Build educator capacity and cultivate dynamic classrooms
For more than a decade, iCivics has provided educators nationwide with high-quality civics and history curriculum. However, we know that educators need more support in order to create transformative civic learning opportunities that extend beyond the classroom walls.
Our team’s coaching will equip your teachers for success by enhancing their skills, introducing innovative strategies, and providing expanded resources that build confidence and positively impact student outcomes.
Maximize your School and District's Professional Development with our Unique Approach
Provide educators with the rigorous training and proven strategies needed to master content, refine skills, and confidently apply best practices in order to nurture students’ civic development.
Elevate your professional development with our paid professional learning offerings, which are grounded in these effective practices and standards to provide a distinct learning experience:
Lead with Inquiry
Pathways are structured inquiries grounded in a compelling question, with carefully curated, research-based sources and tasks.
Drive Continuous Improvement
Pathways create a cycle for educators to learn new strategies, put them into practice, and then reflect and improve.
Foster Collaboration
Pathways intentionally create collaborative environments for teachers to learn from one another and share challenges and successes.
Cultivate Leadership
Pathways provide supportive coaching, walkthroughs, and constructive feedback that nurture and grow educators into leaders.
Paths to Professional Learning Services
Pathways
Professional Learning Pathways are content-rich, hybrid courses that advance educators’ practice. Each course follows a repeated Plan, Do, Collaborate, Adjust cycle where educators learn strategies asynchronously, apply them immediately in the classroom, analyze the results with coaches and peers, and refine their practice for the next cycle of learning. Explore the menu of available pathways.
Workshops
Workshops are in-person, 3-hour sessions that build specific civic skills and knowledge. Each session equips teachers with practical, ready-to-use strategies for immediate classroom implementation. Offerings can be scheduled as standalone events or as a series to serve as a powerful professional learning community. Explore the menu of available workshops.
Consulting Services
Consulting Services partner with districts to design and implement high-quality, inquiry-driven social studies experiences for students. We co-create place-based, standards-aligned curriculum. We also facilitate data-driven learning walks, providing leaders with the insights needed to inform decision-making, strengthen professional learning, and accelerate continuous improvement.
Individual Cohorts
Individual Cohorts make professional learning accessible to single educators and small teams. Unlike our district-wide options, these courses have no minimum enrollment. They allow for targeted development through self-study or interactive collaboration, enabling you to advance your practice on your own schedule. Explore the menu of individual offerings.
Menu of District Pathways and Workshops
Fostering an Inquiry-Based Classroom
This pathway focuses on building a culture of inquiry in a civically minded classroom and equipping educators to plan, create, and teach with an inquiry lens.
Offered for K-12 teachers of all subjects.
Supporting Social Studies Best Practices in Classrooms and Schools
This pathway provides training to create and foster momentum for pedagogical shifts around inquiry-based learning, information, and media literacy, and implementing iCivics’ core curriculum.
Offered for instructional coaches & school leaders who support social studies and civics teachers.
Implementing Core Curriculum: Through Inquiry: Beginnings to 1877
This pathway supports educators in implementing the iCivics core curriculum, United States History Through Inquiry: Beginnings to 1877.
Offered for 8th-grade US History teachers.
Introducing Civics 101 & 102
This pathway offers an introduction to civic education and how it can be applied within any classroom.
Offered for K–5 and 6–12 educators.
Teaching Media and Information Literacy in the Digital Age
This pathway supports educators in equipping students to develop skills to question, find, evaluate, and communicate information responsibly in order to become informed, engaged citizens.
Offered for K-12 teachers of all subjects and media specialists.
Enhancing Elementary Civics and Social Studies
This pathway guides educators through Private i History Detectives, our K–5 social studies and civics curriculum, and supports the implementation of the inquiry-based curriculum.
Offered for K-5 teachers and leaders.
Integrating Civics and Literacy
This pathway helps educators deepen their understanding and application of basic and disciplinary literacy practices, ultimately preparing their students to be informed, engaged citizens.
Offered for K-12 teachers of all subjects.
Connecting Social Studies Coordinators
This pathway builds a virtual community of practice and leverages that community to explore problems of practice, including aligning work to district priorities, accessing resources, and engaging stakeholders to create systemic shifts in social studies instruction.
Offered for district social studies and civic leaders.
Ready to take the next step?
Why invest in building educator capacity in your district?
Only 22 percent of 8th graders in the United States scored proficient or above in the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in civics, meaning that they understand civic principles and know how to apply them.
So what can we do? There are several factors that make a difference in students’ civic proficiency, from dosage to pedagogy to family engagement.
The 2022 NAEP data tells us that the single most important factor is teachers’ confidence in their ability to explain the importance of participation in the political process and government, accounting for a 35-point difference in student performance.
Teacher Confidence in Explaining the Importance of Participation in the Political Process and Government
This is where iCivics can support you. Our team’s coaching—paired with our best-in-class curriculum—can save your educators time, build their capacity, positively impact student outcomes in your district, and enhance your district’s professional development support.
Together, we will build the best pathway forward.
Download the brochure
Learn more about our professional learning for districts and explore our menu of services.