Law Related Education Project: Final Report

Abstract

This report describes a cooperative project beween Anchorage School District (ASD) and the Criminal Justice Center at University of Alaska, Anchorage, to develop a law-related curriculum for 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade classrooms. The pilot program was implemented in March through June 1976 in 20 ASD classrooms with approximately 800 children. The curriculum used was the "Law in Action" series by Linda Riekes and Sally Mahe Ackerly (West Publishing Company, 1975), using the units on "Lawmaking" (5th grade), "Youth Attitudes and the Police" (6th grade), "Courts and Trials" (7th grade), and "Juvenile Problems and the Law" (8th grade). Feedback from the pilot program led to the writing of supplementary teacher's manuals for each of the four units, reflecting improvements to the original lessons, supplementary classroom activities, supplementary media, and inclusion of Alaska-specific content such as Alaska laws and community resources. Complete "classroom kits" were deposited in ASD's Instructional Materials Center for continued use by ASD teachers interested in providing legal and justice education to their students.