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Emma Humphries

Posted on by Michelle Shen

Dr. Emma Humphries joined iCivics as Chief Education Officer in February 2016.

Emma began her career in education as a classroom teacher in North Florida, where she taught all levels of American government, American history, and economics. It was there she first learned the power of innovative learning tools that allow students to engage with important content and make meaning of otherwise dry concepts such as federalism and limited government.

In 2008, she began a Ph.D. program in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Florida, where she focused her studies and research on civic education and teacher professional development until she graduated in 2012. As luck would have it, Justice O’Connor visited the Florida legislature during this time, inspiring them to pass the Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Civics Education Act in 2010, which mandated civics instruction at the middle school level. This timely development provided Emma with opportunities to partner with the Florida Joint Center for Citizenship in drafting a yearlong 7th-grade civics curriculum and assisting in subsequent teacher training efforts.

In 2011, Emma joined the team at the Bob Graham Center for Public Service as its Civic Engagement Coordinator. In this role, she worked with center and campus leadership to promote civic engagement at the University of Florida by developing, implementing, and coordinating innovative programs for students. During her tenure, she also created and taught an award-winning, online citizenship course entitled “Rethinking Citizenship: Identity, Collaboration, and Action.”

Emma has degrees in political science and education and was awarded a James Madison Fellowship in 2004. She was a founding member of the iCivics Educator Network and has been spreading the good word about iCivics since 2010.

Emma lives on Saint Simons Island, GA, with her husband, Michael, and their daughters, June and Julia. In her spare time, she chairs the annual St. Simons Island Wine Festival benefitting local arts and education causes.

10-Year Reflection

Posted on by icivics

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…

Multilingual Mindset at the WIDA Conference

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

“My aunt always said that knowing more than one language was a superpower.” Shareen Marisol Meraji, keynote speaker kicked off the WIDA 2023 Conference by talking about the importance of “Giving children a strong foundation in their heritage language so that children could be proud of where they come from.”

Being multilingual is a superpower indeed. Knowing another language boosts your memory, gives you a greater ability to multitask, and improves social skills since you draw experiences from different cultures and look at issues from multiple perspectives. One of the important aspects of teaching multilingual learners is to focus on the assets they bring into the classroom.

I attended this year’s WIDA conference because, as part of our mission, iCivics aims to empower and equip ELs and MLs by making our games and resources accessible to all. We are continuously working to improve our ELL materials. In the field of civics and social studies, it’s particularly important to make sure that students see themselves reflected in the stories we tell and we want to make sure that the content has the support and scaffolding that ELs and MLs need in order to be successful. I was able to connect with several leaders in the field and get their thoughts.

One of these leaders was Dr. Luciana de Oliviera, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Graduate Studies and Professor of the Department of Teaching and Learning at Virginia Commonwealth University. She said, “The WIDA 2023 conference was my first and I absolutely loved everything!! The fact that this conference is for K-12 teachers by teachers was prevalent throughout the program. What I loved the most was to see the value and interest in a functional approach to language development. For those of us doing research and practicing this for over 20 years, it is incredible to notice the changes in the field impacted by the inclusion of this approach in WIDA 2020.!”

Many of the sessions focused on the WIDA English Language Development (ELD) Standards Framework which is centered on equity and fosters the assets, contributions, and potential of multilingual learners. It focuses on a functional approach to language development and one of the big ideas is the integration of content and language. WIDA’s Key Language Uses—narrate, argue, inform, and explain—are core to communicating ideas and content in social studies and civics.

Another leader (former WIDA researcher and one of the authors of the WIDA ELD Standards), I spoke to was Dr. Ruslana Westerlund, an educational consultant at the Cooperative Educational Service Agency 2 serving Wisconsin school districts and Associate Adjunct Faculty in the Graduate School of Education at Bethel University. She was one of the authors of the WIDA ELD Standards who worked hard to represent disciplinary genres such as explanations and arguments through the Key Language Uses. To illustrate the synergy between C3 and WIDA, she wrote Scaffolding ML Access to Social Studies Inquiry Through the WIDA ELD Standards. When asked about this year’s conference, she said, “This year’s WIDA Conference exemplified the strength of what happens when we do transdisciplinary work. We are seeing math (such as Dr. Karen Terrel) and science (like Dr. David Crowther) and social studies (like iCivics)… CONTENT people come to language conferences! Now we, language people have work to do and go to science and math and social studies conferences. We have so much to learn from each other. We are stronger together. Our students will only benefit when adults start working together, walk across the hallway and humbly ask for help.”

Our students are learning content and language at the same time. We are integrating content and language instruction in our materials in many different ways through instructional strategies, language objectives, scaffolding, vocabulary integration, visuals, video viewing, and more. This is the very approach iCivics is using to develop its core curriculum for U.S. History, which will be published in summer of 2024. ELs/MLs can soar higher when their skills and superpowers are supported by high-quality instructional materials and celebrated.

Explore our ELL Resources

Written by Kristen Chapron

Kristen Chapron is Senior Editor of Digital Learning and ELL at iCivics. She has worked on all of the EL and bilingual resources and looks forward to creating even more materials for English and multilingual learners.

Sue Meehan

Posted on by Michelle Shen

Sue joined iCivics as Chief Operating and Financial Officer in 2015.

Sue specializes in helping entrepreneurial, early-stage organizations successfully grow. She has more than 20 years of experience building strategically focused, high-performing, team-oriented cultures equipped to expand quickly. Across Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology, Operations, and Programming, Sue builds scalable infrastructures that enable operational excellence and she helps teams reach their full potential in achieving organizational goals.

Prior to joining iCivics, Sue was the COO for Year Up, a social enterprise organization with a mission to close the opportunity divide by providing urban young adults skills, support, and access to opportunity. Sue led the operations of Year Up from a single site, early-stage organization to an award-winning national organization in 13 cities, with over 500 employees and a budget of over $70 million.

Earlier in her career, Sue was the COO at the Share Group. As a founding manager, she played an integral role in growing this start-up into a $20 million industry leader in fundraising for national progressive nonprofits. Sue has additional experience in political campaigns and in academia.

Sue’s passion for civic engagement started in grammar school, voting in mock presidential elections and working with her Dad on numerous political campaigns. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Colby College and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. She has spent her career in the social sector building organizations that increase engagement in improving our democracy.

Posted in Bio

Louise Dubé

Posted on by icivics

Louise joined iCivics as its Chief Executive Officer in July 2014.

Louise discovered the power of education in the early 1990s as a co-founder of CASES, a New York alternative-to-incarceration program for youthful offenders where education helped reshape lives. Inspired by a deep commitment to creating pathways to lives of learning and purpose, she has devoted her career to ensuring that all students are prepared for civic life.

Louise has successfully led K-12 growth organizations that use educational media to improve student achievement across the private and nonprofit sectors. Most recently, as Managing Director of Digital Learning at WGBH, Louise helped launch PBS LearningMedia, a platform with more than 87,000 classroom-ready digital resources reaching 1.5 million educators.

Louise has received national recognition for her work. She received a Civvys award from Bridge Alliance, the People’s Voice Award from the Diane Von Furstenberg/Barry Diller Foundation, and was selected as a Donaldson Fellow in 2019 at Yale SOM. She is also a Draper, Richards, Kaplan Fellow. As a civic education expert, Louise has published and been interviewed widely in national and education press.

Louise began her career as an attorney in Montreal, Canada. She holds a law degree from McGill University and an MBA from Yale’s School of Management.

Louise, a native of Quebec, has two children who share her love of travel, reading, debating, and learning.

Interested in interviewing Louise or having her as a speaker? Contact [email protected]

iCivics and the White House Historical Association Launch “Brief the Chief,” a New Digital Game Showing Students How Presidents Throughout History Relied on Multiple Perspectives to Make Difficult Choices

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

WASHINGTON, DC — April 29, 2024 — iCivics, the nation’s leading civic education nonprofit, and the White House Historical Association today launched Brief the Chief, a new digital game that teaches students how the President of the United States makes difficult governing decisions, providing insight into how presidents rely on an array of advisors to make tough judgment calls.

Brief the Chief also gives students an inside look into the historic White House offices of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Lyndon B. Johnson as they navigated some of the most pivotal moments of their presidencies.

The game positions students as trusted advisors to the president, challenging them to consult with a variety of sources and confidants within the White House and use evidence-based reasoning to give counsel on a number of different situations. Students advise Jefferson as he determines whether he should continue trade with independent Haiti in 1804 amid tensions with France; Lincoln as he contemplates the Emancipation Proclamation; and Johnson as he decides if he should run for another term as president.

Along the way, students have conversations with likely sources such as secretaries of state, military advisors, and foreign diplomats. They also speak with historical figures such as civil rights leader Amelia Boynton, First Lady Mary Lincoln’s dressmaker Elizabeth Keckly, the Johnsons’ personal cook Zephyr Wright, and Haitian leader Jean Jacques Dessalines. In this way, the game gives students the opportunity to learn from those with unique perspectives and from underrepresented communities throughout history. Students practice listening and contextualizing facts and opinions.

Brief the Chief continues a growing partnership between iCivics and the Association. In 2023, iCivics and the Association released a Spanish-language version of Executive Command, one of iCivics’ most popular games that teaches students how the Executive Branch functions.

“We’re incredibly proud and honored to partner with the White House Historical Association,” iCivics Chief Executive Officer Lousie Dubé said. “Brief the Chief teaches young people a skill that is increasingly more important: how to engage with people from different perspectives, gather important insights, and make evidence-based decisions.”

Brief the Chief leverages the strengths of both iCivics and the Association. Up to 145,000 teachers rely on iCivics resources each year to help some 9 million students learn foundational civic knowledge and the skills needed to become engaged citizens. A team of three Association educators and three Association historians with advanced degrees in public history provided insight into the presidents and their respective administrations. Content experts and educators from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, the LBJ Presidential Library, and George Washington University provided insights on the history presented throughout the game as well.

“Education is critical to the Association’s mission and investment in civics is vital as the next generation is taught the awesome responsibilities of citizenship and considering different perspectives,” said Stewart McLaurin, President of The White House Historical Association. “We are excited to launch this new tool to help students understand the past as an essential key to understanding who we are today.”

The game presents students with the opportunity to investigate two key decisions from each of the presidencies of Jefferson, Lincoln, and Johnson, and provides educators with incredible flexibility to teach across U.S. History. With nearly 30 characters available to interview, students can play the game multiple times and learn new facts and perspectives with each gameplay.

The game can be used to teach different geographies, content, civics and historical timelines, allowing flexibility for teachers to use it in a variety of different classroom applications. And its content can be tied to current events.

Brief the Chief includes English Language Learner support and is available in Spanish.

Amanda Donley

Posted on by icivics

On Civic Education and the iCivics Youth Fellowship

I was fortunate to get one of the best civic educations possible when it comes to the iCivics Youth Fellowship and my 8th grade “We the People” class. As a result, I know my constitutional rights and I feel very prepared to vote and otherwise engage. 

But there were 200 other students in my grade level who opted out of civics, and I’m not sure a lot of my peers understand much about what is going on in government, how they are affected by it, and how they can affect it in return.

As part of the iCivics fellowship, I interviewed two groups of students—those who got the same classes I did those who did not.. The first group gave long, elaborate answers and there was open communication between the students. But when I interviewed kids who did not get this form of civic education, they gave one- or two- word answers, didn’t seem to really be familiar with the word “civics” or what it entailed, and didn’t really talk to each other. This exercise really put into perspective how even one single class can alter a person completely.

On the State of the Nation

It’s hard to imagine that there was a time when members of opposing political parties could “agree to disagree”—or even come together on certain issues. Today, it seems our elected officials are punished for working with members of another party, yet that’s the very foundation of the U.S. Constitution. As someone who is civically engaged, such actions don’t feel like serving the community—they feel antithetical to what they teach us in civics class.

When I think about what our nation could be, the word that springs to mind is “open.” Open to differences of opinion—not always having to be right. More open to listening to each other, and not always yelling.

On iCivics

With iCivics, it’s not just about supporting a program or a website. but actively supporting the next generation of this country. What iCivics does is amazing: it helps young people find the answers to questions they’re too afraid to ask. If “the next generation will “fix it,” then we need tools, knowledge, and support systems. We need the space to meet up a few times before figuring it all out and supporting programs that provide just this—a space to try, and mess up, and try again, and succeed—it fosters a true interest in our country.It’s about supporting an entire generation that can finally find its voice, and that will want to create a better world for all.

Shari Conditt

Posted on by icivics

On the State of the Nation

If I’m being honest I’m pretty hopeful because I know, over time, things get better. As a historian, I don’t think our current struggles are any more unique than those faced during other times in our history.

Since I pay attention to politics, I know that bipartisan bills pass and that the Supreme Court is unanimous in its decisions a majority of the time. That’s not what gets covered in the media, though, because that doesn’t make for exciting news. I don’t think we are so diametrically opposed as some of the media wants to make us sound like we are, and this is reinforced when I talk to my students and their families. We are a nation that deeply loves its communities and its children.

In order to teach civics, you need to know who your kids are, their families, their needs. You have to deeply, deeply invest in where you are.

On the Value of Civic Education 

We were studying the American Revolution in my A.P. U.S. History class. There are obviously no videos from the 1770s, so I’m showing them a couple of clips from this John Adams HBO series. There’s this beautiful scene where John Adams says, “In my life I want a country. I want a country.”

I want my kids to have a country—to have a place where the virtues of who we are as a people are secured for all. They are the ones that are going to have to do it.

So, it’s about learning the skills and having the knowledge needed to engage in a democratic society—to ensure that the values of our Republic are maintained over time.  We have to ensure that the next generation has the skill set to be good caretakers of the system that so many have worked to preserve. That’s the value of a civic education.

What Civic Education Looks Like in the Classroom and at School

Right off the bat, we create classroom norms on how we engage with each other. These are built by the students, not by me. There’s more buy-in this way. We review our norms before we launch into any conversation that might become ideological. As a result, I see a lot of honoring of each other and not a lot of heated debates.

My kids want civil dialogue. I hear it routinely. They’ll say, “Why can’t people just have a conversation?” In many ways, due to social media, there’s a greater level of awareness than there was even six years ago. As a result, students share and post on issues that feel dear to their heart, but they’re also being attacked for thinking about these issues and they often don’t know how to engage with that. So I feel impassioned by this work. If I can get my kids to engage with different opinions on really serious issues, then we can move the ball forward in progressing democracy.

Largely, I lead my class from a place of inquiry. Instead of being the ‘sage on the stage,’ I want to guide my students in understanding how various groups might think about issues. I want to help them find the necessary sources to help them understand.

Beyond the classroom, we set up school governing systems in which our students feel that their voice is imperative. If the democratic process feels removed from you, then you don’t have a say and don’t feel like decisions impact you or matter to you. As the student council director, I try to create systems where student voice is part of the decision-making. Through this, students see the value in the democratic process—engaging, reading, and understanding. 

On Teaching Civics

A lot of folks probably don’t know how much effort a civics teacher has to put in outside of class. Part of my homework is paying constant attention to the news—from understanding the background of current events to making sure I know the rules of the House of Representatives in order to answer student questions. That’s a lot of work outside of school hours that has nothing to do with grading papers or writing a curriculum. It has everything to do with how I “fill my bucket with content knowledge in order to support my kids’ education.”

The amount of paying attention I have to do toward media sources is just fascinating. And then, I’m having to practice the same inquiry and media literacy skills that we’re teaching our kids, right? And I have to prepare for handling crises that happen in the middle of the day for which I don’t yet know anything about. You must be able to maneuver through tough times, and know when it’s appropriate to push and let students take the reins.

It used to be that the teacher was the expert in the room, but with kids having access to so much information with the world wide web, we have to re-evaluate what it means to learn history. A positive shift in this regard has been to teaching concrete, tangible skills that have greater longevity than content knowledge alone. For instance: 

  • How do we read graphics? 
  • How do we corroborate sources to ensure that the media we’re looking at is accurate? 
  • How do we engage people in civil dialogue? 

I also don’t think most people see the nuance of just how thoughtful I must be with my word choices. I will frequently pause with students, and think about how to express an idea without betraying my own perspective. I’m really transparent with kids about this. It’s mental gymnastics in a way that I’m not sure other professions have to do. I even ask my principal to come into my classroom to observe, as I trust her judgment as to whether I’ve taught with bias or not. I take this step preemptively to serve as a check as faith and trust are essential, and built over time. 

On iCivics

I have nothing but love for iCivics. The resources are easy to navigate. As a teacher, I need materials quickly, and iCivics’ materials are “plug and play.” iCivics is great precisely because it has educators involved in the process of developing its curricular resources.

iCivics also responds to my needs. Four years ago, I had multilingual learners that were newcomers. I was trying to build capacity for the target language but also build civics capacity, and I needed resources that could help me. So, I reached out to iCivics and told them I was struggling. And iCivics actually responded back! They told me what resources already existed in Spanish and what was to come. Having a curriculum organization answer you is amazing!

Most importantly, students enjoy—and find value—in the iCivics curriculum. The materials are phenomenal, and the team that puts the materials together are clearly hard-working. We see that as classroom teachers because the materials help the kids explore and open their eyes.

About Shari

Teaching experience: 20+ years—high school social studies, including AP U.S. History, AP Government, economics, etc.

Select Awards: 

  • 2016 Washington State History Teacher of the Year
  • 2015 Regional Teacher of the Years
  • 2013 Nancy Lyman Roelker Mentorship Award—awarded by the American History Association to honor teachers who have inspired students in a way that’s changed their lives
  • 2009 James Madison Fellow

New Research Provides K-12 Civic Education Insights

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

Leading researchers today released new analyses that indicate areas of focus for the expansion and improvement of K–12 civic education. This includes more robust civic learning opportunities in high school, the positive effects of students openly discussing civics and political issues, the effect of legislation on teachers and students, and the need for more civic role models.

The reports, which were discussed as part of the Civic Learning Week National Forum, come from RAND, Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement  (CIRCLE) at Tufts University, More in Common, and the Educating for American Democracy Research and Evaluation Task Force.

Civic Learning Week, March 11–15, is a nonpartisan effort that brings together students, educators, policymakers, and leaders in the public and private sectors to highlight and further energize the movement for civic education. It is designed to further understanding of what a modern civic education needs to sustain and strengthen our nation’s constitutional democracy.

This year’s theme, “2024 and Beyond: Civic Learning as a Unifying Force,” focuses on how to make civics a national priority, and how it can provide a way to combat polarization by building civil discourse and understanding. 

Research highlights:

  • Civic learning and engagement among 18–34-year-olds: This latest contribution to CIRCLE’s “Growing Voters” research shows how students’ self-reported civic learning and student voice experiences in high school relate to current levels of civic engagement, including attention and interest in the 2024 election. The data from a nationally representative survey of 18–34-year-olds fielded in fall 2023 shows how schools can contribute to efforts to grow voters by centering student voice in and out of the classroom as well as through civics classes, school climate, adult encouragement and collaboration, and extracurricular activities. According to the report, student voice in high school is essential to growing voters and future active community members, as those who have positive civic experiences in high school in which they feel their voice and or opinion matter are much more likely to say they now vote and are civically engaged than those who did not report these experiences. The full report is here.
  • Effect of legislation regarding teaching of race and gender: RAND released new data from a survey of more than 8,000 K–12 public school teachers that indicate how restrictions on addressing race- or gender- related topics in the classroom are influencing teachers’ instruction and students’ learning two years after such state-level legislation was first passed. The survey, conducted in spring 2023, updates previous data that found that about one-quarter of teachers reported that limitations influenced their curriculum choices or instructional practices, while only 3 percent said that limitations on race- or gender-related topics positively impact student learning. According to the report, this could lead to long-term consequences for students’ futures and the future of the education system, country, and democracy. The full report is here.
  • Students learn more when they can discuss civic and political issues openly: The  Educating for American Democracy Research and Evaluation Task Force released three research briefs that synthesize existing research and show steps that can be taken to strengthen the way young people engage in democracy. Among their findings:
    • High-quality assessments and accountability structures lead to increases in young people’s civic knowledge, and students learn more when they are in classrooms where civic and political issues are discussed freely and openly.
    • When students engage in asking and answering questions by analyzing information, they experience greater engagement and deeper understanding than if they just use a textbook.
    • Social and emotional learning (SEL) and civic learning are often mutually reinforcing, as students’ social, cognitive and emotional skills can help them critically and collaboratively engage with civic issues.
    • The full reports are here.
  • Few Americans have civic role models, but those who do most often identify parents or family members as these role models: More in Common released data from an online focus group-type of research activity with over 100 American adults. The data underscored the importance of proximate civic learning and helping young people build relationships with mentors and individuals who can help orient them toward constructive, lifelong civic engagement so that they see themselves not only as civic agents, but as role models for others to follow. The full report is available here.

New Resources and Opportunities for Yearlong Civic Learning and Engagement Announced as Part of Nationwide Civic Learning Week

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

As tens of thousands of people participate in Civic Learning Week across the country March 11-15, major organizations in the growing movement around civic education have announced new resources, opportunities, and fellowships for students, educators, and adults to engage in yearlong civic learning and engagement.

Civic Learning Week is a nonpartisan effort that brings together students, educators, policymakers, and leaders in the public and private sectors to highlight and further energize the movement for civic education. It is designed to further understanding of what a modern civic education needs to sustain and strengthen our nation’s constitutional democracy.

This year’s theme, “2024 and Beyond: Civic Learning as a Unifying Force,” focuses on how to make civics a national priority, and how it can provide a way to address polarization by building civil discourse and understanding. 

The new resources announced today include educational content, fellowships, internships, and engagement opportunities from Civic Learning Week cosponsors iCivics, A More Perfect Union, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service at George Washington University, Microsoft, More Perfect, National Archives and National Archives Foundation, and National Council for the Social Studies. 

Civic Digital Literacy: iCivics and the Digital Inquiry Group have partnered to create Civic Digital Literacy, a collection of non-partisan, evidence-based, classroom-ready materials for educators that will equip students to identify and discern credible information online. Launching in Fall 2024, Civic Digital Literacy will include 15 lesson plans, ten student-facing videos, and six videos for teachers covering a range of topics, from determining who’s behind cloaked websites to evaluating political claims shared on social media. A preview of the offering is now available.

New Civics Collection on PBS LearningMedia: GBH and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting announce a new civics collection launching in fall 2024 that will be a companion to the U.S. History Collection. It will include free, interactive, media-rich resources for teachers and students in grades 6–12.

Civic Changemaker Internship: The Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service at George Washington University is offering a summer internship for college students in Washington, D.C., that will provide the opportunity to work with middle school students to make a difference in their communities. The Civic Changemaker curriculum helps students learn more about their local government, neighborhood, and school communities while addressing community issues that are important to them. Interns will live together on the GW campus, and participate in cultural events, and professional development. 

National Archives Civics for All of US Teacher Institutes: This summer, educators working with grades 3–12 are invited to apply to attend the 2024 Civics for All of US Teacher Institute with the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Educators will learn how to use National Archives holdings to teach the civic knowledge and skills students need for civic engagement in the 21st century.  Participants will explore primary sources that shed light on the successes, failures, debates, and challenges in the history of our democracy. The program will also feature resources for sharing diverse perspectives and historically underrepresented voices in classroom civics lessons. This professional development experience will also highlight student voices in the Archives that demonstrate how civic participation can happen at any age. The application closes on March 15. 

Connecting Civic Education and a Healthy Democracy: Carnegie Corporation of New York has issued a report calling for a greater investment in civic education, given the need to prepare young people for informed and engaged citizenship. Connecting Civic Education and a Healthy Democracy highlights the need for state-level policies that expand and improve K–12 civic learning and features examples of how coalition-building has helped advance more robust policies in a number of states. Equipping young people with the tools to think critically, engage in constructive debate, and discover their agency is essential to reducing polarization and strengthening American democracy. Visit Carnegie.org/CivicsPolicy to download the free report.

Rho Kappa National Social Studies Honor Society: The National Council for the Social Studies Rho Kappa Honor Society provides high school juniors and seniors with national recognition and opportunities for exploration in social studies. Any accredited public, private, or charter high school can apply for a local chapter, through which individuals will be inducted into Rho Kappa National Social Studies Honor Society. 

For more information about any of these initiatives, contact [email protected] or the organizations directly.