Civic Education News Roundup: Meeting Gen Z where they are, higher ed's civic mission, and looking forward to America's 250th.
I hope you checked out Caroline Klibanoff’s post about MadeByUs, Youth250, and making the semiquincentennial a celebration that Gen-Z will actually want to join!
A Wake-Up Call For Those Who Want to Reach the Nation’s Future Inheritors: America’s 250th birthday is an opportunity to engage Gen Z, and we can’t afford to miss it.
Check out the Youth250 Toolkit too! And along the same lines, Reclaiming red, white and blue: Generation Z’s vision of America’s 250th by Christa Acquavella for The Review. The Youth250: Our Declaration at the National Constitution Center convening for Gen Z on Tuesday, February 17th is already waitlist only!
Visions for civic education:
U.S. Department of Education Launches the Presidential 1776 Award to Celebrate America’s Semiquincentennial: This award program establishes a national scholarship contest that evaluates students’ understanding of civics and the principles that shaped the United States.
High school students will compete in three rounds of multiple-choice and verbal examinations developed independently by the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation. Three winners will receive scholarships totaling $250,000, with the national finals to be held in Washington, D.C. in June 2026.
Civics Education Struggles, Even as Government and Politics Saturate Daily Life. While this may be a good time to take advantage of the public’s attention, it’s also a time when teachers increasingly fear repercussions for offending students. | by Alina Tugend for the New York Times
This piece quotes and links to another interesting article, this one an interview with Monika Oberle of Goethe University Frankfurt, about educating for democracy in European secondary education and non-formal settings. Oberle is part of a team working to study and improve civic education, through the Federal Agency for Civic Education.
From Interfaith America, “What One Public Policy Dean Envisions for Civic Education”: Interfaith America Senior Director of Civic Strategies Chris Crawford interviewed Pete Peterson, the Dean of Public Policy at Pepperdine University (a Christian university, which Peterson talks about in the interview), Senior Fellow of The Davenport Institute, and former executive director of the bipartisan organization Common Sense California.
From The74, Rebooting Civics for the Digital Age: We need a modern approach to civics education, teaching students to filter disinformation and engage online without dehumanizing one another.
From Getting Smart, The Power of Participation: Why Public Leadership and Civic Readiness is a Solution to our Schools’ Engagement Problem | by Tom Vander Ark, Nate McClennen, and Fernande Raine
Approaches to civic learning:
Facilitating Deliberative Dialogue in College Classrooms: A panel of experts provide insights into how to integrate challenging conversations into class activities to build students’ interpersonal skills and critical thinking. | By Ashley Mowreader for Inside Higher Ed - a recap of this webinar from The Association of College and University Educators (ACUE)
From The Fulcrum, a convening set to build on last year’s success: Future Leaders Tackle Constitutional Amendments at Model Convention 2026: Over a hundred students from universities nationwide join the 2026 Model Constitutional Convention to propose, debate, and vote on U.S. democracy reforms.
Introduction to Community Engaged Learning (CEL), a webinar facilitated by Dr. Anthony C. Siracusa, assistant professor of history and community engagement at St. John Fisher University in Rochester, NY, including examples of effective programs. From Partners for Campus-Community Engagement.
Higher ed’s civic mission:
Vanderbilt University Unity Poll: Americans say college should teach “how to think,” not “what to think”. 80% say “the desire and ability to be a more useful citizen” is the most or very important things for their child to get from college.
The Promise of Plurality: a new public forum at University of Southern Maine highlights higher education’s role in a healthy democracy.
Reawakening the civic mission of community by Muddassir Siddiqi for Community College Daily | The College of DuPage in Illinois is fulfilling the mission of community colleges as “democracy’s colleges,” across Robert Franco’s three goals of civic education: strengthening students’ understanding of democratic knowledge, cultivating civic skills and fostering civic disposition.
What If We Ranked Colleges on Voting Rates? Community colleges train, yes, but they also educate. Why not educate for democracy? By Matt Reed for Inside Higher Ed
College as a Pathway to a Meaningful Life and Responsible Citizenship: A longtime university president reminds us that “career” means a life-path integrating work and meaning in the wider world | by Elaine Maimon for the Philadelphia Citizen
New publications:
The Cambridge History of the American Revolution arrives online in January
Democracy in Higher Education: Advancing Civic-Minded Student Learning, Edited By Maximilian T. Schuster for Routledge
Upcoming Events:
60-Minute Civics from the Center for Civic Education - The Constitution as Living Document: Progress or Departure? An America 250 Webinar | January 7, 2026, 7:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 p.m. PT
The Justice 101 discussion series at Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary will continue into 2026 — you can check out recordings of past panels online, and stay tuned for future online and hybrid offerings.
The Alliance for Civics in the Academy hosts “Beyond the Ivory Tower: What Elite and Non-Selective Colleges Can Teach Each Other About Civics” with Thomas Schnaubelt, J. Cherie Strachan, Scott Arcenas, and Josiah Ober on January 14, 2026, from 9:00-10:00 a.m. PT.
60-Minute Civics from the Center for Civic Education - America 250: Reimagining 1776 for Today’s Classrooms | January 15, 2026, 7:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 p.m. PT
The Civic Learning Institute’s next online course, Difficult Conversations in the Classroom, begins January 29th. Learn more and register for Difficult Conversations here. You can also contact CLI to learn about custom workshops!
Media Literacy, Online Well-Being, and the Health of our Communities & Democracy | Facing History and Ourselves Webinar, February 10, 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm EST
The Alliance for Civics in the Academy hosts “What Counts as Success? Assessing the Impact of Civics in Higher Ed” with Trygve Throntveit, Rachel Wahl, Joseph Kahne, and Peter Levine on February 18, 2026, from 9:00-10:00 a.m. PT.
And some in-person convenings:
We the People: National Symposium on Civic Education Research hosted by The Center for Civic Education and the Civic Education Research Lab (CERL), Washington, D.C., March 6–7, 2026
America250: National Convention for Christian Education: A national convention on cultivating Christian, civic virtue in our students, March 8-10, Philadelphia
Civic Learning Week National Forum Liberty and Learning: Civic Education at 250, hosted by iCivics and the Democratic Knowledge Project in Philadelphia, March 9-10, 2026 (registration is free)
The Fund for American Studies’ 2026 Annual Conference, Developing Courageous Citizens: Revitalizing Civic Education and America’s Founding Principles, March 11-12 in Washington, D.C.
Campus Compact 2026 Annual Conference in Chicago, March 16-18, 2026 - the American Association of State Colleges And Universities (AASCU) has scheduled their American Democracy Project conference for March 15-16 on the same site, so you can attend the two conferences back to back (at a discount)
Jack Miller Center 4th National Summit on Civic Education: Join organizations and philanthropists committed to reinvigorating American civic education with our nation’s founding principles. Pennsylvania, May 18-19, 2026