WASHINGTON, Dec. 10, 2024—Today, More Perfect announced that the Ibis Group has committed $11.3 million to support the reinvigoration of American history and civic learning. Ibis Group’s gift is a significant investment in More Perfect’s first Democracy Goal: Universal Civic Learning and will work to address low levels of historic and civic knowledge among students and adults that is vital to a healthy democracy.

Only 22 percent of 8^th graders performed at or above the proficient level on the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) civics exam. Civic knowledge among American students has remained the same since 1998.  Surveys also show low levels of civic literacy among college students.  A 2024 study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation also found that more than 70 percent of Americans failed a basic civic literacy quiz and that one in three Americans could not name or explain what the three branches of the U.S. government do.

More Perfect’s Democracy Goal 1 aims to enhance historic and civic knowledge for students and adults through coursework in schools and colleges, expanding teacher capacity in civic education, connecting students to original documents and insights from American history, and fostering an understanding of democratic institutions. The investments support institutions working to educate students PreK to Grade 12, in higher education, and in life-long learning contexts for adults.  Learn more about the role of higher education in democracy here.

“Democracy is a demanding form of government that requires an understanding among citizens of our country’s history, values and institutions.  Every child and adult in the United States - regardless of location or demographics - should have access to such learning,” said John Bridgeland, Executive Chair & CEO of More Perfect. “We are extremely grateful to the Ibis Group for supporting critical efforts to enhance the foundational knowledge necessary for informed, engaged citizenship.”

“We are thrilled to support leaders and institutions that are aligning their efforts to ensure civic education is central to learning in the United States,” said Chi Kim, the Ibis Group board chair. 

“Our collective focus is to ensure our young people grow up in a nation that recognizes the benefits of both understanding and participating in their constitutional democracy,” said Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and director of the Democratic Knowledge Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  “The Democratic Knowledge Project is grateful to work with More Perfect and these partners to create our best future by investing in the next stewards of our constitutional democracy - our children.”

“Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (ret.), who founded our organization and considered revitalizing civic education her most important legacy after she left the U.S. Supreme Court, reminded us that civic knowledge is not in our DNA.  Every generation must be taught our history, system, and their role in it,” said Louise Dube, CEO of iCivics.

The Ibis Group is supporting the frontline partners of More Perfect’s Democracy Goal 1 to advance universal civic learning, including:

These organizations are working in alignment to expand teacher capacity, make civic learning a priority in schools, districts and states, activate higher education in support of civic learning, put bridging divides at the center of education, and track progress on key goals, targets and metrics over time in an effort to address the lack of civic literacy in the United States.

“The founders knew how important civic education was to the survival of our constitutional democracy,” said General Joe Dunford, Chair of the new Adams Presidential Center honoring the legacies of John & Abigail Adams and John Quincy & Louisa Catherine Adams. “John Adams wrote in the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 that one advantage of education is ‘the preservation of [the people’s] rights and liberties.’  A few years earlier in a letter dated August 14, 1776, Abigail Adams reminded her husband John that ‘if we mean to have Heroes, Statesmen, and Philosophers, we should be learned women.”

More Perfect is a nonpartisan alliance of 34 Presidential Centers, National Archives Foundation, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Karsh Institute for Democracy at the University of Virginia, and more than 100 organizations working together to advance five Democracy Goals.  The five Democracy Goals are: 1) Universal Civic Learning; 2) Expanding National Service and Volunteering; 3) Bridging Divides; 4) Trusted Elections and More Representative and Responsive Governance; and 5) Access to Trusted News and Information.

The mission of More Perfect is to channel and further empower the potential impact of organizations working to strengthen democracy by facilitating partnerships across sectors and serving as a collaborative nerve center to attract and direct greater attention, energy, and resources to the renewal of our constitutional democracy.

Ibis Group is a nonprofit that empowers students PK-16 with the knowledge and skills to become informed, engaged, and active participants in our democracy. Their strategy is to support systems that promote literacy and civic education by investing in knowledgeable and dynamic leaders and organizations with proven track records of impact of building knowledge, dignity, and agency.