GW Civic Policy Challenge

For the 2026 GW Civic Policy Challenge, student teams will develop a state- or local-level policy proposal addressing the persistent learning losses that have followed the COVID-19 pandemic. Teams may explore issues such as instruction, absenteeism, discipline, staffing, accountability, literacy, classroom disruption, and other barriers to student success. No prior policy experience is necessary, and students from all academic backgrounds are encouraged to think boldly, creatively, and collaboratively.

The winning team will join the 2027 Policy Challenge Super Bowl, a national undergraduate policy competition, hosted by the University of Chicago, that brings together students from colleges and universities across the country to tackle pressing public policy challenges.

At the national showcase, students present their proposals before judges with expertise in the field and take part in a day of intellectual exchange with peers from across the country. The final showcase winning teams will also have opportunities to elevate their work to relevant policymakers and policy organizations.

Resetting K–12: Closing the Post-Pandemic Learning Gaps

American public school children have broadly failed to recover from large-scale disruptions to learning during the Covid pandemic, and states and local districts are struggling to help students pull out. Reading skills of American high school seniors are the worst they have been in three decades, according to federal testing data, and many scored below basic math proficiency as well. The rise of heavy screen time and video-dominated media — which all predate the pandemic — has further eroded learning. The impacts stretch across well-funded districts to poor ones, across urban, suburban, and rural districts, and across racial divides. As the federal government retreats from its role in K-12 education, states and localities find themselves with both an obligation and an opportunity to right their respective ships. Mississippi has made remarkable improvements in reading scores, while most other states stagnate.

Your job as a policymaker is to uncover the barriers to similar student achievement and address them. Your solutions must be for state or local actors, but your canvas is broad. You can examine staffing, time utilization, discipline, instruction, accountability, curriculum, food insecurity, absenteeism fixes, approaches to reading instruction, teaching roles, classroom disruption and the like. Your solution must go beyond simply adding funding to existing programs, and if your plan requires political consensus — such as state legislation — you must explain how you will build it. You must contain your proposal to two pages. No policy experience is necessary: this is a journey of the mind, so be creative!

The winning team will be invited to participate in a Policy Challenge Super Bowl on Monday, February 15, 2027 in Chicago with winning teams from other universities across the country. Graduate students are welcome to participate, but each team must include at least one undergraduate student.

Suggested Readings:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/upshot/test-scores-school-districts-us.html?unlocked_article_code=1.41A.KrpC.HHZY92u6ZLEt&smid=url-share 

MAKE YOUR ROUND 1 SUBMISSION HERE