National Research on Project Citizen Outcomes!

The Project Citizen Research Program is a three-year grant-funded project studying the efficacy of the Project Citizen curricular program for students and its supportive professional development program for teachers in achieving outcomes correlated with state standards in civics and government. Across five regions of the country, approximately 100 teachers each year have participated in the professional development program and implemented the curriculum with their students.

The Civic Education Research Lab (CERL) at Georgetown University is spearheading the research. In rigorous randomized control trials, teachers and students have completed pre- and post-implementation surveys of their civic knowledge and classroom experiences. Evaluators are examining data on teacher professional development and students’ civic knowledge, dispositions, and skills; social-emotional learning; and outcomes related to other academic areas such as English Language Arts and STEM.

This project is funded by an education research grant from the Institute for Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. It is implemented by the Center for Civic Education, CERL, and Project Citizen state partners around the country.

Program Regions

Lead state coordinators in five regions implemented professional development and supported classroom implementation in the 2022-2023 school year. The regions are listed below. Contact your state Project Citizen coordinator to learn how you can start using the curriculum!

Exciting Results!

CERL’s Year 1 research report demonstrates the exciting impacts of Project Citizen! These results include:

• 30% increase in teachers’ content knowledge and significant gains in their use of Project Citizen pedagogies
• 42% increase in students’ civics content knowledge and significant improvement in their civic dispositions and skills
• Students developed STEM skills as they researched a problem in their community