In case you missed it, I got to interview Julie White, district chancellor and CEO of Pierce College District (a community college in Washington State) about why community colleges are “democracy’s colleges”:
Lots of new educator resources!
The Obama Foundation’s professional development opportunities are designed to empower and connect K-12 educators with stories and case studies of the Obama administration, The Obama Foundation’s practice and commitment to Values-Based Leadership, and the changemakers of all ages who are improving their communities today.
In Pursuit has launched an Educator Hub based on their series about American presidents and first ladies.
The American Democracy Project is running a three-part webinar series on Innovations in Democracy, featuring many of the renovations you’ve read about here:
Expanding Voter Voice: Does Primary Reform Promote Fairer Representation? Wednesday, Aug. 19 | 1–2 p.m. ET: Explore how innovations such as open primaries and ranked choice voting seek to broaden participation, reduce polarization, and create more representative elections.
More Voices, Fairer Outcomes? The Promise of Citizen Assemblies, Monday, Sept. 21 | 1–2 p.m. ET: Learn how citizen assemblies bring together everyday people to deliberate on complex issues and build shared understanding through structured dialogue.
From Input to Influence: How Might Participatory Technology and AI Increase Citizen Voice in Electoral Decision-Making? Thursday, Oct. 15 | 1–2 p.m. ET: Examine how nonpartisan participatory technology and artificial intelligence can help gather, synthesize, and elevate public input to strengthen democratic decision-making.
The National Constitution Center has launched The Civic Decade, a Substack about commemorating the 250th anniversaries of the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights – Schoolhouse Rock fans, take note of their interview with three women working to preserve the series!
This summer saw lots of great professional development events held by groups like the National Council for History Education, the Foundations of American Civics for Texas Students (FACTS), and the Alliance for Civic Education of Iowa, and institutions like the College of William and Mary and the University of West Florida.
Developing young leaders
Adults have struggled to set rules for AI in school. These teens figured it out. On All Things Considered, a segment about a student senate composed of 98 students representing 50 states, organized in Boston by the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, AASA (The School Superintendents Association), and Day of AI, a nonprofit launched out of MIT’s RAISE AI literacy initiative. The 74 reports on the same convening: Students Convene to Hammer Out AI Bill of Rights for Schools: Steeped in the technology for nearly four years, teens vote on a detailed proposal that urges schools to embrace AI literacy, fairness and in-person interactions.
Dreaming of Justice, Living with Purpose: an interview with Generation Citizen and Bismark Ghanney for Nonprofit Quarterly, the first of a series of personal reflections from young people on the experiences that shaped their civic identities—from advocating for change in their schools to engaging local leaders and organizing in their communities.
Frontline for Freedom Partners Organize Bootcamp to Train Campus Organizers in DC: students from across the country gathered in downtown Washington, DC for a full‑day organizing bootcamp designed to strengthen youth‑led campaigns against authoritarian threats.
Youth Rewriting Democracy’s Playbook, by Viva Mogi and Frieda Edgette of The Futures Commission for Nonprofit Quarterly.
Campus Compact is now seeking applications for the 2026 Election Rapid Response Mini-Grant Program. This initiative provides funding of $500 to $5,000 per award to support immediate, high-impact, nonpartisan activities that prepare students and campus communities for purposeful engagement around the 2026 midterm elections. Apply by August 21, 2026.
Minnesota should let students practice democracy before they turn 18. We could do so by making sure every school board in the state has a student representative. By Aanya Mohta for the Minnesota Star Tribune.
California lets teens preregister to vote before they’re 18. It doesn’t teach them how. By Conner Huey for CalMatters.
Conversations about civic learning
Universities Must Start Graduating More Good Citizens, By Anna Saavedra and Peter Levine.
Can Civic Friendship Save America? By Michael Auslin for Civitas Outlook.
America at 250: Defining a mature national identity. At 250, America balances universal ideals with the lived stories of its people. By Thomas Kelly for The Fulcrum and the Jack Miller Center.
Gaming the System: CERL talks with Peter Williamson about how games can be a tool for teaching civics, from Civic Education Research Lab and Paul Sullivan.
A civic common reading program from Peter Levine, from Thucydides to Pope Leo XIV.
Judges From Sixth District Courts Convene for Power of Democracy Workshop: Back to School planning includes Outreach Challenge for America250, By Penne Soltysik for the California Courts Newsroom.
Intergenerational activism: bringing civic engagement to life for high school students through Elders for Sound Voter Democracy. By Laura Brill and Sue Sorensen for The Civics Center.
Black Philly History, Today: August marks the 130th anniversary of W.E.B. Du Bois’s seminal research on Black Philadelphians. It’s a chance to ask — and answer — hard questions about Philly today, by Sharif El-Mekki for the Philadelphia Citizen about Du Bois’ vision of servant leadership.
Civic learning opportunities
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, chair of the National Governors Association (NGA), launched his signature initiative, “Service United,” with $10 million in philanthropic support to kickstart its efforts.
The NGA’s Campaign for America will work across party lines to strengthen and restore civic bonds. Modeled upon Maryland’s first-in-the-nation public service year program, the initiative will evaluate, scale and help implement a diverse array of service programs in participating states over the next year.
Citizens & Scholars has named 35 higher education faculty fellows and 71 teams of Carnegie Young Leaders across 37 states and DC.
The Library of Congress is offering $100,000 through its Lewis-Houghton Civics and Democracy Initiative for digitally-enabled, creative-arts-driven projects that teach civics and democracy using its primary sources.
The Supreme Court Historical Society is partnering with Write the World to offer an online civics writing competition for young writers. The competition, open to ages 13-19, is centered on the theme “Justice” and will run from October 5 to October 26, 2026. The competition welcomes creative writing entries (including poetry, fiction, song, playwriting, and other creative forms) between 50 and 1,000 words.
Founding Forward is hosting student fellows for a four-day “Spirit of America” Youth Leadership Program outside Philadelphia, and offers on-site multi-day seminars for teachers as well – check out their calendar.
Creating democratic classroom communities
Campus free speech is eroding. How do students feel about it? Navigating civic engagement in a changing landscape for free expression. By Abraham Goldberg and Dena Pastor for State of the Student Vote, about their new article for the International Journal on Responsibility study (with Kayla Dixon), “Fulfilling Higher Education’s Responsibility to Students and Democracy in a Challenging Political Environment.”
“We observe that attacks on campus free speech, whether originating from elected bodies or campus administrators themselves, seem to conflict with efforts to promote civic engagement on college campuses.”
Experiencing Democracy in the Classroom: John Dewey believed the preservation of democracy depended on education. Teachers can show students why our 250-year-old ideals still matter. By Ryan Jung for Education Next.
Students Decide Whether They Belong Earlier than You Think: Three Research-Informed Ways to Foster Academic Belonging from Day One, by Isis Artzte-Vega for the Norton Learning Blog.
An Imagining America mini-grant enabled Civic Engagement Centers at Bates, Bowdoin, Carleton, and Macalester to launch the Creating Refuge Collaboratory, where students use creative expression and dialogue to think through political crises and complex social issues.
New publications
Catalyst: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Service Learning & Community Engagement Inaugural Issue on the theme of Sustaining Civic Joy in Challenging Times, edited by Leslie Garvin. The issue features essays, case studies of community-engaged learning (including a group of programs in Australia), and critical reflections.
Young People’s Finances and Overall Well-Being Are Key to their Political Engagement: Youth are struggling to make ends meet and have a wide range of needs that can improve their lives and civic participation. By Alberto Medina and Ruby Belle Booth for CIRCLE.
Making Caring Common, a project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, released two reports:
Gen Z Wants to Do Good: How Helping Others Supports Meaning and Wellbeing, in collaboration with Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation.
Turning the Tide in 2026: Preparing Students for Lives of Caring and Purpose.
Renee Guariello Heath, “Reframing civil dialogue in higher education: dialogic praxis as alignment of ethics, communicative practice, and structure” for Frontiers in Communication.
Can better civics education restore voter dissatisfaction over political corruption? by Tracy DeStazio: Notre Dame scholar Enrique Seira Bejarano and his co-authors are currently conducting research through a multi-country study of the effects of civics education on democratic behaviors, building on their research on attitudes toward government and democratic practices in Mexico.
Civic learning resources
Before America, a cinematic documentary series uncovering the Indigenous histories of Michigan, how Anishinaabe nations shaped Great Lakes history and helped spark the chain of events that ultimately pushed the American colonies to declare independence, from WKAR public television.
Narrowing the gap between research and public dialogue, the Democracy Reform Primer Series responsibly advances conversations and strategy about proposed changes to our political institutions. Launched in 2024 by the University of Chicago’s Center for Effective Government (CEG), the series is now led in partnership between CEG and Johns Hopkins University’s School of Government and Policy.
Reclaiming Democracy: A History of Voter Disenfranchisement and the Future of Voter Empowerment, from the Institute for Common Power.
Upcoming Events
What Role Does Patriotism Have in Schools? A Webinar from Braver Angels, August 17 from 7-9pm Eastern.
The Library of Congress National Book Festival will return on Saturday, Aug. 22. Part of the Library’s celebration of America 250: It’s Your Story, this year’s festival is an invitation to further appreciate the country’s history. At 11am, “How the Founders’ Revolutionary Ideas Emerged” with historian Lindsay M. Chervinsky and Sarah M.S. Pearsall. Livestream and videos will be available on loc.gov/bookfest.
Join the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, Campus Compact, the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition, and several expert speakers as we break down the current state of nonpartisan student voter mobilization ahead of the 2026 election. Aug 26, 2:30 PM Eastern.
Community-Based Global Learning Collaborative info session, August 28, 12:00 PM 12:30 PM. The Collaborative advances community-based global learning and research for more just, inclusive, and sustainable communities through learning tools, Fair Trade Learning principles, and the Global Engagement Survey (GES).
This September, Young Invincibles (YI) is bringing hundreds of young leaders from across the country to Washington, D.C. to connect, build skills, and make their voices heard. This year’s agenda is centered on four priorities driving the future of our generation: Right to Learn, Right to Earn, Right to Heal, and Right to Lead. September 9-11.
Fall conferences:
American Political Science Association’s 122nd Annual Meeting & Exhibition: “Democracy Under Threat: How to Understand, Protect, and Rebuild.” September 3 – 6, in Boston, MA. Pre-conference short courses include one hosted by the APSA Working Group on American Civics Undergraduate Course Mandates and another about “Designing Civically Engaged Political Science Pedagogy.”
The Skills for America’s Future: A Civics@Work Forum from the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation, September 17, 2026, in Washington, D.C. including The Business Case for Civics: Hear how civic literacy, trust, and community engagement contribute to stronger workplaces, economic growth, and a more resilient workforce.
Frontiers of Democracy 2026 - “The United States at 250: Meeting the Moment for Democracy, in the US and Around the World” conference at Tufts University, October 2-4.
Engagement Scholarship Consortium’s 26th Annual Conference: Changing Lives and Improving Society: Data-Driven Engagement and Innovation, October 7-8, University of Tennessee - Knoxville, Knoxville, Tennessee.
International Association for Research on Service-Learning & Community Engagement (IARSLCE) 2026 Conference at Loyola University New Orleans, October 11-13, 2025.
Co-Creating Change: Collaborative Community Partnerships. The 2026 Service-Learning and Civic Engagement (SLCE) Conference at American University in Washington D.C., Saturday, October 17, 2026
The 2026 Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) Conference: Anchored in Purpose, will be November 8–11, in Houston, TX. The annual CUMU Conference brings us together to explore how urban and metropolitan campuses drive regional development, student success, and community impact.
The National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) will hold its 2026 conference in Lexington, Kentucky on November 16-17, 2026. NCoC will convene experts and practitioners to explore what it takes to build civic infrastructure with intention and sustained action.
106th NCSS Annual Conference in Chicago, IL, December 4-6, 2026 includes panels on “After the Vote: Civil Discourse on Navigating Division, Rhetoric, and Democratic Outcomes” and “Justice Dialogues: Student-Led Civic Conversations for Social Studies 365.”
That was a hopeless goof to have the citizen assembly zoom on Yom Kippur