As I enter my second decade with iCivics, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what a ride it’s been!
During my interview dinner with iCivics Founder Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in May of 2014, I remember not speaking more than three words between people coming up to her and mostly listening to her bold vision.
I was conflicted about accepting the position. Friends were dubious about taking a position with a small (6 staff) and financially unstable nonprofit that was reliant on a high-visibility champion. As one iCivics board member stated, “when you work at a more mature organization, you get paid whether you raise money or not. Here, if you do not raise the funding, you don’t get paid.” That was sobering.
I weighed those concerns against what I saw: an incredible product with a dedicated fan base on an issue I cared deeply about preparing young people for civic engagement.
The founding team had done the hard work. Abby Taylor, Jeff Curley, Carrie Ray Hill, Allison Atwater, Julie O’Sullivan, and so many others designed products with unusual attention to, and care for, educator needs. They understood what teachers needed: meeting state standards while crunched for time and striving to hold student attention. Justice O’Connor truly listened to educators and allowed her team to design what was needed. They were meticulous and connected with users frequently. In my 20+ years in education, I had rarely seen that.
What’s more, I remembered my son using Win the White House while in 4th grade. At the time, I was skeptical about games as homework, but he told me, “All of school should be like iCivics.” That won the day.
The first couple of years were stressful. In the first few weeks, we got a transformative gift from the MacArthur Foundation, which gave us the runway to grow. From there, we built on the assets the founding team had developed and sought to make Justice O’Connor’s vision a reality.
By 2017, it was clear that if we wanted civic education to have an impact, we would need a nationwide movement to make civic education a priority. That year, the Carnegie Corporation of New York invested in and supported our development of the “Democracy at a Crossroads” conference, expanding the visibility of civic education and incubating the CivxNow coalition.
But at a time of great division, such a movement needs a north star. What kind of civic education does our country need? Along with 300 colleagues, we sought to answer that question, culminating in Educating for American Democracy in 2021.
This vision of a thriving American democracy supported by informed and civically engaged young people animates us today. Our resources are now used in every state in the nation to serve 9 million students every year. We have hundreds of resources to support educators and added services to our product mix. This expanded reach and support for students and educators is made possible today by a staff of 70 across 25 states, and a budget that has grown tenfold.
Most of all, we have had an impact. We have helped more than quadruple federal funding for civic education. Our coalition—now 340-strong—has helped pass policies to advance civic education in 24 states. We know that states where strong quality civic education has been implemented have better results on assessments of civic learning.
I am deeply grateful to iCivics and to the team who has done an enormous amount of hard work over the years. I am also grateful to our extraordinary supporters, who have shared their insights as well as their financial resources to make this work possible.
iCivics is growing up! Here’s to the next 10 years…
