The Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics awarded its 2024 Civic Mission of the Nation award to PBS News Hour Classroom.
The funding — which consists of $58,000 to be used starting January 2025 — will support the creation of multimedia resources for community colleges and other young adult learners, according to the Annenberg Public Policy Center announcement. These civics-education resources will center around PBS News’ news segments, including their “America at a Crossroads” series hosted by former News Hour anchor Judy Woodruff.
The Civic Mission of the Nation award is awarded annually to a member of the Civics Renewal Network. The CRN is a series of nonprofit and nonpartisan organizations that provide free online resources for civics education. In 2023, the Civic Mission of the Nation Award was given to the Rendell Center for Civics and Engagement, providing the center with $73,000 to create a video series about the First Amendment.
Luke Gerwe, the education project manager for PBS News Hour Classroom, said in the announcement that the goal is for these materials and for PBS News Hour Classroom’s expansion to help “young citizens who are maybe voting for the first time and have just begun to think of themselves as adults,” encouraging “deeper engagement with research projects than you typically have with middle and high school students.”
LAIC’s Director of Outreach and Curriculum Andrea Reidell echoed a similar sentiment, emphasizing that “everyone benefits by learning about important civics knowledge and skills.”
“We’re delighted to support PBS News Hour Classroom in this project to expand adult learning, using its extensive and high-quality media resources while working with a community college advisory board to help adapt resources for those learner,” Reidell said in the announcement.
This grant comes after the Sept. 17 Constitution Day release of APPC’s annual civics knowledge survey. This year’s survey found that most adults could not name most of their First Amendment rights. Fifteen percent of survey respondents could not name a single one of the three branches of government.
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