Facing History Embarks on New District Partnerships
When Facing History pedagogy is practiced across schools in a district, not only do students have access to deeper learning opportunities, they benefit from an improved school climate and more inclusive learning environments.
Facing History & Ourselves is excited to grow and extend our partnerships with school systems, helping school leaders create transformational, systemic change in their school’s approach to teaching, learning, and working together.
Just this month we began a new partnership with New York City Public Schools (NYCPS). Building on years of collaboration, we're expanding the ways we work with the largest public school district in the US. Facing History is training over 900 school leaders on how to implement our pedagogy and resources related to navigating crucial conversations in schools throughout the five boroughs.
And NYC is just one of many cities and school districts in which Facing History is rolling out our unique programming across all schools. We know that our work transforms the classroom experience for teachers and students—we are committed to reaching as many schools as possible so that as many young people as possible can benefit from our evidence-based approach to creating connections between the lessons of history and the realities of today.
Our nearly 50 year history of training teachers and developing curriculum has helped countless students grapple with difficult history, cultivate their civic agency, and discover the power of being an upstander. The resources we offer classrooms are intellectually rigorous and highly adaptive, allowing for impactful lessons that are easy to integrate into any middle or high school setting.
Hassan Naveed, Executive Director of the NYC Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, shared why schools partnering with Facing History is such a meaningful move. "Imagine classrooms where empathy and understanding are the cornerstones. That's the future we're building together in New York City schools. Facing History's expertise in crafting curriculum and training educators is a game changer. . . .with Facing History by our side, our classrooms are becoming powerful tools for positive change."
And following the first in a series of workshops and coaching for NYCPS, Zeynep Ozkan, a NYCPS principal said, “So much of a school culture relies on building environments that demonstrate to kids that we trust them and believe in them. This Facing History workshop reinforced tools that form the basis of these classroom and school environments.”
As Facing History’s Chief Officer of Growth and Engagement, I am raising awareness around Facing History and bringing our tools and resources to schools and districts. Currently we are forging new relationships in Washington, DC, Iowa, Virginia, and South Florida, just to name a few. These potential collaborations would join established Facing History partnerships in Ohio, Illinois, Tennessee, New Jersey, California, and Massachusetts.
By equipping educators everywhere with our proven suite of professional learning options and classroom-ready materials, we are empowering a critical number of classrooms to be catalysts for positive change where social-emotional learning and academic achievement are not siloed. Together, we can build a future where education becomes a powerful force, nurturing empathy, understanding, and civic participation in the hearts and minds of students across the country and the world.
Learn more about our school and district programs.
