M.Ed. Grad Wins National Honor for Civics Education

It’s all about problem solving, according to Phillip Wrigley, ’12 M.Ed. 

Now 18 years into his career in public education and his 13th at Topeka High School, that’s how Wrigley often frames civics education for his students. They come in with different levels of understanding of civics and government. And he said many of them coming in thinking big and wanting to affect policy at the top. But, as he reminds them, most of the tangible changes happen at a local level. It’s an approach that is about empowering students not just in case they want to be elected officials, but to navigate the society that they will find themselves a part of.

“They are going to be community members,” he said. “Civics is what you are going to use all day, every day.”

Wrigley comes by it honestly — growing up, he said many members of his family were engaged in local government. Wrigley himself is coming up on his 30th election as a poll worker. And his work to make civics relatable to his high school students has earned him the respect of a notoriously tough crowd. But it’s also recently earned him a nomination as Kansas Teacher of the Year and a national honor — one of three recipients of the American Civic Education Teacher Award (ACETA), sponsored by the Center for Civic Education, the Center on Representative Government at Indiana University, and the National Education Association to honor excellence in teaching of civics and the U.S. Constitution. He will be honored in December with the other two winners in Washington, D.C. It’s an award that he’s been nominated for three previous times. So when the email came during one of his classes, he thought it was probably another polite “it’s an honor to be nominated” moment. 

“I’m in the middle of teaching U.S. History and I finished attendance but saw the subject line,” he said. “You don’t have a bunch of time to sit there and read the whole email.” 

When school leaders came into his room later to congratulate him, Wrigley said, the principal asked the students if they could believe their teacher had earned a national award for civics. 

“There was a student in the back who I’ve had before who said, ‘Yeah I buy that,’” he said.

Wrigley teaches a lot more than civics — he also leads courses in U.S. history, sociology and Hispanic studies. With a student population that includes many English language learners, Wrigley said he is particularly focused on making the idea of civic engagement and community involvement accessible to everyone.

“Those students are more likely to feel marginalized,” he said. “I’m looking to empower everyone to be an active community member.”

For a final project, Wrigley said he asks students to research and report on an issue facing their community they want solved. And he helped found the student-led Voting club, which meets during the school day and through which students help encourage their peers to not only register to vote, but to become election workers in their community. 

“We ended up having, in total in Shawnee County, 71 high school election workers in 2024,” he said. “That is young people who are part of that process and bought into that process.”

The Voting Club also hosted Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly in 2023, who participated in a question-and-answer session with students at Topeka High School. But Wrigley said the things that stick out for him are the smaller moments that help underscore what he’s doing and why he’s doing it.

“Recently we had our students out for the club carnival,” he said. “I watched this 17-year-old high schooler go up and start talking to their peers about the club and trying to get them to join the club and serve as an election worker. Hosting the governor is the razzle dazzle, but seeing the students engage and getting other students interested is the most rewarding.”