Civic Summit – 2025

Civic Engagement and Responsibility

In its second Annual Civic Summit, the Center for Education Policy invited Massachusetts residents to promote conversation and generate new ideas about socially important issues, exploring the question, “How should Massachusetts public schools prepare the next generation for civic engagement and responsibility?” 

The panel of educators and experts included Kelley Brown, an award-winning social studies educator at Easthampton High School and graduate of Amherst College and the UMass Amherst College of Education. Her social studies classes won the Massachusetts Center for Civic Education’s “We the People” state competition the last four years in a row and won the national competition in 2020. Panelists also included Reuben Henriques, assistant director of humanities for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education; and Adam Hinds, former state senator and chief executive officer of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate.

Student panelists included representatives from Easthampton and Quabbin Regional high schools, UMass Amherst undergraduate political science student Qua’Nae Golston-Thomas and Northampton High School students who serve on the board of the College of Education’s Center of Racial Justice and Youth Engaged Research.

Briefing materials for the Civic Summit included a fact sheet produced by the Center for Education Policy. Download PDF version. and/or click on images below. Please note that all links in “Sources and Further Reading” are clickable.