The Harvard Civics Project is an initiative formed (1) to bring case method teaching to high schools, and (2) to use this methodology to deepen students' understanding of American democracy.
Based on the highly successful experience of Harvard Business School and other graduate and professional programs that use case-based teaching, the case method can be employed to strengthen high school education as well, ensuring a more exciting, relevant, and effective experience for students and teachers across a range of subjects. The case method can be especially effective at engaging students with topics in history and democracy, and it presents a unique opportunity to help reverse the broad decline in civic education and civic engagement in the United States. The national media have also pointed to the advantages of this method for engaging students.
A Better Way To Teach History.
Project cases are based on those outlined in Harvard Business School Professor David Moss's recent book,
Democracy: A Case Study.
Click here to watch Professor David A. Moss discuss his book, Democracy: A Case Study.
Click Here for access to the Harvard Case Method Project website.
As part of its mission to expand civic awareness and participation of young voters, the Greenwich League initiated this program in partnership with local high schools. A description of the Greenwich program is available
here.
Teachers were trained and the pilot community discussion -- James Madison, the "Federal Negative", and The Making of the U.S. Constitution (1787) -- occurred in November 2017.