New Visions for Public Schools

New York, New York, 10017

Last updated on April 17, 2025

Grant awarded by

Library of Congress

Region

East

Organization Type

Non-profit Organization

Congressional District(s)

Fiscal Year Of First Grant

FY 2025 [10/01/24 - 09/30/25]

Contributing Organization(s)

Organization description

For over three decades, New Visions for Public Schools has played a central role in improving the quality of New York City public schools and removing barriers to the success of low-income students and students of color.

New Visions focuses on providing educators with the tools, resources, and support to build and continuously improve strong and responsive systems. These include major investments in student planning tools, free and high-quality curriculum, and innovative career & college preparatory programs.

Our freely available curricular materials are aligned with the New York State K-12 Social Studies Framework, the New York State Regents exams, as well as the Common Core Learning Standards. Through the investigation and analysis of primary and secondary sources, students have the opportunity to think critically, and to read, write, and speak like historians, while simultaneously honing the literacy and critical thinking skills necessary for both the New York State Regents exams and post-secondary coursework.

Project description

Teaching Literacy Through US History will ultimately help students build tolerance and empathy towards marginalized peoples, create student-centered learning environments, and cultivate teacher leaders both in New York City (NYC) and New York State (NYS) to be well equipped to navigate and use the collections of the Library of Congress in their classroom. The project will include teacher professional development (PD) workshops, classroom observations, and collection of student work samples. The first year focuses on creating lessons and forming a teacher advisory group to pilot them. In the second year, we will revise lessons based on feedback and expand our reach to more NYC schools, with a series of professional learning (PL) workshops for new adopters. By the third year, we will disseminate our materials further statewide and enhance PL sessions and our curricular website with video resources showcasing effective lesson implementation of Library of Congress Primary Source Documents. The project ultimately seeks to foster critical thinking and historical analysis skills, preparing students for both academic success and active citizenship.