Over the next several months, the Our Common Purpose team at the American Academy is working to enhance its website and newsletter. As we engage in these efforts, your feedback will help us implement changes that serve the best interest of the democracy reform community and provide you with the most relevant content and information about our efforts. 

The survey, which you can access here, should take you less than 5 minutes to complete.

In her latest column for The Washington Post, Danielle Allen responds to new national test results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) which revealed a further decline in students’ knowledge in U.S. history and civics. Danielle argues that the story isn’t just about students’ loss of knowledge, but also about their loss of connection to this country. Allen writes: “The deepest truth of this work is that you can’t have a democracy unless people want one. And right now, the kids don’t particularly want a democracy. This means we are failing at one of our greatest responsibilities: generational succession.” Strategy 6 of the Our Common Purpose report centers on inspiring a culture of commitment to American constitutional democracy and one another and includes calls for investments in civic educators and civic education. 

Read Danielle’s full op-ed here. Read the results from the National Assessment of Education Progress here. 

May 7, 2023 – Kei Kawashima Ginsberg, Newhouse Director of CIRCLE at Tufts University’s Tisch College of Civic Life and a member of the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, recently appeared on Soledad O’Brien’s Matter of Fact to discuss the increase in voter turnout among 18–29-year-olds over the last decade, and the response by some state legislatures to limit youth participation. Strategy 2 of Our Common Purpose includes reforms to empower voters. 

Watch Kei’s interview here. 

May 3, 2023 – In the aftermath of a new report from U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on an “epidemic of loneliness” in America, Eric Liu spoke with NPR about solutions to America’s isolation problem. “One of the things that's so important about the surgeon general's report is this idea that we need to create a culture of connection, a civic culture in which we actually see one another's fates as entwined,” Liu said.  

Listen to Eric’s full conversation with NPR here. 

The American Academy of Arts & Sciences is accepting applications for a Government Relations Officer within the American Institutions, Society and the Public Good (AI) program area. Learn more about the opening here. Please share this exciting opportunity with your network. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled. 

Listen First Project, an OCP Champion, is hiring a full-time Director of Coalition Engagement to coordinate, equip, and mobilize the ListenFirst Coalition of 500+ organizations.

Learn more about this opening here.

CivXNow, an OCP Champion, is now accepting grant applications for the fiscal year 2023 American History and Civics Education National Activities Programs (AHC-NA). The purpose of the AHC-NA program is to promote new and existing evidence-based strategies to encourage innovative American history, civics and government instruction for teachers, principals, or other school leaders. 

Learn more about this grant opportunity here. 

The Jewish Partnership for Democracy is planning a summer-long series of virtual informal conversations for prospective partners. These conversations will bring together people and organizations on the front lines of American democracy — from subject-matter experts to leaders and innovators who are making a difference in their own communities. 

Details on these programs and more are available here.