Our Story

Advancing Civic Readiness for All Students

The DemocracyReady NY Coalition was founded to address a growing concern: our schools were losing sight of one of their most fundamental purposes—preparing students to be engaged, informed participants in our democracy.

Launched in 2018 by the Center for Educational Equity at Teachers College, Columbia University, with support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, Einhorn Collaborative, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and iCivics, DemocracyReady NY builds on decades of work securing students’ right to a meaningful education. In New York, this includes the right under the state constitution to be prepared for civic participation—a right affirmed in the landmark CFE v. State of New York case.

By 2015, in response to growing national threats to democratic norms, the Center launched a focused inquiry into civic education: What should schools be doing to prepare students for capable civic participation? This work led to important research initiatives, including Flunking Democracy: Schools, Courts, and Civic Participation by Center executive director Michael A. Rebell, and a regional study of civic learning opportunities led by policy and research director Jessica R. Wolff.

These efforts revealed a rich but disconnected landscape of educators, advocates, youth leaders, and organizations across New York all working toward the same goal—but not yet working together. Inspired by their passion and energized by the constitutional promise of civic readiness, we recognized the need for a unifying force.

DemocracyReady NY was created to bring people together. We unite educators, youth leaders, policymakers, advocates, and researchers in a nonpartisan, multigenerational coalition committed to ensuring all students—regardless of background or zip code—graduate from high school ready to engage in civic life.

Today, DemocracyReady NY is catalyzing systems-level change across the state. We support policy reform, foster cross-sector collaboration, amplify youth voice, and promote research-based strategies for civic learning. As the official New York affiliate of the national CivxNow Coalition, we are helping lead a growing movement to restore the civic mission of schools.