User:Central Midfielder/Facing History and Ourselves

Facing History and Ourselves is a global non-profit organization founded in 1976. The organization is based in Brookline, Massachusetts with 180 staff members in the main office and in other U.S. states.

History
Margot Stern Strom co-founded Facing History and Ourselves in 1976.

Since the late 1970s, the group claims to have trained over 10,000 teachers, who have taught over half a million students in the U.S. and Canada. The curriculum is now also used in Israel, Northern Ireland, South Africa and China. Most of their revenue comes from grants and contributions. The teaching workshops, seminars, guest speakers, and resource materials are funded by the contributions and gifts.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated over $200,000 for the implementation of common-core standards in July 2013.

Roger Brooks was appointed as Facing History and Ourselves’ president and CEO from December 1, 2014. Brooks was formerly Dean of the Faculty and Chief Academic Officer at Connecticut College.

The course is aimed at middle school and high school students. The curriculum is designed as a history course with reflective components that address modern day prejudices. Students are asked to think about subjects such as peer pressure, conformity, and belongingness. The curriculum covers topics such as racial segregation in the United States, the Armenian Genocide, the Cambodian Genocide, anti-semitism and Nazi Germany, the history of Native Americans and Japanese Americans in the USA, as well as broader topics such as politics and immigration.

Effectiveness
The group's evaluation department claims to have performed over 140 studies which show the program to be effective and beneficial to students. In 2006 the Institute of Education Sciences of the United States Department of Education released a WWC intervention report. It evaluated eight studies conducted by FHAO, and seven did not meet WWC evidence standards and reservations. When evaluating the studies, WWC did not notice statistical significance in knowledge, attitudes, and values. The one study that did meet standards showed primary outcomes of relationship maturity, ethnic identity, civic attitudes and participation, racism, and moral reasoning. The study suggested that, in a group of 346 eighth grade students, Facing History positively affected their maturity level and made them less racist. It did not show significant change in students’ moral reasoning. Difference in change of ethnic reasoning was slightly significant from a pre-test to a post-test.

Facing History has been said to be the only way some students learn about the Holocaust in today’s society, and historian Deborah Lipstadt wrote in 1995 that this single approach is not sufficient.