Our work
Civic Education
History, the Constitution, how government is structured and how public decisions actually get made.
Civic knowledge cannot be assumed. It has to be built.
22%
of eighth graders performed at or above NAEP Proficient in civics in 2022.
Source: NAEP, 2022
Twenty one schools now prepare a team for a civics competition. That is what building it looks like.
Constitution Day Quest
Since 2022
The Constitution leaves the textbook.
A student designed day of constitutional learning held each September inside a municipal chamber. Learning stations, simulations, timed challenges and mock proceedings replace the lecture, and students facilitate most of it themselves.
Students rotate through stations, argue constitutional questions, run timed rounds against other tables, hear from guest speakers who work in public service, and take the dais to present what their group decided.
What students leave with. A working understanding of the document that governs them, and the experience of having explained it out loud to a room.
The question
What does the Constitution actually ask of a citizen?
The experience
A municipal chamber, converted for a day into a civic classroom run by more than twenty student volunteers.
The work
Station responses, group decisions, mock proceedings and presentations delivered from the dais.
The result
Constitutional knowledge that survives past the assessment, because students had to use it in front of people.
22%
of eighth graders performed at or above NAEP Proficient in civics in 2022.
Source: NAEP, 2022
Constitution Day Quest is built on the premise that constitutional knowledge lasts longer when students have to interpret it, argue it and apply it.
Civic Knowledge Bowl
Since 2023
Civics, but make it a championship.
A countywide competition held every February. School teams face each other on United States history, the Constitution and how government works, first in preliminary rounds and then in a professionally produced finale.
Students study for months with their schools, compete on buzzers under a live scoreboard, defend answers in front of a full auditorium and represent their school by name.
What students leave with. Command of civic content, and the specific confidence that comes from performing under pressure with a crowd watching.
The question
What happens when civic knowledge is something a school prepares for and celebrates?
The experience
Preliminary rounds on a college campus, then a finale auditorium filled with students, families and educators.
The work
Months of team preparation, competition performance and public representation of a school.
The result
Participation grew from twelve schools to twenty one, an increase of seventy five percent.
12 to 21
schools competing in the Civic Knowledge Bowl.
The national challenge is civic knowledge. The local response was to make students compete for it.
