Civics Education Resources

Civics Education Resources

Through legislation, Arizona has set a focus on civics education through a number of avenues. This site contains many resources and lessons you can use to get your students actively engaged in civic learning. We also include ways in which schools can get involved in the Civics Engagement School Program, the Educating for American Democracy Initiative, and the American Civics Education Pilot Program which is still accepting applications and continues until 2024.

Introductory Video 

The week between Constitution Day on September 17th, commemorating the signing of the Constitution in 1787, and September 25th, the date that HB 2625 recognizes and honors one of Arizona's own leader-Justice Sandra Day O'Conner by establishing Sandra Day O'Connor Civics Celebration Day, is known as Civics Celebration Week. At some time between these two days, K-12 schools must devote time to learning about civics. This time devoted to civics education can be on the exact dates or sometime between those dates. While ADE does not endorse or support any particular resource or curriculum, we are providing options that local education agencies may choose and select from when making the best decisions for their students. 

Civics Celebration Week 2022

Resources

ADE does not endorse or support any particular resource or curriculum. We are only providing options that local education agencies may choose and select from when making the best decisions for their students. 

Local Resources

ADE does not endorse or support any particular resource or curriculum. We are only providing options that local education agencies may choose and select from when making the best decisions for their students. 

 

Contests 

Get Involved

General Resources for Civics

ADE does not endorse or support any particular resource or curriculum. We are only providing options that local education agencies may choose and select from when making the best decisions for their students. 

Curated Sources By Grade Band

General Resources

iCivics - iCivics is a web-based education project designed to teach students civics and inspire them to be active participants in our constitutional republic. iCivics is the vision of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor who wanted to assist in getting students the information and tools they need for civic participation and to assure classroom teachers easy access to materials and support for teaching civic content.  Grades 5-12

KidCitizen - Supported by a grant from the Library of Congress, KidCitizen introduces a new way for young students to engage with history and civics through primary sources. Through KidCitizen’s interactive episodes, children explore civics and government concepts by investigating primary source photographs from the Library of Congress and connect what they find to their daily lives. Grades K-5

We the Civics Kids - This link has two excellent programs for elementary school-age students. The Civics in Literature Initiative created in partnership between the National Constitution Center and the Rendell Center for Citizenship and Civics at Arcadia University is a program that uses children’s literature and famous historical texts to teach civics. The Becoming Active Citizens program helps students build basic civic knowledge through fun and interactive lessons. Students will practice thinking and acting responsibly while participating in real-life problem-solving situations and practicing democratic deliberation.  K-6

We the People Podcast - This weekly show covers a constitutional debate each week.  Hosted by Jeffery Rosen, National Constitution Center President and CEO, listeners can hear the best arguments on all sides on the constitutional issues at the center of American life.

Veterans Inspiring Patriotism - Through the Veterans Inspiring Patriotism program, Veterans visit classrooms to share personal stories while delivering educational material that focuses on roles and responsibilities associated with actively engaged citizenship. All grades

Civic Classics Collection - ASU Center for Political Thought and Leadership has built a Civics Classics Collection of rare books and manuscripts to support the mission of civic education through learning spaces.  Students and teachers can explore the collection online and learn about many of our nation’s significant and well-known documents.  7-12th grades

Citizenship Counts - Created by Holocaust survivor and humanitarian Gerda Weissman Klein, citizenship counts provides lessons and resources to teach students about citizenship and the naturalization process. This program can culminate in schools hosting a naturalization ceremony.

Street Law - A site that is full of excellent materials to teach the courts.  Check out the SCOTUS in the Classroom Cases each school year and wonderful activities from their free resource library including deliberations, lesson plans, election resources, and mock trials.

Landmark Cases - This site provides materials and activities to help students explore 17 landmark cases.  Highly interactive resources and teaching strategies including background summaries, excerpts of opinions, simulations, moot courts, and a wide range of lessons for each case in the “Teacher’s Only” section

SCOTUSblog - This site has probably the most comprehensive coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court of any media outlet, featuring statistics about recent terms, interviews with academics and advocates, podcasts, and live blogging of decision days. The case files include full summaries, decisions, and all case briefs since 2007.

Civic Engagement School Recognition Program

The Arizona Department of Education is now partnering with the Arizona Civics Coalition. The Coalition is maintaining and running the program through its organization.  We are including some basic resources to help your school apply for the program. Please direct all questions to the Arizona Civics Coalition.

Introductory Video

Please take a short Civic Learning Self-Assessment to help you determine your school’s strengths and areas of improvement

Guides

Applications

The new application is a Google form and cannot be saved once started. Before you begin to fill out the application in full, please be aware of some limitations in the application process:

1. Google forms does not allow for you to partially complete the application and return later to finish the rest.
YOU MUST FINISH THE APPLICATION IN ONE SITTING. Thus, we ask you to prepare the narratives and spreadsheets ahead of time. See below for directions on formatting and information to be included:

2. In order to prepare to complete the application in one sitting, be aware you will be asked to write three narratives on Social Studies Classroom Instruction and Action Civics, Structured Engagement of Current Events and Media Literacy, and School Culture and Climate Embedded with Social Emotional Learning. We strongly advise writing these narratives in Word or Google Docs ahead of time and then uploading to each section’s page when filling out the application.

3. The remaining civic education proven practices ask for spreadsheets to be uploaded. You will need to track your school’s activities for Service- Learning, Extra-curricular Activities, Student Participation in School Governance and Decision-Making, and Simulations of Democratic Processes. Please refer to the spreadsheet setup in the pictures below. You will need to create these ahead of time and upload each spreadsheet into each section of the application.

4. Your school is also being asked to upload a short slide deck or video presentation (no more than five minutes) highlighting the civic practices in action at your school. *If students are identifiable, ensure your school keeps a media release on file because some of the videos may be shown publicly to showcase the school.

Application

Schools that earn the Civics Engagement School Award as a School of Merit, School of Distinction, and School of Excellence are recognized here.

Educating for American Democracy Initiative

American Civics Education Pilot Program

This program is designed to fulfill Arizona State legislation SB1444 to provide a more rigorous assessment than the civics portion of the naturalization test that high school students take for their graduation requirement. The goal of this legislation is to strengthen and enhance civic education in Arizona High Schools for grades 9-12. This pilot takes place in a high school government/civics course that fulfills the graduation requirement. The results of the American Civics Education Pilot assessment will evaluate a student's mastery of civics knowledge, skills, and dispositions; the level of civics instruction provided by schools and or districts; and the statewide impact of a rigorous, performance-based civics program and assessment. Participating pilot students will be exempt from taking the Arizona Civics Test as a graduation requirement.


The American Civics Education Pilot program was awarded to the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education and will be using the We the People program and simulated Congressional Hearing as an assessment. All pilot schools will receive free program materials, trainings, mentorship, and the performance assessment.

Any Arizona public high school, multiple high schools within a district, or an entire district may apply to participate in the American Civics Education Pilot program. The program requires a district administrator or school administrator as the contact person.

The Arizona Department of Education's American Civics Education Pilot program will run for three years from January 2021 until 2024.

ACEP Application

Civics Test and Administration Manual

Beginning with the graduating class of 2017, high school graduates are required to pass (60/100) a civics test identical to the civics portion of the naturalization test used by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. As a courtesy, the Arizona Department of Education, with help from the Maricopa County Education Service Agency and Arizona educators, has developed a mostly multiple choice version of the required test.

Updates:

For all students to meet the civics test graduation requirement, please use the 2008 USCIS (linked above) test. There is a 2020 test with additional questions that the Trump administration created. It is only an option for a small number of immigrants that applied for and were interviewed during a short period of time. The Biden administration chose to return to the 2008 test and that is the test you will use for students to meet the graduation requirement. The current passing rate for students is 60/100 for students graduating from 2022 to 2025.

New Legislation Signed in 2022: There is new legislation that was signed into law in 2022 that requires students graduating in 2026 and after must have a passing score of 70/100. If a student graduates in 2026 and has already taken the civics test and scored a 60-69, they will need to retest and score a 70/100 sometime before they graduate in 2026.

Districts must also collect the following data by grade level: media score, percentage of passing students, and percentage of failing students. No personal student data is to be collected.

View all information for the Seal of Civics Literacy here.