Why Wasn’t Participation in Government Enough?: A Historical Policy Analysis of PIG and the Seal of Civic Readiness

New York State has long been a leader in educational reform, including initiating efforts to enhance civic education. For example, in 1985, concerns regarding the civic and economic literacy of the state\u27s youth prompted the New York State Education Department (NYSED) to mandate a fourth credit in social studies education. This fourth credit required students in their senior year to take two new half-credit courses, Participation in Government (PIG) and Economics. When President Obama signed into law the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, its emphasis on college, career, and civic readiness provided an additional incentive for NYSED to review its approach to civic education. Shortly afterward, NYSED introduced a new initiative, the Seal of Civic Readiness (SoCR), raising questions among educators regarding the future of PIG and its relationship to the SoCR. This paper provides a historical policy analysis of PIG and the SoCR within the context of civic education and ESSA. The intent is to answer the question, why was PIG not enough, by contrasting the two policies and providing four considerations for stakeholders as the SoCR gains popularity across the state and nationwide