Vision and Priorities

Our Shared Commitment

Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement (CLDE) should become part of each two- and four-year student’s college learning.  

The United States Constitution makes “We the People” the architects of our own future. Today, a decisive majority of the American people enroll in postsecondary education, either directly from school or as returning adults. The CLDE Coalition is working to ensure that all college students, from every walk of life, gain meaningful preparation for their roles in guiding tomorrow’s democracy.  

Current CLDE Priorities

• Foster College Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement–Every Student, Every Degree

  Build educators’ commitment and capacity across postsecondary education to make civic learning and democracy engagement an expected part of a quality college education for all college students, with full participation by students from under-resourced communities a top priority.
  

• Collaborate for Collective Impact in Reclaiming Higher Education’s Civic Purpose and Ensuring Civic and Democracy Learning Across the Curriculum

  Align and actively coordinate with leaders, organizations, accrediting commissions, state systems, and postsecondary institutions that share the CLDE goal of making college civic learning expected, inclusive, and valuable—both to students and to democracy.  Promote the use of  civic and democracy learning resources developed through these ongoing collaborations.   

• Champion the CLDE Framework for College Civic Learning, which includes:  

  • Democratic Knowledge and Levers for Change: Engage students with democracy’s development, principles, contestations, and challenges, including movements for policy and societal change. Include study of founding and freedom texts for the U.S. and of the values and political systems that support constitutional and democratic governance.

  • Bridge-building and Collaborative Problem Solving: Prepare each postsecondary student, as part of their degree requirements, to engage respectfully with diverse views, experiences, and backgrounds, and to work productively, across differences, on selected public problems that are significant both to the student and to democracy’s future.  

  • Practical Experience and Projects: Provide credit-bearing opportunities for students to work on public good issues in community or field-based contexts: e.g., practicums, internships, research projects for public organizations, etc; and to engage in guided reflection with diverse partners on their learning from these experiences.

  • Career-Related Civic and Ethical Learning: Ensure that students’ career-related studies explore public good and public policy issues relevant to the field, and provide active engagement with ethical principles and reasoning about complex issues and choices for action.

• Secure Policy Commitment to Strengthen All Students’ Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement, from School Through College 

  Work at the institutional, system, state, and federal level to build commitment and action to foster students’ CLDE inquiry and projects from first to final year, and to align college studies with K-12 reform priorities for history and civics. Showcase the empirical connections between participation in active civic learning and increased college student graduation rates.

• Identify and Learn From CLDE Trail-blazers 

  Identify and engage Full Participation Institutions (FPIs). FPIs are two- and four-year institutions that have taken action to include civic learning in their degree requirements. Collectively, these institutions show both that full participation is feasible and that civic learning and democracy engagement can be tailored to the needs and lives of today’s diverse college students as well as to very different institutional missions.  

• Build and Support Collaborative CLDE Scaling Initiatives, including:

  • The Multi-State Collaborative for CLDE

  • The Accreditation Commission Initiative for CLDE

  • The Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities’ CLDE Initiative 

• Develop CLDE Indicators to Track Students’ Participation and Proficiency

  CLDE Coalition Advisors are identifying research on the short- and long-term effects of students’ civic learning and democracy engagement with the goal of developing key performance indicators and outlining a research agenda to support their development and use. Particular attention is being given to the connections between student success and civic engagement with an eye to advancing practices that contribute both to student success and CLDE outcomes.

Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.
― Coretta Scott King

"Democracy is . . . an acquired habit. Like most habits, democratic behavior develops slowly over time, through constant repetition." 
―Yoni Appelbaum
The Atlantic