Impact Studies of the “iChoose” Program
Every school year, the County Center for Educational Resources and Assistance (CJRAE) Hunedoara evaluates the “iChoose” program: students fill out a questionnaire at the beginning and at the end of the year, and their results are compared with those of a control group, meaning students who did not take the program. The analyses are carried out by Prof. Gabriel Ilieș, director of CJRAE Hunedoara, and Prof. Livia Vlad. Below are the results for each year and the full reports.
2025-2026 School Year
- The overall average of students in the program rose from 3.853 to 4.014 (on a scale of 1 to 5), and all 16 topics had higher final scores than initial ones.
- At the end, students in the program scored higher than the control group in all 16 topics, with statistically significant differences in 14 of them.
- The most consistent results: self-esteem, resilience, responsibility, and dedication. In terms of concrete behaviors, the biggest changes: fewer excuses, self-forgiveness, setting priorities, asking trusted adults for support, and starting important things on their own.
Read with care: The study is also open about what it cannot prove: the change from the beginning to the end of the year is small in magnitude, the control group (students from a single school in Timișoara) already had lower scores at the start, the questionnaires are anonymous and self-reported, and the sample is not representative of all students nationwide.
Download the full report (PDF, 41 pages)2024-2025 School Year
- Scores rose in every topic, by an average of 0.15 to 0.25 points between the beginning and the end of the year.
- At the end, students in the program scored higher than the control group in most topics, with statistically significant differences in 13 out of 16. The biggest differences: responsibility, self-esteem, initiative, courage, commitment, forgiveness, and priorities.
- The report also includes a qualitative analysis of students' answers and recommendations for expanding the program and training teachers.
Read with care: The control group was small (48 students), and the results are based on students' self-assessments.
Download the full report (PDF, 24 pages)2023-2024 School Year
- The program's first year: the 16 lessons of “iChoose” were taught by the end of the school year.
- Students in the program scored significantly higher than the control group in 14 of the 16 topics, including attitude, initiative, priorities, and responsibility.
Read with care: The report notes that the program was evaluated over a single school year, without measuring long-term effects, and that the sample does not cover the entire student population.
Download the full report (PDF, 19 pages)“iChoose” is the first year of the optional course “Education for Life: choose! act! inspire!”, approved by the Ministry of Education and Research through Order No. 6.982/2025. The program's guides were created by the Maxwell Leadership Foundation and translated and adapted for Romanian schools by Asociația Maxwell România.
Want the program in your school? Find out how to bring it there, free of charge.