CIRCLE promotes research on the civic and political engagement of Americans between the ages of 15 and 25. Although CIRCLE conducts and funds research, not practice, the projects that we support have practical implications for those who work to increase young people's engagement in politics and civic life. CIRCLE is also a clearinghouse for relevant information and scholarship. CIRCLE is based in the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy. (continue)

Peter Levine is Director of CIRCLE, The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (www.civicyouth.org). CIRCLE conducts and funds research on young people's civic education and participation. Levine is also a Research Scholar at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy in the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy. He is chair of the executive committee of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools and a member of the executive committee of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium. Levine's blog primarily covers topics related to youth civic engagement and deliberative democracy. (continue)

This 53-minute documentary chronicles the journey of a multi-racial group of college students as they examine their own and confront each other's attitudes about race and ethnicity. This video vividly illustrates students of color and white students at different stages of racial identity and demonstrates the possibility of growth as a result of dialogue. (continue)

An OrangeBand is a symbol of someone’s commitment to listen to what’s important to other people. People who take an OrangeBand and display it someplace visible (like on a bag) are demonstrating their commitment to practice listening at work and in life. When asked about the OrangeBand, they say something like, “It means I’m interested in listening to what’s important to the people around me. What’s important to you?” (continue)

This toolkit is divided into 10 units designed to aid faculty in every step of planning, designing, implementing and evaluating service-learning programs into their curriculum and institutions. (continue)

This 24-page report provides an overview of the 2001 Workshop on Higher Education and Public Life presented by the Kettering Foundation and the National Issues Forums Institute. (continue)

This document is used by student monitors (not moderators) to rate the performance of groups involved in online Democracy Lab Forums. The document represents an effort to identify some of the at least partially independent dimensions of effective dialogue. Democracy Lab provides online National Issues Forums-style forums for use in high school and college classes. (continue)

This 10-page document was distributed during Jim Knauer and Paul Alexander's workshop of the same name at the 2006 NCDD Conference in San Francisco. Deliberative dialogue can be used across the curriculum to integrate civic education without sacrificing disciplinary content or traditional learning objectives. The document not only outlines Democracy Lab (an online deliberation program for college students) and where it is headed, it also outlines existing research on dialogic pedagogy, describes William Perry's Scheme of Intellectual and Ethical Development, and explores the relationship between deliberative dialogue and learning. (continue)

Touchstones grew out of more than twenty years of experience with the successes and challenges of the seminar program at Saint John's College, in Annapolis, Maryland. The Touchstones approach to leading discussion groups is grounded in a series of reflections on the nature of collaboration; the relationship between texts and personal experience; the ways in which authority, expertise, and power impede mutual cooperation; and the obstacles that hinder the examination of our most fundamental assumptions about the world in which we live. (continue)

This document lists evaluation questions used in the l994, 1995, and l996 surveys of students who participated in the National Issues Forums between the University of Georgia and Ithaca College. Both on-line and off-line items are included. (continue)