Civics PlaybookThe National Association of Scholars, Civics Alliance
- Mission: To recenter social studies instruction around the ideals and institutions of liberty, republican self-government and civic virtue, and their history in Western civilization, American history and American government.
- Geographic Focus: National
- Audience: K-12 students and teachers, policymakers, school administrators and citizens
- Budget: No discrete budget within the NAS
- Focus Areas and Core Competencies:
- Civics education reform
- Model legislation and standards
- Ancillary policy advocacy
To solve the Civics Education Crisis at the K-12 Level Education Reform is Paramount
Impact: The National Association of Scholars, Civics Alliance
Civics Alliance’s American Birthright standards have been adopted in Woodland Park School District in Colorado, and proposed for adoption in Colorado and Ohio. Their Model Civics Alliance legislation has informed laws in Florida, Iowa, Ohio and Texas.
A Conversation with David Randall, Executive Director of Civics Alliance
Q: What is the mission of the Civics Alliance? What problem(s) in civics education is your nonprofit working to solve?
The core of our work is to provide and promote model federal legislation, model state legislation and model state social studies standards, all of them working toward restoring proper civics education to K-12 schools, undergraduate education and education schools. We aim both to remove negative influences—such as DEI, Critical Race Theory and action civics—and build up solid cores of good classes, good teachers and good administrative structures.
The problem is an education establishment devoted to radical political advocacy and activism rather than to social studies/civics education that makes students into informed citizens with affection for their country and their fellow Americans.
Q: How do you describe the big goals the Civics Alliance is working to achieve? How do you measure impact?
Our big goals are to recenter social studies instruction around the ideals and institutions of liberty, republican self-government and civic virtue, and their history in Western civilization, American history and American government.
As for metrics, we track bills introduced, bills passed and state and school district adoptions of reformed social studies standards. To know how far we are in reaching our goals, we measure public K-12 classrooms staffed by teachers who want to teach social studies on this model; state and local laws, regulations and education resources that support this mission and public schools that graduate students who basically know about and like their country rather than hating it from ignorance.
Q: What are some of the biggest challenges the Civics Alliance has experienced working to accomplish its mission? How did your organization overcome those challenges?
First challenge: Persuading policymakers that education reform is a priority that must be addressed immediately by legislative and administrative action. Second challenge: Ensuring that reluctant and sometimes sabotaging state and local bureaucracies do what the law requires.
The way we overcome these challenges is by patiently making the case for action, again and again. And by saying we have a solution to offer for the problem—we’re not just criticizing with no alternate model. We work to provide policymakers with proposed concrete solutions—which of course they will and should alter to fit their local conditions, but giving them something solid to work with really helps.
The third challenge: We’re only just getting the first wave of laws onto the books, so we’re seeing day by day exactly how radical activists in bureaucracies sabotage or fail to enforce laws, and what needs to be done to ensure the laws go into effect. We have model legislation for oversight and compliance, but to make it most effective we need to see exactly what sorts of evasion and sabotage are used. But the most important thing is, we’re not declaring victory and going to sleep just because a law is passed. We’re keeping on working to make sure a law is enforced.
Q: What is the Civics Alliance’s biggest need where philanthropists can help your organization achieve its goals?
We most need dedicated staff to gather information in each state about the state of play for civics laws and regulations and to promote education reform with policymakers and the public. We also need associated funds for work such as communications, web design, graphic design and administration. In an ideal world, there should be a dedicated policy institute in each state devoted to civics education reform at all educational levels—or, at the very least, a staffer at a policy institute devoted to civics education reform at all educational levels.
But until we get there, more dedicated staff for the Civics Alliance will allow us to make our case more effectively in the 50 states and to continue to create model bills and model educational materials such as lesson plans.
Q: Beyond the Civics Alliance, where should philanthropists who care about advancing civic knowledge invest their charitable dollars?
Large institutions such as the Heritage Foundation, Hillsdale College and the Manhattan Institute do very good civics education work, but I think philanthropists already know about them. I’d especially recommend that philanthropists support some of the smaller institutes, which have been particularly helpful to the Civics Alliance. These are organizations that would particularly benefit from philanthropic support, and do especially good work:
Goldwater Institute’s Van Sittert Center for Constitutional Advocacy; Encounter Books’ Golden Thread Initiative; Freedom in Education; AAT Education; American Academy for Liberal Education; James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal; Californians for Equal Rights Foundation; American Experiment and Independence Institute.
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