Real government data. Primary sources. Media literacy built on the record โ not the frame. Civic tools for every grade, every subject, every level of learning.
Government data is public record. Our tools surface it โ meeting agendas, vote rolls, contracts, donor lists โ in plain language. Light means every student can see what is actually happening, not just what is reported.
The record leads. Our News vs Record system pairs every news story with the underlying primary source: the official minutes, the filed document, the verbatim vote. Students learn to check the frame against the fact.
In the Hawaiian tradition, pono means to be in right relationship โ with each other, with the land, with the truth. Civic education done with pono asks not just what the law says, but whether the outcome is just.
Ages 5 โ 8 ยท Kindergarten through Grade 2
Young learners discover that government is made of neighbors โ people with jobs to do, decisions to make, and communities to serve. Concrete, local, and visual.
Open the Civic Dashboard together. Find your county on the map. Name one official and one job they do. Draw or write: "Our mayor/councilmember is ____. Their job is ____." Post the class results on the wall.
Time: 20 minutes ยท Materials: Civic Dashboard on projector, paper and crayons ยท Learning: Community helpers, names of government roles, local place-names
The first lesson of civic pono: public servants are our neighbors. They have names, they have jobs, and their decisions are public. This builds the foundation that government is accountable โ not distant or abstract โ while honoring the Hawaiian value that every person in the community has kuleana (responsibility).
Grades 3โ5 lessons are in development. This band will build directly on the Kโ2 foundation using the same sourced tools (Civic Dashboard, Agenda Viewer, News vs Record) at a deeper reading level. Check back, or use the tools above directly with your class today.
Grades 6โ8 lessons are in development, focused on how to read a primary source (minutes, votes, contracts) against a news story. In the meantime, News vs Record and Meeting Calendars are ready to use as-is.
Grades 9โ12 lessons are in development, oriented around civic action: testimony, public comment, and tracing money to votes. Agenda Intel and the Civic Dashboard are live now for classroom use.
College & University materials are in development, geared toward research methods, data journalism, and public-records requests. The Open Data catalog (datasets.html) is ready for coursework today.
Graduate & Professional materials are in development, aimed at policy, law, and public-administration programs. The full sourced record โ every dashboard, every dataset โ is already open for research use.
Our civic tools are available to educators at every level. Start with the resource that fits your grade, your subject, and your community โ and build from there.