Society for American Archivist's article "Civics for All of US at the National Archives"

Last month, the National Archives and the National Archives Foundation joined iCivics to co-sponsor the first-ever National Civic Learning Week from March 6 to 10, 2023. In addition to presenting two online student programs—“Voting Rights, the Constitution, and Representative Government,” for middle schoolers, and “The First Amendment: Five Rights in One!” for grades 3–5—the Archives hosted an opening forum in the William G. McGowan Theater at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, on March 7. Participants joined in-person and online to hear from federal and state officials, teachers, students, researchers, and policy advocates across the ideological spectrum about why civic education matters. 

Each year, the federal government spends roughly $50 per student on STEM education compared to 5 cents per student on civic education. So it’s no surprise that a recurring theme during the forum was the need to provide resources and opportunities for civic learning beyond classrooms. Another major takeaway was the need to incorporate media literacy—particularly knowing how to assess sources and evaluate the reliability of information—into civic education. Speakers emphasized that the effort must reach beyond the K–12 grades and continue into higher education and to the wider community.

As the nation’s record keeper and home of the founding documents of the United States, the National Archives is uniquely positioned to promote civic literacy and engagement. We make our records accessible to the public so that all Americans of all backgrounds can claim their rights of citizenship, hold their government accountable, and understand their history so they can participate more effectively in their government. These are the goals we aspire to as civics champions, and they are the ideals that are at the foundation of the work we do to make our records available to and understood by the American people.

Educators and curators across the agency have long infused civics into all their public outreach. In the past few years, though, galvanized by studies by Pew, Anneberg, and others showing an alarming, multi-generational lack of civic knowledge, we have made civic education a major agency-wide priority. In September 2021, just in time for Constitution Day, we launched Civics for All of US, a new national civic education initiative.

Led by educators at the National Archives Museum, our Center for Legislative Archives, and our Presidential Libraries and framed by the words and ideas of the founding documents, Civics for All of US offers live, interactive distance learning programs and workshops for K–12 students and educators, as well as asynchronous resources and activities for use in the classroom. 

Civics for All of US engages audiences with primary sources that shed light on the successes, failures, debates, and challenges in the history of our democracy. The initiative is committed to sharing diverse perspectives and complex and sometimes competing points of view. By studying examples of civic engagement in the past—and doing so through the actual records of their government—Americans will be prepared to claim their rights, fulfill their responsibilities, and be prepared to participate in their own communities today.

Now more than ever, in our age of information overload, misinformation, and disinformation, access to and an understanding of authentic documents is powerful and necessary, particularly for educators and their students as they seek to understand our past and strive to become the informed citizenry of the future. As a nonpolitical institution and the world’s largest public digital repository of archival materials, the National Archives offers trusted resources and programs to communities across the country, regardless of their proximity to an Archives facility.

To learn more about Civics for All of US or sign up for one of our civic education programs, visit civics.archives.gov.