Civic Education News Roundup: Challenges of teaching civics in 2025, according to a slate of new publications.

New publications:

• Civic-Ready Students, a new issue of the State Education Standard | September 2025

  • “The Challenges of Crafting Excellence in Civics and History for All” By Danielle Allen, Paul Carrese and Louise Dubé

  • “The State of Youth Civic Engagement” By Jessica Sutter and Audra Watson

  • “Six Things State Leaders Can Do to Invigorate US Civics and History Learning” By Chester E. Finn Jr.

  • “The Science of Experiential Civics” By Pamela Cantor MD, Fernande Raine and Susan Rivers

  • “Recognizing Students and Schools for Civics Learning” By Andrea Benites, Lisa Boudreau and Shawn Healy

  • “Preparing Students for Informed, Active Citizenship: Lessons from Illinois” By Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg and Mary Ellen Daneels

  • “Alarming Achievement Data Ought to Spur Big Changes to Civics Education” By Martin R. West

  • “From Symbolic to Substantive: How DC Elevated Students as Partners in Policymaking” By Bernice Butler and Anna Mayer

  • “A Broader Vision for Schools’ Role in Preparing Students to Be Citizens” By Ross Wiener

  • “Interview with Zachary Cote: Fostering Engaged Citizens by Teaching Historical Thinking” By Zachary Cote

• Community-Engaged Scholarship: Reflections from Netter Center Alumni | Edited by Rita Axelroth Hodges and Michael Zuckerman for University of Pennsylvania Press, June 2025

• Report of the American Bar Association Task Force for American Democracy | September 10, 2025 - see “Recommendation A: Reinvigorating American Civics Education”

• Why Are Teachers Uncomfortable Teaching Civics? A Policy Brief from the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute, September 2025

• Beyond the Headlines: What Civics Education Looks Like Right Now | Report from the American School District Panel (ASDP) by Maddy Sims, Lydia Rainey, Lisa Chu of the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) at Arizona State University, August 2025

• Inviting Students to Welcome the Dear Neighbor: How to Use a Public Humanities Project to Foster a University-Wide Culture of Engagement | by Rachel A. Neiwert, D’Ann Urbaniak Lesch and Kristine L. West for Public Humanities in Action, June 16, 2025 - partnership with the Mapping Prejudice Project (MPP), housed at the University of Minnesota

• Americans’ Knowledge of Civics Increases, Annenberg Survey Finds | September 11, 2025

Opinion:

• Connecting on campus | By Eboo Patel for the George W. Bush Institute, Summer 2025 - on antisemitism, Islamophobia, and pluralism on university campuses

• Targeting higher education is an essential tool in the autocratic playbook | by Renée Rippberger, Rachel Beatty Riedl, and Jonathan Katz for the Brookings Institution, May 1, 2025

• Civics on View: Using Museum Collections to Foster Greater Civic Knowledge and Understanding | by Ruby Stricker and Gerrie Bay Hall for The American Alliance of Museums, July 11, 2025

• If the University of Chicago Won’t Defend the Humanities, Who Will? | By Tyler Austin Harper for The Atlantic, August 26, 2025

• 'Founders Museum' from White House and PragerU blurs history, AI-generated fiction | By Kristian Monroe for NPR, September 3, 2025

• How to redesign schools for the AI age | by Claire Donnelly and Meghna Chakrabarti for WBUR, September 3, 2025

• Reigniting civic literacy in Arizona and beyond: New ASU podcast series 'Civics in a Year' to commemorate 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence | By Megan Neely, September 5, 2025

• Why civics teachers are afraid to teach civics | By Liam Julian for the Las Vegas Sun, September 7, 2025

• Teach the Republic: Why Every Civics Crisis Traces Back to Teacher Preparation | By Samuel J. Abrams (Sutherland Institute) for the American Enterprise Institute, September 5, 2025

• What Should Civics Instruction Look Like? 4 policy actions states should take

  | By Rick Hess for EdWeek, August 26, 2025

• Students Have Questions About Our Democracy. Is Civics Class Up to the Task? | By Sarah Schwartz for EdWeek, September 8, 2025

• Teaching American Government During Trump II: On helping students engage thoughtfully with American politics without sliding into either partisan cheerleading or fatalism | By Matt Reed for Inside Higher Ed, September 8, 2025

• Teaching Civics Without Cynicism | By Samuel J. Abrams for the American Enterprise Institute, September 8, 2025

• Education as Freedom | By Michael S. Roth for Inside Higher Ed, September 12, 2025

• A Better Model for Campus Dialogue: The killing of Charlie Kirk highlights the need for universities to foster counter-polarizing dialogue, not commodified debates. | By Cherian George for Inside Higher Ed, September 15, 2025

• Opinion: UNCA's elimination of liberal arts courses is drastic cut to Humanities Program | by Reid Chapman and Dr. Keya Maitra for the Citizen Times, September 14, 2025 - “In one conversation we had with the chancellor, she claimed we had a problem due to our liberal arts designation (and its interpretation by some to suggest ‘liberal’ politics), a problem she said that we ‘can’t educate our way out of.’”

• Pennsylvania House Majority Policy Committee Hosts Hearing in Bucks County on Improving Civics Education in Our Schools | by Aidan Tyksinski for the Bucks County Beacon, September 9, 2025

• Young people deserve quality civic education | by Eileen Walkowiak for the Bucks County Herald (PA), September 11, 2025 - League of Women Voters PA

• Why teaching civics now comes with fear — in Florida and nationwide | By Liam Julian for the Miami Herald, September 10, 2025

• Barnard President: Now Is the Time for Colleges to Host Difficult Speakers | By Laura Ann Rosenbury for the New York Times, September 17, 2025

News & stories:

• The Adams Presidential Center today announced the appointment of Mary Ellen Auriemma as executive director of Educating for American Democracy (EAD) | July 31, 2025

• From BridgeUSA: Council on International Educational Exchange Young Civic Leadership Summit Brings Global Changemakers to Myrtle Beach, August 6, 2025

• Amid other teaching priorities and political tensions, NC civics lessons not being absorbed: With pressure on to focus on STEM subjects, civic education gets limited attention in NC schools. Political tensions don’t help. | by Sarah Michels for Carolina Public Press, August 19, 2025

• Setting the Stage for Civics to Empower All Students: How one teacher used Readers Theatre to make “We the People” come alive | by the Civic Education Research Lab and Jamie Joseph on Substack, August 21, 2025

• Teachers Learn the Art of Teaching Civics in a Hot-Button Age | By Jennifer Howard for EdSurge, August 18, 2025

• Our Voices, Our Parks: A Conversation on Youth-Led Change in Philly | by Charlie McGeehan, Frank Molina, and Aster Chau for Generation Citizen, August 28, 2025

• Texas A&M launching new Citizenship and Service initiative | By Sophia Ridley for KBTX, August 27, 2025 — includes the Haynes Teacher Corps (HTC), a 4-year leadership and service program for honors-eligible incoming freshmen majoring in education

• Teaching Civics for America’s 250th: How K–12 Educators Are Preparing Students for 2026 | by Lauren Altobelli for The Fulcrum, September 7, 2025

• Bard College Launches GHEA21, the Global Higher Education Alliance for the 21st Century, September 2, 2025

• A Leader of UNC’s Civic Life School Is Fired, Adding to Turmoil | By Beth McMurtrie for the Chronicle of Higher Education, September 4, 2025

• Project Pericles is offering $1k mini-grants to faculty to support civic engagement pedagogy projects (priority deadline October 3)

• From Student to Citizen: A Project-Based Learning Trilogy. Part 1: The Foundations of PBL, Part 2: Raising the Walls, and Part 3: The Big Reveal – PBL & Project Citizen Student Outcomes | by Civic Education Research Lab and Jamie Joseph, September 4, 2025

• National Constitution Center Brings Its Signature Constitution 101 Curriculum to Middle School | September 8, 2025

• Teachers from Delaware, Kansas, and New Jersey Receive American Civic Education Teacher Awards | by Center for Civic Education, September 8, 2025 - special panel session during the National Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference on December 5 in Washington.

• Introducing the NYU Law Democracy Project | by Bob Bauer, Richard Pildes, Samuel Issacharoff, September 9, 2025 - 100 ideas in 100 days series

• Madhesh Matters #8: Gen-Z Uprising, Political Reset & The Cost of Silence: From Gen Z-led protests bringing down a government, to interim leadership and a fight for digital freedoms — this week Nepal changed course | Madhesh Matters Substack, September 13, 2025

• More Perfect & iCivics Announce Major Commitments To Fund Civic Learning & Service Programs, September 15, 2025 - more than $56 million led by Carnegie Corporation of New York, Stand Together, and the Bezos Family Foundation

• Future Hawaiian Leaders To Benefit From Revamped Office of Hawaiian Affairs Civics Program | By Blaze Lovell for Civil Beat, September 11, 2025

• America at 250: Creating citizens out of students | by Kurt Liebich for Idaho Education News, September 11, 2025

• Leading voice in civic studies speaks at Constitution Day event | September 8, 2025 - scholar Peter Levine on his book What Should We Do? A Theory of Civic Life at James Madison University

• Community College of Philadelphia to allow students to register to vote during application process | By Jack Tomczuk for Metro Philadelphia, September 16, 2025

• The Counterculture That Could Stop Political Violence | By Manu Meel (BridgeUSA) for the Chronicle of Philanthropy, September 16, 2025

• Service Year Alliance Launches the Center for State Service Innovation | September 16, 2025 - Launched with philanthropic support from Carnegie Corporation of New York and Einhorn Collaborative, the Center will work with local leaders to unlock new funding for service years within their states by providing technical assistance, public policy support, capacity building, and cross-state collaboration.

• Better Conversations Together: Preparing JMU Students for Active Citizenship | from National Issues Forum Institute

Watch & listen:

• Empowering Tomorrow’s Leaders Through Civics | by Good Morning Washington, September 3, 2025 - on the National Civics Bee

• Claudia Owad & Christina Ortega on Managing Challenging Conversations | episode of Coaching Conversations podcast with Jim Knight, September 9, 2025

• The Future of Civic Education and Universities | Weidenbaum Center at WashU | A discussion between American Enterprise Institute President Robert Doar, AEI Senior Fellow Benjamin Storey, and Weidenbaum Center Director Andrew Reeves

• America at 250: The American Revolution in American History With Yuval Levin | American Enterprise Institute

Opportunities for students:

• 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!

• 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.

• Hearst Foundation’s $200K grant expands News Lab, establishes fellowship program | Pennsylvania State University, September 4, 2025 - The News Lab, housed in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, trains and pays students to cover stories and document government meetings that matter most to Pennsylvania communities.

Upcoming Events:

1. Campus Compact: Trinity College and Connecticut State Community College present the Liberal Arts Action Lab, Friday, September 26th at 11:00 AM ET

   (10:00 AM CT / 9:00 AM MT / 8:00 AM PT)

2. The University of Central Florida’s Lou Frey Institute & C-SPAN Classroom launch “A Revolution of Words: The 250th Birthday of the Declaration of Independence and Its Impact on the Nation” resources & webinar series

3. Civic Learning Institute professional development courses for teachers:

   1. Our Declaration: “We the People” and the Declaration of Independence with Danielle Allen (4 weeks, starting September 30)

   2. Integrating Project-Based Learning in K-12 Classrooms to Develop Civic Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions with Kathryn Gabriele (4 weeks, starting October 8)

4. National Voter Education Week, October 6-10 — check out their partner toolkit

5. Teaching For Change Teach Central America Week, October 6-10

6. Democracy360, Karsh Institute of Democracy, October 15-17 2025

7. Announcing NIFI’s Talk. Decide. Act. Virtual Workshop Series on deliberative dialogue skills | October 9-December 4

8. We Can Teach Hard Things, like the Separation of Powers — And We Should | webinar from iCivics, October 16