Rethinking Schools is a left-of-center publisher of educational material widely used in K-12 public and private schools in the United States. The organization was founded as a quarterly magazine in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1986 by activists who taught in the local public school system. ¹

Rethinking Schools states that it is among the largest publishers of “social justice” educational materials in the United States and that its quarterly magazine has subscribers in all 50 states and ten Canadian provinces. The group credits itself as a major driver of promoting the Black Lives Matter movement in K-12 schools and assisted in the launch of a national “Teach Climate Justice Campaign.” The group is also one of two parent organizations, along with Teaching for Change, of the Zinn Education Project, an organization committed to promoting the writings and ideology of the late far-left academic and alleged Communist Party USA member Howard Zinn. ^{2 1}

Background

Rethinking Schools was formed in 1986 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to oppose education reform. Milwaukee Teachers Education Association union organizer Bob Peterson was among 12 teachers who began distributing the group’s quarterly magazine. The organizers quickly turned to promoting new left-of-center books on schools’ curriculum reading lists. The group began publishing teacher guides promoting teaching through a left-of-center social justice lens, including guides titled “Rethinking Columbus,” “Rethinking Our Classrooms,” and “Rethinking Sexism, Gender and Sexuality.” ³

Activities

Since its early publications, Rethinking Schools has published dozens of additional teachers’ guides including “Teaching for Black Lives,” “Teaching Poetry for Social Justice,” and “Transforming Teachers Unions.” ¹

Rethinking Schools has also promoted teacher activism outside of its distribution of publications and has supported groups including the National Coalition of Education Activists, Teachers 4 Social Justice, and the Teacher Activist Group. The group also opposes school choice and charter schools and has consistently published content supporting anti-school choice activism. ¹

In 2016, Rethinking Schools editors in Seattle promoted the adoption of the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action, which later became a national campaign with the support of Rethinking Schools. The group also launched the Teach for Climate Justice Campaign to promote left-of-center climate policy in schools. ¹

As of 2025, Rethinking Schools’ website showed lesson plans through the Massachusetts Teacher’s Association labeled as ““Anti-Oppression.” According to Rethinking Schools, additional lesson plans posted included “Teaching Palestine,” “Transgender Justice in Schools,” and “Teaching that Food Justice is Racial Justice.” According to the description of “Teaching Palestine,” the lesson plan claims “…it fills a huge gap in the school curriculum with regard to a hundred-year-old injustice in whose perpetuation the United States is deeply complicit.” ⁴ The description for “Transgender Justice in Schools” reads that the lesson plan “…provides inspirational stories from trans students and educators and resources for teachers, students, and parents seeking to build communities where everyone flourishes.”⁴ Finaly, the description for “Teaching that Food Justice is Racial Justice” claims that students will, “…come away from our study of issues like the climate crisis, racial injustice, and food knowing that it’s possible to confront problems in meaningful ways that can make material differences in people’s lives within our communities.” ⁴

Zinn Education Project

In 2008, Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change partnered with socialist academic Howard Zinn to form the Zinn Education Project. Zinn, who died in 2010, was most notable for his book A People’s History of the United States, a socialist critique of the history of the United States that Zinn stated was written with the intent of promoting the spread of democratic socialism in the United States. ⁵ In a 2012 poll of readers of the History News Network, the book finished second as the least credible history book in print. ^{6 1}

The Zinn Education project seeks to promote the works of Howard Zinn in schools and publishes other “People’s History” books inspired by Zinn’s work. ⁷

As of 2025, the Massachusetts Teachers Association claimed to provide a lesson plan titled “Teaching Materials Archive INN Education Project” which allegedly links to resources used by the Zinn Education Project. One source for the lesson plan “Teaching Palestine-Israel from the Perspective of Civil Rights and Black Power Activists” allegedly compares Black Lives Matter to Palestine further claiming “the tear gas used on Palestinians in the Occupied Territories is made in the United States. This moment, and countless expressions of solidarity since, have reignited ties between the Black and Palestinian struggle for freedom.” ⁴

National Education Association (NEA) Relations

As of October 2025, it was reported that the National Education Association (NEA) had provided the Zinn Education Project “prime space and opportunities to present at its conferences, partnered with them to design curriculums, united with the organizations to hold national teaching events, praised and promoted lessons developed by the groups in press releases, cited them in multiple teachers handbooks, and facilitated the dissemination of lesson plans they developed.” ⁸ In addition, the same report alleges that multiple NEA blog posts and press releases have promoted “the Zinn Education Project’s classroom materials, stating that the organization “promotes and supports teaching history accurately.”” ⁸

1. “Our History.” Rethinking Schools. Accessed March 28, 2022. https://rethinkingschools.org/about-rethinking-schools/our-history/
2. Greenberg, David. “Agit-Prof: Howard Zinn’s influential mutilations of American history.” The New Republic. March 19, 2013. Accessed March 28, 2022. https://newrepublic.com/article/112574/howard-zinns-influential-mutilations-american-history
3. Karp, Stan. “Rethinking Schools: 30 Years of Teacher Activism.” NJCU. Accessed March 28, 2022. https://www.njcu.edu/sites/default/files/rs.njeareview.may2017.pdf
4. “Massachusetts Teachers Association provides resources for educators that promote gender ideology and anti-Israel sentiment.” Defending Education, February 25, 2025. https://defendinged.org/incidents/massachusetts-teachers-association-provides-resources-for-educators-that-promote-gender-ideology-and-anti-israel-sentiment/
5. The Conscience of The Past.” Flagpole. February 18, 1998. Accessed March 28, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20010525003828/http://www.flagpole.com/Issues/02.18.98/lit.html
6. Beneke, Chris; and Randall Stephens. “Lies the Debunkers Told Me: How Bad History Books Win Us Over.” The Atlantic. July 24, 2012. Accessed March 28, 2022. https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/07/lies-the-debunkers-told-me-how-bad-history-books-win-us-over/260251/
7. “About.” Zinn Education Project. Accessed March 28, 2022. https://www.zinnedproject.org/about/
8. Schmad, Robert. “Top teachers union invites pro-violence activists to shape public school curricula.” Washington Examiner, October 21, 2025. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/3856575/nea-zinn-education-project-teachers-union-pro-violence-activists-public-school/