Project Citizen implementation in its present form began in the 1995-96 school year. In just three years, Project Citizen has blossomed into a national program with state coordinators in 45 states. An estimated 460 teachers have used or are using the Project Citizen text in over 1,000 classes with 28,000 students. All of this has been accomplished with minimal administrative and financial support, through the diligent work of CCE and a volunteer network of Project Citizen state coordinators and other program supporters. Implementation and growth of Project Citizen varies dramatically across states, however, and several state coordinators report various obstacles to implementation.
Few states have more than ten classes using the program each year.
CCE recognized the need to gain a greater knowledge of implementation across the country as well as to identify the best practices for increasing the use of Project Citizen. This desire for a better understanding of the programmatic development served as the starting point for this assessment of Project Citizen implementation. The first two chapters of this report provide the background for civic education and Project Citizen and set the national context. Chapters 3 through 9 examine in detail seven key areas of Project Citizen implementation and offer recommendations for maximizing implementation efforts in each of these areas. The final chapter then provides some overarching and long-term recommendations for building a strong framework to solidify and expand the use of Project Citizen nationally.