With summer more than halfway over, let’s take a page out of the books from the schools we’re working to help. Take some time to catch up on that summer reading list, including these stories and videos about civic education:
- CivxNow received a nice mention in this ABC News story about civics in Florida.
- The Stanford Report gives a historical perspective on the university’s decision in 1923 to install a yearlong course on citizenship and civic education.
- This story sheds light on how the YMCA in Birmingham, AL, is partnering with the local bar association to teach young people what they need to know about civics.
- Even in the thick of summer, the media is still talking about the NAEP in civics:
- Shawn Healy takes a deeper dive into the NAEP and looks at some of the data most news organizations missed in this Washington Post piece.
- In this story in the Cincinnati Enquirer, Louise Dubé and John Bridgeland write about the ways in which we can improve civic education.
- The Idaho Statesman ran this piece by the Frank Church Institute.
- ICYMI:
- In this piece in Governing magazine, Carl Smith writes about how Indiana is changing the way it approaches civics, guided by CivxNow’s State Policy Menu.
Summer Viewing
iCivics Executive Director Louise Dubé, Paul Carrese, University of Chicago president Paul Alivisatos, and Arizona State University English professor Ayanna Thompson discussed civic education with the New York Times’ David Leonhardt at the Aspen Ideas Festival. The discussion focused on the complexity of narrative in telling history and civics in this moment. Louise made the point that K–12 schools provide the perfect microcosm of our country right now, as they truly represent the makeup of our communities. Some are liberal, some are conservative, and therein lies the potential to move forward, if we can figure out reasonable solutions to our divisions on the ground.
