For the first time in a decade Illinois is adding a course required for public high school graduation: civics. Governor Bruce Rauner signed a law a few weeks ago mandating the change. The effort to get a law on the books was pushed in part by the McCormick Foundation. We hear from Shawn Healy, the Foundation’s Civic Learning Scholar. So now there are only nine states in the US that don’t have such a law. But what about the rest of us? Are we up on our civics? Do we know what it means to be civically engaged? Ted McConnell, Executive Director of the non-partisan group Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, joins us with with his thoughts on the peaks and valleys of civic learning and engagement in the US. (Flickr/Vox Efx)