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Month: October 2026

Sam Spirn

Posted on by icivics

Sam Spirn is a Managing Director at Berkshire Partners, a large Boston-based private equity firm, where he co-leads Berkshire’s healthcare investment team. For nearly two decades, he has been a partner to founders and management teams across the healthcare services ecosystem, helping them grow companies into enduring leaders in their markets. Before joining Berkshire, Sam was a Senior Associate at Summit Partners in Boston and London.

Sam received his A.B. from Harvard College and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

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Adam uses hands-on learning to teach civic engagement

Posted on by icivics education

I teach civic engagement the way a CTE (career and technical education) teacher might teach cooking: with hands-on learning. Students need to learn the skills, but they also need to practice using them. That approach also allows students to think critically, problem-solve, and collaborate with their peers and community.

At a time when students feel immense pressure to perform academically, we know that civic engagement must compete for their attention. Moreover, in the age of AI, it’s too easy for students to google their way to an answer. Answers obtained easily this way are not a measure of academic abilities.  Students ask: when will I use this in the real world and how will this show my skills and abilities? That question motivates me as an educator, and it’s the basis for all the work we do together in the classroom. 

My AP Government students sometimes struggle with the amount of content, terms, and concepts they need to ingest and grasp. So I try to embed those concepts within civic engagement to help them stick. Learning the process by which a bill becomes a law might seem like a fairly easy thing to memorize. But my students really connected with it when we talked about an issue that impacted them directly: education funding. A couple years ago, voters were considering California Prop 15, which would impact how property taxes were calculated—which would, in turn, impact the tax dollars available to schools. We learned how hard it is for a bill to become law, and analyzed the proposition and discussed why citizens might want to bypass the legislature to implement this law. The students decided they wanted to support Prop 15 and, even though they couldn’t vote, they gathered signatures to get it on the ballot.

This approach is not limited to AP students. I’ve used the same model with my class of English language learners. Public speaking is a key skill connected to language proficiency. After I introduced how a bill becomes a law, I asked the students: how might you tell your local representative that you want them to address a community issue by creating or supporting a certain piece of legislation? First, we practiced together. Then we invited local leaders to join them in a town hall. Crafting an argument and presenting it to an audience connected idea to action in a way that was transformative to the students, both in terms of skill and confidence. This is civic engagement as language acquisition and oratory, and it points back directly to our core learning goals for these English language learners.

The joy of hands-on and real life application project-based learning is that it can expand to meet both the interests and ambitions of the students. As part of a lesson about inalienable rights, I guided a group of my middle schoolers who created an anonymous reporting system for bullying. A high school class I taught wanted to explore food deserts; they ended up connecting with community members to bring the unused fruit in senior residents’ gardens to families in need. That student-led initiative was a natural pairing with our in-class conversations about economics, labor, and nutrition. 

Of course, project-based learning can also be difficult to plan for. It’s naturally cyclical—when students realize they need to change course to achieve their goals, the teacher needs to as well. That pivot takes time, agility, creativity, and patience. It can also take a lot of energy teaching young people how to work together and collaborate. And because this approach is highly responsive, a lot of the planning must happen in real time. I find I must constantly be on the lookout for opportunities to plant the seeds of these core principles into work that’s capturing my students’ imaginations. That can make experiential learning a hard sell to colleagues who already have too much on their plates. But when teachers see their students discover how civic knowledge helps them act in the world, the payoff is hard to ignore.

About Adam

  • Teaching experience: 20 years
  • Currently teaching: Social Studies for ELL newcomer students, District Lead Teacher of Social Studies and Civic Engagement (TOSA) 

Adam is an experienced social studies educator and instructional leader specializing in civic engagement, curriculum development, and teacher coaching. He’s currently leading district-wide initiatives in civic education while supporting multilingual learners and building teacher civic education capacity through professional development and mentorship. 

Bill of Rights Institute and iCivics Announce Latest Round of Winners in Civic Star Challenge

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Educators have been awarded $5,000 each for connecting themes from the country’s founding ideals to contemporary civic learning during America’s 250th.

WASHINGTON, DC [October 6, 2026] – The Bill of Rights Institute and iCivics have named the latest winners of the Civic Star Challenge contest, a nationwide initiative that recognizes educators who bring the themes from the Declaration of Independence and civic learning into their classrooms.

The Civic Star Challenge helps teachers connect America’s founding principles to students’ lives through three focus areas: civic action, media literacy, and debate and dialogue. Educators can use free resources from iCivics and the Bill of Rights Institute, other teaching materials, or lessons they have developed themselves. To enter, teachers submit a brief narrative describing their students’ learning or outcomes from a related classroom lesson or activity.

Initially designed to run through July 4, 2026, in honor of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Challenge has been extended through December 15, 2026, with three additional contest periods and $50,000 in prizes. 

Each period awards $5,000 to one educator in each grade band— K–5, 6–8, and 9–12—for nine winners overall. Four additional honorable mentions of $1,250 each will be awarded across the Challenge. The contest periods run August 15–September 30, October 1–31, and November 1–December 15. 

Educators may enter once per period at civicstarchallenge.org.

The most recent winners are:

  • Dina Siembak, Schwarzkopf Elementary School, Lutz, FL
  • Payton Ashby, South Sevier Middle School, Monroe, UT
  • Juan Moguel, Warren Early College High School, Warrenton, NC
  • Patrick Walters, Joaquin Miller Middle School, San Jose, CA (Honorable Mention)

“The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is an opportunity to help students connect this founding document and its fundamental ideas to their own lives and communities today,” iCivics CEO Louise Dubé said. “By extending the Civic Star Challenge, we’re recognizing the essential work educators do each day to keep civic learning at the center of their classrooms.”

“Through the Civic Star Challenge, teachers are showing their students what the principles of the Declaration of Independence requires of each generation,” Bill of Rights Institute President and CEO David Bobb said. “This initiative celebrates those teachers who are helping young people not only study these principles, but develop the knowledge, judgement, and civic habits to live by them and make a real difference for their fellow citizens.”

The Civic Star Challenge is made possible through generous support from Griffin Catalyst, the civic engagement initiative of Citadel Founder and CEO Ken Griffin, The James Irvine Foundation, The Stand Together Trust, and The Pedersen Foundation.

ABOUT iCIVICS
Founded in 2009 by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, iCivics is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing civic learning by providing educators and students with the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to embrace and engage in our civic life together. iCivics empowers educators and leads the movement to make civic education a nationwide priority so all young people have the confidence to shape the world around them and believe in our country’s future. To learn more, visit icivics.org.

ABOUT BILL OF RIGHTS INSTITUTE
The Bill of Rights Institute is a national, nonpartisan nonprofit that works with teachers and students to strengthen history and civic education. Through classroom resources, professional learning, student programs, and educational experiences, BRI helps young people develop the knowledge, judgment, and civic virtues needed for self-government. To learn more, visit mybri.org.

ABOUT GRIFFIN CATALYST
Griffin Catalyst is the civic engagement initiative of Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin, encompassing his philanthropic and community impact efforts. Tackling the world’s greatest challenges in innovative, action-oriented, and evidence-driven ways, Griffin Catalyst is dedicated to expanding opportunity and improving lives across six areas of focus: Education, Science & Medicine, Upward Mobility, Freedom & Democracy, Enterprise & Innovation, and Communities. For more information, visit griffincatalyst.org.

ABOUT THE JAMES IRVINE FOUNDATION
The James Irvine Foundation is a private, nonprofit grantmaking foundation dedicated to expanding opportunity for the people of California. The Foundation’s current focus is a California where all low-income workers have the power to advance economically. Since 1937 the Foundation has provided more than $2.92 billion in grants to organizations throughout California. The Foundation ended 2025 with $3.6 billion in assets and provided $160.2 million in grants. For more, please visit irvine.org. 

Meg Johnson

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Meg Johnson is an education executive and operations leader with more than 25 years of experience helping organizations turn ambitious ideas into strategies, systems, and teams that deliver impact for students.

Before joining iCivics, Meg served as Chief Operating Officer of the Center for Education Market Dynamics, where she helped build the organization and its national work using data and transparency to improve the K–12 curriculum market. Previously, she held senior leadership roles at Pearson Education spanning strategy, product, technology, sales, and operations. Across her career, Meg has been drawn to complex organizations and moments of growth and change, connecting people, priorities, and systems to help good ideas become executable ones.

Her commitment to civic engagement extends well beyond her professional life. Meg actively supports her local performing arts center, volunteers to register voters and is the proud daughter of a local elected official. She is an enthusiastic reader, oyster shucker and pub trivia nerd. A mom of two, she lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband, Chris.

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Introducing iCivics Learning Framework

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I started my teaching career in North-Central Florida just over 20 years ago. I remember my job interview well. Yes, I was nervous, and yes, I brought a folder stuffed with surely too many assets printed on thick parchment-style paper. But I digress.

Beyond the usual interview questions, the principal asked how I viewed my central mission as a high school history and civics teacher. I didn’t skip a beat:

My mission, my job, is to ensure my students have the knowledge and skills they need to be informed and engaged citizens in our democratic republic. And I’ll make sure they improve their reading and writing skills.

The second sentence is probably why I got the job. This was peak “No Child Left Behind” era, and Florida had one of the tougher accountability systems.

But the first sentence was as honest and authentic as can be. At least it was back then.

Today, if asked how I view my central mission as a history and civics educator, I would give this response:

My mission, my job, is to ensure our nation’s students care. And I’ll make sure they improve their reading and writing skills.

I want students to care about community, including seeking to strengthen trust in people and institutions, feeling a sense of belonging, and feeling a responsibility to the common good. 

I want them to care about accuracy, which requires intellectual humility and curiosity, valuing credible information, and striving for informed participation. 

And I want them to care about pluralistic democracy, which shows up as respect for multiple perspectives, concern for others, belief in civic participation, dedication to democratic health, and civic confidence. 

Sure, I still want today’s students to have the knowledge and skills they need to be informed and engaged citizens in our democratic republic. But first and foremost, I want them to care about living in a healthy democratic republic. 

Let’s talk about how this caring shows up. Call them what you will: dispositions, habits, values, virtues, mindsets. At iCivics, we call them Attitudes, and they comprise the first pillar of our Learning Framework, joined, of course, by their co-equal counterparts: Skills and Knowledge.

I like to think of the three categories much like the three branches of our government. They are co-equal, sure. But the Legislative branch was given top billing, Article I, in the U.S. Constitution, and that was far from arbitrary. In the same way, while I believe that civic Attitudes, Skills, and Knowledge all matter in equal measure, I wouldn’t hesitate to give Attitudes that same top billing.

Also, I love a good acronym, and ASK—Attitudes, Skills, and Knowledge—is more perfect than I can say.

Here’s why: One of my favorite colleagues in civic education is Peter Levine, professor of citizenship and public affairs at Tufts University. According to Professor Levine, a citizen is someone who seriously asks, “What should we do?” I love this definition because it transcends legal status and gets to the heart of what it means to be a good person who cares about the common good: dialogue, collaboration, and action. 

Every day, I work with the incredible team at iCivics and so many others in our field to answer this question. I am consistently challenged and sustained by this profound network of humans who care just as much as I do about “keeping the republic,” which is our democratic inheritance. 

And that’s the inspiration behind the architecture of iCivics’ Learning Framework.

Learn more about iCivics Learning Framework

Written by Emma Humphries

Dr. Emma Humphries, iCivics’ Chief Education Officer, brings extensive classroom experience teaching government, history, and economics, where she discovered the impact of engaging learning tools. With a deep commitment to empowering educators, she continues to champion innovative civic education resources and strategies.