A campaign that began two years ago in front of the Fairfax County School Board will culminate next month when a Centreville High School teacher is awarded with a national honor.
CATHY RUFFING, an AP government teacher at Centreville, has been named the 2007 Street Law Educator of the Year for her work bringing practical law courses into classrooms all across the county.
But the road to this point was not an easy one. Shortly after coming to Centreville in 2002, Ruffing, now in her 16th year teaching — 11 at Mount Vernon High School and five at Centreville — recognized a need for new, interactive courses that dealt with the judicial process.
"We have a very limited time to the judicial branch [in AP government]," Ruffing said. "I have always loved the Supreme Court, and with a course like this, you can go into everything more in-depth."
Restrictions on the number of non-approved elective courses per school forced Ruffing to seek county approval for her Law in Action course. Each school can have only one elective that is not county-approved, and at the time, Centreville already had one.
Starting in summer 2005, Ruffing and a team of five other teachers began creating a curriculum for the elective course, tweaking those of similar courses to fit the interests of county students. The group wrote a rationale for the course and prepared a formal proposal for the school board. The course is built around a textbook published by Street Law, an organization committed to the effective teaching of law, democracy, and human rights, and integrates mock trials and other interactive activities in the learning process.
Despite competition from other courses seeking approval, the school board approved the practical law course, and in spring 2006, Ruffing designed and taught a training course for approximately 20 county teachers. Law in Action premiered at Centreville and 10 other county high schools this past fall. The response from students has been immediate and overwhelmingly positive.
"IT’S BEEN really popular," Ruffing said. "Some schools started with five sections [of the course]. Feedback from students has been really great. They have been big advocates of the course."
The school’s Social Studies Chair Kurt Waters, who, along with county Social Studies Specialist Russ Phipps, nominated Ruffing for the award. Waters was surprised by the immediate response from students.
"They’ve responded very well," he said. "Rising juniors and seniors are asking about it. It’s really hard to get a new course started, and it’s great to see such a good reaction in the first year."
The strength of the course, according to Waters, lies not just in the specific subject matter, but the hands-on, experiential learning methods used by Ruffing. Rather than a typical lecture-based atmosphere, Ruffing’s class spends much of their time acting out mock trials and going over pertinent case studies.
"It’s more of an involvement rather than a lecture, study-from-the-book class," Waters said. "[Ruffing] has a broader view outside the classroom. The teacher is only in front of the class a small period of the time."
Ruffing also appreciates the latitude the course provides in terms of extended activities and more detailed examination of the development and functions of law.
"We have more time for simulations and other things," Ruffing said. "We can take two periods for a case study if we want."
Ruffing will receive the Street Law award April 25 at the Fairmont in Washington, D.C. Other honorees include former Attorney General Janet Reno and the Coca-Cola Company.
Ruffing will be honored not only for her work in the classroom, but also her role in starting Centreville’s Model Judiciary club, currently in its first year.
After impressive showings in the mock trial and appellate rounds in January and February, it was announced last week that both the petitioner and responder teams — prosecution and defense in the earlier round — from Centreville’s Model Judiciary will proceed to the next round, which will be argued before the Virginia Supreme Court. The group accounts for two of the four Northern Virginia teams chosen for the competition, and is the only one with both its teams selected.
JESSICA MILLER, a student in Ruffing’s Law in Action class and member of Model Judiciary, has seen first-hand how dedicated her teacher is to her cause.
"Mrs. Ruffing did such a great job putting the Model Judiciary together and getting us the help we needed," Miller said. "As well as paralleling Law in Action with the process we were going through for Model Judiciary."
The competition will be held March 30 at 1 p.m. at the Supreme Court in Richmond. The participants from Centreville’s team will be seniors Liz Render and Clare Stankwitz as the petitioners, and seniors Brett Kube and Grant Diamond as the respondents.
While Ruffing’s work at Centreville deserves recognition, Waters contends that her larger role in the county is what makes her special.
"Cathy truly is dedicated to civic education," Waters said. "She’s not only a great teacher in her own classroom, but she’s also improving the educational experience in the county. She is helping others be great teachers in their classrooms as well."