Sign up your class for PA's Mock Election

We are all no doubt exhausted by the inundation of political ads on our TVs and devices. Your students probably are too. But this election is a rare opportunity to engage young people in one of the great foundations of American democracy. We invite you to use the resources in this edition of the #c70ed newsletter to engage your students in the many races up-and-down the ballot.

The PA Youth Mock Election is back this fall

The Committee of Seventy sponsors the PA Youth Mock Election, which gives students hands-on practice casting votes for real candidates who appear on their ballot. The Mock Election is available to all Pennsylvania high school and middle school teachers statewide, for free. C70 provides digital instructions for how classrooms can participate, plus access to C70's nonpartisan Interactive Voter Guide for students to research their choices. The Mock Election supplements C70's Elections & Voting curriculum (also free!). We invite middle and high school teachers to sign up anytime between now and October 22nd (two weeks before the Nov. 5th election).

Your class can interview a candidate for office

C70 connects classrooms to candidates each election so that students can interview the people running to represent them. C70 works with teachers to connect with candidates or public officials from all parties, across all levels of government. Students supply the questions on issues they care about, while C70 will set up the schedule. Most interviews, about 15-20 minutes long, are conducted via zoom so that they can be easily streamed on Facebook and recorded for the public to watch. See previous interviews on YouTube, like the one below that students from Constitution High in Philly did with Congressperson Mary Gay Scanlon. Teachers can sign up here to request an interview.

An opportunity from the

Democratic Knowledge Project at Harvard

Engage in civics education professional learning opportunities from two projects led by Professor Danielle Allen at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The Civic Learning Institute offers 4-week online courses (10 hours total) between October and July 2025, with synchronous and asynchronous sessions. Designed for all educators, topics include founding documents, such as the Constitution; key periods of history, such as the Vietnam War; and pedagogical topics, such as navigating difficult conversations in the classroom. Explore the courses and register now.
The Civics Pathways initiative offers online interactive workshops co-designed and facilitated by teachers (each is 1h 20m). They are aimed to support middle and high school teachers in facilitating student-led, project-based civics learning. Explore the courses and register now.

Based on grant funding to support the development and delivery, the courses and workshops each cost just $15. For questions, email civiclearning@gse.harvard.edu.