Being under 18 years old may mean that you cannot vote in the general election, but it doesn’t mean that young people cannot contribute to political engagement and to conversations about what’s important in an election year. For starters, in some states, 17-year-olds can vote in primaries, and youth who are 16 or 17 years old may be able to pre-register to vote so that they’re ready for the next election. But beyond voting, whether in local, state, or national elections, there are countless ways for young people under 18 to participate in democracy. These contributions can occur in a range of ..read more

What do civic education and an 8-year-old talking aardvark have in common? A lot, it turns out, thanks in large part to CIRCLE Director Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, who has served as a key advisor on the beloved children’s television show Arthur as the series sought to incorporate civic themes and lessons into several episodes. Arthur, which is produced by WGBH for PBS, is one of the longest-running and most critically acclaimed kids’  TV shows. Aimed at children ages 4-8, and broadcast in more than 80 countries, Arthur is known for its educational value, presenting valuable lessons and complex iss ..read more

On November 1, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded $650,000 to a groundbreaking project led by iCivics which will evaluate and recommend best practices for K-12 civics in the United States. The project, Educating for American Democracy: A Roadmap for Excellence in History and Civics Education for All Learners, will bring together more than 100 experts and produce a report to be released at a national conference in 2020. Educating for American Democracy is a collaboration between iCivics, the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, the School of Civic and Economic ..read more

  Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. CIRCLE and Arthur Join Forces to Improve Civic Education As part of our efforts to enhance civic education, CIRCLE has recently partnered with popular children’s television show Arthur, which is produced by WGBH, on incorporating civic skills and content into the program. Our director Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg worked closely with the show’s creative team on several episodes focused on how kids can identify a problem in their community, discuss solutions, work together, listen to different opinions, resolve conflicts, and make a dif ..read more

October 21-25 was U.S. Media Literacy Week, and CIRCLE partnered with the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) to strengthen connections between youth voices, media literacy, and democracy. We were thrilled to join NAMLE, Mediawise, PBS Newshour Student Reporting Labs, and others in Detroit and New York to think with high school students about the connections between the media they create and consume and the 2020 election. What exactly is media literacy? NAMLE defines it as “the ability to ACCESS, ANALYZE, EVALUATE, CREATE, and ACT using all forms of communication. In its ..read more

In August, we wrote about the need for a paradigm shift from solely mobilizing voters at election time to a framework for building election education and engagement we call Growing Voters. That shift is critical because, as we’ve shared, youth voter turnout among 18- and 19-year-olds is regularly below that of their slightly older peers, and therefore below the average for all youth—defined here as ages 18-29. That means we’re missing an opportunity to instill civic habits early in life and to tackle disparities in access before they become harder to address, and youth are missing out on what ..read more

Donating to a political campaign is an important form of civic participation. It’s one of many ways that individuals can be engaged in an election, and offer concrete support to the party or candidate that they feel will advance their interests and represent their values. Increasingly, particularly among Democrats, some of whom shun large corporate donors and rely instead on “small-money” contributions, the number of donors to a candidate has become a key measure of broad public support. In fact, the Democratic Party has used it as a qualifying criteria for their 2020 primary debates; for the ..read more

  Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. The role of k-12 schools in young people’s path to political engagement receives too little attention. In fact, schools play a critical role, and their influence can be positive or negative. In the lead-up to the 2020 election, CIRCLE is working to support k-12 school districts and educators to strengthen school cultures for political learning and to build non-partisan educational plans that will promote more informed and equitable youth voting. Please join us in this work, and stay tuned for more resources over the next 18 mont ..read more

The 2018 midterm election year was a historic high point in youth engagement. There was an immense amount of peer-to-peer organizing (like coordinating an event, helping peer register or talking to them about the election), particularly for a midterm cycle, which tends to have lower participation than a presidential election. There was also substantial activism like marches and school walkouts. As a result of all this political engagement, the national youth turnout rate doubled compared to the previous midterm in 2014, and youth turnout increased in every state for which data is available. Ho ..read more

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. New National Youth Turnout Estimate: 28% of Youth Voted in 2018 We recently published a new estimate of young people’s participation in last year’s midterm elections: 28.2% of youth turned out to vote in 2018. This estimate, calculated using the voter file and using data from all 42 states where youth voting data is available, represents a remarkable increase from the 2014 midterms, when we estimate (using the same methodology) that only 13% of young people cast a ballot. We’ll be digging into what these estimates mean, and the di ..read more