National Constitution Center

EDUCATION- To engage learners of all ages, in classrooms and homes across the nation, the National Constitution Center has developed a robust set of programs and resources to deliver constitutional content, reaching approximately 70,000 educators and 4.3 million students each year. Based on the acclaimed Interactive Constitution, the Center produces a variety of standards-based teaching materials for use in the classroom and at the museum, and hosts educator workshops, trainings, and other professional learning opportunities to promote constitutional literacy skills through civil dialogue. THE INTERACTIVE CONSTITUTION In September 2015, the National Constitution Center launched the online Interactive Constitution, which unites leading conservative, libertarian, and progressive constitutional scholars in America to write essays exploring areas of agreement and disagreement on every clause in the Constitution. In 2019, the Center began incorporating companion content for classroom use-integrating a robust set of educational resources including lesson plans, videos, and other multimedia content tagged according to constitutional provision. Since its launch, the Interactive Constitution has been visited by more than 90 million users, and it serves as America's leading platform for nonpartisan constitutional education. FOUNDERS' LIBRARY The Founders' Library includes 170+ primary texts that span American constitutional history-from the philosophical works that influenced the founding generation to the most important speeches, essays, books, pamphlets, petitions, letters, court cases, landmark statutes, and state constitutions that have shaped the American constitutional tradition. To ensure nonpartisan rigor and ideological diversity, the Center assembled a group of leading scholars from diverse perspectives to help choose the nearly 170 historical texts and 50 landmark Supreme Court cases in the document library. Launched in 2022, the document library also includes foundational sources curated by the National Constitution Center team. CONSTITUTION 101 In 2022, the National Constitution Center released Constitution 101, a free, nonpartisan online curriculum on the U.S. Constitution. Constitution 101 is a 15-module curriculum for high school students, as well as a standalone self-guided course for lifelong learners, that explores the basic principles of American freedom and the core constitutional texts of American history, from the founding to today. Constitution 101 is modeled on the National Constitution Center's proven framework for rigorous, nonpartisan constitutional education and the practice of civil dialogue. The curriculum includes interactive features, allowing students to take online assessments and allowing educators to integrate into their learning management systems. A middle school version of the Constitution 101 curriculum will launch in 2025. The Center partnered with acclaimed online education platform, Khan Academy, on a student self-mastery course. A complement to the teacher-led Constitution 101 curriculum, the 9-unit course uses a mastery-based approach through activities, exercises, and videos. Launched in fall 2024, the course includes more than 250 short videos featuring federal judges, former elected officials, public intellectuals, and the nation's leading constitutional scholars from across the ideological spectrum. These constitutional experts share canonical stories about America's Constitution, discuss landmark Supreme Court cases, and explore some of the most important constitutional debates facing the nation today. VIRTUAL STUDENT PROGRAMS Since 2020, the Center has offered a robust set of live online programs for student audiences. Through the online Scholar Exchange Program, students in middle school through college have the opportunity to discuss constitutional topics with a lawyer, judge, or constitutional scholar and their peers from around the country, gaining deeper constitutional understanding and engaging in enhanced civil discourse. Monthly and seasonal topics for these classes often reflect civic holidays, such as a civil rights discussion in January for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, or a discussion on the 19th Amendment for Women's History Month in March. There are also court case review and founding documents review sessions targeted toward students preparing for the Advanced Placement government exams. The Center has expanded the offerings to include Civic Stories, opportunities for elementary and middle school students to engage with the past through artifacts and the stories they tell. In this setting, students apply constitutional thinking skills to develop a deeper understanding of history and consider the ways in which artifacts tell stories about individuals, communities, and cultures. Through this practice, students begin to identify where they see themselves, their communities, and their surroundings in the broader scope of American history. The Live From the Museum series features tours of our exhibit spaces, designed to bring the experience of a trip to the Center to students everywhere. Topics vary by month, and are scheduled to align with upcoming civic holidays and special events. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR EDUCATORS The National Constitution Center offers a range of free professional learning programs tailored to meet the goals and needs of educators. The Center's approach is designed to empower educators seeking to enhance civic and history instruction and constitutional understanding in classrooms across the nation. The Center provides the tools, knowledge, and pedagogical strategies to help educators effectively explore the Constitution's history and contemporary relevance. Educators can register for online sessions, half-day or full-day offerings, attend a multi-day institute or weekend workshop, request a customized professional development session for their school or district, or join one of our educator communities. The Center hosts weeklong Educator Institutes at the museum and at locations nationwide, providing teachers opportunities to learn from leading constitutional scholars and pedagogical experts, while also connecting with fellow educators. During each institute, educators work with content experts to deepen their knowledge of the history and contemporary relevance of the Constitution, the structural Constitution, and the amendment process. With teacher facilitators and the education team from the Center working hand-in-hand, participants discover and develop innovative, nonpartisan ways to make the content relevant to their students. Weekend Workshops include engaging discussions with constitutional scholars, insights into the Center's classroom-ready resources, and practical application sessions. Participants leave with valuable knowledge and strategies to enhance their teaching of constitutional principles in diverse classroom settings. Thanks to generous support, the Center is able to offer a set of Weekend Workshops every year that cover all travel and lodging expenses for educators from rural, remote, or underserved communities. Fostering community and collaboration among peers is also a core goal of the professional learning programs. The Teacher Advisory Board is a select cohort of educators invited to serve as champions for our educational initiatives and as key advisors to the education team. The collaboration with these skilled educators helps inform the Center's efforts to better educate students on the Constitution using high-quality, nonpartisan, effective classroom materials and instruction. The Teacher Advisory Council is a professional learning community of educators who share best practices for teaching constitutional, historical, and civics topics and serve as ambassadors for the Center's educational efforts. The Center's first cohort of Constitutional Fellows piloted the Center's teacher-led Constitution 101 high school curriculum in their classrooms for the 2022-23 school year, providing critical feedback and commentary for wider implementation in classrooms around the country. The second cohort launched in 2024 has focused on informing the development of a middle school version of Constitution 101. The National Constitution Center provides additional support for educators nationwide by traveling to state and regional conferences throughout the school year. The education team has traveled across the country, attending conferences such as the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), the Association of Middle Level Education (AMLE), and Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), as well as regional council for the social studies programs, such as the Texas Council for the Social Studies (TXCSS), the Florida Council for the Social Studies (FCSS), and more. Sessions at these events have focused on topics such as civil dialogue, storytelling, the 14th Amendment, and the Constitution 101 curriculum. IN THE COMMUNITY

CONVENINGS At a time when America is increasingly polarized, the Center provides a crucial and unique role in bringing thought leaders, students, and citizens of different perspectives together to learn about and debate the meaning of the U.S. Constitution. Under the leadership of President and CEO Jeffrey Rosen, the Center has become the leading forum for vigorous civil dialogue at our live America's Town Hall programs and debates in Philadelphia and across America. Through live events, videos, blog posts, and We the People and Live at the National Constitution Center podcasts, the Center provides balanced debate on timely constitutional issues. The Center has welcomed numerous notable guests to talk about issues at the heart of American life. In the past year, America's Town Hall hosted in-person and virtual events with a diverse set of speakers including best-selling authors, public officials, journalists, historians, and other thought leaders. Topics have included the Electoral College, Native Americans and the Constitution, and the life and legacy of John Lewis. The Center regularly engages experts for more in-depth exploration of constitutional issues. Recent examples include the National First Amendment Summit, in partnership with nationally recognized free speech organizations FIRE and First Amendment Watch at NYU, to bring together scholars in a series of panels to discuss the most pressing First Amendment issues of the day. The Guardrails of Democracy project, which commissioned leading thinkers from diverse perspectives, identified potential structural, constitutional, and educational reforms. Similarly, the Constitution Drafting Project brought together three teams of leading constitutional scholars to draft and present their ideal constitutions. Through its two podcasts, We the People, a weekly show of constitutional debate, and Live at the National Constitution Center, audio from our live programs at the Center and around the country, the Center's podcasts engage listeners in balanced, timely debate about the Constitution, and feature some of the best legal minds discussing nuanced constitutional issues throughout history and in today's headlines. Constitution Daily, the Center's blog, covers news stories and reflects on important dates in history. It also features contributions from leading Supreme Court journalist Marcia Coyle. Its stories are often picked up by major national outlets, and are an essential resource for the general public, journalists, and educators in breaking down the constitutional news of the day. The Center also reaches millions around the world with its active social media channels, sharing original multimedia content, engaging programming, and news from the institution. In 2022, the National Constitution Center implemented a total redesign of its website to highlight these valuable programs and information. With all of these resources tagged according to relevant constitutional text, users are able to browse all of the Center's content easily, making accessible the best voices on all sides of current and historical constitutional questions and giving learners of all ages the ability to connect relevant constitutional issues with the history, text, and meaning of every provision of the Constitution. LIBERTY MEDAL The National Constitution Center's annual Liberty Medal honors men and women of courage and conviction who strive to secure the blessings of liberty to people around the globe. Established in 1988 to commemorate the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution and first administered by the National Constitution Center in 2006, the Liberty Medal's roster of recipients includes many of the men, women, and organizations that have shaped and guided the world through the past three decades, including Nelson Mandela, Sandra Day O'Connor, Kofi Annan, Malala Yousafzai, Colin Powell, and more. The 2024 Liberty Medal was given to America's storyteller, documentarian Ken Burns. Capturing the attention of millions every year, the Liberty Medal is a tribute to citizenship and America's constitutional ideals.