CIRCLE

CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) conducts research on the civic and political engagement of Americans between the ages of 15 and 25.

CIRCLE was founded in 2001 with a generous grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts and is now also funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and several others. It is based at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University.

CIRCLE’s Accomplishments

CIRCLE has built the research field.

CIRCLE has a reputation for reliable, independent, timely research. Harvard University Professor Robert Putnam has said of CIRCLE: “You’ve brought the best and most serious research to one place. You’ve applied an expert screen on the research. It’s a crucial contribution to the field. It’s a model for policy relevant and academic debates. [It’s] useful to have someone studying the issue who’s outside the debate and can be a reliable source for information.” CIRCLE’s research is widely cited in scholarly publications. Google Scholar™ (a search engine restricted to scholarly publications) finds 41,800 publications that cite CIRCLE by its full name. CIRCLE’s special publications, such as The Civic Mission of Schools report (jointly published with Carnegie Corporation of New York, 2003), Higher Education: Civic Mission & Civic Effects (jointly published with The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 2006), and Peter Levine’s book The Future of Democracy (2007) provide literature reviews and summaries.

CIRCLE has begun to change public discourse and press coverage about young people as citizens

CIRCLE is doing this by providing a stream of reliable data and analysis that helps Americans to understand the strengths and weaknesses of civic education, broadly defined. Our research has been cited in most national newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times, and on CNN, NPR, PBS, MTV, and Fox News. In the months between July 2008 and the 2008 presidential election, CIRCLE was cited in 1,253 newspaper, magazine, broadcast, or web stories, including 829 print media articles.

CIRCLE has changed political campaigns in American by helping to show that it is cost-effective to mobilize people between the ages of 18 and 30.