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Democracy Schools Network
Monthly Update
April 2025
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Democracy Schools Network Annual Convening
Save the date for this year's Convening on September 22, 2025, at the Northern Illinois University Conference Center in Naperville.
Registration information will be sent out at the beginning of May.
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Illinois Democracy Schools New Civic Learning Model
The NEW K-12 civic learning model is on our website. Please take a minute to check it out. It incorporates new thinking in the field of civic education, as well as ideas that members have shared with us regarding some gaps and overlaps in the previous model. You’ll note that we now have four elements rather than eleven, but our crosswalk ensures that all the essential information from the former model is indeed there.
We hope that you will consider contributing to the website by sharing your own “example of element in practice” (an assignment, project, activity, program, etc.) that demonstrates one or more of the stakeholder actions. (Please use this Google Doc to describe and share it with Sue (skhalaieff@illinoiscivics.org). Or you might want to suggest a resource (submit this Google Form.) We envision a constantly growing trove of resources for all to access. Thank you for being a part of this community effort.
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Illinois Democracy Schools Steering Committee
The Illinois Democracy Schools Steering Committee is meeting monthly to continue their discussion about the future governance of the organization. The team's task is to consider the structure, function, leadership, program, and funding of the Illinois Democracy Schools. Our team members are: Logan Ridenour, Jeanne Donaldson, Donald Davis, Jen Burdette, Jamie Nash-Mayberry, Stacey Posey, and Pat Riley.
Look for an update from this group in May on their work from this year!
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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.
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Join the Illinois Civics Hub in 2025 for professional development to enhance your classroom practice. Presented in partnership with the North Cook Intermediate Center, each offering is aligned with the Illinois course mandates and standards. These workshops will be in person at the North Cook ISC in Des Plaines.
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Sphere Summit: Foundations of Civic Culture
The Sphere Summit aims to restore a spirit of civil, constructive, and respectful discourse and engagement and to return facts, analysis, and research to primacy as the vehicles for discussion and debate.
This is a full scholarship professional development program for grades 5–12 educators and administrators. Summits are an in-person experience in Washington, DC, and will run June 29–July 3 and July 14–18. Benefits include room and board, 20+ hours of professional development, classroom resources, and a $500 travel stipend upon completion of the program.
New this year, each Summit has a unique theme. The Summit I theme is “Freedom, Rights, and America’s 250th” while Summit II centers on “Cultivating Curiosity, Openness, and Civil Discourse in Every Classroom.”
Educators from across all disciplines and subject areas are eligible to apply. Groups of educators from the same school are particularly encouraged. Each Summit will offer distinct programming to meet the needs of both middle and high school educators as well as educators teaching either on grade level or advanced courses. Apply by June 20, 2025. More information.
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Stitching the Threads Together: A Cross-Disciplinary Literature Review on Youth Arts Engagement and Well-Being
Research studies have found that arts engagement is an effective way to promote well-being. This report identifies five complex and interrelated mechanisms that promote well-being through arts engagement and could be a starting point toward a common framework:
• building agency to make positive social change
• facilitating healing and wellness
• encouraging self-expression
• creating social connections and community
• developing skills and a mastery mindset
Read the report here.
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NOW OPEN!
How can you build engagement around civics and foster a proper understanding of American citizenship? Introduce your students to the MyImpact Challenge!
MyImpact Challenge is a civic engagement contest and curriculum provided by the Bill of Rights Institute (BRI) to create a robust understanding of citizenship and incentivize students to become active in their communities now! To participate, students must have an active civic engagement or service-based project. Students will learn how their projects align with constitutional principles through the contest. To submit a project, students must:
- Write an essay detailing how their project furthers a BRI Civic Virtue or Founding Principle
- Complete a report describing how their project works
- Provide photographic or visual documentation of their project
Each MyImpact Challenge submission has the potential to win up to $500 in teacher prizes. Students can win up to $10,000 in student prizes.
The deadline to enter MyImpact Challenge is May 18, 2025, 11:59 PM.
MyImpact Challenge
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
More information and registration is available here. Those who successfully complete the 5-week online course will earn a Bronze Certified Guardian of Democracy Educator badge via Badgr and the University of Central Florida Center for Distributive 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.
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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.
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