Sam Wineburg’s Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) is leaving Stanford and becoming a non-profit

Big news for K-12 history teachers! The Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) is “spinning out of Stanford University” to become the Digital Inquiry Group (DIG), an independent nonprofit organization. Here’s more:

Here are some frequently asked questions that I took from the SHEG website:

Who leads the Digital Inquiry Group (DIG)?

DIG staff are the very same people who have led SHEG since its founding in 2003, including Sam Wineburg, the Margaret Jacks Professor of Education and History, emeritus, and founder of SHEG, and DIG’s co-founder and executive director Joel Breakstone, who has led SHEG for the last 10 years.

Why is this transition happening? 

We have launched DIG in order to expand our capacity to make evidence-based, classroom-ready materials freely available to educators across the country and around the world.

When is the transition happening? 

It has already begun and will wrap up in early 2024.

What will happen to SHEG’s classroom materials? 

Not to worry! All of SHEG’s lessons, assessments, and classroom posters will be available on the DIG website starting in January 2024.

Will the curriculum materials still be free?

Absolutely! All of SHEG’s materials will continue to be freely available on the DIG site. 

What will happen when the transition occurs?

All of SHEG’s materials will migrate to the new DIG website. Visitors to the SHEG site will be directed to DIG’s new site after the transition. The DIG site will have a refreshed look, but the materials will be organized similarly. 

Will DIG be separate from Stanford? What is DIG’s relationship to Stanford?

DIG is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is independent from Stanford. Stanford was a fantastic home for our team’s work for two decades, and we’re departing the university on good terms. We have a licensing agreement with the university that allows us to continue to make our curriculum materials freely available.

Will you still provide professional development?

Yes! We will be releasing details about exciting new professional development opportunities in the coming months. Stay tuned.

Read the rest here.

RECOMMENDED READING

John McWhorter on the Florida African American history curriculum Asbury University revival roundup: Day 4 update Steve Pettit resigns as president of Bob Jones University Pedagogy as therapy?