Due March 19th

Your paper has three parts.  It aims to help you reflect on several aspects of the course.  Most importantly, your paper should describe the work you did related to both your work on the election and your work on the Census.  I will also ask you to reflect on the educational implications of all you have considered in the course.

A meaningful number of points will be given based on how well your paper is written.

Part I: When describing your work on the election (learning about voting and candidates and issue ), I would like you to answer the following questions: (This part of the paper should be roughly 3 pages).  Be sure to answer each question to the best of your ability.  It is fine for you to answer each question as a short answer question – with several sentences for each question.  You do not need to turn parts one or two into an essay.  Also, please attach copies of the digital communication strategy that you developed.

1. What was the goal of the work you did related to the election?
2. Why did you choose this goal? Please draw on at least 3 readings (could be from early in the course or the recent readings) to explain why you believe this goal was important and how it related to the health of our democracy.
3. What digital strategies did you use and why did you think they would be effective.
4. How effective did you think they were – what evidence do you have?
5. Did you learn anything from trying these strategies – if so, what? If you were to do something differently, what might you do?

Part 2: When describing your work on the Census, I would like you to answer the following questions: (2-3 pages). Be sure to answer each question to the best of your ability.  It is fine for you to answer each question as a short answer question – with several sentences for each question.  You do not need to turn parts one or two into an essay.  Also, please attach copies of the face-to-face and digital communication strategies that you developed.

1.  What did you do (both online and in your face-to-face work) to try and educate others about the Census and to get individuals to complete a pledge card?
2. Why did you adopt these particular approaches?  Draw on readings and other materials where appropriate to support your rationale.
3. How well did these face-to-face and online approaches work?
4. What insights did your experiences with the face-to-face and digital efforts leave you with when it comes to potentially important differences between face-to-face and digital approaches?

Part 3: Finally, in this course, you have read a good bit about the role that digital media can play in our civic and political lives.  You have also tried to use digital media to promote informed and engaged voters and to promote knowledge and engagement with the Census.  In this course, we have also discussed the importance of an educational agenda related to digital engagement.

For the last component of your paper, I would like you to reflect upon the course as a whole (4 Pages).  This answer should be an essay.

Specifically, in this course we discussed how the digital revolution is changing the ways individuals a) learn about issues (including challenges posed by misinformation), b) discuss and share their perspectives related to issues, and c) mobilize or motivate others to be engaged with one or more issues.   Pick one of these topics (a, b, or c).  Drawing on the readings and on other aspects of the course (such as the videos you have watched or the experiences you had in weeks 7-10) tell me why you think it is important that educators teach students about this topic (a, b, or c).  Also, drawing on the readings and other aspects of the course as well as on your own experiences, please tell me what you think educators should do to address this issue and support students.  In structuring this answer, you can also let me know what age group of students you think educators should focus on.  Please, when describing the educational approach, be sure to include enough details that a reader will have a clear sense of what teachers would do. (4 pages).

Readings:

1, Growing Voters

https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/growing-voters-engaging-youth-they-reach-voting-age-strengthen-democracy

2, Should Schools Teach Students to Vote? YES!

https://www.socialstudies.org/publications/socialeducation/november-december2012/should_schools_teach_students_to_vote_yes_

3,  

How Can We Get More Young People to Vote

https://www.kqed.org/education/530957/how-can-we-get-more-young-people-to-vote

4,Should Schools Teach Students to Vote? YES!

https://www.socialstudies.org/publications/socialeducation/november-december2012/should_schools_teach_students_to_vote_yes_

5,

Young Californians are politically aware, they just don’t vote. Here’s how we turn them out  (Links to an external site.)

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-terriquez-villegas-young-voter-turnout-20180917-story.html

Effectiveness of Messaging Can Vary by Group and Location
• Four messages were tested – convenient, safe required; civic/community duty; funding; and resistance/defend

community.

• Messages about census participation being convenient, safe and required showed the most positive response in
the survey.

• Messages about the role of Census data in providing funding for local schools and community programs were the
most effective in the focus groups.

• All four messages tested better than the control group which received no message. Effectiveness did vary between
locations and subgroups, making local context an important tool in developing successful messaging campaigns
targeting Latinos.

• Latino immigrants were especially responsive to the “convenience, safe and required” message with 75 percent
saying they would participate in response to this type of messaging.

• Latinos under age 40 were most responsive to the “resistance” message, with 53 percent saying this messaging
would make them definitely participate.

• The “civic and community duty” message was most effective among Latinas, with 57 percent saying they would
definitely participate in response to that particular message.

Trusted Messengers and Sources of Information
• Consistent with previous NALEO Educational Fund voter engagement research, “family members”

(especially female household members) were the most trusted messengers among Latinos.

• People who speak for “the children” or “the schools” were especially respected as messengers, with nurses,
doctors, health providers and Latino community organizations also highly trusted.

• For Spanish-speakers, Spanish-language media were a trusted source of information. Younger Latino participants
had more favorable views of social media as a source of information

• Latino survey participants frequently search online to get more information or verify what they have heard on
social media or the news, with email and Facebook the most frequently used and Twitter the least frequently used.

Concerns Raised About Immigration Enforcement and Citizenship Question
• Latino participants in all four focus groups discussed increased immigration enforcement, and traffic stops for

minor infractions that have made people fearful about interactions with law enforcement and government.
• Hesitation, fear and cynicism arose among Latino focus group participants when they saw a version of the actual

census questionnaire.

• The citizenship question raised the most concerns, with anxiety increasing as Latino participants considered the
reality of providing their information to the current administration.

• There was a lack of confidence among Latino participants that the data provided would be kept confidential,
especially among the Charlotte focus group participants who mentioned a recent countywide data hack.

Research on Census Messaging
• With Latino Decisions, NALEO Educational Fund conducted a national poll and four focus groups focused on

the census.

• The poll surveyed a nationally representative sample of the Latino adult population (1,600 Latinos) from
April 11 – 20, 2018.

• Latino survey participants were assigned to four treatment groups and a control group to test messaging.
• The four focus groups, held May 8 and 9, were conducted in Charlotte, North Carolina and the Rio Grande Valley,

Texas. Each location had an English and Spanish group.

• The 40 scientifically-selected focus group Latino participants were comprised of individuals with mixed citizenship
statuses (29 citizens and 11 non-citizens). Each participant knew people who were non-citizens, with a majority
having both parents born outside of the United States.

NALEO EDUCATIONAL FUND

Census 2020 Research and Messaging