Democracy Schools Network

Monthly Update

June 2025

Registration for the Fall 2025 Illinois Democracy Schools Convening is now open!

Motivating Agency, Sustaining the Republic

Monday, September 22

8:00 AM – 2:30 PM

NIU Conference Center

1120 E. Diehl Rd.

Naperville, IL 60563

Breakout Sessions Include:

AI for Research and Writing: Or How I Learned to Embrace AI Without Fearing Plagiarism and Losing My Mind
Bridging Divides Through Civil Discourse: Empowering Students to Find Common Ground
Can the President Do That?: Resources for Teaching About Executive Power
Civic Harmony: Navigating Multiple Perspectives in our American Constitutional Democracy
Civic Virtue and Civil Society: Fostering Informed and Active Citizenship
Civics Resources for Dialogue and Inquiry
Legal Precedent in Unprecedented Times
Methods for Engaging Multilingual Learners in Civic Inquiry
Model UN: A Civic Learning Powerhouse
Q&A on the Role of the Courts in Our System of Checks and Balances
Religious Upstanders in Nazi Germany
SCOTUS Preview
Unlock Your Students' Civic Superpowers
What’s in the Mix for 2026? Looking to the Midterms

Media Literacy

Join the EAD Rural Hub as they welcome Dr. Jimmeka Anderson, founder of I AM not the MEdia, Inc., for a FREE online webinar titled, Reliable by Design: Teaching Students to Access Quality Information. This dynamic session is designed to equip educators with the tools and strategies to guide students through today’s complex media landscape. This webinar will empower teachers to foster critical thinking, source evaluation, and digital literacy skills, ensuring students can confidently identify and access trustworthy information in an age of misinformation.

July 8 at 5 PM CDT

Registration and more information on entire series in this flyer.

Illinois Democracy Schools Steering Committee

Many thanks to Logan Ridenour, Jeanne Donaldson, Donald Davis, Jen Burdette, Jamie Nash-Mayberry, and Pat Riley for their energy and expertise in developing bylaws for the Illinois Democracy Schools Network. We will be sharing these bylaws in the coming months. Stay tuned...

A New Tool from Facing History and Ourselves to Help Leaders Facilitate Difficult Conversations

Facing History and Ourselves has published the Facilitating Difficult Conversations in Schools white paper to help educational leaders navigate conversations on polarizing topics with empathy, self-awareness, and critical thinking. Adapted from their popular Fostering Civil Discourse classroom guide, this new resource is intended to help leaders leverage their unique position to promote a culture of healthy, respectful, and productive discourse in their school communities.

In this white paper, you’ll learn to differentiate between civil discourse and debate in order to build shared understanding and communicate more effectively. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll then discover actionable tools to equip your staff with a school-wide approach to civil discourse while refining your conversation skills to have the difficult conversations that we know are so important to bridging difference, forming connections, and fostering a more empathetic and inclusive society. Building a positive school climate creates students who are more likely to succeed academically and less likely to engage in bullying. But when their educational environment empowers students and teachers to actually work through tough moments and consider vital questions rather than brushing them under the rug, research shows that young people gain a newfound understanding of the role they play in a functioning democracy. This means they are more likely to vote, participate politically, and engage in civic-minded behavior.

Research Roundup: Tips for Teaching Civics in the Early Grades

Jessica Wolff and Nan Mead of the Center for Educational Equity demonstrate that civic learning is developmentally appropriate for elementary students in the latest DemocracyReadyNY report titled, “Civic Learning Is a Whole-Child, Whole School Endeavor.” However, civic learning suffers in the early grades from a dearth of time and resources, inadequate teacher preparation and support, and unequal opportunities for marginalized students. Wolff and Mead offer eight recommendations to overcome these challenges:

The early grades are formative and an opportunity to establish healthy civic habits. They are among students’ first experiences engaging with community beyond family.
Elementary students should have opportunities to experience civic activities with proper guidance, like classroom-based projects.
Early civic learning opportunities must be developmentally appropriate and differentiated to the unique needs of each learner. A neighborhood cleanup campaign qualifies.
Elementary schools should focus on civic values and develop a sense that each student is an integral member of the community. Wolff and Mead write, “Civic education is a whole-school endeavor.” The larger school experience, including the bus, cafeteria, and playground, shapes students’ civic identity.
Civic learning opportunities must be multidisciplinary and multimodal: Social studies should have dedicated instructional time, but civic learning opportunities abound across the curriculum (e.g., laws of probability in math). Additionally, civic learning must include a mix of direct instruction and student-centered activities such as class discussions of local issues.
Schools should account for interpersonal and systemic issues affecting marginalized students’ access to civic learning. For example, funding disparities often lead to a narrowed curriculum that crowds out civics. It is also important that this racially and ethnically diverse generation of students have mirrors and windows within the curriculum that reflect them and their peers, respectively.
Build upon what skilled elementary teachers already do, linking instructional practices to civic knowledge, skills, and mindsets students are developing (e.g., media literacy instruction).
Civic learning is a collaborative effort between teachers and administrators, schools, parents, and the surrounding community: “Bringing families and the community members into school decisions, fostering an environment of open communication, trust, and confidence in teachers and school leaders, can help stave off worries about indoctrination or fears of being ‘out of control’ of their children’s education.”

Earn Your Microcredentials

Become a Guardian of Democracy Educator

The Illinois Civics Hub has partnered with the Lou Frey Institute at the University of Central Florida to provide educators the opportunity to earn microcredentials in the proven practices of civic education embedded in the middle and high school civics course requirements in Illinois. Courses include:

Current and Controversial Issue Discussions—Learn from academic experts Dr. Diana Hess & Dr. Paula McAvoy as you explore the purpose, role, and function of discussion strategies as pedagogical tools to equip young people to be engaged citizens. This course will enhance the practice of educators with strategies and resources to create a classroom climate in which there are equitable opportunities for ALL students to engage in dialogue about essential questions across the curriculum.

Simulations of Democratic Processes—Learn from academic experts Dr. Walter Parker & Dr. Jane Lo as you explore how democratic processes and procedures occur as part of the regular functioning of government, in each of the three branches of government, and at each level of government. This course will guide you through the purpose, planning, and implementation of three simulations: town hall meetings, legislative hearings, and moot courts.

Informed Action through Service Learning—Learn from academic experts Dr. Joseph Kahne and Jessica Marshall as you explore the purpose, role, and function of informed action through service learning as a pedagogical tool to equip young people with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to be active members of their community. In this course, you will interact with strategies and tools you can use in your classroom to support student-centered informed action through service learning.

NEW: Constitutional Democracy as Content and Practice—Learn from academic experts Dr. Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, Dr. Shawn P. Healy, and Dr. Bonnie Laughlin Schultz as you explore how the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap can help teach constitutional democracy as both content and practice across disciplines K-12.

New courses beginning in fall. More information in August Monthly Update. Those who successfully complete the five-week online course will earn a Bronze Certified Guardian of Democracy Educator badge via Badgr and the University of Central Florida Center for Distributed Learning.

Participants can earn 15 PD hours through the DuPage Regional Office of Education. Please note that due to changes in our funding, the Democracy School Network is no longer able to offer a stipend to participants.

There are three strands of courses for each proven practice of civics education. Graduate credit is available through the University of St. Francis for completing all three courses. More information here.

Attention Social Studies Teachers:

If you want to be kept current on Social Studies standards, course mandates, and resources to support both, we invite you to sign up for the Illinois Civics Hub newsletter here.

Check out our website for PD opportunities, resources and inspiration.

illinoiscivics.org