EdCircuit Staff 
CONCORD, NH (April 23, 2024) — In an effort to bolster civics education throughout the Granite State, the New Hampshire Department of Education (NHED) is partnering with Discovery Education to support the development of informed students who are eager and ready to participate in democracy.
In March, the Governor and Executive Council approved a $1 million contract between the New Hampshire Department of Education and Discovery Education to provide high quality curriculum and instructional materials for New Hampshire students and teachers to help them explore the history, heritage and principles of the New Hampshire Constitution and government it established.
In 2021, the New Hampshire Department of Education made Discovery Education content available, at no cost, to all New Hampshire educators when it selected the Discovery Education Experience learning platform to support local learning environments with high quality instructional material. Through this initial partnership, 100% of New Hampshire schools can use the Discovery platform and have engaged more than 1.4 million learning experiences. Expanding on that partnership, the new civics curriculum will be organized within a custom New Hampshire Civics Channel on the Discovery Education platform that will roll out to educators this fall. To support the implementation of this resource and to help drive the return on the State’s edtech investment, this new phase of partnership will also include comprehensive teacher training for the effective use of the resources.
“Civics education is essential for all New Hampshire students to ensure that this future generation of adults can, with respect for others, both make their voices heard and understand alternative perspectives,” said Frank Edelblut, education commissioner. “These skills are enhanced with a foundational understanding of the origins of our government and the framework established by our Constitution. We are pleased to once again partner with Discovery Education to help educators throughout the state find innovative ways to teach civics.”
Discovery Education will create a digital textbook and related content supporting the optional civics curriculum. Featuring resources for grades K-12, the materials created by Discovery Education will include ready-to-use resources that can easily be integrated into instruction; New Hampshire-centric digital assets featuring state specific artifacts; primary source documents that help develop each student’s understanding of their state government and constitution; and other custom created videos, interactives and educational supports that help frame engaging critical civics questions for all learners.
“Discovery Education is honored to be selected to support this incredibly important work and continue our support of New Hampshire educators, students and families,” said Coni Rechner, Discovery Education’s Senior Vice President of State and Strategic Partnerships. “The New Hampshire Department of Education’s innovative approach to civics instruction places it among the leaders in the effort to create active, well-informed citizens prepared to participate in democracy, and we are excited to continue to collaborate with Commissioner Edelblut and his entire team on this new initiative.”
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