Impact

The Wisconsin Evaluation Collaborative (WEC) conducted an independent evaluation of the effectiveness of Street Law’s Talking About Local, Current, and Contested Issues (TALCCS) teacher professional development program.

TALCCS ran from 2021 to 2024 and provided educators with the training, tools, and strategies necessary to guide student discussions on contested public issues.

WEC’s evaluation focused on educators from 18 school districts, primarily in Maryland. Using a mixed-methods approach, the evaluation gathered data through surveys, session evaluations, classroom observations, focus groups, and participation reports.

The evaluation revealed several key findings:

• High-Quality Professional Development: Educators lauded the quality, clarity, and applicability of the training sessions and resources. Teachers found the professional development highly effective, actionable, and adaptable to diverse classroom needs.
• Broad Implementation of Teaching Strategies: Most participating districts adopted at least three of the five TALCCS strategies. Additionally, 75% of educators reported either increasing or maintaining the frequency of instruction on current and contested issues.
• Increased Teacher Confidence: Over 90% of participants expressed confidence in implementing TALCCS strategies, noting their effectiveness in promoting student critical thinking and civic engagement.
• Positive Student Outcomes: Teachers observed improvements in student engagement, critical thinking, and the ability to understand diverse perspectives. Simulations and Socratic Seminars, in particular, helped students engage in respectful discussions and grapple with complex civic issues. Classroom observations confirmed the positive impact of these strategies on students' readiness to participate in meaningful discussions.

While the evaluation highlighted many successes, it also identified opportunities for improvement, such as adapting strategies for middle school students, broadening curricular topics to make them relevant to more social studies courses, and providing scaffolding for students who need more support with reading and discussion skills. These insights underscore that need for continued investment in refining and expanding effective instructional strategies.

Full report from Wisconsin Evaluation Collaborative

Researchers at the University of North Carolina Greensboro and North Carolina State University conducted an independent evaluation of Street Law’s Deliberative Discussion model.

Deliberative Discussions are highly structured conversations that allow teachers to help students cooperatively discuss contested political issues by carefully considering multiple perspectives and searching for consensus.

The study followed a two-stage design. Teachers participated in professional development sessions and then conducted two Deliberations using Street Law’s materials with their students and one control activity. Student data collection included pre- and post-surveys, classroom observations, and teacher interviews to assess ideological beliefs, participation experiences, and democratic efficacy.

The study involved 15 teachers and 432 students from politically diverse schools across Maryland and Illinois. Key findings include:

• Exposure to Diverse Perspectives in a Respectful Environment: Students overwhelmingly felt respected (70-81%) and encountered diverse viewpoints, with 50% reporting exposure to perspectives they had not considered before.
• Increased Willingness to Participate: The structured nature of Deliberations encouraged engagement, with 60% of students appreciating the format and 30% reporting higher participation than usual. Hesitation to speak was low, affecting only 12-14% of high school students and 9-10% of middle school students.
• Enhanced Understanding and Confidence: 65% of students reported improved topic comprehension, and 68% felt confident in forming and expressing opinions. Middle school students showed particularly strong growth, with 80% reporting greater understanding.
• Encouragement of Critical Thinking Without Polarization: Unlike debates and unstructured discussions that often deepen ideological divides, Deliberations fostered nuanced perspectives. For example, conservative-leaning students showed reduced opposition to drug legalization, while liberal-leaning students demonstrated increased support for treating juvenile offenders as adults. These shifts reflected critical thinking rather than ideological conformity.
• Higher Engagement Compared to Control Activities: Students found Deliberations more engaging (64% approval) than the control activity (52%). They also rated Deliberations as more effective in helping them form confident opinions (69% vs. 50%).
• Greater Belief in Political Influence: High school students experienced a 14% increase in their belief that people like them can influence politics, suggesting that Deliberations foster a greater sense of civic agency. Middle school students showed similar, albeit less pronounced, trends. However, students’ belief in their personal efficacy remained largely unchanged, likely due to their ineligibility to vote and limited real-world political engagement opportunities.

These findings underscore the effectiveness of Deliberative Discussions in reducing polarization, promoting respectful dialogue, and building student confidence to engage in civic discourse.

Building upon several years of work in Jordan, Street Law, Inc. partnered with Arab World Center for Democratic Development United for Human Rights and Democracy (UNIHRD) to implement the Rule of Law for Peace in Jordan project from 2022 to 2023.

The project, funded by the German Federal Foreign Office, aimed to build a rule of law culture in Jordan, forming a strong foundation for citizen-government trust and a stable, peaceful society. Using a people-centered justice approach, Street Law empowered Jordanian youth activists and government officials to play an active role in forming, influencing, and advocating for a dynamic society that upholds the rule of law.

An independent evaluation found the following:

• Government officials increased their capacity and willingness to engage with citizens: 87% demonstrated knowledge gain on rule of law principles; 89% reported improved skills to engage with citizens; and 90% reported being more willing to collaborate with citizens.
• Youth were empowered as change agents for rule of law. Young people demonstrated improved skills in many areas, including leadership, advocacy, awareness of the rule of law, program design/implementation, team management, problem-solving, and relationship-building/stakeholder engagement.
• Locally driven community initiatives improved government-citizen relations, created sustainable avenues for continued engagement. 68% of government officials and 77% of community leaders acknowledged improved government-citizen relations as a result of the project.

FULL REPORT FROM INTEGRATED INTERNATIONAL:

• Rule of Law for Peaceful Communities Program, Final Evaluation Report (November 16, 2023)

Street Law’s Rule of Law for All program is an inquiry-based approach to developing students’ understanding of the key tenets of rule of law, its import to the health of U.S. democracy, its threats at the local, state, and national levels, and how individuals can support rule of law and act to counter those threats. Developed with funding from the Annenberg Foundation, the Rule of Law for All program includes curriculum, instructional materials, and professional development supports for teachers.

Participating teachers reported the following: 

• 71% reported their students make more connections between the content and their own lives
• 61% reported their students are more engaged in Rule of Law for All lessons
• 61% reported their students more likely to discuss taking actions to improve their communities
• 70% reported the Rule of Law for All lessons and professional development are “excellent” quality

Full report from the University of Southern California:

• Street Law’s Rule of Law for All program – Implementation and Classroom Experiences (August 2022)

An evaluation of the Supreme Court Summer Institute for Teachers, a six-day professional development program for secondary social studies teachers, found that:

• Teachers became significantly more confident in using Institute teaching strategies and content.
• Teachers’ use of Institute teaching strategies and content increased.
• Teachers’ knowledge about the Supreme Court grew.

Full Reports:

2017 SCSI Evaluation Executive Summary

2017 SCSI Evaluation Report

Evaluations of the Legal Diversity Pipeline Program show increases in the following:

• Students’ awareness of legal career pathways
• Students’ awareness of the steps necessary to obtain those careers
• Students’ overall interest in the legal profession
• Students’ levels of inspiration by the program’s volunteers as role models

Full Reports:

2011 Legal Diversity Pipeline Program for Law Firms Evaluation Report

2007 Legal Diversity Pipeline Program for Corporate Legal Departments Evaluation Report