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Watch the session recordings to learn more about this funding opportunity

April 14, 2023 |  2:00-3:00 pm ET | RECORDING | SLIDES

April 19, 2023 | 4:00-5:00 pm ET | RECORDING | SLIDES

 

Funding Opportunity Questions:

Q: Will you be offering other funding opportunities, for example another round in the future or a round focused on older grades? 

• Not at this time. However, we are very interested in being able to offer future funding opportunities and are actively seeking support to do so.

Q: Will there be cohort meetings or professional development for the organizers/coordinators of the pilot programs?

• We hope to be able to bring the pilot programs together at least virtually.

 

Eligibility Questions:

Q: Can a university be the lead applicant in partnership with a school serving K-5 students?

• Yes, this is an eligible partnership.

Q: Can a nonprofit who designs education programming and/or a nonprofit that runs programs in schools be the lead applicant? 

• Yes, as long as the proposed project includes an educational institution serving K-5 students as a partner in the planning and implementation of the proposed project and proposed project activities focus on K-5 students as part of their formal education program during regular school hours.

Q: Do you consider a museum/cultural institution that serves students through field trips/programs during the regular school day an educational institution?

• Yes, as long as the proposed project includes an educational institution serving K-5 students as a partner in the planning and implementation of the proposed project and proposed project activities focus on K-5 students as part of their formal education program during regular school hours.

Q: Would State Education Agencies (SEAs), qualify as educational institutions serving K-5 students?

• Yes.

Q: Are projects focused on activities during summer school hours eligible? 

• Activities with students should occur during the regular school year.

Q: Are organizations that serve K-5 students in after school or summer camps eligible?

• During this opportunity, no. Proposed project activities should focus on K-5 students as part of their formal education program during regular school hours.

Q: Are partnerships with multiple schools and/or an entire district okay? Or partnerships with just some schools within a district?

• Yes, all of those options are eligible.

Q: Can individual teachers apply? 

• Awards must be made to organizations/institutions, not individuals. Nonprofit and public/government entities are eligible to apply. Individual teachers should work through the relevant organization – a school, a district, etc.

Q: Are institutions that train K-5 teachers eligible to apply?

• Yes.

Q: Would a teacher education program with ongoing student-teacher placements at a local public school count as a partner relationship?

• Yes, though we recommend that the proposed project include the local public school as a partner in the planning and implementation of the proposed project so there is support for the student-teachers from their school placements.

Q: How involved do the educational partners need to be? 

• The intent is for the educational partners to be substantially involved in the planning and implementation of the proposed project. This would need to be beyond, for example, a blurb in a newsletter supported by education partners.

Q: Can a non-profit who offers professional development workshops for teachers propose a project working with teachers as part of a workshop or work group?

• Yes, as long as the proposed project includes an educational institution serving K-5 students as a partner in the planning and implementation of the proposed project. The work or product of the proposed workshop or work group should center on activities that focus on K-5 students as part of their formal education program during regular school hours.

Q: Are cultural institutions who provide field trips and in-class programs to school kids considered to be directly serving?

• We encourage cultural institutions to apply but should include relevant school partners in the planning and implementation of the proposed project. The work or product of the proposed workshop or work group should center on activities that focus on K-5 students as part of their formal education program during regular school hours.

Q: Are Title 1 schools eligible to apply?

• Yes.

Q: Should the proposal focus on only underserved communities? Or can we have a mixture of communities?

• Proposals that include a mix of communities are eligible to apply. However, proposals that focus on underserved communities may well receive a stronger score.

Q: Do classroom teachers need to teach the content or is there space for college students to deliver the content?

• Yes college students might deliver the content. The proposed project still needs to include an educational institution serving K-5 students as a partner in the planning and implementation of the proposed project.

 

Scope Questions:

Q: Is there a preference on scope vs. depth? For example, is it better to have a greater number of students involved, or a deeper program developed?

• We do not have a preference for this opportunity and welcome applications that may offer either or both examples.

Q: Does the partner need to be a specific school, or could it be at a higher level (ex. district, or region as part of state school system)

• Any of those levels are eligible. 

Q: Can the proposal be focused on one state, or does it need to be presented to be adaptable to other states?

• The proposal can be focused on one state, one district, or one school. We are interested in how the learnings of the project can be applied to the larger field.

Q: Can nonprofits propose more than one school partner that span multiple states?

• Yes.

Q: Is it acceptable to propose a project that for instance develops a lesson using a Design Challenge under a theme that is not suggested in the Roadmap? 

• The connections that have been drawn between Design Challenges and themes are connections that seem to us particularly strong, but they are not by any means the only ones. You could connect a design challenge to a different theme from the one indicated in the materials.

Q: Should project applications be aligned to all themes, design challenges, and pedagogical strategies, or will projects that focus on only some of these be funded?

• We are looking for projects that:
  • Address at least one (or more) EAD themes and history and/or civics driving question(s)
  • Select and provide a rationale for the EAD Roadmap design challenge(s) selected, which should be relevant to the theme(s) identified in the first bullet
  • Reflect some or all of the six EAD pedagogical principles, and do not, in spirit, practice, or language, contradict any of the six principles
• While the projects do not need to focus on all the EAD Roadmap design challenges, we would like the application to show consideration of all of them

Q: Can schools that serve grades beyond K-5 (e.g. K-6 or K-8) include teachers of those other grades in that plan with the K-5 teachers?

• Yes, teachers who teach those other grades may be included. The proposal/project should still focus primarily on the K-5 grades.

Q: Do we have to service all K-5 or can we focus on a specific grade?

• You may focus on a specific grade or grades within K-5.

Q: For a project that would create and implement professional development opportunities for educators, would the participating educators need to be restricted to exclusively K-5 or could the program cast a broader net that includes and differentiates for them?

• Yes, teachers who teach other grades may be included. The proposal/project should still focus primarily on the K-5 grades.

Q: With a focus on K-5, can our proposal include 7th graders implementing a segment of our initiative?

• Yes.

Q: What is the primary source requirement? Are images acceptable?

• Primary source refers to any document that comes from the period, context, or thematic area that you would be working on with students. One of the important things about the roadmap is that we are simultaneously working to scaffold student development of agency and a specific identity and also content mastery and subject matter knowledge and expertise. We’d like to see every project include some element of content and the primary source text requirement is to ensure that every project integrates content into the work that’s being done. There is a curated body of resources that span all grade bands on the EAD website, along with a pedagogy companion to support your consideration of how you might use different kinds of resources or materials. Primary sources that are images are acceptable.

Q: Is a project that integrates K-5 economics and personal finance standards acceptable?

• As long as they align with the relevant questions in the EAD roadmap.

Q: Can the project include several of the broad range of work (lessons, curricula or curriculum development, PD, etc.), or does the project need to include all the types of work listed in the guidelines?

• The project does not need to include all types of work listed in the guidelines. You may focus on one or more..

Q: Can the project activities focus on teacher PD for using resources created for K-5? 

• Yes

Q: If we have an existing partnership with one of EADs champions with older grades, would an appropriate project be expanding the work to grades K-5?

• Yes, we would consider this eligible, though please keep in mind that at least one of these organizations needs to be an educational institution serving K-5 students as a partner in the planning and implementation of the proposed project.

Q: Is iCivics a curricular program that we would be expected to implement as part of this project?

• While iCivics does offer curricular resources, implementing those resources is not a requirement of this opportunity. iCivics is the primary grantee of the funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities that is funding this opportunity. As such, applicants with successful proposals will be signing a contract with iCivics who will disburse the funds. Other institutions (such as Harvard University) are also receiving funds from the grant from the NEH. You can learn more about the organizations and individuals who make up the EAD Implementation Consortium, which is overseeing EAD work, as well as the Principal Investigators who led the discovery phase for the EAD initiative here. There are also over 200 EAD Champions, many of whom also offer curricular resources.

 

Project Evaluation Questions:

Q: Can you speak more to the evaluation plan? What kind of outcomes are you looking to measure via the pilot? Student outcomes only? Teacher outcomes in shifts in their practice? Both? Content?

• The evaluation plan has not yet been developed. Because of the broad range of what applicants may submit, we are not yet certain on the outcomes. The evaluation plan will be based on the selected projects. However, in this short timeframe, we are not going to be looking at student outcomes–at least not directly. We will be interested in looking at the effect on teachers’ thinking and practices in service of student learning

 

Budget Questions:

Q: What is an indirect rate?

• Indirect costs (sometimes also referred to as overhead) are costs that are not readily identified with a particular grant, contract, project function or activity, but are necessary for the general operation of the organization and the conduct of activities it performs. Indirect costs include costs which are frequently referred to as overhead expenses (for example, rent and utilities) and general and administrative expenses.
• Applicants may apply an indirect rate of 10% (unless your entity already has a negotiated indirect rate set with the National Endowment for the Humanities, in which case that rate should be used) to the total direct project costs to provide a budget figure of indirect costs that are supporting the project. Together, the total direct project costs plus indirect costs equal the proposed total budget.

Q: Does indirect rate include staff salaries working to develop and facilitate the project?

• No, these salaries would be included as direct costs since they are identified with the particular grant/activities.

Q: Do we need to include funding for an evaluator?

• No you do not. The EAD Research Task force will be issuing an RFP seeking a project evaluator who will work with all selected projects.

Q: Does the budget have to be in a particular format?

• Please see page 10-11 of the RFP questions document for a budget template. This template is also included as a google doc which you may copy to use in the application portal in the budget attachment section.

Q: Are we allowed to use funds to contract teachers to carry out some of the aims of the project (e.g., create curriculum)?

• Yes

Q: Can part of the grant be used for schools to purchase materials?

• Yes, as long as they are directly related to the proposed project activities.

Q: Are capital costs allowable? For instance if we needed to upgrade a studio to broaden the reach of a virtual program?

• This is not an advisable cost to include for this opportunity.

 

Project Timeline Questions:

Q: We are considering a proposal focused on our teacher workshops that typically occur in the summer. Would it be possible for our project to just be implemented next summer rather than the school year?

• According to the overall project timeline, implementation activities should be completed by July 31, 2024, so the evaluation team has enough time to review and write up findings. 

Q: What are the expectations for the pilot during the 23-24 school year given the narrow window between announcement and pilot launch?

• It is allowable for implementation activities to take place later in the 2023-24 school year (e.g. winter/spring) as we recognize that some projects may need a planning period.

 

Application Process Questions:

Q: Is there any chance of an earlier award date, especially given that teacher PD would be an important aspect and would best be planned and scheduled before July and many school districts go back to school in early August?

• In order to give applicants as much time as possible to prepare and submit their proposals and for a thorough review by the committee, we are planning to notify applicants of funding decisions by the end of June 2023. We are uncertain how many proposals we may get however, so it is possible we could notify applicants earlier.

Q: As part of our application, may we submit documents, videos, etc. and refer you to online materials that we have?

• You may link to online materials if you wish, but we cannot guarantee that reviewers will be able to review materials outside the proposal. If you do link to other resources, we strongly suggest including in your proposal itself a concise statement of what you want reviewers to learn from the materials. 

Q: Will there be a means for folks to find partners?

• Please note that the application should identify the partner and clearly describe evidence of an established partnership. Given the short time frame for both applications and project implementation, we would like applicants to focus on project activities for this opportunity, rather than establishing a new partnership. Applicants may want to explore the list of over 200 EAD Champions to identify partners they may want to connect with.

Q: For the benefit of the proposer’s ongoing development, will comments from the reviewers be provided?

• We will be providing broad feedback to finalists.

Q: Is the proposal due in May expected to be the full plan for all funding for our organization or is there the possibility for phased proposals?

• The proposal due in May should be the full plan for all funding. 

Q: Can you apply more than once, with projects that are completely different scopes, in hopes that 1 gets picked?

• Applicants are limited to one proposal.

 

EAD Roadmap Questions:

Q: Is the EAD roadmap available to anyone?

• Yes. Please visit the EAD website to learn more about EAD, explore the interactive version of the Roadmap, and download the roadmap.

Q: Can you please explain what the EAD Roadmap design challenges are?

• The 5 EAD Design Challenges span the seven EAD themes and state transparently some of the rich dilemmas that educators will encounter as they work with the content themes and instructional guidance. There are no pre-existing right answers to these puzzles. What we really want to see is the quality of your reasoning about how to solve a particular kind of puzzle.
• Learn more about the Design Challenges here.

Rebuilding trust in our constitutional democracy must begin at the earliest levels of education and with a focus on supporting all learners. The Educating for American Democracy (EAD) Initiative is pleased to announce a request for proposals to support high quality history and civic education for students in grades K-5. This funding opportunity will allow successful applicants to implement a high-quality EAD-aligned project focused on K-5 students as part of their formal K-5 educational program during regular school hours in underserved communities (communities where income is at or below the state median). Throughout the project period, the EAD initiative will provide support to grantees, and an evaluator will collect information on pilot implementation in order to share portraits of high quality EAD-aligned teaching and learning.  Grants awarded by the EAD Implementation Consortium will be subawards of National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Federal Award number GA-291279-23 awarded to iCivics, Inc, which will issue the funds to successful applicants.

What is the Educating for American Democracy Initiative?

Educating for American Democracy (EAD) is an unprecedented effort that convened a diverse and cross-ideological group of scholars and educators to create a Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy—guidance and an inquiry framework that states, local school districts, and educators can use to transform teaching of history and civics to meet the needs of a diverse 21st century K–12 student body. EAD is a call to action to invest in strengthening history and civic learning, and to ensure that civic learning opportunities are delivered equitably throughout the country.

The Educating for American Democracy (EAD) Initiative was initially funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the U.S. Department of Education through a grant to iCivics in collaboration with Harvard University, Tufts University, CIRCLE, and Arizona State University. 

First proposed in July 2019, the initiative brought together a national network of more than 300 scholars, classroom educators from every grade level, practitioners, and students from a diversity of viewpoints, demographics, and roles, who pooled their expertise to create a strategy for providing excellent history and civics to all students. You can learn more about the individuals who contributed to the Roadmap here.

 

Who can apply?

Awards cannot be made to individuals and must be made to organizations/institutions. Nonprofit and public/government entities are eligible to apply. If the applying entity is not an educational institution serving K-5 students, then the proposed project must include such an educational institution partner in a substantial way; the educational institution partner must be represented in the project team list and their participation, as well as evidence of an established partnership, must be clearly described in the Proposed Project Team/Organizational Capacity section. Only U.S. based entities serving students in the U.S. or in military schools will be considered.

 

Can museums/cultural institutions apply?

Yes, a non-profit museum/cultural institution is eligible to apply. However, you must partner with an educational entity/entities that directly serves students in grades K-5 and the focus of the project activities must be on students during their regular school day program.

 

How can the funding be used?

The EAD Implementation Consortium seeks to identify and support pilot projects that address gaps in materials, approaches, and educator development for K-5 students, especially in underserved communities. The pilot projects could cover a large range of work: lessons, curricular units and/or curriculum development; professional development (in-service and pre-service); school strategies; district policies; assessments or other student evaluation; state standards documents or other state policies. This project should enable applicants to either build on existing EAD efforts and/or to launch new efforts.

Budget items should support activities and programming delineated in the project narrative portion of the application.  Overall cost should be reasonable, allowable, and within the stated maximum budget.

Funding resources can be used to support personnel time to plan and implement activities, as well as to purchase materials or supplies in support of planning and implementation activities. Funds may be spent on meeting expenses related to planning and implementation activities, as well as any necessary travel.

Using grant funds to purchase food for meetings is allowed only if the meetings are part of a working session for project activities.

No part of the funds may be used to carry out propaganda or otherwise attempt to influence legislation (within the meaning of Section 4945 (d)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code).

 

How much funding is available?

Applicants may submit proposals for up to $200,000.00. 

 

How many applications will be funded?

Three to five proposals will be funded for a cumulative total of $600,000.00.

 

When can we apply?

The RFP is now open and accepting proposals until Wednesday, May 31, 2023 at 11:59 pm ET.

 

When will applicants be notified of funding decisions? 

Successful applicants will be notified of funding decisions the first week of July 2023. 

 

What is the grant period?

The project period is July 2023 through December 2024. We anticipate pilot activities to take place during the 2023-2024 school year, commencing August/September 2023 through July 2024, with findings from implementation compiled and a report written between August 2024-November 2024. 

 

Is it allowable to have implementation activities take place later in the 2023-24 school year (e.g. winter/spring)?

Yes this is allowable. We recognize that some projects may need a planning period; activity implementation in the latter half of the 2023-24 school year is allowable.

 

When will funding be received? 

Successful applicants will receive half of their allocated total funds in July 2023 (upon completion of contract) and half in January 2024 upon submission of interim project report. Successful grantees must have a Unique Entity ID from Sam.gov set up prior to receiving funds.

 

What documents are needed to apply?

A complete project application, a PDF version of your budget, a PDF budget justification for all project activities and for staff, a PDF list of project personnel, and a PDF of proposed timeline for project activities. If the applying entity is not an educational institution serving K-5 students, then the proposed project must include such an educational institution partner in a substantial way; the educational institution partner must be represented in the project team list and their participation, as well as evidence of an established partnership, must be clearly described in the Proposed Project Team/Organizational Capacity section. An allowable indirect rate of 10% of Modified Total Direct Costs may be included in the project budget unless your entity already has a federally negotiated indirect rate, in which case that rate should be used. Review a full PDF version of the RFP.

 

What evaluation activities will successful applicants need to participate in?

An evaluator will collect information on pilot implementation in order to share portraits of high-quality EAD-aligned teaching and learning. Applicants should have the capacity to complete grant reporting requirements, host a site visit with the evaluation team, and participate in the evaluation activities (still in development). More information on evaluation activities, which will be tailored to successful project activities, to come.

 

What are the reporting requirements for successful applicants?

An interim project report will need to be submitted in January 2024 in order to receive the second half of approved funds. A final report is due within 90 days after the grant ends. In addition, a summative report published by the Implementation Consortium will be distributed to the field in December 2024.

 

Who is making the funding decisions?

Proposals will be reviewed by an independent committee comprised of a diversity of experts in K-5 education and EAD. The Committee will review proposals based on the RPF rubric and make funding recommendations to the Implementation Consortium. Final funding decisions will be made by the Implementation Consortium. 

 

What is the EAD Implementation Consortium?

 

How is this funding being made available?

Grants will be awarded by the EAD Implementation Consortium as subawards of National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Federal Award number GA-291279-23 awarded to iCivics, Inc. Successful applicants will be contracting with and receiving the funds from iCivics, Inc. 

 

What if I still have questions regarding this funding opportunity?

Please direct questions to EAD@iCivics.org or attend an upcoming info session.

 

Disclaimer Notice: This request for proposals is not binding on the EAD Implementation Consortium nor does it constitute a contractual offer. Without limiting the foregoing, the EAD Implementation Consortium reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to reject any or all proposals; to modify, supplement or cancel the RFP; to waive any deviation from the RFP; to negotiate regarding any proposal; and to negotiate final terms and conditions that may differ from those stated in the RFP. Under no circumstances shall the EAD Implementation Consortium be liable for any costs incurred by any person in connection with the preparation and submission of a response to this RFP.

Attend an info session to learn more about this funding opportunity

May 10, 2023 |  2:00-3:00 pm ET | MEETING LINK

May 22, 2023 | 2:00-3:00 pm ET | MEETING LINK

In the Fall of 2019, the National Endowment for the Humanities, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education, funded a cooperative agreement that became Educating for American Democracy (EAD). Its stated goal was “to establish a foundation from which to prepare all learners to understand the value of their American democracy as well as its past failures and present challenges, to give them a strong sense of connection to and ownership of that democracy, and to equip them with the knowledge, skills, and capacities that they need to sustain a healthy, thriving republic.” 

The multi-institution, interdisciplinary, and ideologically pluralist team that constituted EAD produced The Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy, a framework for how to integrate civics and history education in K-12 in ways that are both equitable for all students – especially those most under-served – and that bolster educator capacity. The EAD Roadmap is not a mandate, but rather a framework that allows for high-quality content to be “localized” to the curricular and cultural needs of each state, school system, and school. It is inquiry-based, organized by seven major themes and questions, supported by key concepts. The EAD Roadmap also features design thinking, and surfaces five “design challenges” for educators, students, and communities to wrestle with. The framework is vertically spiraled across four grade bands (K–2, 3–5, 6–8, and 9–12), and offers a vision for history and civic education throughout K–12.

The Educating for American Democracy Implementation Consortium recently received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to promote EAD (Federal Award number GA-291279-23 awarded to iCivics, Inc.). These funds will enable sub-awards to a set of K-5 pilot initiatives that are selected through a competitive process (see RFP).  The pilot projects may cover varied work: lessons, curricular units and/or curriculum development; professional development (in-service and pre-service); school strategies; school system policies; assessments or other student evaluation; or state standards documents or other state policies. These projects should enable applicants to either build on existing EAD efforts or to launch new efforts.

This RFP seeks to identify an evaluator who will collect information on pilot implementation in order to develop portraits of high-quality efforts to promote high quality EAD-aligned teaching and learning and to provide analysis that can inform others about promising strategies and potential challenges. 

The main objective for the evaluator is to identify key levers for success, as well as promising examples that can be replicated and adapted in future initiatives. The evaluator should also surface and synthesize information about various challenges and barriers that the pilot projects encounter along the way. It may be helpful, for example, for the study to specify and compare the theories of action and theories of change being employed. Since the evaluator will not know the focus of the particular funded projects in advance (e.g., the set of grants may include varied kinds of initiatives, such as professional development and curricular implementation, and the projects may focus on differing EAD goals), the submission should explain how the proposed design will attend to this variation. The proposal should also detail ways that data can be collected to inform formative and, if feasible, summative assessments. Evaluators should also describe ways that findings can be framed so as to meet goals for the final report (see submission requirements, below).

The contract period is from July 2023 through December 2024. The maximum obligation is $90,000; Applicants will be required to provide a work plan that ties payments with concrete deliverables across the 18-month timeline. The budget must be aligned with calendar years in the following manner:

From August 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023 

From January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024 

All incidental costs, overhead, and administrative fees must be included in the budget. The budget need not include report design costs or site visit travel costs which will be covered up to $12,000. Presenting a cost-effective budget is a key criterion in the application review process.   

An allowable indirect rate of 10% of Modified Total Direct Costs may be included in the project budget unless your entity already has a federally negotiated indirect rate, in which case that rate should be used.

Required Qualifications for Teams that Apply:

• Demonstrated expertise related to the evaluation of high-quality K-5 inquiry-based instruction in history and/or civics or related subject matter (e.g., knowledge of professional development and curriculum in these domains).
• Demonstrated capacity to gather quantitative and qualitative data and design public-facing case studies to support the field.  

Project Period/Timeline: Tentatively July 1, 2023 – December 31, 2024

• August 2023: Initial (50%) funds distributed once contract is complete with iCivics. 
• August 2023-June 2024: 1) Development of plans and protocols for data collection. Since Pilot projects will be simultaneously working on the design of their initiatives, we recognize the importance of communication with these projects and of the need for flexibility regarding timelines for protocol development. 2) Data collection. Since some projects may not begin their actual implementation till January 2024, we expect that much data collection will occur between January 2024 and June 2024.  
• July 2024: (25%) funds distributed upon completion of interim report.
• August 2024-September 2024: Findings compiled and writing of final report.
• October 2024: Draft of final report due for internal review and comments by the Research and Evaluation Task Force.
• December 2024: (25%) funds distributed upon final report submission.
• Financial reports will be due 90 days after the grant ends.

Application Dates:

• May 1, 2023: Application available  
• May 10, 2023: RFP Information Webinar 
  • 2:00-3:00 pm ET- Zoom info: https://ucr.zoom.us/j/94382265878?pwd=b05iSUF6TzFSZjB6dW5lQURFRjhmQT09
• May 22, 2023: RFP Information Webinar 
  • 2:00-3:00 pm ET- Zoom info: https://zoom.us/j/96281130634
• May 31, 2023: 11:59 pm ET- Application due. Submit completed proposals via email to EAD@icivics.org
• July 1, 2023: Applicants notified

Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the U.S. Department of Education, Educating For American Democracy provides guidance for states and school districts with the goal of providing 60 million K-12 students with access to high-quality civic learning opportunities by 2030

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A team of more than 300 scholars, educators, and practitioners today released the Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy, an unprecedented effort to build excellence in civic and history education for all K-12 students. The Roadmap, released against a backdrop of political polarization and increasing inequality threatening the country’s civic strength, provides a framework for innovation and improvement in history and civics learning with the goal of supporting the development of all students into prepared, informed and engaged citizens. It was informed by a multitude of diverse perspectives.

The Educating for American Democracy (EAD) project was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the U.S. Department of Education and was led by a team drawn from iCivics, Harvard University, Arizona State University, and Tufts University’s Tisch College of Civic Life and Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE). The Roadmap provides guidance to states and local school districts for the creation of the standards, curricula, and instructional materials necessary for excellence in civic learning for 21st century students.

The project brought together an demographically and professionally diverse national network of experts with varied viewpoints in civics, U.S. history, political science, and education to foster a shared national conversation about what is most important to teach in U.S. history and civics, why it should be taught, and how.

This effort comes after a 50-year erosion of civic education in K-12 schools—to the point that the federal government now spends only 5 cents per student per year on civics, and fewer than a quarter of American 8th graders score as proficient on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in civics.

“EAD lays the foundation for a major investment in history and civic education to address today’s governance challenges. It answers what we should teach and why we should teach it,” iCivics Executive Director Louise Dubé said. “Educating for American Democracy is critical to our ability to sustain our unique American form of self-governance.”

The Roadmap offers guidance to states and local school districts,
but is not a national curriculum

The Roadmap is not a national curriculum, but a robust framework with content guidance and advice about pedagogic strategies that states and local municipalities can use to guide improvement and innovation in their development of U.S. history and civic learning curricula, resources, and learning opportunities. The goal of the framework and advisory guidance is to support the development of students into prepared, informed, and engaged civic participants. The aspiration is that states and districts will take the Roadmap as a foundation for their own efforts to improve history and civic standards, and to support districts, schools, and educators in efforts to deepen and strengthen U.S. history and civic learning across all grade bands. The goal is to shape instructional programs that give 21st-century students the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to participate effectively in a democratic society.

The Roadmap is supplemented by an implementation plan, with roles for each level of our federal system—local, state, tribal, territorial, and national. The goal is to give 60 million students access to high-quality civic learning opportunities and to create 100,000 schools that are “civic ready” by 2030.

The implementation plan urges that:

• Local school districts should develop Civic Learning Plans that include goals and progress toward civic excellence and ensure that every teacher has access to ongoing professional development.
• States should require local school districts to have Civic Learning Plans, adopt social studies standards that reflect EAD guidance, and support educator professional development.
• Civil society organizations, including institutions of higher education, foundations, and civic education providers, should create instructional materials that reflect EAD guidance, offer professional development, and develop protocols for credentialing civic learning, including through the use of badges for students and seals for schools.
• The federal government should build a national data infrastructure for the teaching of history and civics and revise the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) framework for civics and history.

The recommendations are the result of a process that started in October of 2019, when the EAD team conducted a deep examination of the state of civic and history education across the country—which included educator listening sessions—as well as research in civics, history, political science, and pedagogy.

The EAD Roadmap, which was launched at a national online forum co-hosted by the Smithsonian Institution and the National Archives Foundation, is available for download at www.educatingforamericandemocracy.org. A Pedagogy Companion is also available, and suggests instructional principles for teaching the content of the Roadmap.

“America’s current state of polarization and civic dysfunction is the byproduct of our failure to invest in civic education for many decades. We’ve forgotten how to listen to each other, how to reasonably disagree on issues, and why these civic virtues matter – because in both universities and schools we have neglected these priorities” said Paul Carrese, the director of The School of Civic & Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University. “The Educating for American Democracy Roadmap reestablishes the importance of crucial civic knowledge about our constitutional democracy, along with the civic virtues that engaged citizens need.”

The Roadmap uses an inquiry-based approach, integrates civics and history, reflects diverse viewpoints, and provides educators with design principles for excellence in history and civic learning

The Roadmap and its Pedagogy Companion offer an inquiry-based vision for civics and history, with seven content themes that integrate history and political science, and that are organized by means of the questions to be pursued over the course of a K-12 education. The themes are designed to support disciplinary learning and to motivate the agency students need to sustain constitutional democracy.

The Roadmap also presents educators with design challenges that face all educators who enter into the work of delivering history and civic learning in the 21st century. Central to these is the need for civic education that gives the complete narrative of America’s plural, yet shared, story and a more complete and honest accounting of the past—both the good and the bad.

“Nothing could be more urgent and important at this point in the life of our constitutional democracy than rebuilding our civic strength via a significant re-investment in K-12 civic education,” Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, said.

The EAD’s Principal Investigators

Educating for American Democracy was led by The Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, The School of Civic & Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University, Tufts University’s Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning (CIRCLE) and Engagement and Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, and iCivics—the country’s largest civic education provider.
The Corresponding Principal Investigators are Danielle Allen and Jane Kamensky from Harvard University, Paul Carrese from Arizona State University, Louise Dubé from iCivics, and Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg and Peter Levine from Tufts University, and Tammy Waller from the Arizona Department of Education.

For more information contact jacob@oneallen.com.

National Endowment for the Humanities: Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov

The School of Civic & Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University blends a liberal arts education with civic education to prepare 21st century leaders for American and international affairs, balancing study of classic ideas with outside-the-classroom learning experiences. The School also provides civic education programs: its Civic Literacy Curriculum, (a comprehensive curriculum guide based off the U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization Test), the Arizona Constitution Project, and the Civic Discourse Project – a national-caliber speakers program partnering with Arizona PBS to provide a space for civil discourse on pressing issues. https://scetl.asu.edu/

The Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University seeks to strengthen teaching and research about pressing ethical issues; to foster sound norms of ethical reasoning and civic discussion; and to share the work of our community in the public interest. The Center stands at the core of a well-established movement giving ethics a prominent place in the curriculum and on research agendas at Harvard and throughout the world. The Center’s Democratic Knowledge Project is a K-16 civic education provider that seeks to identify and disseminate the bodies of knowledge, capacities, and skills that democratic citizens need in order to build and sustain healthy, thriving democracies. https://ethics.harvard.edu/

Tufts University’s Tisch College of Civic Life and Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE): The only university-wide college of its kind, the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University studies and promotes the civic and political engagement of young people at Tufts University, in our communities, and in our democracy. Peter Levine serves as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs. Tisch College’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), directed by Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, is a premier research center on young people’s civic education and engagement in the United States, especially those who are marginalized or disadvantaged in political life. CIRCLE’s scholarly research informs policy and practice for healthier youth development and a better democracy. https://tischcollege.tufts.edu/

iCivics: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor founded in 2009 to transform civic education and rebuild civic strength through digital games and lesson plans. It is the country’s largest provider of civic education content and is currently used by more than 120,500 educators and 7.6 million students annually. All of its games are free, nonpartisan, and available at www.icivics.org.

U.S. Department of Education (ED): ED’s mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access. Find more at www.ed.gov

WASHINGTON DC [May 12, 2021] — The Principal Investigators of the Educating for American Democracy initiative has issued a public comment about the Proposed Priorities for American History and Civics Education that the U.S. Department of Education submitted to the Federal Register on April 19, 2021 — and called for a reconsideration by DOE of their proposal.

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