The Utah State Board of Education just announced the availability of grant funds to promote innovative approaches to civic teaching and learning provided by Utah legislative action, HB 273.
Up to $1.5 million in grants will support evidence-informed local innovations in civics teaching and learning, including:
constitutional literacy initiatives;
media literacy or digital citizenship initiatives; and
academic service learning initiatives that are informed by an understanding of constitutional concepts and how the policymaking process works at different levels of government.
We know from our Civics Education Listening Tours that many Utah educators have experimented with different ways to prepare youth for civic life. Some have traction on building character and civic dispositions. Others may have a bodacious new idea they'd like to test out. The Local Innovations Grants Program provides resources to test and invest in what might work in terms of preparing youth for civic life. Best of all, funds can be used to set aside time to bring a good idea to life-0r take promising ideas to scale-and actually get paid for doing that.
Much as you've earned a quiet and uneventful summer, we hope you and your curriculum or content leads can somehow embrace this or other ways (see our Professional Development page) to make this the "Summer of Civics."
Learn more and apply HERE.