Civics Empowerment Gap

Many of us are familiar with the idea of an achievement gap in education. But Meira Levinson argues that there is an equally troubling civics gap in our schools. Even if students are learning fundamentals such as how a bill becomes a law, not all of them have the opportunity to see the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in action. The Guggenheim award-winner and Harvard scholar challenges us to think of schools as civic spaces that should reflect our values and concerns as citizens – and what we might do to close the civics empowerment gap.

This annual lecture recognizes a generous multiyear grant from the Spencer Foundation, which seeks both to support and disseminate exemplary research about education, broadly conceived.