Teaching for Change#Zinn Education Project

Teaching for Change coordinates a variety of programs that aim to encourage teachers, students, and parents to build a more equitable, multicultural society through education.

As of 2006, the state of Mississippi "passed the Civil Rights/Human Rights Education in the Mississippi Public Schools Curriculum bill," which mandated "the integration of civil rights and human rights" topics into the curriculum of the K-12 schools under its purview.{{Cite journal|last1=Cunningham|first1=David|last2=Rondini|first2=Ashley|date=2017 |title=LEGACIES OF RACIAL CONTENTION: Implementing Mississippi's Civil Rights/Human Rights Curriculum, 2006-2011|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/du-bois-review-social-science-research-on-race/article/legacies-of-racial-contention/84B58A5485BB1F952C26336740F02C51|journal=Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race|language=en|volume=14|issue=1|pages=325–348|doi=10.1017/S1742058X17000030|s2cid=149284556 |issn=1742-058X}} Accordingly, Teaching for Change worked with the McComb School District and the Mississippi Department of Education for ten years to incorporate lessons on the civil rights movement and labor history in the curriculum. The stated intention was to help schools "end a decades-old culture of silence" on difficult historical events in the region.Carmen K. Sisson, [http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2009/1008/p25s02-usgn.html Mississippi mandates civil rights classes in schools] Christian Science Monitor, October 8, 2009{{Cite news|url=https://www.good.is/articles/these-mississippi-teens-should-school-the-supreme-court-on-the-voting-rights-act|title=These Mississippi Teens Should School the Supreme Court on the Voting Rights Act|date=2013-03-12|work=GOOD Magazine|access-date=2017-08-21|language=en}} McComb Legacies, an after-school and summer enrichment program, grew out of the partnership between Teaching for Change and the McComb School District. As part of McComb Legacies, high school students work as historians to uncover the history of the voting rights struggle in McComb and Mississippi.{{Cite news|url=http://hechingerreport.org/lessons-mississippis-violent-past-become-optional/|title=Have lessons about Mississippi's violent past become optional? - The Hechinger Report|date=2014-06-22|work=The Hechinger Report|access-date=2017-08-21|language=en-US}} In the spring of 2013, two McComb student projects made it to the national level of the National History Day competition. The Voting Rights Struggle, a documentary film created by McComb students, tells the story of the first SNCC voter registration drive, which was located in McComb.Titus Ledbetter III, [https://archive.today/20130629093411/http://www.afro.com/sections/news/washington/story.htm?storyid=78857 Mississippi Students Take Award-Winning Voting Rights Documentary to Nation's Capital] AFRO, June 19, 2013. The film can now be seen at the African American Civil War Museum in Washington, DC.Deborah Barfield Berry, [http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013306130035&nclick_check=1|Students showcase civil rights work] Jackson Clarion-Ledger, June 12, 2013.

In 2024, Teaching for Change published the second edition of the publication, Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching.{{cite news |title=The second edition of Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching is released |url=https://hreusa.org/2024/10/04/the-second-edition-of-putting-the-movement-back-into-civil-rights-teaching-is-released/ |access-date=November 17, 2024 |publisher=Human Rights Educators USA |date=October 4, 2024}}

In 2017, Teaching for Change launched DC Area Educators for Social Justice, a community of mutual support for educators to collaborate on curriculum, professional learning, and activism.{{Cite web|url=https://www.teachingforchange.org/dc-area|title=D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice|website=Teaching for Change|access-date=June 6, 2019}} Beginning in 2018, DC Area Educators for Social Justice has led the yearly D.C. Area Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action.{{Cite web|url=https://thedcline.org/2019/02/04/week-of-action-returns-to-dc-to-share-black-lives-matter-principles-in-local-schools/|title='Week of Action' returns to DC to share Black Lives Matter principles in local schools|last=Harris|first=Naomi|date=February 4, 2019|website=The DC Line|access-date=June 6, 2019}} Beginning in 2015, DC Area Educators brought together local social justice teachers to form a graduate level writing group in a program titled Stories from our Classroom. Some of these stories went onto be published in The Atlantic, Huffington Post, Edutopia, and other well-known periodicals.{{Cite web|url=https://www.teachingforchange.org/every-month-sunday|title=Stories from Our Classrooms Celebration|date=June 15, 2016|website=Teaching for Change|access-date=June 6, 2019}}

In 2017, Teaching for Change launched the website Teaching Central America.{{Cite web|url=https://www.teachingcentralamerica.org/about|title=Teaching Central America|website=Teaching Central America|access-date=June 10, 2019}} The website offers free downloadable lessons, biographies, poetry, and prose from Central American writers such as Roque Dalton, Rigoberta Menchú, Claribel Alegría, and Ernesto Cardenal.

Teaching for Change launched the Social Justice Books website in 2017.{{Cite web|url=https://socialjusticebooks.org/|title=Social Justice Books|website=Social Justice Books|access-date=June 10, 2019}} The Social Justice Book site contains more than 60 carefully selected lists of multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators, along with dozens of book reviews coordinated by the See What We See (SWWS) coalition.{{Cite web|url=https://socialjusticebooks.org/about/see-what-we-see/|title=See What We See|website=Social Justice Books.org|access-date=June 10, 2019}}

Teaching for Change co-founded the Zinn Education Project with Rethinking Schools in 2008 to provide teachers with free resources to help teach a people's history including free downloadable lesson plans as a companion to Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States and other classroom resources for educators around the country.[http://www.yesmagazine.org/EdConnectionNews/may10/default.html "Yes!Magazine recommends the Zinn Education Project", May, 2010] Close to a quarter of teachers surveyed in a 2024 study by the American Historical Association use resources from the Zinn Education Project. {{cite news |last1=Goldstein |first1=Dana |title=History Teachers Are Replacing Textbooks With the Internet |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/19/us/social-studies-curriculum.html |access-date=November 17, 2024 |publisher=New York Times |date=September 19, 2024}}

Former Programs

The Tellin' Stories program is a process for building parent engagement in schools. This program uses a bottom-up approach, encouraging parents to define what their roles will be.[https://www.rethinkingschools.org/articles/tellin-stories-finding-common-ground "Tellin Stories, Finding Common Ground" By David Levine, Rethinking Schools, 2009] The training plan has four stages:

• Community Building: families meet each other and learn about their schools;
• Information Gathering: parents analyze the school climate, the facilities, and the quality of teaching and learning at their school;
• Identifying and Prioritizing Concerns: parents investigate concerns with schools (using Right Question Project methodology); and
• Taking Action: parents determine the action required to achieve desired results and work collectively to promote those actions.National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group, {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20100316080954/http://www.hfrp.org/publications-resources/browse-our-publications/taking-leadership-innovating-change-profiles-in-family-school-and-community-engagement Taking Leadership/Innovating Change: Profiles in Family School and Community Engagement]}} Harvard Family Research Project, March 2010.

Teaching for Change founded and operated an independent, non-profit bookstore[http://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=1320#m10680 "Teaching for Change at Busboys and Poets" in Shelf Awareness, November 2, 2010] located inside Busboys and Poets 14th and V Streets location for ten years.Todd Kliman, [http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/restaurants/1785.html Rainbow Room: The Busboys and Poets Controversy], Washingtonian, December 1, 2005. The bookstore hosted author events and provided selections of books focusing on progressive politics, multicultural lessons for pre K-12, and people's history. Teaching for Change helped bring noted authors to host readings, discussions and book signings, including Alice Walker, Howard Zinn, Cornel West, Ronald Takaki, Michelle Alexander, Melissa Harris-Perry, John Sayles, Nikki Giovanni, Bob Moses, Juan Gonzalez, Ralph Nader, Taylor Branch, Dave Zirin, Naomi Klein, Tariq Ali, Clarence Lusane, Marita Golden, Charles E. Cobb Jr., Bernie Sanders, Edwidge Danticat, Judy Richardson, and Junot Díaz. Teaching for Change closed its bookstore in April 2015 and shared its recommendations for books online.[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2015/03/18/teaching-for-change-moves-online-amid-challenges-for-diversity-in-books/ "Teaching for Change Moves Online Amid Challenges for Diversity in Books" by Stacia Brown in The Washington Post, March 18, 2015]

In the 1980s, with a growing Central American population and U.S. involvement in the region, 11 committees of educators and community leaders formed across the country to assess how to address the needs of Central American students and increase public awareness about U.S. foreign policy in Central America. These committees convened in Los Angeles to form a national organization, the Network of Educator's Committees on Central America (NECCA) that became incorporated in December 1989[http://www.teachingforchange.org/about/history/25-years History] Teaching for Change website, 2017

Through the early 90s they produced teaching resources on Nicaragua and El Salvador and hosted teacher workshops around the country based on the book Rethinking Columbus.Rethinking Columbus, http://www.rethinkingschools.org/ProdDetails.asp?ID=094296120X Rethinking Schools. In 1993, NECCA won the Humanities award from the DC Humanities Council and in 1994 they launched a mail order catalog for progressive teaching resources. {{Citation needed|date=February 2020}}

As the organization expanded its focus, Network of Educator's Committees on Central America changed its name to Teaching for Change. Through the 1990s, Teaching for Change organized seminars for educators on social justice education topics and published their own teaching guide, Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development.

In 1999, Teaching for Change hosted a seminar for educators in the DC area focusing on "putting the movement back into Civil Rights" history teaching at Howard University. That seminar led to the production of a teaching guide with the same name, in collaboration with the Poverty and Race Resource Action Council (PRRAC).

Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching won the Philip C. Chinn book of the year award{{Cite web|url=http://nameorg.org/philip_chinn_book_award.php|title=Philip Chinn Book Award - National Association for Multicultural Education|website=nameorg.org|language=en|access-date=2017-08-21}} and Teaching for Change won the National Association for Multicultural Education Organization of the Year in 2004.

In 2005, Teaching for Change was invited by former board member and entrepreneur Andy Shallal to open a bookstore in Busboys and Poets.

In 2008, in partnership with Rethinking Schools, they launched the Zinn Education Project to provide middle and high school teachers with free access to lessons for Howard Zinn’s A People's History of the United States and other people's history resources.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bu.edu/bostonia/summer17/bringing-zinn-to-class/|title=Bringing Zinn to Class|website=Bostonia}}

In 2014, Teaching for Change was attacked by Rush Limbaugh who said of the organization, "it’s racist, it’s bigoted."{{Cite news|url=https://origin-www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2014/06/16/rush_revere_books_dissed_on_c_span2/|title=Rush Revere Books Dissed on C-SPAN2|work=The Rush Limbaugh Show|access-date=2017-08-21|language=en-US}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.bookweb.org/news/teaching-change-supporters-react-limbaugh-slam|title=Teaching for Change, Supporters React to Limbaugh Slam|date=2014-06-19|work=American Booksellers Association|access-date=2017-08-21}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/city-desk/blog/13068736/rush-limbaugh-attacks-the-bookstore-at-busboys-and-poets|title=Rush Limbaugh Attacks the Bookstore at Busboys and Poets|work=Washington City Paper|access-date=2017-08-21|language=en}}

Teaching for Change launched the Teach the Beat initiative{{Cite news|url=http://www.tmottgogo.com/teach-the-beat-go-go-goes-to-school-artists-and-scholars-in-the-classroom-sept-29-2015-video/|title=Teach the Beat: Go-Go Goes to School: Artists and Scholars in the Classroom|date=2015-10-15|work=TMOTT GO GO Magazine|access-date=2017-08-21}} to bring go-go artists to D.C. classrooms and was among the national recipients of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation Family Engagement Awards{{Cite news|url=https://www.wkkf.org/news-and-media/article/2014/04/wkkf-recipients-of-13-million-investment-empower-parents-as-leaders-and-key-decision-makers|title=W.K. Kellogg Foundation announces recipients of $13.7 million investment to empower parents as leaders and key decision makers in education|date=2014-04-17|work=W.K. Kellogg Foundation|access-date=2017-08-21|language=en-US}} in 2014.

In 2019, the Zinn Education Project achieved the milestone of 100,000 registered teachers in the program.{{Cite web|url=https://www.teachingforchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/2019-highlights.pdf|title=2019 Highlights|website=Teaching for Change|access-date=February 19, 2020}} Also, during Latinx Heritage Month, Teaching for Change began its first yearly "Teach Central America Week" to strengthen students' knowledge of Central America.

In 2024, Teaching for Change was selected to receive the UNA-NCA Community Human Rights Award. {{cite web |title=Human Rights Awards 2024 |url=https://www.unanca.org/get-involved/participate/events/hra-2024 |website=UNA-NCA |access-date=17 November 2024}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.teachingforchange.org/ Teaching for Change] website
• [https://www.zinnedproject.org/ Zinn Education Project] website
• [https://www.teachingcentralamerica.org/ Teaching Central America] website
• [https://www.civilrightsteaching.org/ Civil Rights Teaching] website
• [https://socialjusticebooks.org/ Social Justice Books] website
• [https://www.dcareaeducators4socialjustice.org/ D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice] website

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Category:1989 establishments in Washington, D.C.

Category:Educational organizations based in the United States

Category:Organizations established in 1989

Category:Critical pedagogy

Category:Popular education

Category:Non-profit organizations based in Washington, D.C.

Category:Independent bookstores of the United States