District of Columbia Public Schools · Global Education
The nation's first fully funded, district-wide study abroad program for public middle and high schoolers — no cost to families, no GPA requirement, and selection weighted toward students who have never traveled. This page walks through the program year by year — now including the 2026 cohort — then what a decade of research found.
Explore
Pick a summer. Every figure below comes from one source — the DCPS Global Education participation records — so the years are directly comparable. Press play to run the whole decade, or pick a year yourself — arrow keys work too.
Students and educators combined. No trips ran in 2020 or 2021. 2026 includes a Rwanda group that travels in September. Select a bar to change the year above.
Equity
In 2016 the program's travelers came disproportionately from Wards 2 and 3, the city's wealthiest. Weighting selection by school Title I share and by having no previous travel moved the program east of the river, where DCPS's highest-poverty schools are.
Wards 7 & 8
13% → 44%Share of student travelers, 2016 to 2026 — the highest in the program’s history. Over the same decade Wards 2 and 3 went from 42% to 13%. Schools in Wards 7 and 8 average 94% Title I.
67%
of student travelers had never traveled before — 1,350 of 2,020 across the decade.
What the research found
The GW Global Education Lab has studied the program every year since 2016: 71 student interviews, 36 educator and staff interviews, surveys before and after travel, and DCPS records. The two themes are the decade-level finding. The percentages under them are not decade totals — each one compares a single cohort before and immediately after its own summer, and each is dated below.
Theme one
Understanding the world, and acting on it.
2017 cohort · pre-travel n=276 (65% response), post-travel n=138 (33%) · DCPS Goes Global, GW 2018
2017 cohort · same pre/post surveys · DCPS Goes Global, GW 2018
76% were interested in community organizing for social change after travel. Students also reported greater confidence interacting across cultures, with the largest gains among first-time travelers.76%: 2018 cohort, post-travel survey (pre 43% / post 17% response) · intercultural gains: 2017 and 2018 surveys · Research Brief, GW 2019
Theme two
Engaged in school, aiming further.
2017 cohort · pre/post travel surveys · DCPS Goes Global, GW 2018
↑ After travel, students agreed significantly more often that they “work very hard on my schoolwork” and “pay attention in class.”2017 cohort · paired pre/post survey items, significant for all groups · Research Brief, GW 2019
74% want to volunteer in another country. In interviews, students named the Peace Corps, the State Department and medicine abroad as career goals — and said travel sharpened their intent to go to college.74%: 2018 cohort, post-travel survey · career and college statements: student interviews, 2016–2018 (68 students)
In their own words
Every quote below is published in a GW report or a DCPS survey slide deck — no interview transcripts, which hold identifying detail. Filter by who is speaking.
After travel, 2022
Every word 84 students wrote in the 2022 post-travel survey, sized by how many students chose it. Words used once appear smallest.
The full record
All participation figures come from one file — the DCPS Global Education historical record by ward, corrected October 2026. Student places offered and students who actually travelled are reported separately, because they are different things. Outcome percentages elsewhere on this page each compare a single cohort before and immediately after its own summer, and are dated where they appear.
