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Doing Civics for Civics – Modeling Civic Participation on Capitol Hill

  • Abbie Kaplan, Director, Federal Policy, Strategy, and Operations, iCivics

Earlier this month, CivxNow, in partnership with colleagues at the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), took to Capitol Hill with a clear, unified mission: advocate for the future of civics, social studies, and history education. The energy, dedication, and passion of the group of advocates who joined us

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Insights

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States Answer the Call for Stronger Civics Ahead of the 250th
  • Shawn Healy, Chief Policy & Advocacy Officer, iCivics

The moment we’ve been building toward is finally here: the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But the 250th also represents a call to action for our own times, ensuring that each member of our society has the civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to sustain

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Book Review: More Than Ink and Parchment—Tracing the Living History of the Declaration
  • Shawn Healy, Chief Policy & Advocacy Officer, iCivics

Twenty years ago, as resident scholar at the McCormick Foundation’s Freedom Museum, I guarded a Dunlap Broadside of the Declaration of Independence on opening night, ensuring its safety from guests’ refreshments. Only 21 known Dunlap copies exist of what was the first public pronouncement of American independence, and this was

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Leveraging Momentum for Civic Learning Through America 250 State Commissions
  • Paul LaRue, President of the Ohio State Board of Education and Co-Chair for the America 250 Ohio K-12 Education Committee; and Sydney Moore, Policy Associate, iCivics

As we quickly approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026, it’s crucial to acknowledge the role that states have, and will continue to play, in uplifting civic learning and engagement within their communities. Each U.S. state, territory, and the District of Columbia has its

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Civics in the News

July 2026

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  • Education Week wrote about a new RAND study that shows that civics classes may be on the rise, but only a third of districts offer experiential civic learning, with only 13% requiring it.
  • Former Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Rogstad Guidera wrote a piece in Education Next about why the 250th is a time for a civic education renaissance, and how it is happening in Virginia. 
  • The New York Times published an open letter from 16-year-old Chan-Yul Kim, a high schooler in Austin, Texas, about why schools should prioritize civic education 
  • Bill of Rights Institute President and CEO David Bobb wrote in Education Week that at the 250th, civics classes need more civil disagreement. 
  • Joshua Dunn and William Lyons, who direct the Institute of American Civics at the University of Tennessee, wrote in RealClearEducation about how the Institute’s Civics Academies work.
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