Speaking With Confidence and Listening With Empathy: The Impact of Project Soapbox on High School Students

This case study investigates an action civics curriculum, Project Soapbox, designed to foster key civic outcomes among high school students. Framed by research highlighting profound disparities in civic educational opportunities and the best practices of civic education programs, this article examines the democratic and literacy skills high school students report learning from participation in Project Soapbox. Data include pre- and post-surveys with 204 high school students from 9 public high schools, classroom observations, teacher interviews, student work samples, and student focus group interviews. Findings indicate that students who participated in Project Soapbox reported modest gains in their expectations for future civic engagement and expressed greater confidence in their rhetorical skills. Additionally, although this curriculum is designed to emphasize rhetorical skills and democratic orientations, some of the strongest impact appeared in students' reports of their listening and empathy skills.