Teachers, Participate in National Research!You can participate in national civic education research! Our partners are actively recruiting middle school and high school civics/social studies teachers with no prior experience in the Project Citizen curriculum to be control group teachers in the Project Citizen Research Program. All control group teachers receive a stipend upon completion of responsibilities.Funded by a research grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the Center for Civic Education, the Civic Education Research Lab (CERL) at Georgetown University, and Project Citizen partners in states around the country are collaborating on the Project Citizen Research Program to study the efficacy of the Project Citizen curriculum and professional development. Control group teachers will take two online surveys and proctor an online student pre-survey and post-survey with a civics or social studies class. The time commitment is minimal: about half an hour per survey. The data you provide will be used in a rigorous research study conducted by CERL. This study will be part of a nationally disseminated report that will examine:
Your contribution will make a national impact! How Do I Apply?Contact the PCRP regional coordinator linked in the table below or reach out to your state Project Citizen coordinator. |
| Beginning Summer 2022: PCRP Regional Sites-Cohort 3 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 3 | Region 4 | Region 5 |
| Hawaii (Lead) | Wyoming/Kansas (Leads) | Michigan (Lead) | Tennessee (Lead) | Maryland (Lead) |
| Arizona | Colorado | Illinois | Alabama | Connecticut |
| Alaska | Montana | Indiana | Arkansas | Delaware |
| California | Nebraska | Iowa | Florida | District of Columbia |
| Idaho | New Mexico | Kentucky | Georgia | Maine |
| Nevada | North Dakota | Minnesota | Louisiana | Massachusetts |
| Oregon | Oklahoma | Missouri | Mississippi | New Hampshire |
| Utah | South Dakota | Ohio | North Carolina | New Jersey |
| Washington | Texas | West Virginia | South Carolina | New York |
| Wisconsin | Virginia | Pennsylvania | ||
| Rhode Island | ||||
| Vermont | ||||
What is the Project Citizen Research Program?
The Project Citizen Research Program is a three-year grant-funded project studying the efficacy of Project Citizen curriculum and professional development for middle and high school students and their teachers. Across five regions of the country, teachers in the research project are either: (1) participating in the Project Citizen professional development program and implementing the curricular program with their civics classes for the first time or (2) participating as control group teachers instructing civics students as they typically would. Both groups are completing surveys of their civics knowledge and instructional practices and are pre- and post-testing their students. 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. The Civic Education Research Lab (CERL) of Georgetown University is spearheading the research and providing annual reports on results.
See CERL’s Year 1 research report for key results in the project's first year, including the positive impact 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 also developed STEM skills as they researched a problem in their community
The Center for Civic Education administers the We the People: Project Citizen program nationally through a network of coordinators. These coordinators work with their members of Congress, business and community leaders, and local educators to contribute to the success of the program. For contact information, please see the state coordinator page here.
