There is a growing awareness in America that civic education is in crisis. Numerous reform efforts are afoot to ensure that K-12 students receive a basic understanding of citizenship. Yet these efforts will fail if we do not find a way to improve the education of American civics and history teachers. Far too many pursue graduate study in schools of education, which offer little in the way of subject mastery, because there are few good alternatives.
Teacher graduate education offers tremendous opportunity for reform. Most teachers pursue graduate study throughout their careers and thousands are looking for better programs. Jack Miller Center (JMC) has developed our Civics Foundations Graduate Consortium for the purpose of sparking a new movement in higher education to make better options available to teachers.
With this Project we ask: Can JMC leverage our new university Consortium and the nation's only civics M.A. at Utah Valley University to lay the foundation for a new inter-institutional master's degree that will transform teacher graduate education nationwide? We will support dozens of courses on more than 20 campuses while expanding the UVU M.A. to accommodate demand generated by the Consortium courses. At the close of the three-year Project, the necessary elements will be in a place for a first-of-its-kind degree that will introduce a fundamental paradigm shift in teacher graduate study.
The semi-quincentennial celebration of our nation's founding will take place in 2026--nothing would better honor this landmark year, and the spirit of Sir John Templeton, than to revitalize civic education in America through innovative graduate opportunities for civics teachers.
