Practice: What We Must Remember
Posted in James Madison Legacy Project Expansion We the People: National Symposium on Civic Education
Donna Phillips, Center for Civic Education
We must remember the incredible conversations, connections, and collaborations we experienced. We must lead with a powerful vision for civic education and its creation of meaningful moments of citizenship. Our conversations throughout this symposium have informed and sharpened this vision.
Remember to keep working to put more points on the board:
- Expand civics requirements in every state.
- Achieve parity with other disciplines in local, state, and federal policy.
- Increase funding to recover years of de-prioritization.
- Secure a seat at the table.
Remember that civic education prepares young people to fully assume their roles in a democratic society, and positions them to carry forward our experiment in self-government.
- The classroom is often the most powerful, democratizing force for ensuring access to civic education for all students.
- Jessica Murphy’s We the People class demonstrated what civic education is like when we plumb the depths of students’ civic knowledge and competencies.
- We must find and develop bold leaders who are willing to let civics lead in schools. Civic learning builds literacy, social-emotional learning, and college and career competencies.
- We must collect the stories to bring to life the data and evidence of what works in civic education.
Remember the conversations we started but need to come back to with intention and commitment.
- How do we assess civic education in a way that holds us all accountable to the vision for our more perfect union?
- What is the role of schools of education in this work?
- What is the essential K12-higher education connection that can truly lead to civic engagement?
- Can we develop a “science of civics?”
Remember that this symposium did not separate research from practice. We put them in conversation. We asked hard questions:
- What drives achievement more, curriculum or professional learning?
- What counts as evidence?
- What does inclusion truly require?
- Who governs the algorithm?
Remember none of this work happens in isolation. We are part of a larger ecosystem — researchers, advocacy organizations, state leaders, teachers, families, and higher education institutions.
- We know more than we did a decade ago.
- We have stronger models.
- We have better data.
- We have deeper partnerships.
The Center for Civic Education is proud to continue asking the hard questions, investing in research, refining practice, and partnering with you to ensure that civic education for all students creates citizenship moments.