Author: Zachary Cote

Sessions Will Explore Civic Learning, Literacy, AI and Innovative Approaches to Social Studies Education

NORTHRIDGE, CA (Feb. 18, 2025) – Thinking Nation, a national 501(c)(3) committed to empowering students to thrive as engaged and critical thinkers for the future of democracy, is excited to announce its participation in four major education conferences taking place across the nation between February and March 2025. 

“February and March are such exciting months for us at Thinking Nation as we get to make our way across the country to collaborate and learn from social studies educators in a diversity of contexts,” said Zachary Coté, Executive Director, Thinking Nation. “We are humbled to be able to share the things that inspire us in our sessions and we are eager to learn from so many people who care about the future of social studies education.”

During the four conferences, Mr. Coté and Director of Curriculum Annie Jenson will lead sessions that focus on civic learning, literacy, AI, and innovative approaches to teaching social studies. Session details follow: 

Minnesota Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference, St. Cloud, MN

Session Title: “Harnessing Storytelling: The Essential Role of Social Studies Teachers in the MN READ Act”

Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025 | 3:00 – 3:50 p.m.
Ms. Jenson will discuss how high school educators can integrate storytelling—a practice long embraced by Indigenous traditions— into the classroom to create more inclusive, inquiry-driven learning experiences that spark curiosity, build literacy skills, increase engagement, and encourage meaningful connections to history. This session will provide practical strategies for selecting and implementing historical fiction in ways that cultivate empathy, promote critical thinking, and bring the past to life in today’s classrooms. 

Middle States for the Social Studies Annual Conference, Lancaster, PA

Session Title: “From History to Humanity: Fostering Historical Empathy Through Perspective Taking”

Day, Feb. 28, 2025 | 9:25 – 10:10 a.m.

Ms. Jenson will lead two sessions at the conference. On Friday, February 28, 2025, she will provide high school educators with concrete strategies to integrate historical empathy into the classroom, helping students move beyond presentism to see the humanity within history. Revealing how complex individuals have contributed to history, a nuanced view of America’s past emerges with a greater appreciation for its ongoing diversity. Through hands-on activities, interactive discussions, and collaborative brainstorming, participants will explore how complex individuals have shaped history and gain practical tools—such as graphic organizers and formative assessments—to integrate perspective-taking into their teaching. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies to create more nuanced, inclusive, and engaging history lessons.

Session Title: “Walking in Their Shoes: The Role of Historical Fiction in Building Empathy and Engagement”

Day, March 1, 2025 | 2:40 – 3:25 p.m.

Ms. Jenson’s Saturday, March 1, 2025, session will explore the power of storytelling in the classroom and how historical fiction can bring diverse voices to life for students. Through hands-on activities, interactive discussions, and collaborative brainstorming, participants will engage with practical resources—such as graphic organizers and lesson planning templates—to develop tailored strategies for integrating historical fiction into their curricula. Attendees will leave with concrete ideas to enhance student engagement, foster perspective-taking, and deepen historical understanding.

California Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference, Burlingame, CA

Session Title:  “AI Can’t Replace Historical Thinking, But It Can Help Us Teach It”

Friday, March 7, 2025 | 11:20 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.

Mr. Coté has been selected to lead two sessions at the conference. On Friday, March 7, 2025, he will lead an interactive session on the paradox of AI in history education—while AI offers efficiency, it provides little incentive for students to think historically. Educators will explore strategies to empower students as critical thinkers in the age of AI, engage in an AI-graded assessment on historical analysis, and discuss how to integrate AI responsibly in the classroom. Attendees will leave with practical insights and free resources to enhance historical thinking while maintaining civic responsibility in their teaching.

Session Title:  “Does History Really Repeat Itself? Helping Students Understand Change Over Time”

Saturday, March 8, 2025 | 2:40 – 3:40 p.m.

In his second session, Mr. Coté is joined by Carly Donick, an educator from the Ventura Unified School District in Ventura, CA, and the recipient of both the California Council for Social Studies and National Council for Social Studies Middle School Teacher of the Year awards. They will help participants explore continuity and change over time as more than just academic tools. This session will propose that continuity and change over time are dispositions that cultivate literacy growth in academics and empathy in students’ social-emotional growth. Participants will engage with easy-to-use tools that foster the historical thinking skill of continuity and change over time that can provide meaning to how we interact with historical narratives in the classroom.

National Council for History Education Annual Conference, St. Louis, MO

Session Title: “Building Bridges between K-12 and Museum Institutions Strengthens Learning”

Saturday, March 22, 2025 | 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.

Mr. Coté will be joined by Ebony McKiver of Social Studies Accelerator in a collaborative discussion on strengthening the connection between K-12 classrooms and museum institutions. Too often, teachers underutilize museum collections and expertise, while museums create lessons that rarely reach students. This session explores a Washington, DC-based case study demonstrating how intentional collaboration can bridge this gap, aligning historical standards with local resources. Participants will engage with practical strategies to integrate museum expertise into their curriculum, making history more accessible and relevant. By fostering stronger partnerships, this session aims to enhance historical inquiry and model a more cohesive approach to public education.

In addition to speaking at two education conferences this quarter, Mr. Coté will attend the Civic Learning Week National Forum held at Stanford University on March 13, 2025. 

For more information on Thinking Nation’s innovative approach to fostering historical thinking in social studies education, visit thinkingnation.org. Educators can explore Thinking Nation’s  Best Practices Repository for valuable resources and strategies. To contribute financially to the organization’s work to transform social studies classrooms across the country, go to thinkingnation.org/donate.

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About Thinking Nation 

Thinking Nation is a national 501(c)(3) committed to empowering students to thrive as engaged and critical thinkers by supporting teachers with meaningful curricula, training, and technology to transform social studies education for the future of democracy. We believe that education is our greatest equalizer, and that every student, regardless of zip code or socio-economic background, deserves access to learning practices that reflect the diversity of identities, histories, contributions, and experiences to support enriched educational opportunity, equity, and success for all. Thinking Nation currently serves more than 35,000 students in 16 states and the District of Columbia. For more information about Thinking Nation or to support the organization’s work to transform social studies classrooms across the country, please visit thinkingnation.org/donate. 

Media Contacts

Laura Wessells and Martha Holler

ShinePR for Thinking Nation, thinkingnation@shinepr.com

January was a long month. Still, there were two incredibly bright spots that I want to draw attention to.

On January 24th, Thinking Nation spent the day at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Then, on January 28th, I had the privilege to work with the social studies leaders representing all of the Regional Education Service Centers in Texas in Waco, TX. Both instances were unique and yet there was a unifying principle that was woven through each: setting the tone for historical thinking.

The National Archives

First, our experience at the National Archives was incredible. As many readers know, Thinking Nation is partnering with several Charter School LEAs in D.C. to provide a custom curriculum that is both aligned to the new standards for the District and designed to empower students to think and consider the diverse stories throughout history.

Our Group in the Rotunda at the National Archives

Our Director of Curriculum, Annie Jenson, and myself had the privilege of walking through the new curriculum with almost 40 middle and high school teachers who serve students throughout D.C. We started our morning hearing from the National Archives’ education team about the wealth of great primary sources accessible through DocsTeach. Then, before the building opened to the public, we were welcomed into the Rotunda to see the original Founding Documents and into the Records of Rights exhibit that houses many fascinating documents around human rights, including a 1297 copy of Magna Carta.

To have that time at the start of our day with such important documents was really such a special experience. I’m so grateful to the National Archives for hosting us.

The rest of our time was leading a professional learning day for the teachers using our curriculum. We explored the thinking behind the curriculum, walked through some of the resources, and practiced the types of thinking that the curriculum demands of students. There was so much energy and collaboration in the room. It was such an exciting way to kick off the curriculum that students are now engaging with across Washington, D.C.

Our professional learning day in the Jefferson Room of the National Archives

The Texas Regional ESC Collaborative

Just four days later, I was in Waco, TX working with regional social studies leaders from across the state of Texas. Together we explored two questions:

1. How do we build a common language for what it is we do as social studies educators?
2. How can we incorporate a common language for success for our students across social studies?

Using Thinking Nation’s resources and assessments, we walked through ways to effectively answer both questions. Without getting too much in the weeds, the throughline answer to both of these questions is historical thinking.

At Thinking Nation, we define historical thinking as: 

The disciplined process of properly analyzing and interpreting sources, events, and their outcomes in order to better understand the past and the people who shaped it.

Perhaps we can unpack this definition in another post, but I hope it serves as a helpful grounding to what we explored in Waco, and four days prior, in Washington, D.C.

As anyone who has spent any time with me knows, I think alignment is critical to social studies’ longevity and success. This naturally means that alignment in social studies is critical to the preserving and protecting of democracy. If we can’t align around what it is we do and how we measure success in what we do, we can not appropriately collaborate across our discipline—a discipline that empowers students with the skills and dispositions to contribute to a flourishing democracy.

We are living in polarized and unpredictable times. But historical thinking can unify our pursuit for a healthier democracy. When teachers in Washington, D.C. were analyzing primary sources in order to determine their historical significance, they were practicing historical thinking. When leaders in Waco, TX were evaluating the evidence behind certain historical claims, they were practicing historical thinking. In both cases, the thinking processes practiced served to empower the learner as an active participant in the learning process. Moreover, the learner’s agency in the process provided them with the necessary skills and dispositions to contribute to our democracy (Check out this past blog post to download free historical thinking posters!).

We all teach in diversity of contexts. Still, if we can collaboratively set the tone of our classrooms around historical thinking, we can better serve our students and prepare them for civic and life success. I was so encouraged through my experiences in Washington, D.C. and Waco, TX that there are so many of us seeking to do that.

New Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Docuseries Tells the Story of African American Movement Over the Last Two Centuries; Thinking Nation Resources Support Educators in Teaching Social Studies as a Discipline, Empower Students to Thrive as Engaged and Critical Thinkers

NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Jan. 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Thinking Nation, a national 501(c)(3) committed to empowering students to thrive as engaged and critical thinkers for the future of democracy, today announced its partnership with WETA, the flagship public media company in the nation’s capital, to make historical thinking resources available across the nation concurrent with the release of the new PBS docuseries Great Migrations: A People On The Move. The series premieres Jan. 28 at 9 p.m. ET on public television stations nationwide and continues the following three Tuesday nights.

The four-part Great Migrations series will focus on African American movement over the 20^th and 21^st centuries and the meaning behind those movements. At the center of Great Migrations is renowned historian and scholar Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and American Research at Harvard University. Dr. Gates also hosts the acclaimed series Finding Your Roots. Great Migrations will be broadcast on 350 public stations nationwide.

“We are delighted to collaborate with Thinking Nation on engaging educators and students with the themes of this series,” noted Amy Labenski, Senior Director, National Impact & Engagement, WETA National Productions. “Our organizations have a shared goal of empowering deep engagement with history and civics, and this project allows us to serve communities across the nation with quality materials.”

Through the partnership, WETA will make educational materials from Thinking Nation’s inquiry-based platform available to high schools across America in tandem with the release of Great Migrations. Thinking Nation’s materials support educators as they engage students and help them learn to contextualize information, assess the multi-layered causes of moments, evaluate the evidence they encounter, and empathize with the perspectives of others.

“We are thrilled to begin this partnership with WETA. Our nonprofit exists to ensure educational equity by empowering every student to think deeply about the information they engage with, and being able to provide schools with our resources in partnership with WETA means we can better realize our mission as an organization,” said Zachary Coté, Executive Director, Thinking Nation. “Further, we cannot understand American history without understanding African American migration. We are grateful to WETA for allowing us to support the learning of this essential history.”

WETA is the second-largest producing station for public television in the United States and serves the public with educational initiatives and high-quality programming on television, radio, and digital. WETA is known for producing and distributing a range of popular educational, cultural, and public affairs programming, including PBS News Hour; collaborations with Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. such as Finding Your Roots; and films by Ken Burns and Florentine Films, such as Leonardo da Vinci and the forthcoming The American Revolution. WETA also develops rich educational materials that inspire learning, support educators, and equips families with valuable resources to help children succeed.

For more information on Thinking Nation’s innovative approach to fostering historical thinking in social studies education, visit thinkingnation.org. To donate and support the organization’s work to transform social studies classrooms across the country, go to thinkingnation.org/donate. 

About Thinking Nation
Thinking Nation is a national 501(c)(3) committed to empowering students to thrive as engaged and critical thinkers by supporting teachers with meaningful curricula, training, and technology to transform social studies education for the future of democracy. We believe that education is our greatest equalizer, and that every student, regardless of zip code or socio-economic background, deserves access to learning practices that reflect the diversity of identities, histories, contributions, and experiences to support enriched educational opportunity, equity, and success for all. Thinking Nation currently serves more than 35,000 students in 16 states and the District of Columbia. For more information about Thinking Nation or to support the organization’s work to transform social studies classrooms across the country, please visit thinkingnation.org/donate. 

Media Contacts
Laura Wessells and Martha Holler
ShinePR for Thinking Nation, thinkingnation@shinepr.com 

Last week, Thinking Nation (Spenser, Liz, and I) flew out to Boston for the annual National Charter Schools Conference. As we’ve noted, this is the 2nd year that we partnered with the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools to do a themed student art contest and history exhibit for the conference. Naturally, since the conference took place right up until Independence Day in the city many see as the seed of the Revolution, our theme was easy! Below are some pictures of the little exhibit that attendees were able to take in. 

Overall, the conference was so exciting! The exhibit hall was bustling and we had so many great conversations with such passionate educators. The organizers of the conference, in particular Angela Christophe and Patricia Guidetti, truly put on such a wonderful event. We feel so fortunate to play a small, but personally special, part in it.

While at the conference it was great to meet or see again in person so many leaders in California Charter Schools, where we got our start, and in the civics space. Embodied relationships are so refreshing in the virtual world we often live in. 

Of course, what would a conference in Boston be like for Thinking Nation if we didn’t incorporate some mini history field trips? The three of us walked the Freedom Trail, which was really a surreal experience given it being the week of Independence Day. Some highlights for me personally, as it’s been a decade since I’ve been in Boston: 

1. Visiting the graves of the victims of the Boston Massacre – I don’t take lightly that Crispus Attucks has a named grave in a colonial Boston cemetery. Boston did not outlaw slavery until 1783, 13 years before Attucks, a African-Indigenous man was killed in front of the Old State House and memorialized in the Granary Burial Ground alongside the other four victims. In the spirit of this note, John Wheatley, who enslaved America’s first Black Author, Phillis Wheatley, is also buried there.

2. Visiting Tremont Temple and Faneuil Hall. While these two sites hold great historical importance, those of you who know me know that I spent a year of my scholarly life with the writings of Frederick Douglass, so re-thinking these sites knowing he, too, visited and spoke at them, was especially exciting.

3. Having dinner at America’s oldest restaurant, Ye Old Union Oyster House. Not only did we eat right next to the “Kennedy Booth,” where JFK ate, but while there, I learned that before it was a restaurant (pre-1826), French King Louis Philippe I taught French to Bostonians there! How cool is that?

4. Seeing the beautiful mosaic representing the site of our nation’s first public school. After all, quality public education is why we were in the city!

5. Attending a reception at Fenway. Fenway is one of those Baseball stadiums that borders a spiritual experience so any excuse to be alongside the green monster, and as the picture shows, Wally the Green Monster, is a good one.

Boston, you are a great city. It was a great National Charter Schools Conference!

Last week, I read The Atlantic article, “The Big AI Risk Not Enough People Are Seeing: Beware Technology That Makes Us Less Human” by Tyler Austin Harper. His primary case, that AI must be used for human flourishing, is one that I have often made in AI circles the last year. Harper has recently been one of my favorite journalists to read. His cultural commentary consistently verbalizes things I’ve been thinking about in ways I couldn’t have done so effectively. I’m thankful to the Atlantic for prioritizing his writing regularly. 

I want to take today’s post to dissect his claims a bit and also elaborate on how we take those claims seriously at Thinking Nation internally, as well as how we uphold the vision behind those claims in our collaborative work in the civics space. Generative AI has upended life as we know it, and it will only continue to do so. Not all upending is bad, though, so we must take into account how we use it in order to promote human flourishing. What we can’t do, as Harper so helpfully describes, is let it use us to detract from human flourishing.

Harper explores a space that we in the civics and history education space are perhaps not that up to speed in: online dating (disclaimer: I met my wife in HS, so have not had to navigate this space). In a growing “innovation” in that space, AI-run algorithms can weed out all the likely wasted first dates so that you can have the highest chance of relational success from the get go with the person you swiped right for. At its core, it’s a way to make the dating process much more efficient, but Harper points out the dehumanizing qualities that should really be the focus.

Harper marks the 20th century as one empowered by the onslaught of “disabling professions.” These professions took common skills to a community (medicine, schooling, child-rearing) and exported them to professionals. He calls these “disabling professions.” In some cases, such as medicine, this saved lives. But it also weakened human ability to cope with many aspects of life that had been inherent to human life for centuries (education) or even millennia (child-rearing). This “standardization and professionalization of everyday life” disabled normal human life.

In the 21st century, with the help of AI, these disabling professions were replaced by “disabling algorithms,” he argues. The latter being much more ominous for the future of humanity than the former.

He writes,
” Disabling Algorithms as tech companies simultaneously sell us on our existing anxieties and help nurture new ones. At the heart of it all is the kind of AI bait-and-switch peddled by the Bumble CEO. Algorithms are now tooled to help you develop basic life skills that decades ago might have been taken as a given: How to date. How to cook a meal. How to appreciate new music. How to write and reflect.”

Later in the article, he writes of the consequences of these disabling algorithms and how we need to have a clear understanding of our humanity to parse out the good algorithms from the bad. “We can’t take a stand against the infiltration of algorithms into the human estate if we don’t have a well-developed sense of which activities make humans human,” he posits. This is key. 

CivXNow AI Working Group

Back in the fall, I had the opportunity to serve on a working group under CivXNow around the intersection of civic, social cohesion, and AI. My constant push in every meeting was that our conversations around the barriers we should set around AI are all irrelevant if we don’t have a common understanding of what it means to be human. Without first defining the ontological characteristics of humanity, any sort of walls around AI are too flexible, constantly adjusting to the whims of society at any given moment. 

Harper addresses this need succinctly, “Without some minimal agreement as to what those basic human capabilities are—what activities belong to the jurisdiction of our species, not to be usurped by machines—it becomes difficult to pin down why some uses of artificial intelligence delight and excite, while others leave many of us feeling queasy.” If we don’t know what it means to be human, how will we know whether AI contributes to or detracts from human flourishing?

I had the opportunity to author the introduction and conclusion of the CivXNow Report that came out of our working group’s meetings. The report, titled “Unchartered Waters: Education, Democracy, and Social Cohesion in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,” gives some recommendations for how we can work together to ensure AI’s support of humanity, rather than its replacement. You can access some of the resources developed here.

In the introduction, I start with the famous line of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” as it sets a tone of human equality (and therefore some definition of humanity) that AI must must be seen in light of, especially in a civics space. My portion of the introduction ends with this, “As a community, we must be willing to honestly think through the various uses of AI and its implications in order to successfully wield its power without compromising our own humanity.” These discussions are imperative as AI becomes more ubiquitous in our daily lives. Otherwise, we don’t run AI, it runs us.

AI and Thinking Nation

At Thinking Nation, we think deeply about how to use AI on our platform. Currently, we use it to grade student work to provide students with instant feedback and teachers with clear data on student growth. Since all of this feedback and data enhances the teaching of history as a discipline and better facilitates students ability to engage with the past, it also enhances their own flourishing. We incentivize this approach to teaching social studies because we know this way empowers students with the agency they need to actively engage with the world around them. There are many uses of AI that we choose not to entertain as it could cloud the difference between human and machine and blurry distinctions are no distinctions at all.

I was incredibly encouraged by Tyler Austin Harper’s piece in The Atlantic. He is calling our attention to the intense ramifications of AI that are hidden in the mundane aspects of our lives. This calling attention to is critical as we move forward in the age of AI. I’ll leave a portion of the CivXNow report’s conclusion here as I hope to continue the conversation around AI, human flourishing, and education:

“As leaders in the civics and education spaces, we know that just because something can be done, does not mean it should be. One of the core aspects of being a good citizen is to think about what is best for the community, not just oneself. At the core of that civic aim is really a question of our humanity.

As people, we are inhumane when we detract from human flourishing; we are humane when we contribute to it. These are the terms in which we should think as we consider how to harness the power of AI in a way that centers our own humanity and, conversely, how AI might be used in ways that lessens that humanity.”

If you’ve been on our platform in the last couple days, you’ve noticed that we got a platform refresh! As a small nonprofit organization entering a space with many VC-backed edtech companies, it is always exciting when we can streamline the edtech side of things to be more user-friendly and helpful for our teachers and students. It’s always for the mission!

I wanted to take today to highlight some of these new changes for those teachers wondering about the changes. Let’s explore!

First, the teacher portal:

In addition to making the look feel cleaner and more intuitive, there are minor adjustments for teachers. For instance, the Icon Key is now on every page at the bottom, but with the option to minimize it to have more room to view your rosters.

Also simple changes, like the icons matching our brand colors have been updated, too. It’s the little things for this little organization, folks!

Now, if you ever want to unsubmit an assignment that is past the due date, you can. Before, teachers could only unsubmit active assignments, but thanks to your feedback, we’ve realized that sometimes that second chance comes for a student well after the assignment was due (I see you end-of-year make ups!). Hopefully, this will make it easier for the student to demonstrate their growth mindset and raise their scores! So teachers, just hover over any assignment that a student has turned in, and you can unsubmit it on their behalf.

We’ve also made the resources tab a lot easier to navigate! With buttons and more visible drop down menus, we hope it will be easier for you to find that resource you were looking for! Also, stay-tuned, in the next couple months, this tab will go over a 2.0 makeover as we sort the resources by historical/content topic, rather than type of resource. We hope that it will help you see all of the types of resources for each corresponding topic, rather than having to hunt around for them on the platform. Once again, thank you teacher feedback!

Students, too, have a more streamlined experience. On their homepage, the layout is much easier to see, and depending on which sources they want to see, they can simply click the buttons on the top of their screen. If a resource type is in green, it will show up, if it is gray, it won’t be visible. Hopefully this can help students focus on the task they need to first, as well as sort through the assignments as the year goes on and the resources accumulate.

The “Notes” and “Chat” features are more visible and easy to use, too. For both teachers and students, don’t forget that you can annotate or ask questions via chat when working on any assignment on the platform. Notifications for the chat will always show up in the top right corner of your homepage.

As you navigate the platform refresh, you may notice other subtle changes not addressed here, but hopefully they all provide a more user friendly experience. And of course, we’d love to hear more feedback if you have it teachers. Just send a help desk ticket once on your portal and let us know what you want to see!

Last week, I was honored to attend my first National Civic Collaboratory. This summit is put on 3 times a year by Citizen University in order to shift “the current paradigm of individual achievement towards collaboration and shared success.” You know how much I love the language of paradigm shifting! Generously hosted at the Reagan Library by the Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, about 100 civic leaders gathered in Simi Valley, CA to commit to the broader work of strengthening democracy. 

There was such a wide variety of civic-minded organizations there, with representation from presidential foundations, former elected officials, educators, artists, philanthropy, youth-led organizations, and more. As a whole, it was an act of pluralism, where people of diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and visions came together to support one another in civic initiatives. I was both encouraged and inspired. As we at Thinking Nation continue to cultivate thinking citizens by shifting the paradigm of social studies education, I was so energized by the work of so many in the room over the summit’s two days.

The National Civic Collaboratory is a unique set up. When various organizations share to the group about their own work, the listeners are not asked to provide feedback or advice; rather, they are asked to make commitments of support. In this way, the civic circle grows exponentially. We all can leverage our own resources and networks to further civic’s ultimate aim of preserving and protecting democracy, even if we are not directly involved. This type of pluralism gave me great hope, even as I look at an increasingly polarized populus. I look forward to more of these and getting more involved with the other organizations in the community.

The Building Hope Impact Summit

In the same vein of finding hope wherever you may be, the leadership team at Thinking Nation is excited to head to Miami today for the 3rd annual Building Hope Impact Summit. Our own Spenser Mix and Liz Connolly will be presenting on how we are leveraging AI to empower students, which will surely be an engaging session (I’m looking at you, Spenser, and former 6th grade teacher!).

I’m excited to meet so many changemakers in the education community and learn from their successes (and hopefully share some of ours!). It is bound to be an enriching time. Whereas the National Civic Collaboratory gave me hope about the state of civic initiatives in a fractured democracy, I am excited to identify areas of hope in a fractured education system. Our students deserve it.

Not Too Late for Mock APs!

The last thing I want to put on your radar is our Mock AP exams! It is not too late to get your rosters all set up to give a Mock AP exam to your students on our platform. Our AI instantly grades the student exams, giving students immediate and specific feedback. Both the students and their teachers get detailed data reports that outline exactly what needs to be studies in the final days before the exam. If you are looking for a way to give your students the best shot to be successful on the big exam, this is it! If you want more information, head over here to download the informational flyer or request a meeting to set things up. Also, shout out to History For Humans for detailing the Mock APs on social media!