The Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement Coalition (CLDE Coalition) was created by higher education and policy organizations in response to the serious challenges facing democracy at home and abroad.

There is a vibrant civic learning movement in U.S. higher education. But too often civic learning remains elective rather than inclusive. Working with civic-minded faculty, staff, and institutional leaders, the CLDE Coalition is accelerating the spread of college civic learning, providing evidence on “what works,” and building educational and policy leadership for the movement.

In the summer of 2025, the CLDE Coalition joined American University’s newly established Democracy Innovation Lab at the Sine Institute. The Lab includes, in addition to the CLDE Coalition, the nonpartisan Sine Institute of Policy and Politics and American University’s initiative to strengthen civic character through productive engagement in the classroom, on campus, and in the community, The Civic Life.

The coalition’s founding partners, American Association of Colleges and Universities, Campus Compact, College Promise, Complete College America, and State Higher Education Executive Officers, continue to work in active collaboration with the CLDE Coalition at American University.