Project Citizen

What is Project Citizen?

Program

Project Citizen provides a practical first-hand approach to learning about our complex system of government and how to monitor and influence it. Through our Curriculum, students will work together to research their community to discover problems and then identify solutions in the form of policy that require government involvement. Students also have the opportunity to display their research and policy suggestions through Showcases, a way for students to display their research and present their policy solutions to their classroom and/or community. Showcases are also held at the state and national levels, where classes have the opportunity to participate and share their work with other classes from across their state or nation. To learn more about Project Citizen and Professional Development opportunities, we invite you to explore the website and contact your State Coordinator or Center staff to learn how to get involved.

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Professional Development

The Project Citizen Research Program, a research grant from the U.S. Department of Education, has given the Center for Civic Education and its partners the opportunity to offer free professional development for middle and high school teachers new to the Project Citizen curriculum

Curriculum

The curriculum enhances instruction by providing tips from Project Citizen teachers and emphasizes the fundamentals of the public policymaking process. The teacher’s guide features detailed instruction and sample worksheets for conducting a simulated public hearing on students’ project portfolios, the curriculum’s culminating activity.

"They're learning by doing. This is giving them a perspective on government that they would never get from a book."
—Teacher June Natola, The Daily Item, Lynn, MA, 6/8/02, Fecteau-Leary Middle School

Showcases

Participating teachers and organization leaders are encouraged to hold a showcase hearing as the culminating activity for Project Citizen. Students prepare and present short presentations on their portfolios and deliver them before a panel of community representatives. Each group then answers questions posed by the panelists. The format allows students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of how public policy is formulated while providing teachers with an excellent means of assessing performance.

Every year, state coordinators of the Project Citizen program designate exemplary portfolios from their state to send to the annual Project Citizen National Showcase, where evaluators determine the level of achievement attained by each portfolio.

The 2023 Project Citizen National Showcase will be held on July 25.

The Center must receive physical portfolios by June 30. Digital portfolios must be submitted to the Center by July 10.