CIVICS BEE

broadly failing in history, with 40% of eighth graders performing at the lowest level in U.S. history on 2022 exams, compared with 34% in 2018, Chalkbeat reported.

“ e time for action is now,” said Hilary Crow, vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, which launched the National Civics Bee last year with pilot programs in ve states. “We are at a crisis point, and this is the perfect time and opportunity to engage leaders, business leaders, legislators, educators and communities all across the country to elevate civics as a priority. e strength of our democracy, of free enterprise and the future of our country depends on us.” e chamber foundation has partnered with the Daniels Fund, a Denver-based charitable foundation, to roll out civics bees across the country with the goal of creating competitions in all 50 states that culminate in a national competition, which Crow said will debut next year in Washington, D.C. is year’s round of bees started in more than 50 communities in nine states, with competitions at the local level hosted by chambers of commerce, each sending the top three nalists to a state bee hosted by each state’s chamber.

Colorado students in the Denver metro area, Arvada, Buena Vista, Craig and Pueblo put their civics knowledge to the test last month in local contests. ree winners from each community advanced to the nal bee, hosted by the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, which wants to strengthen students’ understanding of how government functions and help them see that they will set the foundation and tone for the next decades of democracy.

“If they believe that our democracy is in trouble, and if they don’t understand how government works, then they can’t change the process, they can’t in uence the process,” said Loren Furman, president and CEO of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce.

Bee organizers at the state and national level say the task of polishing students’ grasp of civics falls on far more than educators.

“Our schools have so many responsibilities right now that this is a way to come alongside our schools and say, ‘In our communities we have a responsibility too,’” Daniels Fund CEO Hanna Skandera said. “And we can join with our education, our schools, having families and communities and chambers help be a part of the solution.” e rst-ever decline in civics pro ciency on last year’s NAEP exams led communities and educators alike to worry and intervene. at also includes pushing students to trace a certain topic throughout its arc of history, whether fashion, food, hairstyles or issues involving the LGBTQ+ community.

And while Barbara Taylor, who teaches Advanced Placement U.S. History, honors government and honors geography at Pomona High School in Arvada, is disheartened by student performance in civics, but she also sees students actively pursuing an understanding of government systems every day in her classes.

Low NAEP scores aren’t “a very accurate reection of the interest that real kids have in their country,” said Taylor, who has been teaching for 23 years and also serves as treasurer for Colorado Council for the Social Studies.

“ ey really want to understand what’s happening to them, what we see in the community,” she added.

Rather than educating students about civics and history just through textbooks, Taylor builds students’ knowledge by connecting their learning to the real world. at includes putting students through a legal simulation with help from University of Colorado law students, who challenge them to look at evidence and craft arguments based on school-related issues, including the question of which bathrooms should be available to kids who identify as transgender.

She has also seen a resurgence in interest among high schoolers studying civics that she attributes to the deep-seated division roiling communities and in aming politics at every level.

“ e divide we have in this country is in part because people don’t know how to have a civil conversation, and they’re easily intimidated by people who seem to have information and seem to know things,” Taylor said. “And because we don’t know how to talk, we stop talking. And so the consequences are dire.”

All the clatter of outside political fury was absent during the civics bee, when students were asked how history has shaped democracy,

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