The paper argues that the racist underpinnings of the dominant narrative of American exceptionalism require radical exposure as a first step in turning around this discourse to serve democratic ends. As a key pedagogical element in this vision of renewal, insights from ignorance studies are employed to illustrate how teachers might integrate…

This article provides a definition of monuments and describes their potential for removalist and preservationist controversy. The authors focus on the example of Confederate monuments in the United States as, on the basis of racist impacts, these monuments are candidates for widespread removal. The authors review influential existing philosophical…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation's Report Card, is the most comprehensive measure of student learning, and is widely considered the gold standard for empirically measuring trends in student achievement outcomes in the United States. The NAEP data for 2018, which were released on April 23, 2020, offer…

This report, intended primarily for civics reformers considering how best to defend and improve traditional American civics education, surveys a selection of different civics offerings, both the traditional and the radical. Surveyed providers include organizations such as the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, We the People, and Hillsdale…

If schools are to prepare students to participate more productively in civic life, schools will need to ensure that they have opportunities to practice the skills of civic reasoning, argues Carol Lee. Yet schools are challenged by the limits in the curriculum and the difficulty of addressing the different types of prior knowledge that students…

This research argues that the transatlantic environment of Louisiana and the creolization process that was a part of that environment in the early nineteenth century were instrumental in fostering a public democratic culture which developed outside of formal education and which was not contingent upon legal realities and political rights. It…

The Civics Education Initiative is a project of the Joe Foss Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to shaping "young Americans for civic engagement as voters and informed members of their community." The three-year initiative, which launched in September 2015 and concludes in September 2017, has three goals: (1) To ensure students graduate…

Serious history instruction in K-12 U.S. schools has been in decline for decades. History education in Massachusetts has, until now, fared somewhat better than in the nation at large. In 1993 the commonwealth enacted the Massachusetts Education Reform Act--a bipartisan plan to improve education--which mandated core standards and assessments in…

The Civics Education Initiative is a project of the Joe Foss Institute, an organization dedicated to shaping "young Americans for civic engagement as voters and informed members of their community." The initiative, which launched in 2015, has three goals: (1) To ensure students graduate with the tools they need to become informed and…

John Dewey said that "democracy needs to be reborn in each generation and education is its midwife." While there has been criticism of the Bush administration's post-9/11 agenda, there is little recognition of the role that his education policy played to rebirth democracy for a nation in crisis. This paper analyzes the ways that 9/11 has…

There are perennial debates in civic education regarding the definition, rights and responsibilities of citizenship while failing to address the issue of civic dispositions. Underpinning the discourse is a consensus that a democracy can only function when citizens are knowledgeable of and adept at exercising their rights (Weissberg, 2001). Yet the…

In theorizing how we should pedagogically approach African American literature, especially in courses for undergraduates, I argue that we have to move away from questions of what was or even what is African American literature and, instead, find ways to teach African American literature in both its historical contexts--artistic and political--and…

The purpose of this paper is to take a closer look at the states that have designed strong history standards and note what has made them exceptional so other states might do the same. They include Alabama, California, Indiana, Massachusetts, New York, and South Carolina. The report draws on interviews with individuals from each state who sat on…

On May 31, 1897, William James, one of America's most influential philosophers and psychologists, delivered the first civic oration of his career. The principal orator at the dedication of the Robert Gould Shaw memorial in Boston, James did what commemorative speakers are not supposed to do. He chose to be confrontational and divisive in a…

The question of the relation between liberal education and political liberty, perennially important, is driven for this forum by the Obama administration's endorsement of "A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy's Future," according to which the chief ends of postsecondary civic education ought to include the promotion of sweeping…