Senators Coons, Cornyn Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Strengthen Civics Education
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U.S. Senator Chris Coons along with Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn of Texas introduced the bipartisan Strengthening Civics Education Act, legislation to strengthen civics and history education in schools across the country and ensure students have the knowledge and skills needed to understand American government and participate in civic life. Officials say the majority of American students lack basic proficiency in civics and U.S. history, and the most recent national assessment showed eighth-grade civics scores declining in 2022 after more than two decades of stagnation. Civics education remains uneven across the country: just six states require a year-long civics course, and only one in five social studies teachers report feeling well prepared to support civic learning.
Additional Information from the U.S. Senate:
The Strengthening Civics Education Act would take several steps to strengthen civics and history education nationwide:
* Strengthen civics and history education: Reauthorize and expand the existing American History for Freedom program to support education on American political thought and history, representative democracy, constitutional democracy, free institutions, and Western civilization
* Support teachers: Require grantees to collaborate with local educational agencies to give elementary and secondary school teachers opportunities to deepen their knowledge of civics and history, while supporting teacher preparation initiatives focused on civics and history
* Expand access to open educational resources: Promote the development and use of high-quality, open educational resources on American political thought and history and the impact of American representative democracy and constitutional democracies around the world
* Strengthen national civics assessments: Require the National Assessment of Educational Progress to assess student achievement in civics and history in grades four,eight, and 12 at least once every two years, with a methodology designed to provide statistically significant state-level data
* Connect students and teachers with federal opportunities: Establish an America250 Civics clearinghouse, a publicly available website compiling federal scholarship and fellowship opportunities related to civics for students and teachers
* Protect state and local control: Clarify that nothing in the legislation would allow the federal government to prescribe a national curriculum in civics or history or supersede state and local control over instruction
The text of the bill is available here.
A summary of the bill is here.