Andrew Carnegie Foundation Awards $1.5 Million to Chicago-Kent College of Law to Expand Civic Mission Schools Network Across Three States

CHICAGO-June 18, 2026-The Andrew Carnegie Foundation, formerly known as Carnegie Corporation of New York, has awarded $1.5 million over 24 months to Chicago-Kent College of Law at Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech) to expand the Civic Mission Schools Network (Civic Mission Schools), a nationally recognized initiative that embeds comprehensive, experiential civic education across all disciplines and grade levels. The grant-the first Carnegie has made to Illinois Tech-will enable Civic Mission Schools to reach tens of thousands of additional students in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, and to launch a new middle school program for the first time in the initiative's 20-year history.

Civic Mission Schools operates at Chicago-Kent through the Constitutional Democracy Project (CDP), a program that provides high-quality, hands-on civics education focused on the Constitution, law, and policy for middle and high school students and their teachers across Illinois, Northwest Indiana, and Wisconsin. With Carnegie's support, Civic Mission Schools will expand from its base of 90 Illinois high schools and approximately 120,000 students into Indiana and Wisconsin and will launch its first-ever middle school program in Illinois. Civic Mission Schools aims to induct more than 80 new schools into the network over the next two years, reaching an estimated 73,000 additional students.

"Andrew Carnegie established our foundation to advance knowledge and strengthen democratic institutions-values that are as important today as they were in 1911," says Ambika Kapur, a program director for Education at the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. "The Civic Mission Schools Network represents the kind of deep, durable investment in civic learning that our nation needs. We are excited to support Chicago-Kent's work bringing this proven model to students and educators across the Midwest."

A Law School and a Civics Network, Connected by the Constitutional Democracy Project

The Constitutional Democracy Project is the institutional link between Civic Mission Schools and Chicago-Kent. CDP was established at Chicago-Kent in 2020, and it provides a wide range of programs and resources, including professional development for teachers, experiential programs for students, and publicly available curricula. CDP assumed stewardship of many programs previously housed at the Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago (CRFC), a civic education organization that operated from 1975 until 2019, as well as spearheading the We the People curriculum and programs in Illinois and regularly offering new opportunities for teachers and students. The Civic Mission Schools Network, which was formerly known as the Democracy Schools Network, had grown from six schools to ninety and now operates as a project of CDP at Chicago-Kent-at the convergence of a leading law school's expertise in constitutional education and a technology-focused university's commitment to innovation and equity.

This grant marks a full-circle moment for an initiative with deep Chicago roots. The arrival of the Civic Mission Schools to Chicago-Kent-and Carnegie's inaugural investment in Illinois Tech-signals the beginning of a new and significantly expanded chapter.

"The Constitutional Democracy Project has always been a civic learning partner of the Civic Mission Schools Network," says Carolyn Shapiro, professor of law and faculty director of the Constitutional Democracy Project and co-director of the Institute on the Supreme Court of the United States at Chicago-Kent. "This Carnegie grant is an affirmation of that partnership-and an opportunity to scale what we know works. At Chicago-Kent, our students engage with constitutional questions every day and have been eager to work with middle and high school students in CDP's programs. Now we can help even more K-12 students do the same, starting far earlier in their lives."

For interim Dean Harold Krent of Chicago-Kent College of Law, the grant reflects a broader institutional commitment. "Chicago-Kent has long believed that a healthy democracy depends on citizens who are deeply prepared to participate in it-starting long before they reach law school," he says. "We are honored to receive Carnegie's support, and proud that the Constitutional Democracy Project provides the institutional home for this important network as it reaches students across three states."

What Democracy Schools Do-and Why It Works

Unlike traditional civic education, which is often confined to a single social studies course, the Civic Mission Schools model engages the entire school. To join the network, a school must form a working group that includes school leadership, faculty, non-teaching staff, and students. Together, they commit to embedding civic learning across all disciplines and to four core priorities: excellence for all students, inquiry-based learning, authentic practice of democratic participation, and continuous improvement grounded in data.

The program spans every kind of community. Schools activate these principles in ways that fit their own communities and cultures. At Spoon River Valley Junior/Senior High School in rural central Illinois, students managed real budgets and engaged in participatory budgeting, learning firsthand how democratic deliberation works. At West Chicago Community High School, students organized a candidate forum in partnership with the League of Women Voters. At Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, an interdisciplinary team embedded digital media literacy across science, social studies, and library courses. The result: constantly evolving learning opportunities that are themselves developed using democratic practices.

"For nearly two decades, I have had the privilege of working alongside educators who believe that students learn democracy best by experiencing it," says Mary Ellen Daneels, chief innovation and learning officer of the Civic Mission Schools Network and director of the Illinois Civics Hub. "What makes the Civic Mission Schools Network unique is that it doesn't ask schools to add another initiative. Instead, it helps educators recognize, connect, and strengthen the powerful civic learning opportunities already happening throughout their schools. This investment from Carnegie allows us to expand that work to middle schools and new states, ensuring that more students experience the knowledge, skills, dispositions, and sense of agency needed to thrive in college, career, community, and our democracy."

The network has trained more than 25,000 educators over the past 10 years, and more than 200 educators attend its annual convening to share best practices. Illinois Democracy Schools enroll approximately one-sixth of all Illinois public high school students. These schools have been the engine behind Illinois' high-quality implementation of the state's high school civics coursework (enacted in 2015) and middle school civics (enacted in 2020) statewide.

Expanding to Indiana, Wisconsin, and Illinois Middle Schools

Over the 24 months, the Carnegie grant will fund the expansion of the Civic Mission Schools Network from Illinois, where the program is called Illinois Democracy Schools, into Indiana, under the name Indiana Schools of Civic Excellence, and Wisconsin, under the name Wisconsin Civic Schools. Three major initiatives will be pursued:

• First, at least 24 new Illinois high schools will be inducted into the network, reaching approximately 30,000 additional students, while strengthening the pipeline of schools already in the network through youth leadership programming.
• Second, beginning in spring 2027, Civic Mission Schools will launch its first-ever middle school program in Illinois, inducting 50 middle schools connected to existing Illinois Democracy Schools high school mentors and reaching an estimated 33,000 new middle school students.
• Third, it will adapt the Civic Mission Schools framework to Indiana and Wisconsin civic education standards and induct at least 10 high schools across both states, reaching 10,000 additional high school students. Even though local leaders in these states had been working with Illinois Democracy Schools staff to incubate the idea of "civic mission schools" in their states for the past year, piloting and expanding the adapted model would not have been possible without the support from Carnegie.

Illinois has emerged as a national exemplar of how state policy can drive systemic change in civics education, having enacted requirements for high school civics coursework in 2015 and middle school civics in 2020. Democracy Schools has been one of the key implementation vehicles for that mandate-and its model is increasingly sought by states that are building comparable frameworks.

The Civic Mission Schools program is also responsive to the documented urgency of the moment: while 84.5 percent of Civic Mission Schools students report intending to vote, only 24.6 percent actively engage civically outside of school-a gap that Civic Mission Schools programming is specifically designed to close.

This Carnegie grant will allow Civic Mission Schools to conduct rigorous, multi-state assessments of student civic readiness and career preparedness, contributing to national evidence about what scaled, whole-school civic education can accomplish-and positioning the network for further growth.

"We have sound evidence that this model works," says Kei Kawashima, project director of the Civic Mission Schools Network. "Schools in every corner of Illinois-urban, suburban, and rural-have shown that when students are treated as genuine participants of a democratic institution that schools can be, they develop the knowledge, skills and habits of democratic citizens. The Carnegie grant allows us to bring the impact we have brought to Illinois high schools to younger students in Illinois, as well as schools in Indiana and Wisconsin."

Indiana and Wisconsin have each spent the past year incubating their own versions of the network, and districts in both states have already asked Civic Mission Schools for entry. The model has also been successfully adapted in Hawaii, demonstrating its flexibility across different state policy contexts.

"This initiative is now 20 years old, and it is more relevant than ever," says Dee Runaas, project director of the Constitutional Democracy Project at Chicago-Kent. "Research consistently shows that high school civics alone does not prepare young people for lifelong citizenship-students need civic habits built over years, starting earlier. The Carnegie investment allows us to finally make that happen at scale, in Illinois middle schools and in two new states."

About the Initiative

The Civic Mission Schools Network expansion is funded by a $1,500,000 grant from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. The grant represents Carnegie's first investment in Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech).

Illinois Tech's Chicago-Kent College of Law houses the Constitutional Democracy Project and serves as the institutional home for Civic Mission Schools' expanded operations. Civic Mission Schools continues to operate in close partnership with the Illinois Civics Hub, the operational backbone for civics implementation across Illinois.

Andrew Carnegie Foundation

The Andrew Carnegie Foundation, formerly Carnegie Corporation of New York, works to reduce political polarization through grants that support ladders of opportunity and a more peaceful world. Its funding provides individuals with the knowledge and tools needed to improve their lives, participate fully in society, and advance peace. www.carnegie.org

Chicago-Kent College of Law

As the nation's only law school tied to a leading technology university, Chicago-Kent College of Law at Illinois Institute of Technology prepares graduates who are adept with technological advancements that are constantly altering the practice of law. At Chicago-Kent-recently ranked the 7th-best law school in the nation for Intellectual Property law by U.S. News & World Report in its 2026 Best Law Schools rankings-students gain real-world experience through Chicago-Kent's extensive externship program and its unique clinical model. With its many distinguished J.D. certificate programs, Chicago-Kent prepares its students not just to succeed, but to excel in their fields.

Media contacts

Petra Kelly
Communications Director
Illinois Institute of Technology
Cell: 773.771.1064
[email protected]
[email protected]

Kevin Dollear
Communications Manager
Illinois Institute of Technology
Cell: 773.860.5712
[email protected]

Angely Montilla
Program Communications Specialist
Andrew Carnegie Foundation
[email protected]