About The Taft Institute

The Taft Institute for Government and Civic Education, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization, was founded in 1961 to expand and improve political participation in the United States.  Currently located on the campus of Queens College of the City University of New York, The Institute encompasses four programs:

    Teacher Training   

For many years, The Taft Institute focused on improving civic education (K-12) through university-based workshops that provided teachers with the latest political science research, innovative pedagogy, and the chance to interact directly with elected officials and other political practitioners. Over 30,000 teachers graduated from The Taft Institute seminars.  Since its relocation to Queens College in 1996, the Institute has continued to provide face-to-face Teacher Training  in the New York City area with seminars led by Professors Zevin, Krasner, and Gerwin that included lectures by Professor Pierre-Louis, Jr.  The more than 600 participants have included social studies educators – outstanding teachers and assistant principals at both middle and high schools – as well as one teacher who learned so much that he ran for office himself and became the chairperson of the New York City Council’s Education Committee (the Honorable Danny Drumm).  During the Covid-19 crisis, the Institute provided on-line seminars for local teachers, emphasizing recent developments in American politics, and working with the United Federation of Teachers and the New York Association of Teachers of Social Studies.  The Institute has collaborated with the National Council on Economic Education to create a multi-year program of teacher-training that teaches high school students  both economic fundamentals and the basics of personal finance.  This program led by Professor Jack Zevin, Taft’s Co-Director, and Don McClean, the Institute’s Senior Teaching Associate, has trained  80  teachers since beginning in  2019.  READ MORE...

    Curriculum Development 

The Institute’s Curriculum Development work includes The 9/11 Education Program, a set of nine interactive curriculum units on the events of 9/11/2001 and their implications for American politics then and now.  This curriculum, developed by Professors Zevin and Krasner in collaboration with the World Trade Center United Family Group, is available from Social Studies School Services, the only such nationally distributed teaching resource.  Simulation games are a particular focus for the Institute’s curriculum development work because they offer great opportunities for active learning.  Since 1996 Professor Krasner has collaborated with the teachers at Townsend Harris High School to develop and refine a uniquely rigorous, ambitious, and engaging election simulation model, which has been successively adapted every year since to (respectively) New York City mayoral elections, New York State gubernatorial, senatorial, and legislative elections, and presidential primaries.  The election simulation game can be played elaborately over a long period or  by a whole school or briefly in one classroom.  Taking advantage of this flexibility, teachers have used the game in schools throughout the United States.  Each year teacher’s manuals for playing the simulation game at different levels—one classroom, multi-classroom, and whole school—are posted on this website.

In addition, the Institute will make available to teachers games developed by Professor Zevin, including Maxiopolis, an engaging municipal government policy-making simulation.  Currently, the Institute is working with the teachers and administrators of Robert F. Kennedy High School in Flushing, Queens to develop a new immigration curriculum for high school students.  This work has been supported by generous grants from members of the New York City Council, including former councilmembers Rory Lancman and Danny Drumm, and a current member, the Honorable James
Gennaro.  READ MORE...

    Community Leadership Training

Creating a new focus for the Institute, Professor Francois Pierre-Louis, Jr., who led a community organization himself before beginning his academic career, teamed with Professor Krasner to develop a program of Community Leadership and Citizenship Training that since 2002 has trained dozens of activists from new immigrant, minority, and low income communities in New York City.  Participating organizations have included the Community Action Project (CAP) which organized Caribbean immigrants in Brooklyn; Chhaya, which serves the South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities of Queens; Haitian-Americans United for Progress, based in Queens; and Congregations United for Action, which mainly serves Spanish speaking communities in Northern Queens. CAP and QCUA have merged to become Faith in New York which is one of the largest community-based organizations in New York City. The Hazen Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation, and New York Community Trust have supported these programs with generous grants.  READ MORE...

    Adult Civic Education

In 2017 Professor Krasner began collaborating with a civic association in Forest Hills, Queens and with the Forest Hills Branch of the Queens Public Library to develop programs of Adult Civic Education.  This collaboration produced a course on contemporary American government and politics that drew standing room only crowds to the Library’s event space in the fall of 2017.  In subsequent series and individual lectures Professor Krasner has discussed the elections of 2018 and 2020 and the first year of the Biden Administration.  The group, now called Let’s Talk Democracy, sponsors lectures by outstanding scholars, authors and activists,  including Frances Moore Lappe, Eric Foner, and Tim Wu, as well as an activism fair that promotes participation by acquainting members with various groups working in contemporary politics.  Professor Krasner serves as a technical advisor to the group as do Professors Zevin and Pierre-Louis, Jr.   READ MORE