The costs of CLI professional learning opportunities range in price dependent upon the type and number of experiences for which you register. All pricing is noted for each offering on corresponding registration forms. 

Registration for each type of learning opportunity is available through the link provided on the website page for that offering. The registration site is different from this website and will open in a separate window/tab.

• Each workshop is designed to involve participants for 2 hours. Workshops can also be bundled for half-day (3.5 hours) or full-day (7 hours) professional development learning.

• Each online course is designed to be 4 weeks long and about 10 hours total. This includes two 2-hour live classes, and 2 asynchronous sessions of three hours of self-guided work and feedback each.

The professional learning experiences are focused on high-quality civic education.

Workshops focus on powerful civics teaching skills for educators in the classroom.

Online courses are extended learning experiences focused on foundational texts like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address; crucial periods of American history including the Vietnam War and the Jim Crow era; and pedagogical topics such as student-led civics projects, addressing difficult topics in social studies classrooms, digital competency, and the EAD Roadmap.

Each professional learning opportunity is led by experienced facilitators.

Courses are instructed by leading scholars and practitioners who are experts in the topic of their course. Course coaches who interact with participants and provide feedback on their work are experienced educators.

Workshops are facilitated by experienced educators and scholars who are expert in the topic of the workshop.

All participants who complete a workshop or course run by CLI will receive a certificate of completion from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, which documents participation hours. We are an accredited professional development provider in Massachusetts. Educators from across the country who have participated in our programs have been able to get their hours approved for credit in their home state.

Yes! You will have the opportunity to put what you are learning into practice by designing (or revising) learning experiences for your students (if you are a classroom teacher) or your colleagues (if you are school leader/instructional coach) to support them in deepening their understanding of civics and history education.

No! Whether or not you’ve studied or taught civics, social studies, or history before, all educators can learn something new from each learning experience. We will cover both the core content and how to teach that content effectively in K-12 and/or higher ed environments, depending on the focus of the offering.

The online course, “We the People: Civic Engagement in Constitutional Democracy” is entirely self-paced. Visit the HarvardEx platform on which the course is offered in order to learn more and register: HarvardX: We the People: Civic Engagement in a Constitutional Democracy.

Educating for American Democracy is an ambitious, ongoing effort to provide students across our nation with access to high-quality history and civics learning opportunities, created by a cross-ideological group of educators, scholars, and practitioners who came together to re-design history and civics education. The resulting Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy synthesizes the work of experts from history, political science, law, and education to provide content guidance and instructional and implementation strategies for educators.

Cancellation, Transfer, & Refund Policy: If your plans have changed and you are unable to participate in the experience(s) for which you registered and you request a cancellation, the Civic Learning Institute provides the following options.

For online courses:

• Up to 10 business days prior to the start date of the course, you can receive a full refund.

• Between 5-10 business days prior to the start date, you can transfer your registration to a future online course. You will have up to 10 business days to email us with your selections for the experience(s) for which you would like to register (space allowing).

• Less than 5 business days prior to the start of the course, you will not receive a refund.

• For participants who registered for live session only attendance: Up to 15 business days before the first live session, you will receive a full refund. No refunds beyond that date. Pricing is inclusive of attendance at both live sessions (sessions cannot be purchased separately). No partial refunds.

For workshops:

• Online: Up to 15 business days in advance of scheduled date, refunds will be offered for cancellations .

• In-Person: Up to 1 month prior to the date of the workshop(s), refunds will be offered for the price paid for the workshop experience, minus any costs incurred by the team that cannot be recouped (e.g., planning time, travel expenses).

• Rescheduling: In the event of emergencies or unforeseen events (e.g., extreme weather, school cancellations), we will work with you to find a mutually agreeable alternative date within 3 months of the original date.

For correspondence about cancellation, transfer, and refund requests, please write directly to civiclearning@gse.harvard.edu. In your email, please provide the registration confirmation number and the full name and email address in which the registration was made. If there are extenuating circumstances, please describe these in the email. See the extenuating circumstances policy below.

Participant Substitution Policy for Online Courses: If you registered for a CLI learning experience and are no longer able to participate but have a colleague who would like to take your place, we will implement the substitution up to two days prior to the launch of the course. For correspondence about participant substitution requests, please write directly to civiclearning@gse.harvard.edu.

Since CLI’s online courses include participants with many cultural backgrounds, we recognize that there are religious and national holidays that our offerings will fall on and/or include. Should there be a holiday that you celebrate, please work with your course coach to adjust dates as is best for the observance and your time away.

Extenuating Circumstances Policy

Extenuating circumstances are events or situations that are unexpected and serious, and cause enough disruption to participants’ lives that they are unable to participate in their learning for a period of time. Examples of extenuating circumstances include (but are not limited to):

• medical/health emergencies

• bereavement due to loss of a close family member

• natural disasters

• local, municipal, state or national political crises or other crises that prevent regular activity

If a participant experiences extenuating circumstances, we ask that the participant email civiclearning@gse.harvard.edu about the situation as soon as they reasonably can. We will work together with the participant to develop a plan that responds to the participant’s needs. Other events may also prevent participants from participating in the course, but CLI does not consider these extenuating in that, most often, these events are scheduled well in advance. Such events include (but are not limited to):

• vacations (either personal or school)

• accompanying students on a scheduled school field trip/camp trip

• weddings and honeymoons

• any other event that is planned in advance

CLI-HGSE's policy was created to be flexible enough that, in most cases, participants should still be able to make up the work and get credit for it for online courses. For example, session assignments for online courses may be submitted in advance or up to one session late and still earn credit toward a certificate (assuming the certificate is an important goal for the participant). For one-time or one-day workshops, we are not able to accommodate make-up work.

In online courses, if planned events will take participants away from their course work for more than a few days during the course term, we ask that participants communicate their schedule challenges to civiclearning@gse.harvard.edu as soon as they can (and before the absence takes place), so that we can work with the participant to determine how to submit assignments within a timeframe that will most effectively support the participant’s learning and ensure credit toward the certificate.