Research Roundup: Raising a Citizen Starts at Home, But Schools Must Help
Coalition Member Spotlight
On the Road with CivxNow
Civic Learning in the News
New Members
Meeting the Moment, Celebrating Civics Teachers
As we head into Teacher Appreciation Week (May 5–9), we salute civics teachers of all stripes who are doing their very best to educate students for democracy during these tumultuous political times.
The CivxNow Coalition honors their service by amplifying the critical work of civics teachers and students and by doubling down on our commitment to strengthening K–12 civic education policies at the local, state, and national levels.
CivxNow is meeting this moment through a five-point plan:
Growing federal funding for K–12 civics, currently valued at less than 50 cents per student, and seeking a generational investment in students’ civic development to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This includes making Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) appropriations requests to individual congressional offices, a Coalition-wide sign-on letter for FY26, and our first-ever Hill Day next month on May 22. Contact our federal policy lead Abbie Kaplan for further details.
Making an affirmative case for civics by further activating the coalition for partnership at the local and state levels. This entails a relentless PR campaign, including a strong social media presence, and sharing consistent insights on coordinated messaging among coalition partners.
Driving national coalition collaboration around key milestones, including Civic Learning Week in March, Civic Season this summer, Constitution Day in September, and Veterans Day in November.
Strengthening the ways we work together. While CivxNow serves as the backbone of the civic learning field, we seek collective impact. This entails elevating the work of coalition partners who are meeting the moment in related issue areas, including libraries, cultural institutions, state humanities councils, and the nonprofit sector more broadly.
This collective work is producing results that will soon yield classroom impact. For example, bills already signed into law this spring in Utah to extend the current one-semester civics course requirement to a full year and in Virginia incorporating media literacy into state standards.
Moreover, Louisiana just became the twelfth state to adopt civic seals, in this case through administrative action by the Department of Education. Other wins are sure to follow prior to legislatures adjourning for the summer. And progress will continue as the calendar turns to 2026 and we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
In the Spirit of 1776, with Teacher Appreciation Week beckoning, we are excited to announce our ambitious goal to recruit 250 teachers from all 50 states and DC to join our Teachers Advancing Civic Learning (TACL) cohort, where we train and empower educators to “do civics for civics.” Teachers are our nation’s most trusted messengers and can speak firsthand to what’s needed in the classroom for students when it comes to civics. Join more than 30 CivxNow partner organizations in sharing this opportunity within your teacher networks as we advance and strengthen civic learning through policy at the local, state, and national levels.
Research Roundup:Raising a Citizen Starts at Home, But Schools Must Help
Parents are our children’s foremost civic educators. Therefore, the restored health of our constitutional democracy rests in their hands. This is the central argument of Lindsey Cormack’s 2024 book titled How to Raise a Citizen (And why it’s up to you to do it).
Cormack rightly contends that K–12 schools’ crowded curriculum marginalizes civics. She also argues that contentious public issues deter teachers from tackling them in classrooms in this polarized political environment.
While there is evidence of a current chilling effect on civics instruction, we take issue with Cormack’s surrender of schools’ central role in students’ civic development. While parents are indisputably their child’s first civic influencer, school-based civic learning is vital to ensure all students have access to the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for lifelong civic engagement. Decades of research demonstrate that working-class students benefit disproportionately from civics in school, as opposed to middle and upper-class students who often enter classrooms with significant out-of-school civic learning experiences.
Cormack’s volume offers helpful guidance to parents seeking to complement civics in school, along with a primer on the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments, and how contemporary issues play out across our federalist system. She should also be saluted for her nonpartisan approach to both writing and framing our roles as educators, parents, and teachers alike: It’s incumbent to provide young people with the autonomy to come to their own conclusions on the issues of the day and their partisan affiliations.
In search of common ground in the spirit of Cormack’s substantive contributions to discipline, we suggest stronger partnerships between schools and parents to foster students’ civic development. In our analysis of the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Civics results:
Students who talked about their studies at home 2–3 times per week outperformed those who never or hardly ever talked about them by 20 points (on a 300-point scale);
Students who volunteered 1–2 times per year outperformed those who never volunteered by 10 points; and
Students who were attentive to news about current political events outside of school daily or 1–2 times per week, outperformed those who never followed the news by 19 points.
These results demonstrate the symbiotic relationship between schools and parents and the potential to leverage it further and better for the sake of our constitutional democracy. Cormack’s tome, therefore, belongs in every home with school-aged children.
Coalition Member Spotlight
As we approach America’s 250th anniversary, the National Archives Foundation and More Perfect are gearing up for a June 2025 launch of an online civically focused game.
This fun and educational crowd-sourced voting game will invite the American public, along with classroom educators, to vote and rank our nation’s top 100 documents—all from the holdings of the National Archives—until the nation chooses one as America’s most significant document.
From the treaty for the Louisiana Purchase to the Wright Brothers’ flight machine patent, the game will encourage public engagement and connect to many records throughout history that have shaped our nation. There will also be separate classroom opportunities to assist educators tied to state standards. We invite all CivxNow partners to get involved with this opportunity as an official 250th Partner. Contact Jim Doumasfor more information.
On the Road with CivxNow
Indiana Civics Summit Showcases Programs Benefiting Hoosier Students
On April 17, the Indiana Bar Foundation hosted its third annual Civics Summit in Indianapolis. Throughout the morning, civics programs supporting Hoosier students earned the spotlight, including:
After lunch, National Constitution Center President and CEO Jeffrey Rosen provided a keynote on his new book, Pursuit of Happiness. Rosen is pictured below with Indiana Bar Foundation Executive Director Chuck Dunlap who has cemented the Hoosier State as national leaders in the civic education movement.
Leveraging Governor DeWine's Budget: Civic Ed Luncheon Explores Policy in Ohio
On April 3, CivxNow convened a bipartisan Civic Education Legislative Luncheon at the Ohio Statehouse Thomas Worthington Governor’s Center. The event explored state policy options to strengthen civic education and engagement, building on Republican Governor Mike DeWine’s recent $1.5 million budget proposal and State of the State address, during which he called for an integrated social studies, civic education, and language arts curriculum.
A panel discussion, moderated by iCivics' Dr. Tanisha Pruitt, featured Ohio State Board of Education President Paul LaRue and State Representative Sean Brennan (D-Parma). The luncheon also highlighted civics education and the use of iCivics learning tools in the classroom in a video submitted by educator Kimberly Huffman.
The event was attended by legislators; education leaders, including Superintendent Paul Craft and Ohio A250 Director Dr. Stephen Dackin; Supreme Court representatives; and advocates from the Fordham Institute and Policy Matters Ohio.
Alliance for Decision Education’s Embracing Uncertainty: A Fireside Chat on Strategic Decision Making
Last week, the Alliance for Decision Education hosted an engaging discussion on decision making in complex and uncertain environments. This fireside chat, co-hosted with New York Life Ventures, gave insights on assessing risks when data is incomplete by informing participants of cognitive biases and probabilistic thinking. This was a great opportunity to connect and discuss the intersection of decision education, media literacy, and civic education with peers in the field.
Civic Learning in the News
Even during an intense news cycle, civics made headlines:
CIRCLE and Project Democracy released a new poll of Gen Z that shows that their views on democracy are shaped more by socioeconomics and access to civics education than by race and gender, The 74 reports.
Minnesota State Senator Steve Cwodzinski and State Representative Patricia Mueller make the case that young people can cure our civic health crisis in this piece in the StarTribune.
iCivics CEO Louise Dubé reflects on Civic Learning Week and steps we can take to bring civics back to the center in our nation.
New Members
CivxNow continues to grow, now officially standing at more than 385 member organizations! The latest additions are:
We remain deeply appreciative of member efforts and all that we accomplish together. Our goal is to aggregate and activate large networks of support to expand and re-imagine civic education as a force for civic strength. To our members, thank you for your partnership.
If your organization is interested in joining CivxNow or in learning more, please contact us at CivxNow@icivics.org.
Our Mission
CivxNow is a coalition of partners from diverse viewpoints working to create a culture shift that elevates civic education and engagement as a national priority in order to protect and strengthen America’s constitutional democracy. This includes building a shared commitment to ensure that all young people are prepared to assume their rights and responsibilities to participate in civic life and address the issues facing students, their families, and communities in our increasingly dynamic, polarized, and digital society.
To achieve this goal, CivxNow advocates for bipartisan federal and state legislation that supports implementation of state and local policies that reimagine and deliver relevant, inclusive, and engaging K–12 civic learning, both in- and out-of-school.
A Team Effort
The CivxNow team produces this newsletter each month.
We are grateful for the energy, time, and guidance of the CivxNow Advisory Council and to many, many others who support individual projects.
.png?upscale=true&width=1200&upscale=true&name=CivxNow%20Newsletter%20Banner%20-%20New%20Brand%20(2).png)
