Civic Learning Week Opening Forum

Tuesday, Mar 7, 2023 | National Archives, Washington D.C.

Schedule of Events

9:00-9:30 a.m.

Registration and Refreshments

9:30-9:50 a.m.

Opening Remarks

  • Debra Steidel Wall, Archivist of the United States, National Archives and Records Administration
  • Louise Dubé, Executive Director, iCivics
9:55-10:35 a.m.

Civic Education For a Plural Yet Shared Nation

Moderated by Danielle Allen, Director, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University

  • Benjamin Klutsey, Director of the Program on Pluralism and Civil Exchange & Director of Academic Outreach, George Mason University Mercatus Center
  • Dr. Christina Grant, State Superintendent of Education, DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education
  • Dan Vallone, Director, More in Common USA

How do we define a deeper civic learning and development of a civic identity that goes beyond ideologies that threaten ever-increasing polarization? This panel will discuss recent data on perceptions around civic language; the resulting challenges that arise for providing high-quality civic education for each and every student in this nation; and the value in fostering pluralism and civil exchange.

10:40-11:10 a.m.

What’s New in Research: Evidence and Impact of Civic Learning Moderated by XX

  • Julia A. Kaufman, Senior Policy Researcher; Codirector, RAND American Educator Panels; Professor, Pardee RAND Graduate School
  • Joseph Kahne, Ted and Jo Dutton Presidential Professor for Education Policy and Politics; Co-Director of the Civic Engagement Research Group (CERG), University of California, Riverside

Hear from leading researchers about findings on the impact of civic learning across disciplines, how the political environment plays a role in schools, and what high-quality civic education looks like in practice. Panelists will also discuss what’s on the horizon for the field of civics, including additional infrastructure and research needs.

11:10 a.m.

Break

11:40-11:45 a.m.

Why Civics Matters

  • Brandon Short, New York Giants (2000-2003, 2006) & Carolina Panthers (2004-2005), National Football League, and All-American at Penn State University (1999)
11:50 a.m.- 12:35 p.m.

A Dialogue about Civic Education with Students, Parents, and Educators

Moderated by Andrea Foggy-Paxton, Senior Director, Frontline Solutions

Polling data consistently tells us that people across the political spectrum see civic education as a key solution to current challenges we’re facing as a nation. But what does a high-quality civic education look like from the perspective of those most directly involved? Hear from students, parents, and teachers about the importance of civics in sustaining and strengthening our constitutional democracy.

12:40-1:20 p.m.

Preparing Students for Digital Democracy: the Frontier of Information Literacy in K-12 Civic Education

Moderated by XX

  • Sam Wineburg, Professor Emeritus, Stanford Graduate School of Education
  • Miriam Vogel, President and CEO, EqualAI
  • Yuval Levin, Founding and Current Editor, National Affairs; Director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies, American Enterprise Institute (AEI)

Many state laws now mandate the teaching of “media literacy” but exactly what skills students need for a digital democracy are often not clearly delineated. This panel will discuss how civic education can help students learn to identify mis- and dis-information and become responsible participants in a democratic society that involves continuous technological innovations, including artificial intelligence.

1:25-1:40 p.m.

Call to Action: What do I do now?

1:40-1:45 p.m.

Closing Remarks

Speakers

Debra Steidel Wall

Debra Steidel Wall

Archivist of the United States, National Archives and Records Administration

Debra Steidel Wall became Acting Archivist of the United States in May 2022 upon the retirement of 10th Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero. She was appointed as Deputy Archivist of the United States in July 2011 and previously served as the agency’s Chief of Staff (2008–2011) and in a variety of management positions relating to bringing NARA’s archival holdings to the public online.

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She joined the National Archives in 1991 as an archivist trainee with a specialty in film, and holds an undergraduate degree in history and government from Georgetown University, and a graduate degree in film from the American University.

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Louise Dubé

Louise Dubé

Executive Director, iCivics

Louise Dubé serves as the Executive Director of iCivics which, as the largest civic education provider in the nation, both champions and re-imagines civic education for American democracy. iCivics is the winner of many awards including the 2018 National Civvys American Civic Collaboration Award from Bridge Alliance; Fast Company’s 2017 Top 10 Most Innovative Education Companies; and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.

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Previously, Louise served as Managing Director of Digital Learning at WGBH where she helped launch PBS Learning Media, a platform reaching more than 1.5 million educators. Before WGBH, Louise had a successful career in educational publishing and instructional technology for more than 20 years. In the early 1990s, Louise served as a co-founder of CASES, a New York alternative-to-incarceration program where education helps reshape lives.

Louise is the winner of the 2017 People’s Voice award from the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation, and was also recognized as a 2019 Donaldson Fellow by the Yale School of Management. She began her career as an attorney in Montreal, Canada, and holds a law degree from McGill University, as well as an MBA from Yale University.

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Danielle Allen

Danielle Allen

Director, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University

Danielle Allen is James Bryant Conant University Professor and Director of the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics. She is a professor of political philosophy, ethics, and public policy. She is also a seasoned nonprofit leader, democracy advocate, national voice on pandemic response, distinguished author, and mom.

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Danielle’s work to make the world better for young people has taken her from teaching college and leading a $60 million university division to driving change at the helm of a $6 billion foundation, writing as a national opinion columnist, advocating for cannabis legalization, democracy reform, and civic education, and most recently, to running for governor of Massachusetts. During the height of COVID in 2020, Danielle’s leadership in rallying coalitions and building solutions resulted in the country’s first-ever Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience; her policies were adopted in federal legislation and a presidential executive order. Danielle made history as the first Black woman ever to run for statewide office in Massachusetts. She was the 2020 winner of the Library of Congress’ Kluge Prize, which recognizes scholarly achievement in the disciplines not covered by the Nobel Prize. She received the Prize “for her internationally recognized scholarship in political theory and her commitment to improving democratic practice and civics education.”

A past chair of the Mellon Foundation and Pulitzer Prize Board, she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and American Philosophical Society. As a scholar, she currently concentrates on the Democratic Knowledge Project and Justice, Health, and Democracy Impact Initiative, housed at the Safra Center, on the Democracy Renovation Project, housed at Harvard’s Ash Center, and on the Our Common Purpose Commission at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Learning from the natural sciences, she has built a lab to extend the impact of work in the humanities and social sciences.

Her many books include the widely acclaimed Our Declaration: a reading of the Declaration of Independence in defense of equality; Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A.; Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus; and the forthcoming Justice by Means of Democracy. She writes a column on constitutional democracy for the Washington Post.

Outside the University, she serves as board chair for Partners In Democracy, where she continues to advocate for democracy reform to create greater voice and access in our democracy, and drive progress towards a new social contract that serves and includes us all. She also serves on the board of the Cambridge Health Alliance. Danielle’s personal website is available here.

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Benjamin Klutsey

Benjamin Klutsey

Director of the Program on Pluralism and Civil Exchange & Director of Academic Outreach, George Mason University Mercatus Center

Ben Klutsey is the Director of Academic Outreach and the Director of the Program on Pluralism and Civil Exchange at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He facilitates outreach to faculty leaders and university centers to foster collaborations and knowledge sharing about building academic programs. He was previously the Program Manager for the Financial Markets Working Group and the Program on Monetary Policy at Mercatus.

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Before returning to Mercatus, he worked with the Institute of International Finance, where he analyzed international financial regulations, particularly related to liquidity risk management and risk governance. He received his MA in International Commerce and Policy from George Mason University and his BA in Government and Philosophy from Lawrence University.

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Dr. Christina Grant

Dr. Christina Grant

State Superintendent of Education, DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education

Dr. Christina Grant is the State Superintendent of Education for the Office of the State Superintendent of Education. Dr. Grant has extensive experience overseeing the operations and finances of school systems.

Dr. Grant is a seasoned leader and manager with two decades of experience overseeing complex budgets, accountability systems, and policy and politics across several organizations. Dr. Grant’s leadership is grounded in the belief that diversity and inclusiveness is more than just a phrase but the cornerstone set of advancements needed to truly transform public education and our world.

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Dr. Grant served as the Chief of Charter Schools and Innovation for The School District of Philadelphia. In this capacity, Dr. Grant managed a complex organization, working closely with the Superintendent of Schools and the President of the Board of Education and the Mayor’s Chief Education Officer.

Dr. Grant’s career began as a public school teacher in Harlem; since then, she’s held numerous roles in education, including as Superintendent of the Great Oaks Foundation and Deputy Executive Director at the New York City Department of Education. Dr. Grant has a doctorate in education with a focus on organizational leadership from the University of Pennsylvania; two master’s degrees: one in organizational leadership from the Teachers College of Columbia University and one in teaching and adolescent reading from Fordham University; and a bachelor’s degree from Hofstra University.

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Dan Vallone

Dan Vallone

Director, More in Common USA

Prior to joining More in Common, Dan worked on education policy and innovation at the state and national level. Previously, Dan served six years active duty as an Army infantry officer, with one tour in Afghanistan. Dan graduated from West Point and earned an MA in Contemporary China from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore on a Fulbright Scholarship and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Dan lives in New York City.

Julia A. Kaufman

Julia A. Kaufman

Senior Policy Researcher; Codirector, RAND American Educator Panels; Professor, Pardee RAND Graduate School

Julia Kaufman is a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation where she codirects the American Educator Panels. Her research focuses on how states and school systems can support high-quality instruction and student learning, as well as methods for measuring educator perceptions and instruction.

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She has led studies on how to support students’ civics knowledge, skills, and dispositions; how state policies can encourage effective use of high-quality materials; implementation and student outcomes associated with the strategies of the Louisiana Department of Education; perceptions and implementation of state standards for kindergarten through twelfth-grade students; and implementation, outcomes, and costs associated with pipelines for preparing, hiring, and supporting high-quality school leaders and teachers. Kaufman has also led several projects to develop innovative measures of instructional practice, including measures of student-centered learning and teachers’ mathematics instruction. Prior to coming to RAND, Kaufman’s research focused on the main factors that support teachers’ use of inquiry-based mathematics curricula and the extent to which survey measures can accurately capture teachers’ instruction. She holds a Ph.D. in international education from New York University and an M.A. in teaching from the University of Pittsburgh.

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Joseph Kahne

Joseph Kahne

Ted and Jo Dutton Presidential Professor for Education Policy and Politics; Co-Director of the Civic Engagement Research Group (CERG), University of California, Riverside

Joseph Kahne is the Ted and Jo Dutton Presidential Professor for Education Policy and Politics and Co-Director of the Civic Engagement Research Group (CERG) at the University of California, Riverside. Professor Kahne’s research focuses on the influence of school practices and digital media on youth civic and political development. Currently, with funding from the Institute of Educational Sciences, and in partnership with scholars from Ohio State, Brown, and UCR, CERG has launched and is studying the impact of Connecting Classrooms to Congress (CCTC).

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CCTC is a social studies curricular unit that enables students to learn and deliberate about a controversial societal issue and then participate in an online downhill with their member of Congress. Additionally, Kahne and CERG are currently engaged in related studies of efforts to promote youth voice, lived civics, and a broad vision of social studies reform tied to the Educating for American Democracy roadmap. This work takes place through partnerships with reformers and school districts in CA, IL, NM, FL, and CO. In addition to studying the impact of these curricular experiences on young people’s civic development, Kahne is devoting particular attention to the politics of democratic education. He is also examining the ways the political contexts of school districts shape possibilities for educational reform and the varied ways educators respond.

Professor Kahne was Chair of the MacArthur Foundation’s Youth and Participatory Politics Research Network. Kahne was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship as well as the National Academy of Education’s Initiative on Civic Discourse and Reasoning. He can be reached at jkahne@ucr.edu and his work is available at https://www.civicsurvey.org.

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Brandon Short

Brandon Short

New York Giants (2000-2003, 2006) & Carolina Panthers (2004-2005) and All-American at Penn State University (1999), National Football League

Mr. Short is Executive Director and Portfolio Manager, PGIM Real Estate, where he manages PGIM’s Private REIT Fund and directs the fund’s east coast investment and asset management activities. Short has over 13 years of experience in real estate investment banking and investment management. Before joining PGIM, he was M&A Director at Round Hill Capital. Before Round Hill, he was a member of the Cerberus European real estate investment team. Before joining Cerberus, he worked at Goldman Sachs as a real estate investment banker based both in New York and Dubai

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Before his career in finance, Brandon had a 7-year career in the National Football League, with the Carolina Panthers and New York Giants. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Marketing from Pennsylvania State University and received a Masters in Business Administration from Columbia Business School.

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Andrea Foggy-Paxton

Andrea Foggy-Paxton

Senior Director, Frontline Solutions

For over 25 years, she has designed and led new initiatives with government, philanthropy, nonprofits, and corporations. She currently serves as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC) and Director at Frontline Solutions. She is the founder and CEO of Foggy-Paxton Consulting, LLC, a firm focused on supporting organizations to accelerate their impact through strategic advising, strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, and building organization capacity with an emphasis on increasing programmatic impact, diversifying revenue, and supporting diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging efforts.

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Andrea served as the Managing Director of Partner Strategy at The Broad Center, leading efforts to collaborate with urban school systems and strategic alliances to accelerate excellence and equity for all students. This included serving as the executive sponsor for the Diversity Council and leading supports to partners related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Prior to joining The Broad Center, she was Executive Vice President at Reasoning Mind, a nonprofit organization focused on transforming math education in the United States. Andrea also served as a program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Andrea was responsible for developing and launching a $25 million Innovative Professional Development portfolio and challenge to help districts provide a differentiated, data-driven, collaborative, and technology-enabled professional development system. She was also responsible for coordinating the Foundation’s response for the U.S. Department of Education I3 grant matching requirements, coordinating all K12 related investments in Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD. Prior to working in philanthropy, Andrea spent a decade leading start-up nonprofits and initiatives, serving as the co-director of LA Youth at Work, national field director of Rock the Vote, and executive director of the Tavis Smiley Foundation.

She serves on several boards including iCivics, Coro Southern California and LA Promise Fund. Andrea earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, a master’s in public administration from Baruch College, and is a graduate of the Coro Southern California Public Affairs Fellows and National Urban Fellows programs.

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Sam Wineburg

Sam Wineburg

Professor Emeritus, Stanford Graduate School of Education

Sam Wineburg is the Margaret Jacks Professor of Education and, by courtesy, of History & American Studies at Stanford University. Educated at Brown and Berkeley, he holds a doctorate in Psychological Studies in Education from Stanford and an honorary doctorate from Sweden’s Umeå University. Wineburg heads the Stanford History Education Group (sheg.stanford.edu), whose curriculum and assessments have been downloaded nearly ten million times, making it one of the largest providers of free curriculum in the world.

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His current work focuses on how people judge the credibility of digital content, research that has been reported in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Time Magazine, BBC, and Die Zeit, and translated into dozens of languages. Wineburg’s scholarship sits at the crossroads of three fields: history, education, and the psychology of teaching and learning. His articles and commentaries have appeared in such diverse outlets as Cognitive Science, Journal of American History, Smithsonian Magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times.

In 2002 his book, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past won the Frederic W. Ness Award from the Association of American Colleges and Universities for work that makes the most important contribution to the “improvement of Liberal Education and understanding the Liberal Arts.” In 2013, he was named the Obama-Nehru Distinguished Chair by the US-India Fulbright Commission and spent four months crisscrossing India giving lectures about his work. His 2018 book, Why Learn History (When It’s Already on Your Phone), was published by the University of Chicago Press. In 2015 he was inducted into the National Academy of Education. And in 2020, he was awarded UNESCO’s “Global Media and Information” prize.

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Miriam Vogel

Miriam Vogel

President and CEO, EqualAI

Miriam Vogel is the President and CEO of EqualAI, a non-profit created to reduce unconscious bias in artificial intelligence (AI) and promote responsible AI governance. Miriam cohosts a podcast, In AI we Trust, with the World Economic Forum and also serves as Chair to the recently launched National AI Advisory Committee (NAIAC), mandated by Congress to advise the President and White House on AI policy.

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Miriam teaches Technology Law and Policy at Georgetown University Law Center, where she serves as chair of the alumni board, and serves on the board of the Responsible AI Institute (RAII). Miriam also serves a senior advisor to the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT).

Previously, Miriam served in U.S. government leadership, including positions in the three branches of federal government. Most recently, she served as Associate Deputy Attorney General, where she advised the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General (DAG) on a broad range of legal, policy and operational issues. Under the direction of DAG Sally Yates, Miriam led the creation and development of the Implicit Bias Training for Federal Law Enforcement. Miriam also spearheaded the Department’s Intellectual Property (IP) efforts to identify and dismantle IP theft domestically and internationally and worked with the DAG to manage Department divisions’ multibillion-dollar budgets, resolve high-level challenges, and represent the Department in briefings for White House, congressional and GAO staff on policy initiatives and oversight matters.

Miriam served in the White House in two Administrations, most recently as the Acting Director of Justice and Regulatory Affairs. She led the President’s Equal Pay Task Force to promote equality in the workplace. She also advised White House leadership on initiatives ranging from women, LGBT, economic, regulatory and food safety policy to criminal justice matters.

Prior to serving in the Obama administration, Miriam was Associate General Counsel at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and practiced entertainment/corporate transactional law at Sheppard Mullin in Los Angeles. Miriam began her legal career as a federal clerk in Denver, Colorado after graduating from Georgetown University Law Center and is a third generation alumna from the University of Michigan.

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Yuval Levin

Yuval Levin

Founding and Current Editor, National Affairs; Director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies, American Enterprise Institute (AEI)

Yuval Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he also holds the Beth and Ravenel Curry Chair in Public Policy. The founder and editor of National Affairs, he is also a senior editor at The New Atlantis, a contributing editor at National Review, and a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times.

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At AEI, Dr. Levin and scholars in the Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies research division study the foundations of self-government and the future of law, regulation, and constitutionalism. They also explore the state of American social, political, and civic life, focusing on the preconditions necessary for family, community, and country to flourish.

Dr. Levin served as a member of the White House domestic policy staff under President George W. Bush. He was also executive director of the President’s Council on Bioethics and a congressional staffer at the member, committee, and leadership levels.

In addition to being interviewed frequently on radio and television, Dr. Levin has published essays and articles in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Commentary. He is the author of several books on political theory and public policy, most recently “A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream” (Basic Books, 2020).

He holds an MA and PhD from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.

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