Following the public launch of Educating for American Democracy (EAD) at the National Forum in March 2021, the initiative entered the implementation phase.
Various task forces have been formed representing the communities using the Roadmap. Each task force is convening stakeholders in their respective fields and spearheading streams of work to enhance the Roadmap by developing practical supports for implementation of EAD.
The charge of this Task Force is to weave a network of community learning partners, including cultural institutions, historical societies, and other out-of-school educational institutions to ensure that best practices supportive of classroom learning can spread quickly, to support the institutions in aligning their programs and resources to the EAD Roadmap,and in collecting data that feeds into the overall goals of the EAD Roadmap. The Community Learning Partners Task Force is co-chaired by Fernande Raine of History Co:Lab, Sarah Jencks, and Carrie Kotcho of the Smithsonian Institute with Implementation Consortium lead Jane Kamensky of Monticello.
What is the Community Learning Partners Task Force?
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Learn how one task force member organization, The New-York Historical Society, has embraced the EAD Roadmap as a core focus for their education programs. (p. 27 of History News)
We are a nationwide network of museums, cultural institutions, historical societies, and other out-of-school educational institutions using the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap in our work.
Cultural institutions are civic creations. Our vital responsibility is to serve as trusted repositories, forums, and sources of accurate information and inspiration in civil society. We provide opportunities to understand and debate our civic environment, to observe people engaged in civic activity past and present, and to examine the connections between civic choices and consequences. Our work can spark robust participation in civic life.
The Community Learning Partners Task Force is co-chaired by Fernande Raine of History Co:Lab, Sarah Jencks of Every Museum A Civic Museum, and Carrie Kotcho of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History with Implementation Consortium lead Jane Kamensky of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.
What is our role in EAD?
Museum educators were part of the coalition of education professionals and scholars who developed the EAD Roadmap. The role of Community Learning Partners is deeply tied to supporting PK12 civic and history education.
Adopting and adapting the Educating for American Democracy, themes, design challenges, and pedagogies helps Community Learning Partners serve the public trust. The role of this Task Force is to convene a working group of professionals to better aid them in integrating the EAD Roadmap into their work. We co-design and utilize tools and resources that allow us to become fluent in a shared language centered on history and civics.
Our Progress
Since 2021, the Community Learning Partners task force and its almost 230 community members have worked together to create tools for integrating the EAD themes, design challenges, and hundreds of inquiry questions into our workflows, exhibitions, programs, and learning resources. They are powerful tools bringing an inquiry stance into informal and formal learning! Through a series of working groups and design sprints, we have created a series of tools for use by museum professionals and others that wish to engage with the EAD Roadmap. We invite you to make use of them and share with us how you do so.
Tools to Bring the EAD Roadmap to Life for Museums and other CLPs
Promising Practices Data Story
Our research working group interviewed 15 teams of museum educators about how they are using the Roadmap and the Pedagogy Companion in their work. They are using the inquiry deck and question spreadsheet as jumping-off points for a wide range of projects, including exhibition ideation, learning resource and field trip development, and teacher professional learning. Forthcoming in summer 2024 is a data story sharing the promising practices we identified through qualitative analysis of the interviews.
Where Can You Find Us Next?
We present regularly at museum and education conferences, and occasionally offer free online workshops to introduce the EAD-CLP Task Force-created tools.
The charge of this Task Force is to bring together a community of practice dedicated to meeting the implementation goals of the EAD Roadmap. All direct implementation work within formal K-12 schools is covered, including but not limited to: professional development, curriculum or other materials development, state standards alignment, professional standards development, events or other school programming, project based learning, or other similar work. The K-12 Task Force is co-chaired by David Bobb of BRI and Louise Dube of iCivics.
The charge of the Research and Evaluation Task Force is to support syntheses and development of the evidence base regarding the implementation, scaling, and impact of curricular approaches designed to advance the EAD Initiative. Strategies for measuring both learning opportunities and outcomes tied to EAD goals will also be main interests and will be undertaken in collaboration with the Institute for Citizens & Scholars. The EAD Research and Evaluation Task Force will build out a broad and viewpoint diverse network of field-leading researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to collaborate on this work in coordination with other EAD task forces. The Research and Evaluation Task Force is co-chaired by Jane Lo of Michigan State, Joe Kahne of CERG at UC Riverside, Ashley Berner of Johns Hopkins, and Rob Jagers of CASEL.
Based on research in the field, what do we know and where are there opportunities for further research?
The EAD Research and Evaluation Task Force is pleased to share these research briefs which summarize findings from research on various practices and priorities associated with EAD. The authors of each brief were asked to highlight main findings from research on the given subject. Additional briefs are in process and will be released periodically
The charge of the Teacher Leadership Task Force is to spread the mastery of the EAD Roadmap and Pedagogy principles among classroom educators, to develop a leadership and advocacy capacity among teachers who are the lead implementers of EAD in local communities, and to increase teachers’ knowledge and skills to communicate and partner effectively with families, students and local stakeholders. The Task Force aims to accomplish these goals by serving as an intermediary between teachers and other EAD Task Forces and EAD Champion organizations, and by building a sustainable community by and for teachers through which they access training, resources/tools, and build collective capacity to use and produce research evidence through partnerships. The Teacher Leadership Task Force is co-chairs by Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg of CIRCLE and Shannon Salter of Building 21.
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This theme explores the idea of “the people” as a political concept–not just a group of people who share a landscape but a group of people who share political ideals and institutions.
This theme explores how social arrangements and conflicts have combined with political institutions to shape American life from the earliest colonial period to the present, investigates which moments of change have most defined the country, and builds understanding of how American political institutions and society changes.
This theme explores the contemporary terrain of civic participation and civic agency, investigating how historical narratives shape current political arguments, how values and information shape policy arguments, and how the American people continues to renew or remake itself in pursuit of fulfillment of the promise of constitutional democracy.
This theme explores the relationship between self-government and civic participation, drawing on the discipline of history to explore how citizens’ active engagement has mattered for American society and on the discipline of civics to explore the principles, values, habits, and skills that support productive engagement in a healthy, resilient constitutional democracy. This theme focuses attention on the overarching goal of engaging young people as civic participants and preparing them to assume that role successfully.
This theme begins from the recognition that American civic experience is tied to a particular place, and explores the history of how the United States has come to develop the physical and geographical shape it has, the complex experiences of harm and benefit which that history has delivered to different portions of the American population, and the civics questions of how political communities form in the first place, become connected to specific places, and develop membership rules. The theme also takes up the question of our contemporary responsibility to the natural world.
This theme explores the institutional history of the United States as well as the theoretical underpinnings of constitutional design.
This theme explores the place of the U.S. and the American people in a global context, investigating key historical events in international affairs,and building understanding of the principles, values, and laws at stake in debates about America’s role in the world.
The Seven Themes provide the organizational framework for the Roadmap. They map out the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that students should be able to explore in order to be engaged in informed, authentic, and healthy civic participation. Importantly, they are neither standards nor curriculum, but rather a starting point for the design of standards, curricula, resources, and lessons.
Driving questions provide a glimpse into the types of inquiries that teachers can write and develop in support of in-depth civic learning. Think of them as a starting point in your curricular design.
Learn more about inquiry-based learning in the Pedagogy Companion.
Sample guiding questions are designed to foster classroom discussion, and can be starting points for one or multiple lessons. It is important to note that the sample guiding questions provided in the Roadmap are NOT an exhaustive list of questions. There are many other great topics and questions that can be explored.
Learn more about inquiry-based learning in the Pedagogy Companion.
The Seven Themes provide the organizational framework for the Roadmap. They map out the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that students should be able to explore in order to be engaged in informed, authentic, and healthy civic participation. Importantly, they are neither standards nor curriculum, but rather a starting point for the design of standards, curricula, resources, and lessons.
America’s constitutional politics are rife with tensions and complexities. Our Design Challenges, which are arranged alongside our Themes, identify and clarify the most significant tensions that writers of standards, curricula, texts, lessons, and assessments will grapple with. In proactively recognizing and acknowledging these challenges, educators will help students better understand the complicated issues that arise in American history and civics.
Each theme is supported by key concepts that map out the knowledge, skills, and dispositions students should be able to explore in order to be engaged in informed, authentic, and healthy civic participation. They are vertically spiraled and developed to apply to K—5 and 6—12. Importantly, they are not standards, but rather offer a vision for the integration of history and civics throughout grades K—12.
EAD teacher draws on six pedagogical principles that are connected sequentially.
Six Core Pedagogical Principles are part of our Pedagogy Companion. The Pedagogical Principles are designed to focus educators’ effort on techniques that best support the learning and development of student agency required of history and civic education.
EAD teachers commit to learn about and teach full and multifaceted historical and civic narratives. They appreciate student diversity and assume all students’ capacity for learning complex and rigorous content. EAD teachers focus on inclusion and equity in both content and approach as they spiral instruction across grade bands, increasing complexity and depth about relevant history and contemporary issues.
EAD teachers have a growth mindset for themselves and their students, meaning that they engage in continuous self-reflection and cultivate self-knowledge. They learn and adopt content as well as practices that help all learners of diverse backgrounds reach excellence. EAD teachers need continuous and rigorous professional development (PD) and access to professional learning communities (PLCs) that offer peer support and mentoring opportunities, especially about content, pedagogical approaches, and instruction-embedded assessments.
EAD teachers cultivate and sustain a learning environment by partnering with administrators, students, and families to conduct deep inquiry about the multifaceted stories of American constitutional democracy. They set expectations that all students know they belong and contribute to the classroom community. Students establish ownership and responsibility for their learning through mutual respect and an inclusive culture that enables students to engage courageously in rigorous discussion.
EAD teachers not only use the EAD Roadmap inquiry prompts as entry points to teaching full and complex content, but also cultivate students’ capacity to develop their own deep and critical inquiries about American history, civic life, and their identities and communities. They embrace these rigorous inquiries as a way to advance students’ historical and civic knowledge, and to connect that knowledge to themselves and their communities. They also help students cultivate empathy across differences and inquisitiveness to ask difficult questions, which are core to historical understanding and constructive civic participation.
EAD teachers use their content knowledge and classroom leadership to model our constitutional principle of “We the People” through democratic practices and promoting civic responsibilities, civil rights, and civic friendship in their classrooms. EAD teachers deepen students’ grasp of content and concepts by creating student opportunities to engage with real-world events and problem-solving about issues in their communities by taking informed action to create a more perfect union.
EAD teachers use assessments as a tool to ensure all students understand civics content and concepts and apply civics skills and agency. Students have the opportunity to reflect on their learning and give feedback to their teachers in higher-order thinking exercises that enhance as well as measure learning. EAD teachers analyze and utilize feedback and assessment for self-reflection and improving instruction.
EAD teachers have a growth mindset for themselves and their students, meaning that they engage in continuous self-reflection and cultivate self-knowledge. They learn and adopt content as well as practices that help all learners of diverse backgrounds reach excellence. EAD teachers need continuous and rigorous professional development (PD) and access to professional learning communities (PLCs) that offer peer support and mentoring opportunities, especially about content, pedagogical approaches, and instruction-embedded assessments.
EAD teachers cultivate and sustain a learning environment by partnering with administrators, students, and families to conduct deep inquiry about the multifaceted stories of American constitutional democracy. They set expectations that all students know they belong and contribute to the classroom community. Students establish ownership and responsibility for their learning through mutual respect and an inclusive culture that enables students to engage courageously in rigorous discussion.
EAD teachers not only use the EAD Roadmap inquiry prompts as entry points to teaching full and complex content, but also cultivate students’ capacity to develop their own deep and critical inquiries about American history, civic life, and their identities and communities. They embrace these rigorous inquiries as a way to advance students’ historical and civic knowledge, and to connect that knowledge to themselves and their communities. They also help students cultivate empathy across differences and inquisitiveness to ask difficult questions, which are core to historical understanding and constructive civic participation.
EAD teachers use their content knowledge and classroom leadership to model our constitutional principle of “We the People” through democratic practices and promoting civic responsibilities, civil rights, and civic friendship in their classrooms. EAD teachers deepen students’ grasp of content and concepts by creating student opportunities to engage with real-world events and problem-solving about issues in their communities by taking informed action to create a more perfect union.
EAD teachers use assessments as a tool to ensure all students understand civics content and concepts and apply civics skills and agency. Students have the opportunity to reflect on their learning and give feedback to their teachers in higher-order thinking exercises that enhance as well as measure learning. EAD teachers analyze and utilize feedback and assessment for self-reflection and improving instruction.