NORTH ANDOVER — Civics in Action, a class at North Andover Middle School taught by Patrick McGravey, leaps feet-first into citizenship and American governance.
Since 2018, when then-Gov. Charlie Baker signed the Civics in Education bill into law, the subject has been a mandatory part of K-12 education, with a required Grade 8, student-led, nonpartisan civics project.
In addition, starting last school year, civics was added to the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System for Grade 8, alongside English language arts, math and science.
In Room J209 at North Andover Middle School, on a morning before Thanksgiving, McGravey’s students at first glance resemble partners at a junior bridge tournament.
They sit in clusters at desks facing each other and ponder questions on their laptops and the overhead white board related to ancient Greece’s influences on the United States.
They are also learning avenues and instruments our democratic republic and its accompanying constitution offer them to effect change and engage in responsible citizenship.
McGravey, a recipient of this year’s Edward M. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Civics Education, sets the classroom tone with self-deprecating humor and energetic civility.
In this unit of study, which will take the class beyond Thanksgiving, the students are exploring the roots of American government.
Grappling with ideas
Students grapple with ideas from ancient Greece, ancient Rome, the Enlightenment, Britain and its Magna Carta and the Native Americans’ Iroquois Confederacy, debating which exerted greater influence on the United States.
Today’s lesson delves into ancient Greece’s contributions, including voting rights, trial by jury and legislative bodies, as well as its constitution and rule of law.
By the classroom door stands the Wall of Fame, banners bearing the names of former Civics in Action students.
In keeping with the class’s participatory theme, and throwing in a dash of competition, McGravey’s students will ultimately select one or another of the five antecedents of American government and make a case for why its influence was greatest.
The students most successful in their endorsements will be inducted into the class Hall of Fame (modeled on the Rock’n’roll Hall) and see their names posted on a banner.
Meanwhile, these students have thoughts about Greek influences on the U.S., as well as how the class, in general, and its state-required service project, later in the year, will help them pursue meaningful change and their goals.
Student perspectives vary
Christina Castro sees Greek influences in White House architecture.
Tommy Mersereau says the class is teaching him how to advocate for improvements to local soccer fields.
Erin Alden wants to take local action to combat climate change and global warming to protect animals.
Drayden Fitzgerald wants to advocate for legalizing fireworks in Massachusetts.
Henry Dugan will use civics knowledge to communicate with people about local issues like the school budget.
Darshita Joshi, Charlotte Dussauld, Lana Terrio and Jenalyse Chazulle say civics will help them understand the law and regulations and otherwise help them reach career goals.
Paige Lucci says the participatory class builds confidence she’ll draw on in musical theatre performances.
Lucille Kamau enjoys sharpening her debating skills.
Visit planned to Kennedy Institute
This school year all 8th graders at North Andover Middle School will visit a replica of the U.S. Senate chamber at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston.
There, on the UMass Boston campus, next to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, students will debate and vote as if they were lawmakers, using exhibits and interacting with staff to learn how policy ideas move through Congress and laws are passed.
McGravey says the visit is civics in action. The students get to experience lawmaking and debate, first-hand.
He recognizes the big tent of ideas circulating in our society and remains committed to the Civics Education Law’s requirement that content meet curriculum frameworks set by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and that he not advocate for a political party or point of view.
He has consulted with parents on class activities and keeps them informed on what the class will be studying, he says.
McGravey takes a nontraditional approach to civics, largely paperless and relying on multi-media files, writing and discussion as opposed to traditional text-book based teaching.
On a shelf by the windows in his classroom is a bobblehead Thomas Jefferson resting his neck among collectibles and framed photos.
Looking out from a poster on the back wall is a converted periodic table, listing, instead of chemical elements, amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It posts the Bill of Rights, the changes every bit as powerful to American life as the reactions caused by chemical bonds.
Lawmakers make visits
McGravey regularly invites North Andover or state officials and those who hold elected office to visit his classes to present their duties and responsibilities and field questions.
Janice Phillips is a parent and North Andover Select Board member as well as an aide to state Sen. Barry Finegold (D-2nd Essex and Middlesex). She has visited the class with other local officials.
“We talk about the general form of government that we have in North Andover, that we’re run by town meeting, which means every registered voter has a say in what happens in this town,” she said in an interview. “And that’s pretty unique, especially for a town of this size.”
State Rep. Andy Vargas, D-Haverhill, has visited McGravey’s classes numerous times over the years. The 32-year-old was just 16 and a junior at Haverhill High School when he and other students in Gateway Cities proposed making civics an integral part of school curriculum.
After Vargas was elected to the state House in 2017 he rallied colleagues to pass the Civics in Education law. On his visits to McGravey’s classes Vargas has seen students get excited over ideas big and small, from school funding to improving school lunch nutrition.
He says McGravey encourages the kids to think about issues that matter to them.
“It was impressive to see that, you know, in his classroom, they were really taking the spirit of the law to heart, and trying to figure out how students can play an active role in our democracy right now and not waiting until they’re adults,” the state representative said.
Test results show need
There is work to be done, if state testing is a guide. Statewide in 2025 students scored at about 39% proficiency in MCAS civics.
“Our kids (all NAMS 8th graders including students of two other teachers) were at 59%, almost 60% proficiency,” McGravey said.
He acknowledges the level isn’t excellent but this was the first year the civics test was administered.
Regarding the student-led civics project, 8th graders carry out a follow-up project when they get to high school.
Several former students of McGravey’s are now at North Andover High School and remain engaged in ideas first kindled in their 8th grade civics class. Among them are Keshav Mahadevan, Mariah Eskel, Mehak Sankhla, Parker Dubman and Sreejith Krishnaa.
Parker and Sreejith successfully advocated for the end of the High School MCAS graduation requirement in Massachusetts by gathering data from teachers and students before the ballot question initiative in the fall of 2024.
They were later asked to testify with McGravey on Beacon Hill at a hearing in support of more funding for civic education in Massachusetts in March of 2025.
Policy changed by advocacy
Mehak’s student-led civics project in 8th grade advocated for excused absences and deadline extensions on assignments for students observing diverse religious holidays.
She pursued this project after she was denied an extension on a homework assignment to allow her to celebrate Diwali, a major Indian festival, with her family.
As a result of Mehak’s advocacy, North Andover school policy now allows for excused absences based on religious holidays beyond Christian and Jewish observances. A similar statewide policy is now under consideration in a bill filed by state Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester.
McGravey, who has been teaching at the middle school for nearly 30 years, has seen student engagement climb through the Civics in Action class.
He was a student at the school and remembers having to memorize the preamble to the Constitution.
He attended Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, where he first became excited by history and politics in a U.S. Government class taught by Leo McCue, also McGravey’s cross-country coach.
Lessons of the past
McCue had his class follow the 1988 presidential race between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Michael Dukakis, and the class studied and watched a video of the 1960 presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon.
McGravey’s role today is to create in his students the same fascination and excitement for learning he experienced in his mentor’s class all those years ago.
The civics enthusiast is one of only 50 middle school and high school civics, history and social studies teachers from across the country chosen to attend the “Teaching 250” convention in Philadelphia in February, named for the nation’s semiquincentennial.
While there he hopes to discover new resources for helping students discover civics in action.