Project Citizen is a project based civic education program for students grades 3-12. It emphasizes responsible participation in local and state government. The program involves students in understanding public policy. In the process students develop an appreciation and feelings of civic empowerment. Entire classes of students work cooperatively in small groups to effect change in their community. Students develop a digital portfolio that documents their work, and upload it to a website where it can be shared with other classes. See projects from the New Jersey State Project Citizen Showcases from 2012 through 2025.
The Project Citizen curriculum focuses on the role of the state and local governments. It involves a whole class of middle and high school students in cooperative learning activities that are guided by their teachers. Students learn how to interact with government agencies to effect change by following the following steps:
- Identifying a problem in their community that requires a public policy solution
- Gathering and evaluating information on the problem
- Examining and evaluating alternative solutions
- Developing a proposed public policy to address the problem
- Developing an action plan to get their policy adopted by government
- Organizing the materials into a portfolio to present to the appropriate governmental agency and to share at the annual State Project citizen Showcase
- Reflecting on the learning experience individually and as a class.
A perfect culminating activity for any upper elementary, middle or high school civics class is doing a public policy project. Developed by the Center for Civic Education, Project Citizen offers students a unique opportunity to learn and apply the skills of active citizenship in policy-making. The process-based program engages students in identifying, researching, and trying to implement solutions to a public policy problem, often focusing on an issue in their particular community. Students choose the problem they work on and are invested in the successful completion of their project.
Teachers can use the process-oriented text to create an interdisciplinary project that involves civics, math, technology, language arts, art, and often, science too. It is a natural starting point for an effective service-learning project, providing the research and community outreach opportunities necessary for an effective educational experience. It takes approximately 4-6 weeks, working one day a week, for students to complete a project.
Teachers and students who have participated in this evidence-based program consistently rate it as one of the most effective they have experienced. The RMC Research Corporation found statistically significant greater gains among
Project Citizen participants than comparison students in their knowledge of public policy. Students participating in
Project Citizen retained greater knowledge of public policy; demonstrated superior research, writing and communication skills; and strengthened their commitment to finding policy solutions for peaceful social change. (See
Project Citizen Evaluation Brief 2007.)
