The American Civic Education Ecosystem: A Landscape Analysis
Begovich, Kloos, and Schnaubelt (November 2025)
The Center for Revitalizing American Institutions (RAI) carried out an extensive ecosystem scan, conducted a series of interviews and focus groups, and gathered survey data from over 7,600 educators and students to develop an understanding of the American civic education landscape.
Civic Learning for an Engaged Democracy (CLDE) Framework
Nancy Shapiro with The CLDE Coalition
The CLDE Framework calls on colleges to make civic learning and democratic engagement an expected and inclusive part of higher education. It emphasizes helping all students develop democratic knowledge, bridge-building and problem-solving skills, practical experience, and career-related civic and ethical understanding to prepare them to be “civic ready, democracy ready, and career ready.”
Every Student, Every Degree
The CLDE Coalition
This report’s action agenda calls on higher education leaders and policy leaders to make civic learning and democracy engagement part of all students’ degree requirements. It also broadens the meanings of “student success” to include students’ gains in civic purpose, bridge-building across difference, and career-related work on public good issues and problem-solving.
Principles for Excellence in College Civic and Democracy Learning
Nancy Shapiro with The CLDE Coalition
The Principles for Excellence in College Civic and Democracy Learning call on colleges to ensure that all students develop civic knowledge, purpose, and agency through integrated, sustained learning experiences that cultivate democratic understanding, collaboration, ethical reasoning, and real-world problem-solving across disciplines and careers.
Reclaiming Civility: Towards Discursive Opening in Dialogue and Deliberation
Heath and Borda, Journal of Deliberative Democracy (March 25, 2021)
This paper reconceptualizes civility as a means of fostering constructive dissent and ongoing dialogue rather than suppressing conflict or enforcing politeness. The authors argue that civility should create “discursive openings” by inviting gracious contestation and allowing participants to negotiate contested meanings, thereby sustaining meaningful and productive conversations.
A Research Methods Class that Helps Students Recognize the Worth of Others
Amy Binder, SNF Agora Institute, Johns Hopkins University (2025)
Addressing campus polarization, Binder proposes integrating cross-partisan dialogue into existing courses–demonstrated in her qualitative research class where students conduct interviews across ideological lines to build epistemic humility and deepen engagement with political differences.
Civic Thought: A Proposal for University-Level Civic Education
Benjamin Storey and Jenna Silber Storey, American Enterprise Institute (December 2023)
Benjamin and Jenna Storey propose “Civic Thought”– an interdisciplinary vision of civic education that cultivates disciplined generalists capable of ethical reflection, cross-perspective deliberation, and active democratic citizenship.
Closed Classrooms? An Analysis of College Syllabi on Contentious Issues (Working Paper)
Shields, Avnur, and Muravchick (July 2025)
In this working paper, the authors use data from the Open Syllabus Project to explore the extent to which college courses expose students to scholarly debate on contentious topics. The authors welcome feedback and suggestions.
Commencing Character: A Case Study of Character Development in College
Michael Lamb et. al., Journal of Moral Education (2022)
Addressing the lack of empirical research on university courses aimed at developing student character, Lamp et al. evaluate the “Commencing Character” intervention and find significant growth in seven targeted virtues among participants.
Democracy Re/Designed
American Association of Colleges and Universities (2024)
Amid democratic pessimism, AAC&U offers a new framework and practical tools to help universities inspire dialogue, innovation, and hope for the future of American democracy.
Exemplars of Purpose: Reliance on Moral Exemplars Supports College Students’ Purpose in Life
Heather M. Maranges et al., International Journal of Education Research (2024)
Maranges and colleagues find that a college course intervention centered on moral exemplars enhances students’ sense of purpose and reliance on moral role models.
Practicing Democracy: A Toolkit for Educating Civic Professionals
Nicholas Longo, Campus Compact (March 2023)
Practicing Democracy presents a practical roadmap for educating university students to become “civic professionals,” citizens who channel their professional energy to advance the public good.
Purposeful Change: The Positive Effects of a Course-Based Intervention on Character
Mendonça, Dykhius, & Lamb in The Journal of Positive Psychology (2023)
Using mixed-method data, this study finds that a character-focused college course significantly increased students’ sense of purpose–especially in beyond-the-self domains–highlighting the potential of holistic interventions to foster purpose and character development in emerging adults.
