For Immediate Release
From CivicStory
February 7, 2024

LAST CALL! History & Civics Quiz Closes Thursday Feb 8 at Midnight

Test your basic civics knowledge in three minutes

South Orange, NJ - Some readers may remember Schoolhouse Rock! or had a civics-minded social studies, English, or U.S. history teacher in high school. Others may have missed out on civics altogether.

Thanks to Laura Wooten’s Law, approved by the NJ Legislature in 2021, most New Jersey middle school students now have some civics in 6th , 7th , and 8th grade. But what about the rest of us?

To spur our CQ (civics quotient), CivicStory launched a short History & Civics Quiz (Feb. 1) that explores essential civics concepts. It aims to engage first-time voters, independents, and affiliates of the two major political parties, as well as non-voters. Its six questions reference the U.S. Constitution, elections, and the leadership qualities of elected representatives. 

“Everyone needs to learn why their vote matters,” says CivicStory board co-president and South Orange resident Genevieve Manderville. “This brief, focused quiz is both fun and a prompt for further learning.” 

The quiz is anonymous and takes less than three minutes to complete. When you submit your answers, you can see how others have responded. To take the quiz, click here, or go to www.CivicStory.org for a link on the homepage.

The quiz closes Thursday February 8 at midnight ET, and response data will be made public on Friday February 9.

Media Contact: 

For more information, contact Patrick Scafidi at Editor@CivicStory.org.

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About CivicStory:

CivicStory is a nonprofit news organization that advances solutions-based news about civics, sustainability, and thriving, equitable communities. We envision a civics space in daily news stories that spurs civic engagement and creative collaboration. Founded by conductor and civic activist Susan Haig as NJ Arts News in 2009, CivicStory produced short broadcast-quality videos, then relaunched in 2015 as a 501(c)(3) focused on New Jersey’s creative civic culture. Through the fall of 2023, CivicStory tested the idea of a Humanities Reporter funded in part by an incubation grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. 

In 2019, CivicStory launched the NJ Sustainability Reporting fellowship to highlight New Jersey’s shift toward environmental sustainability. The NJSR project received a 2019 Excellence in Local Journalism award from the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University. To date, over 200 stories from 26 newsrooms are viewable on www.SRhub.org. The sixth NJSR reporting fellowship will launch in February 2024, focused on ecology and justice. 

For Immediate Release
From CivicStory
February 5, 2024

Brief History & Civics Quiz Closes Feb 8 at Midnight

Test your basic civics knowledge in three minutes

Some readers may remember Schoolhouse Rock! or had a civics-minded social studies, English, or U.S. history teacher in high school. Others may have missed out on civics.

Thanks to Laura Wooten’s Law, approved by NJ Legislature in 2021, most New Jersey middle school students now have some civics in 6 th , 7 th , and 8 th grade. But what about the rest of us?

CivicStory has posted a brief History & Civics Quiz that engages people in essential civics concepts. It aims to reach a diverse audience that includes first-time voters, independents, affiliates of the two major political parties, and non-voters. Its six questions reference the U.S. Constitution, elections, and leadership qualities of elected representatives. 

“Everyone needs to learn why their vote matters,” says CivicStory co-president and South Orange resident Genevieve Manderville. “This brief, focused quiz is both fun and a prompt for further learning.” 

The quiz is anonymous and takes less than three minutes to complete. When you submit your answers, you can see how others responded. To take the quiz, click here, or go to www.CivicStory.org for a link on the homepage. The quiz closes Thursday at midnight and response data will be made public on Friday.

Media Contact: 

For more information, contact Patrick Scafidi at Editor@CivicStory.org.

###

About CivicStory:

CivicStory is a nonprofit news organization that advances solutions-based news about civics, sustainability, and thriving, equitable communities. We envision a civics space in daily news stories that spurs civic engagement and creative collaboration. Founded by conductor and civic activist Susan Haig as NJ Arts News in 2009, CivicStory produced short broadcast-quality videos, then relaunched in 2015 as a 501(c)(3) focused on New Jersey’s creative civic culture. Through the fall of 2023, CivicStory tested the idea of a Humanities Reporter funded in part by an incubation grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. 

In 2019, CivicStory launched the NJ Sustainability Reporting fellowship to highlight New Jersey’s shift toward environmental sustainability. The NJSR project received a 2019 Excellence in Local Journalism award from the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University. To date, over 200 stories from 26 newsrooms are viewable on www.SRhub.org. The sixth NJSR reporting fellowship will launch in February 2024, focused on ecology and justice. 

For Immediate Release
From CivicStory
February 2, 2024

CivicStory’s Third Online Quiz Tests Our History & Civics Knowledge

Highlighting key ideas essential to a thriving democracy 

South Orange, NJ – As part of a public humanities incubation project funded in part by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, CivicStory has launched its third short History & Civics quiz. Viewable online and available to the public, the quiz is designed to engage people in essential civics concepts and bring these ideas into our discourse. It has been co-published by New Jersey Hills Media Group in 14 weekly NJ digital and print newspapers in Morris, Somerset, Essex, and Hunterdon counties. The quiz is anonymous, and respondents can compare their answers to others’ responses after submitting.

The two previous CivicStory History & Civics quizzes explored such topics as the presidential oath of office, whether or not the U.S. Constitution mentions political parties (it does not), criteria for judging candidates for office, and citizens’ authority. Both were reviewed for accuracy by NH Civics, a New Hampshire-based nonprofit civic education organization.  

“Short quizzes are an easy way to put key civics concepts in play,” says CivicStory’s board co-president Dee Magnoni. “Democratic ideas are often profound, and we need to think about them for our democracy to work well.”

The quiz aims to reach a diverse audience that includes first-time voters, independents, affiliates of the two major political parties, and non-voters. Its six questions reference the U.S. Constitution, elections, leadership qualities, and the responsibilities of elected representatives.    

“Everyone needs to learn why their vote matters,” says CivicStory co-president and South Orange resident Genevieve Manderville. “This brief, focused quiz is both fun and a prompt for further learning.”     

New Jersey requires civics education in public middle schools, thanks to the NJ State Legislature’s unanimous approval of “Laura Wooten’s Law” in 2020. The civics education law is named in honor of Laura Wooten, an election poll-worker in Princeton whose 79 continuous years of volunteering at the polls made her the longest-serving poll-worker in the country. 

To share your perspectives and view others’ thoughts, take the three-minute quiz, available until midnight ET, Feb 8, 2024. Click here or go to CivicStory.org for a link on the homepage. Response data will be published shortly after the quiz is closed. 

Addenda:

Previous History & Civics Quiz (originally “Survey”) Response Data

Quiz 2: Responses  

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About CivicStory:

CivicStory is a nonprofit news organization that advances solutions-based news about civics, sustainability, and thriving, equitable communities. We envision a civics space in daily news stories that spurs civic engagement and creative collaboration. Founded by conductor and civic activist Susan Haig as NJ Arts News in 2009, CivicStory produced short broadcast-quality videos, then relaunched in 2015 as a 501(c)(3) focused on New Jersey’s creative civic culture. Through the fall of 2023, CivicStory tested the idea of a Humanities Reporter funded in part by an incubation grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. 

In 2019, CivicStory launched the NJ Sustainability Reporting fellowship to highlight New Jersey’s shift toward environmental sustainability. The NJSR project received a 2019 Excellence in Local Journalism award from the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University. To date, over 200 stories from 26 newsrooms are viewable on www.SRhub.org. The sixth NJSR reporting fellowship will launch in February 2024, focused on ecology and justice. 

Media Contact: 

For more information, contact Patrick Scafidi at Editor@CivicStory.org.