Working with teachers to bring Americans together through their shared past and a united future.
The American Civics and History Initiative is designed to provide teachers the knowledge and content necessary to be highly effective in teaching our founding principles and history.
It is an ambitious collaborative effort between the Ashbrook Center, the Bill of Rights Institute, and the Jack Miller Center, three of America’s leading civic education organizations. The Initiative seeks to cultivate generations of informed, patriotic citizens by educating middle and high school social studies teachers in the history and principles of America. We focus on teachers because one teacher can reach up to 5,000 students in the course of their career. By empowering educators through rich, content-based programs and resources, we can reach the next generation of Americans
Over the next two years we plan to reach
6,800 teachers
680,000 students
by conducting
8 five-day institutes
8 three-day seminars
16 two-day seminars
64 one-day seminars
78 webinars
Our programs focus on empowering educators to help their students discover the story of America.
The Content
We offer programs and resources that focus on the primary documents and debates that have shaped the course of American history and civics.
The Classroom
We help educators make their classrooms a place for serious and engaging conversation about the meaning and history of America's fundamental principles.
The Goal
We aim to empower educators in cultivating generations of students who understand the principles and history of America and have the habits of thoughtful reflection necessary to be self-governing citizens.
Students have no problem having opinions. Our job as teachers is to make sure those opinions are founded on reason and evidence. Students also need to be able to have respectful discourse, defending their opinions but also being open to learning from someone else. Our country has lost that ability, and these programs are helping to restore it.
Thanks for letting me be a student so I can be a better teacher.
These programs give teachers the ability to enhance their stories and captivate the minds of their students. In turn, students will be more engaged and develop a passion for content, understanding, and critical thinking
Who we are
Our member organizations
Jack Miller Center
JMC’s mission is to create a thoughtful and engaged citizenry by working with professors, teachers, and institutions across the country to advance education in America’s founding principles and history.
Ashbrook Center
Ashbrook's mission is to strengthen constitutional self-government by educating our fellow Americans—students, teachers, and citizens—in the history and principles of our country.
Bill of Rights Institute
The Bill of Rights Institute inspires the rising generation to champion the ideas expressed in our nation’s founding documents and to strive for their full realization.