Survey Shows Strong Support for More Emphasis on Social Studies
In the News
On the Road — NCSS
Coalition Member Spotlight — The Lincoln Presidential Foundation
New Members
How Justice O’Connor Brought Civics to Chicago
On December 1, we learned of the heartbreaking news of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s passing. The news broke just as the National Council for the Social Studies opened its conference in Nashville, the largest annual gathering of civics educators. The convening permitted collective grieving for and remembrance of a history-making woman who built a national movement for innovative civic learning as her legacy project.
Justice O’Connor contended that civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions are not passed through the national gene pool, but must instead be cultivated with each successive generation. As iCivics’ CEO Louise Dubédetailed in her moving tribute, Justice O’Connor built iCivics into the leading civic education provider in the U.S., reaching half of middle and high school students and nearly 150,000 teachers each year. Yet in her final letter to the American people dated October 23, 2018, she set the bar far higher.
Justice O’Connor wrote:
“It is my great hope that our nation will commit to educating our youth about civics, and to helping young people understand their crucial role as informed, active citizens in our nation. To achieve this, I hope that private citizens, counties, states, and the federal government will work together to create and fund a nationwide civics education initiative. Many wonderful people already are working towards this goal, but they need real help and public commitment.”
CivXNow was thus born in 2018 with 47 charter members committed to strengthening local, state, and federal civic education policies including funding. As 2023 concludes, we boast 320 organizational members, plus a presence in 41 states and counting. We secured increased federal funding for K–12 civics from $3.5M in Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 to $23M in FY 2023. And we supported state partners and policymakers in passing and adopting 29 laws with bipartisan support since 2021 that align with the CivXNow State Policy Menu.
Like Louise, I have a personal story of Justice O’Connor’s role in propelling this remarkable progress. She visited Chicago a decade ago in an effort to boost the Illinois Civic Mission Coalition’s statewide efforts, but also to support a robust new strategy in the state’s largest district, Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Justice O’Connor visited a high school civics class at Alcott College Prep on the city’s North Side and engaged students in a stimulating conversation about her historic service as the nation’s first female Justice, and on the importance of their civic development as a condition of sustaining a self-governing nation.
From there, Justice O’Connor dined with members of the CPS Board of Education, endorsing a district-wide civic education strategy that included a full-year high school civics course, project-based service learning, and student voice committees in middle and high schools. She keynoted a breakfast the following morning before a packed Union League Club audience composed of students, teachers, and school leaders, and held court on civic learning at the Chicago Tribune editorial board that afternoon before departing.
The impact of Justice O’Connor’s visit continues to bear fruit a decade later. The Illinois Civic Mission Coalition successfully advocated for a state civic education task force that spring, and it produced policy recommendations to the General Assembly the following year. The recommendations were implemented in quick succession, including passage of a high school civics course in 2015, its middle school counterpart in 2019, new state social studies standards centering civics in 2016, and a statewide system of teacher professional development that has served 25,000-plus teacher participants since the fall of 2015.
CPS is an important part of this story, too, scaling the initiative launched the school year of Justice O’Connor’s visit into the model civic education strategy for a large urban district with dedicated staffing and funding. Oh, and the Tribune provided front-page coverage of the task force and the editorial board endorsed the push for a required civics course.
Her legacy endures, as each meeting with policymakers and their staff begins with our origin story starring Justice O’Connor. She continues to command universal respect across the political spectrum, and we carry her commitment to civic learning close to our hearts. We honor Justice O’Connor’s memory each day in this collective impact effort called the CivXNow Coalition. It is a great privilege to work for the organization she founded, and to pursue (and one day achieve) her lofty vision with eternal vigilance in partnership with each of you.
Yours in civics,
Shawn Healy
Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy, iCivics
Survey Shows Strong Support for More Emphasis on Social Studies
CivXNow member Thinking Nation, in partnership with EdWeek Research Center, published a survey of
K–12 educators’ perceptions of social studies instruction and resources allocated to the subject. Titled “A Second Class Subject,” a mere 8% of respondents listed social studies as a top priority for their school or district in grades 6–12, compared with 53% for math, 49% for English Language Arts, and 18% for science. This is disconcerting given the link respondents and prior research make between social studies instruction and students’ reading progress in grades K–5.
However, social studies tops the charts among social studies teachers and school leaders for the subject demanding more emphasis, and it ranked second to math among district leaders. In order to achieve this goal, resources and support for social studies must improve at the school and district level. Forty-three percent of respondents consider the current allocation of resources “somewhat sufficient.” Although 28% of respondents consider the allocation “somewhat” or “very insufficient,” the remaining 3% consider it “nonexistent.”
Also critical is better alignment of social studies coursework from one grade to another (vertical alignment). Only one-third of respondents claimed complete or a lot of alignment, with another third suggesting “a fair amount,” and 34% perceiving only “a little bit” (27%) or no alignment at all (8%). Social studies’ curricular alignment is particularly poor in large districts with enrollment greater than 10,000 students.
Inquiry is at the heart of strong social studies and civics instruction, but only incorporated daily in 10% of social studies classrooms and weekly in 30% of classrooms. Forty-one percent of classrooms incorporate inquiry a few times a semester or fewer.
High-quality, continuous professional development opportunities are critical to the practice of inquiry and the vertical alignment of social studies instruction. Thirty-six percent of respondents rate the existing PD opportunities for teachers in their school or district as only “somewhat sufficient.” Another 36% of respondents consider the PD opportunities “somewhat” or “very insufficient,” while only 4% of respondents report them as “nonexistent.”
Pursuing public funding for teacher PD and social studies instruction more broadly is a top policy priority for CivXNow at the state and federal levels, as it not only would provide necessary resources for districts, schools, teachers, and students, but also signal prioritization. And echoing the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap, we embrace inquiry as the principle approach to teaching civics and American history and recommend it be embedded in state standards. Finally, we suggest states encourage districts to develop K–12 civic learning plans in pursuit of vertical alignment of social studies instruction and universal student access to high-quality civic learning opportunities.
In the News
This year is ending on a somber note with the passing of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, without whom CivXNow would not exist. She will be remembered by most as the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, but for those of us in the civics world, she will be remembered as one of our greatest champions.
Her son Jay O’Connor spoke about the Justice’s passion for civics with NPR’s Morning Edition.
The New York Times looked at battles over civic education in Virginia, Florida, and South Dakota.
Rajiv Vinnakota and Stefanie Sanford wrote about a new report on measuring civic education in Nonprofit Quarterly.
On the Road
The National Council of Social Studies’ 103rd Annual Conference was held at the beginning of the month in Nashville, Tennessee at Music City Center. Members of our CivXNow policy team joined social studies educators from across the country and led a session showcasing CivXNow’s work to strengthen K–12 civic education policies at the state and federal levels.
Our staff showed how teachers can do civics for civics by sharing their experiences with elected officials as civic educators and how supportive policies can sustain and scale their exemplary work. We also co-hosted a partner reception on Friday evening in collaboration with the iCivics Educator Network.
Coalition Member Spotlight
The Lincoln Presidential Foundation is the only national foundation focused on increasing access to history, educational programs, exhibits, and sites highlighting the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln. They work in cooperation and partnership with others locally, nationally, and globally.
Take some time to check out their amazing resources, including courses, lesson plans, documentary films (they recently won an Emmy!), and more.
Interested in learning more or collaborating with the Foundation? Contact Erin Carlson Mast atemast@lincolnpresidential.org.
New Members
CivXNow continues to grow, now officially standing at more than 320 member organizations! The latest addition is:
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 atCivXNow@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.
