Butler Middle School has taken aim at giving students a voice in the school system, and finding ways to help them use their rights with respect and responsibility.

First Amendment Schools put the Constitution to work. Principal Rob Williams highlights changes occurring at Fairview Elementary School in Modesto, California.

Former U.S. representative stops at Hudson High to reiterate importance of democracy.

Instead of moaning about conditions, Fairview Elementary School students petitioned, took surveys and cast votes.

Students at Fairview Elementary School in Modesto, California, cast their votes for student officers, and a student at Nursery Road Elementary in Columbia, South Carolina, takes the oath of office as First Amendment School representative.

School communities shape their culture by teaching and modeling individual rights, civic responsibilities and concern for the common good.

Is it possible to create and sustain models of democratic free-dom in a system of education that is largely undemocratic and unfree? If the first year reports from the inaugural eleven project schools are any measure, the answer is a resounding “yes.” Of course, each project school still has a long way to go—and much work to do. But early results suggest that “educating for freedom and responsibility” may well be a trend for the future.