New Endowment
This generous gift will allow us to expand our work, deepen our impact, and respond to the ever-evolving needs of our democracy.
Newhouse Foundation Endows CIRCLE Directorship
The Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation has made a $1.5 million gift to endow the directorship of CIRCLE, a major gift that will ensure CIRCLE continues to play a leading role in efforts to strengthen a representative, multiracial democracy.
2020 Election
We're sharing comprehensive data and analyses on young people's participation and influence on the 2020 election.
Youth Voting in 2020
The 2020 election cycle was unprecedented: young people coped with a pandemic, took to the streets, and cast early ballots in record numbers. Our in-depth analyses of youth participating we're providing data and insights on their engagement and impact at every level in the 2020 election.
K-12 Civics
CIRCLE Director Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg served as principal investigator of this effort to transform civic education in America.
Educating for American Democracy
Preparing all young people to be engaged and effective participants in their communities and in democracy requires more than just reinvesting in civic education: it requires reshaping it to meet the needs of a diverse 21st century student body.
2020 Youth Poll
Our post-election survey of young people highlights their electoral engagement in 2020 and their issue priorities for the new administration.
Poll: Youth Poised to Keep Engaging
Young Americans hit the streets, talked politics, engaged their peers, and had a likely historic level of voter turnout in 2020. Our exclusive post-election youth poll looks back on their political participation in 2020 and highlights the issues that motivate them to continued engagement in civic life.
Youth Data Tool
CIRCLE's exclusive online tool includes more than 40 indicators at the national, state, district, and county levels.
Youth Voting and Civic Engagement in America
To what extent are young people across the country participating in civic and political life, and what are the community conditions that help, hinder, and shape that engagement? Our comprehensive data tool allows you to better understand the landscape of youth civic engagement so you can help improve it.
Latest Research
Preview: Young Voters in the New Jersey and Virginia Statewide Elections
Both states had above average youth turnout in 2018 and 2020, but outreach to young people—especially youth of color—remains key for November.
Protests, Politics, and Power: Exploring the Connections Between Youth Voting and Youth Movements
CIRCLE co-led qualitative and quantitative studies that found a complex relationship between social movements and electoral engagement.
To Increase the Youth Vote, Address the Why and the How
This essay is part of CIRCLE's 2021 Youth Expertise Series, in which young people share ideas, based on their experiences, for how to fulfill the promise of the 26th Amendment.
Give Youth Both Knowledge and Personal Connections to Politics
This essay is part of CIRCLE's 2021 Youth Expertise Series, in which young people share ideas, based on their experiences, for how to fulfill the promise of the 26th Amendment.
Schools Can Help Prepare Young People to Vote Before they Turn 18
This essay is part of CIRCLE's 2021 Youth Expertise Series, in which young people share ideas, based on their experiences, for how to fulfill the promise of the 26th Amendment.
CIRCLE in the News
The Voters Democrats Say Are Crucial to Flipping Texas
The New York Times
Last year, roughly 50 percent of people under the age of 30 voted in the presidential election, an 11-point increase from 2016, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University.
Youth voter turnout in Virginia soared with Trump in office. Will it stay that way?
The Washington Post
Abby Kiesa, CIRCLE’s deputy director, said young people will turn out to the polls even in an off-year election — as long as they are engaged. Turnout among young voters doubled in Virginia’s governor’s race between 2009 and 2017. But it’s up to campaigns to decide if they are going to put in the necessary resources to drive that turnout.
American Democracy Is Sick. Can Colleges Be Part of the Cure?
EdSurge
“If I grow up in a school where I feel like my voice is heard, I know who to go to for change, and I see that effected, that’s going to give me a much greater sense of political efficacy throughout my life than if I don’t have those kinds of experiences as a young person,” says CIRCLE's Kelly Siegel-Stechler.