Civic Education News Roundup: Trump's higher ed compact, America250's leadership change, and lots more.
Note: this roundup is published in our “Democracy 101” section of The Renovator, along with explainers and other education-related posts. You can subscribe to this section separately (or not), and to other sections of The Renovator, by following these directions. We know you get too many emails, so choose what interests you!
News & opinion about Trump admin’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”
“I think my colleagues have rushed to judgment and are missing an extraordinary opportunity to do the right thing — in fact, two right things. The compact introduces a chance to establish a much-needed fresh relationship between America and higher education. It also offers an opportunity to pivot away from executive branch overreach and restore legislative supremacy.
No, I don’t think the compact as proposed should be signed. But it’s still an excellent idea to have a coalition of strong universities work together to negotiate a package of reforms for higher education.”
From Danielle’s post yesterday, “Why I’m Excited About the White House’s Proposal for a Higher Ed Compact”
White House Asks Colleges to Sign Sweeping Agreement to Get Funding Advantage: Nine initial schools are invited to join ‘compact’ banning use of race or sex in admissions, freezing tuition, capping international enrollment and more | By Natalie Andrews and Douglas Belkin for the Wall Street Journal, Oct. 1, 2025
Trump’s Proposed ‘Compact’ Asks Colleges to Show They’re ‘Pursuing Federal Priorities’ | By Francie Diep and Eric Kelderman for the Chronicle of Higher Education, October 2, 2025 - includes an upload of the letter from the Trump admin
AAC&U Statement on the Trump Administration’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” | October 3, 2025
White House Floats Compact for Preferential Treatment | By Josh Moody for Inside Higher Ed, October 2, 2025
Trump Offered Universities an Invitation for a Deal. Some See a Trap. | By Anemona Hartocollis, Michael C. Bender and Alan Blinder for the New York Times, Updated Oct. 3, 2025
Trump offers top universities funds if they boost conservative ideas | By Ed Pilkington for The Guardian, October 2, 2025
Trump “Compact” Offers Preferential Treatment To Compliant Colleges | By Michael T. Nietzel (president emeritus of Missouri State U.) for Forbes, Oct 02, 2025
Gov. Newsom threatens to withhold billions from California colleges that sign Trump’s ‘compact’ | By Ashley Zavala for KCRA3, Oct 3, 2025
News & opinion about America250 leadership change:
U.S. Department of Education, AFPI, TPUSA, Hillsdale College, and Over 40 National and State Organizations Launch America 250 Civics Coalition | September 17, 2025
Ed. Dept. Will Emphasize ‘Patriotic Education’ in Grant Competitions | by Sarah Schwartz for EdWeek, Sept. 17, 2025
Trump Administration Announces New Civics Effort With MAGA-Aligned Groups | By Michael C. Bender for the New York Times, September 17, 2025
America’s 250th Birthday Is in Trouble | By Liz Covart for Ben Franklin’s World, September 26, 2025
The America 250 Civics Education Coalition is Championing American Pride and Freedom: American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) president Lee Schalk on The Rod and Greg Show, September 29, 2025
Let’s teach our kids why America is worth fighting for | By Chuck DeVore for Fox News, October 1, 2025
What can we do as the Trump administration sanitizes civic education? | By Stephanie R. Toliver for the Chicago Tribune, October 1, 2025
University of West Florida secures $1.5M U.S. DOE grant to expand civic education opportunities | Oct. 01, 2025
New publications:
Renick, J., Furco, A., Janke, E.M. et al. More than Just Money: Strategic Allocation of Resources to Support Community-Engaged Scholarship. Innovation in Higher Education (2025).
Crossland, S. P.; Schnaubelt, T.; Wong, A. Pathways of Social Impact: Higher Education for the Public Good. Campus Compact.
Book Launch Event Tuesday, October 28, 2025, 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET
InnerView Youth Impact & Insights Report 2024–25 - data from hundreds of thousands of high school and college student volunteer experiences totaling more than 2 million hours of service in the last 12 months.
Research from the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement’s 2024-2025 fellows.
Bridging Gaps: AI Civic Literacy Against Political Misinformation
Supporting Student Information Literacy in an Era of Library Censorship
Privacy, Surveillance and Academic Freedom
Join the fellows to ask questions about their research on October 22 or November 4
We the People Student Literacy Analysis from the Civic Education Research Lab | September 2025, written up on CERL’s Substack: “civic education can serve as a key player for literacy growth amongst students.”
Americans Continue to Trust Each Other, But Younger Americans Complicate the Story | Sarah Bryner, Rebecca Silliman, and Sophia Winner (SNF Agora Institute), Public Agenda Perspectives, October 2, 2025
Opinion:
Anonymous professor calls on students to be ‘agent of change’ at Texas A&M | by Ian Curtis for The Battalion, September 23, 2025
Civics teachers self-censor their classrooms | from Arizona PBS, Sept. 18
At the Bridging Movement Summit, Let’s Disagree With Each Other About How To “Bridge” By James Coan for The Fulcrum, September 23, 2025
The push to expand school choice is reshaping the landscape of American education, but leaving behind fundamental democratic values | by Robert M. Ceresa September 15, 2025
Sotomayor urges better civic education so people know difference between presidents and kings | By Larry Neumeister for the Associated Press, September 16, 2025
American Education Has Never Been Neutral Ground | by Ismael Jimenez for Ed Post, Sep 24, 2025
What’s So Conservative About Civics, Anyway? | By Eric Hartman for Inside Higher Ed, September 23, 2025
What I Learned as a Liberal Faculty Adviser for a Turning Point USA Chapter | by Nicholas Creel for the New York Times, Sept. 26, 2025
The case for civics and media literacy in CT | by State Rep. Kevin Brown for the CT Mirror, September 29, 2025
Academic Staff Need Academic Freedom, Too: Colleges cannot continue to operate as if all staff work is identical. | By Aaron Stoller for Inside Higher Ed, October 1, 2025
News & stories:
The GenZ-ers Saving Democracy from The Renovator, September 28, 2025 - about the Carnegie Young Leaders for Civic Preparedness
2 Massachusetts high schools banned cellphones in class. Here’s how their different approaches work | By Anna Meiler for CBS News, September 5, 2025 - Newburyport conducted a student & parent dialogue to shape their policy
Conflict and Conversation Help Desk, a collaboration between AAC&U’s Institute for Democracy & Higher Education (IDHE) and the Sustained Dialogue Institute.
Hundreds of Teachers Sign Up to Teach Truth on Constitution Day | from Zinn Education Project, September 9, 2025
Big Funders Pour $56 Million Into Civics at a Fractured Moment, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Sept. 15, 2025
Registering Students And The Challenge Of Engaging Gen Z | By Cindy Havey and Civic Nation for Forbes, September 16, 2025
Faculty First Responders offer resources and support to faculty facing online harassment and doxxing
New Researchers 2025: Our Biggest Summer Yet | New Voters Newsletter, September 23, 2025 - high school student fellows trained in academic research methods produce a project and join the New Voters Research Network
Pathways of Public Service & Civic Engagement Working Group | Campus Compact & the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University are taking applications from campus teams to administer Pathways survey and collect data on student views about civic engagement.
Expanding Higher Education Access for Refugee Students | Led by the Community Sponsorship Hub in coordination with the Institute of International Education (IIE) and with support of Every Campus A Refuge (ECAR) and the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration
HEI sessions: Wednesdays, 12 p.m. ET, Sept 24 – Nov 5
Student and Community Partner sessions: Thursdays, 4 p.m. ET, Sept 25 – Oct 16
“All Teachers Need To Go Through This”: Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia is helping to fill classrooms with programs that serve two customers: future teachers and middle schoolers | BY Natalie Pompilio for The Philadelphia Citizen, Oct. 01, 2025 - college students teach summer enrichment classes to students in grades 5 to 8.
BRI Receives Grant From Carnegie Corporation of New York | by Bill of Rights Institute on Oct 1, 2025 - two-year Carnegie grant for $750,000 to create free resources for teachers to facilitate debate and discourse in their classrooms. Additionally, the Institute will host transatlantic debate tournaments and camps with our international partner, Ideas Matter, of London, UK.
The Lou Frey Institute Convenes Educators for “Teaching America250: An Historic Opportunity”: Florida educators gather to learn about civics from UCF faculty and researchers in partnership with SPHERE Education Initiatives and the Jack Miller Center. | By Sultana Ali, October 3, 2025
Opportunities for students:
2026 Civic Season Design Fellowship from Made By Us - shaping America’s 250th. Info session on September 30, applications due by November 1.
Campus CoGenerate Student Ambassador program from Campus Compact for intergenerational civic projects. Submit interest form by October 17.
iCivics and the Bill of Rights Institute’s Civic Star Challenge, first drawing deadline on October 31, 2025. Enter to be a Civic Star Champion after incorporating one of the themes of the Declaration of Independence into your classroom and earn cash prizes for your classroom!
Project Pericles’ Civic Story Lab is taking applications from teams of faculty, community partners, and students for grants to share stories of civic transformation. Apply by November 10.
Institute for Citizens & Scholars is taking applications to join their Youth Advisory Council (YAC) through November 3.
Up to Us opens their Campus Competition, with cash prizes & opportunity to apply for fellowships
The Campus Vote Project is taking applications for student Democracy Fellows (part time, paid)
The Presidential AI Challenge is a national challenge where K-12 youth, educators, mentors, and community teams come together to solve real-world problems in their communities using AI-powered solutions with an opportunity to showcase their solutions at a national level. Submissions are due by January 20, 2026.
Upcoming Events:
National Digital Inclusion Week October 6-10, an annual nationwide event dedicated to raising awareness about digital equity and the vital importance of inclusion in our increasingly digital world. This year’s theme is: Community-Driven Digital Futures.
Three College Presidents on Cogeneration, Innovation and Higher Ed’s Bottom Line (CoGenerate Big Ideas Forum) | October 7, 10:00am PT
Join an Open Unify Challenge with Unify America, a guided video conversation that you’ll take with another American who may vote differently than you or be different than you in other ways. Upcoming events on October 7, October 23, November 5, and November 17.
Exploring the Ethics of GenAI with Catherine Denial | OneHE webinar, October 8, 2025, 13:10-13:40 PT
Engagement Scholarship Consortium’s 25th Annual Conference, October 8-9, 2025, Roanoke, VA
Civic Learning Institute professional development courses for teachers:
Integrating Project-Based Learning in K-12 Classrooms to Develop Civic Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions with Kathryn Gabriele (4 weeks, starting October 8)
The Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy: Making K-12 History and Civic Learning Meaningful with Liz Evans (4 weeks, starting October 28)
Introduction to Community Engaged Learning (CEL) from Partners for Campus-Community Engagement (PCCE)| October 10, 2025 12:00 PM
Let Freedom Read Day from Banned Books Week, October 11
Arizona 250 Youth Town Hall | Oct 21, 2025, 4:00 PM eastern
How to Be ALL IN | virtual conversation from ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, October 23, 2PM Eastern
Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) Annual Conference (October 26–29, Baltimore, MD)
Place-Based Justice Network Fall Salon: “This Class Should Not Be Required: CIVC 101 at Drexel University” | Tuesday, October 28, 2025 at 1:00pm-2:00pm PT/4:00pm-5:00pm ET (registration link tbd)
Bring Your Students Into a National Conversation on Voting & Representation | Presented by ALL IN and Unify America, Monday, November 3 at 2:00 and 5:00pm ET - This one-hour national event pairs students from different schools and perspectives for one-on-one conversations about elections, representation, and what civic engagement really means.
Collaborative Discussion to Action: Working Collaboratively to Address Complex Community Issues With Dr. Lori Britt | Interactivity Foundation, 2 pm to 6 pm (Eastern) on Wednesdays November 5 and 12
Campus Compact Fall 2025 Coalition Conversations: Navigating Uncertainty in Higher Ed | November 7 & December 5, 12:00 - 1:00 PM ET
Introduction to the Collaborative Discussion Project Toolkit | Interactivity Foundation, November 18 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EST
Johns Hopkins University SOURCE Service-Learning Academy | Wednesday, October 22nd at 1:00 PM ET - SLA is a year-long, comprehensive, cohort-based program that trains health professional faculty and community leaders together in critical service-learning pedagogy, equipping them with the necessary tools and methods to develop transformational partnerships and courses.
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