Civic Education News Roundup: Talking about ICE, engaging students in local government, and big grant awards.
Whether it’s absent students, walkouts, raids, community patrols, or fear and rage spreading on social media, ICE activity is affecting classrooms all over the country. If it’s something you want to discuss with your students, resources like this one suggest age-appropriate conversation starters. The Democratic Knowledge Project offers a guide of Tools and Tips to Support and Navigate Complex Conversations and Support Civil Discourse and a Current Events Toolkit to support conversations like these, as well as a media literacy module. This National Issues Forum Institute guide can be used to facilitate conversations about immigration policy.
In case you missed it, Tay Moore posted a beautiful essay in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day for The Groupchat from the Aspen Institute:
We published a piece by Penn’s Eric Hartman about bringing more veterans into higher ed, at a greater variety of institutions:
And a follow-up by Caroline Klibanoff to her first post for us about the best ways to engage Gen Z (hint: by involving them in program planning and design), with a post about the semiquincentennial:
The 250th also gets a feature from EdSurge:
Civics Takes Center Stage in 2026: With the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, social studies is the subject to watch this year.
More news from the NEH, the subject of pieces in the New York Times and Forbes:
NEH Announces $75.1 Million for 84 Humanities Projects: Grant awards in honor of the nation’s 250th anniversary will support research, education, and public programs on the Declaration of Independence and America’s founding. The Ohio State University, the University of North Carolina, and the University of South Carolina won substantial grants for their Schools or Centers for civic thought, and a $10 million award went to the Foundation for Excellence in Higher Education (FEHE) which will include programs for civic education (full list of awards by state here).
And in related news, the U.S. Department of Education Announces Release of $169 Million Under the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), including over $50 million for civil discourse projects at 17 institutions and organizations nationwide, according to Inside Higher Ed.
Local Government and Civic Education
Last week, the Civic Education Research Lab posted “Five Reasons We Need Civic Education in 2026 - And What CERL’s Research Suggests We Do Next.” One of the five reasons was that students (and adults) overlook local government as a place where they can effect change. I couldn’t agree more – in fact, that was the subject of my first piece at The Renovator!
Robert Glover up in Maine has been sharing the story of his efforts to engage students in local government through experiential learning, in a webinar and now in an article for The Fulcrum:
Student Civic Engagement in Action: Q&A with the Authors of ENACTing Change | Scholar Strategy Network (SSN) webinar
The Problem Isn’t Apathy. It’s about Teaching Students Where Power Lives. | by Robert Glover for The Fulcrum - about ENACT: The Abraham Feinberg Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation
Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan at University of South Florida has written about her efforts for Political Science Educator (full disclosure: I helped her get started when I was at The Citizens Campaign!):
City Hall in St. Petersburg, Florida, where Prof. Judithanne McLauchlan teaches at the University of South Florida; via Wikimedia Commons
What kind of civic education do we need?
Equipping Students With Core Civic Skills in the Rule of Law: Seventy-two percent of American adults believe leaders who respect the Constitution and rule of law are extremely important for having a strong and healthy democracy | by John Bridgeland on Civic Moonshots, Jan 15, 2026
Being True to America: Towards a Healthy Civic Education | by Andrew Doty for States Forum
Colleges Have Forgotten How to Argue: Civil discourse was once the point of higher education. We need to make it mainstream again. | by Eboo Patel for the Chronicle of Higher Education
Harvard’s EdEthics launches the Values in Teaching hub, including student-facing resources to support civil discourse and productive civic conversations and to support students in developing values-based reasoning.
Watch Beyond The Ivory Tower: What Elite And Non-Selective Colleges Can Teach Each Other About Civics, a webinar from the Alliance for Civics in the Academy, and read J. Cherie Strachan’s commentary, In Search of Good Citizens and Civic Leaders? Don’t Overlook Students Enrolled at Non-Selective Institutions.
On Michael Lee’s podcast When We Disagree, Rutgers political scientist Elizabeth Matto explores Gen Z attitudes to voting and discusses productive methods of engagement: Gen Z, Democracy, and a Crisis of Faith.
A survey for museums
YOUR HELP NEEDED WITH SURVEY RESEARCH! Are you doing civics in your museum? We need to hear your story! On behalf of the Educating for American Democracy Community Learning Partners task force, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello is partnering with Wilkening Consulting to survey the public history, museum, and related fields to better understand how they have been inspired by and made use of the Educating for American Democracy roadmap to integrate history and civics into their program, exhibitions, and resource development.
We hope that you will tell us how you integrate civic engagement and learning at your own site, especially if you use the EAD roadmap in any way, but even if you are integrating civics using different frameworks and resources.
Thorough answers may make you eligible for an invitation to a two-day civic learning summit at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in November 2026.
Complete the ten-minute survey! (https://lnkd.in/edb4sSVk)
A new publication:
Promoting K-12 Civic Learning and Engagement Through Assessment, Edited By Laura S. Hamilton, Samuel H. Rikoon, David Kidd. Routledge, 2026
Upcoming Events:
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!
The Project-Based Learning Institute is hosting webinars about incorporating PBL in elementary (January 29) and secondary education (February 5), both at 4pm Eastern
The Declaration of Independence and the Push for Racial Equality | National Constitution Center webinar, Monday, February 2, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Eastern
Generation Citizen in Action: How to Build a Sustainable Civics Program, with Peter Brown, Secondary Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator @ Oklahoma City Public Schools | February 4 at 2pm Eastern
60-Minute Civics: Majority Rule vs. Minority Rights: Madison’s Warning Revisited | An America 250 Webinar from the Center for Civic Education, February 5, 2026 • 7:00-8:00 pm EST
Civic Assembly Exploration Event for Community Colleges | Campus Compact in partnership with New America, Thursday, February 5, 2026, 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM ET
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.
Inside the Civic Classroom: Lessons from Award-Winning Civic Educators | An American Civic Education Teacher Awards Webinar from the Center for Civic Education, February 18, 7:00-8:30 pm EST.
Some big in-person convenings coming up:
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