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PROGRAM

Our Program

We work in partnership with schools to create and implement programs that work for each community–no two programs are alike because no two schools are alike.  

Schools decide when to run the program, during or after school, and select a partner teacher to lead students. Our partner teachers, guided by a standards-aligned curriculum that we create specifically for each school, lead students through the research process to uncover the story of their school. Students learn primary research techniques, experience historical collections at local archives and museums, handle old photographs and news articles, collect oral histories from long-time community members, hear from expert speakers, and much more!

After research is complete, The Story of Our Schools uses the students’ findings to design the exhibit that is reviewed and approved by a representative committee selected by school leadership. Our careful and collaborative process ensures the final exhibit is appropriate for each school, meaningful, and accurate. 

Each exhibit is unique and designed to highlight selected themes and meet physical space and funding parameters. Our exhibits are made of high quality, durable, museum-grade materials that allow for easy cleaning and are, as much as possible, maintenance-free.

Application

We want to work with every school community interested in discovering and sharing their story! However, we are a small, grass-roots organization and can only partner with a limited number of schools per year. Available funding and the timelines of our current school partnerships ultimately determine when we can partner with new schools. After exhibits are installed, we generally run an application to select our next partner schools.
Interested in bringing The Story of Our Schools to your school? Email jen@storyofourschools.org to get on our list, and we will reach out when the next application becomes available.

How much does it cost?

We work in partnership with our school communities to ensure project costs are covered, regardless of their fundraising capacity. Our project consists of two costs–program and exhibit–for an average total cost of $100,000 per school. The Story of Our Schools continuously fundraises for program costs by applying for grants, hosting events, and engaging annual donors.

We ask our schools to cover costs related to their teacher’s time leading the program and write letters of support for our grant applications. For exhibit costs, we lead a joint-fundraising effort with our school partners by relying on their connections to reach potential local businesses, alumni communities, PTAs, and other funding sources unique to their community. We have found that together, this outreach is successful and every community appreciates contributing to and being recognized in their completed school story exhibit.

Benefits

Our programming engages a wide variety of participants within each school community.

  • Creates a new learning and visitor space
  • Tells a unique story that the school community wants to share
  • Brings unique element to school building modernizations
  • Brings history alive through the exhibition space
  • Engages the broader school community
  • Informs prospective families
  • Excites long-term residents
  • Reinforces research, analytic, and writing skills in a real-world setting
  • Incorporates multimedia into projects
  • Instills a sense of pride in one’s school community
  • Teaches teamwork, communication, and collaboration skills
  • Provides experiential learning opportunities through field trips
  • Creates a positive legacy for students
  • Increases social and cultural capital
  • Provides curriculum for a year-long research-based learning program
  • Facilitates students’ leadership throughout the research and development process
  • Incorporates project-based learning with support from expert educators, curators, and historians
  • Aligns with rigorous DC standards
  • Invests new partners in the school
  • Provides opportunities to engage members of the broader community in the learning process