CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement)
conducts research on the civic and political engagement of young Americans.
The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement

About CIRCLE

CIRCLE, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, focuses on young people in the United States, especially those who are marginalized or disadvantaged in political life. CIRCLE’s scholarly research informs policy and practice for healthier youth development and a better democracy.

CIRCLE is based at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University.

Outreach, Assistance, and Staff Support

CIRCLE’s research is often undertaken in partnership and informs our broader efforts in the field of youth civic engagement. Our expert staff can help you or your organization by:

  • Presenting at conferences, symposia, and other gatherings in order to share and discuss our research and current research trends
  • Helping journalists and media outlets understand the latest data on youth engagement, and develop compelling narratives about the role of young people in public life
  • Advising youth-serving nonprofits interested in taking a data-driven approach to their fundraising, program development, etc.
  • Discussing evaluation and opportunities to assess the impact of programming, as well as possibilities for increasing support for such work
  • Offering technical assistance or answering questions from individual practitioners or researchers interested in how our research may intersect with their work, especially those new to the field or with limited research experience

We are committed to an inclusive, collaborative approach to all of the above efforts. If you have questions, please contact us by e-mailing abby.kiesa@tufts.edu.

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 America by helping to show that it is cost-effective to mobilize people between the ages of 18 and 30

Although one major focus of our work is schooling, we recognize that young people are also educated for citizenship in other venues. Specifically, when young adults are contacted by political campaigns, they gain political knowledge and interest and become more likely to participate in other ways, such as volunteering. However, most politicians and campaigns dropped young people from their target lists during the 1980s and 1990s. In response, CIRCLE has supported, organized, and analyzed experiments designed to test the effectiveness of various forms of campaigning when directed at young voters. The main lesson of these experiments is that it is cost-effective for both major parties to canvass young people. We believe that this research helped to influence the Democrats and Republicans to target youth in 2004 and 2008 so far, contributing to the eleven percentage-point rise in youth turnout in 2004 over 2000 and dramatic turnout in the 2008 primaries and caucuses. (A senior official on one national presidential campaign wrote after the 2004 election: “I literally would have been lost without CIRCLE on the campaign!!! You would laugh if you read any of my briefing memos or talking points—they are littered with CIRCLE research.”)

CIRCLE has provided training and technical assistance to many organizations—mostly direct providers of services to youth

Since 2008, CIRCLE has answered research queries, provided tailored data to meet specific needs, attended meetings, reviewed materials and strategic plans, and/or served on advisory or governing boards of 240 separate organizations, including 40 institutions of higher education and 15 foundations. Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. President of the Hip Hop Caucus, writes, “CIRCLE is a critical resource for groups like the Hip Hop Caucus and others who are trying to engage young people in the political process. Research directs our strategy for our work in the community, and the team at CIRCLE is always willing to provide us with the data and analysis that we need in order to have real impact and to reach the young people who are the least civically engaged.”