Mikva Challenge Grant Foundation, Inc
Project Title
For project support for an initiative on civic education in New York City Public Schools
Date
Dec. 12, 2024
Duration
18 months
Description
In response to plummeting youth civic engagement and as school districts across the country grapple with how to foster civic discourse in schools, New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) proposes to meet the moment and send a signal about the importance of civic education through a new initiative titled, “Democratic Classrooms and Schools.” Utilizing the research-based approach developed by the Mikva Challenge and building on NYCPS’s existing Civics for All (CFA) initiative, this new initiative will establish forums in participating schools where trained youth and teacher facilitators will engage students in discussions of critical topics with those who hold differing opinions and beliefs. Work at partner schools will equip teachers to weave democratic principles into daily classes to actively involve students in discourse and decision-making. Corporation support would enable NYCPS to pilot “Democratic Classrooms” in twenty-five high schools in the 2024-2025 school year with one hundred Democratic Classroom Ambassadors (seventy-five students and twenty-five teachers), with the goal of disseminating civic discourse and democratic classroom strategies to approximately 1,100 CFA partner schools and scaling the program to twenty-five additional high schools in the 2025-2026 school year.