For Administrators
School and District Pathway
Incident response frameworks, staff professional development resources, observance planning guides, and curriculum overviews — organized so you can act quickly and share with confidence.
Step 1 — Start here A resource guide your teachers can use — and that you can share with confidence.
The MPAC 1st Amendment Center compiled this guide to help K–12 educators build inclusive classrooms while addressing Islamophobia, anti-Muslim discrimination, and related bias. Every resource is free, open-access, and vetted.
As an administrator, your role here is to understand what your teachers are working with, have frameworks ready for incident response, and build staff capacity to facilitate these conversations well. The sections below address each of those three goals directly.
Step 2 — Focus area 1 Responding to anti-Muslim incidents
These resources provide frameworks for responding to anti-Muslim incidents at the school or district level — from classroom-level response to district-wide curriculum rollout.
- Challenge Islamophobia ProjectA structured curriculum project for countering anti-Muslim bias. Strongest starting point for a district-wide rollout.Use to brief staff before deploying as a school-wide curriculum initiative.
- Countering Anti-Muslim and Anti-Arab Bias in Schools — Morningside CenterClassroom-level response framework for anti-Muslim bias incidents.Share with classroom teachers as a response toolkit after an incident.
- Learning for Justice: Discussing War and ConflictResources for educators, parents, and caregivers on approaching conflict with age-appropriate frameworks.Use for communicating to staff and caregivers during periods of heightened tension.
Step 2 — Focus area 2 September 11th observance planning
These three resources address the full arc of school-wide planning for the 9/11 anniversary — educator guidance, student wellbeing, and inter-religious observance framing.
- 9/11 Anniversary Response Guide for Educators — Family and Youth InstitutePractical, developmentally appropriate guidance for school-wide observance planning.Share with all staff before September each year.
- Coping with 9/11 as a Young Adult — Family and Youth InstituteFor older students processing 9/11 as generational history. Share with school counselors and advisory staff.Pair with the educator guide above for a complete student support package.
- Pastoral Guidelines for Inter-Religious 9/11 Observances — ELCAEcumenical and inter-religious perspectives for community and school observances of the 9/11 anniversary.Use when coordinating observances with parent communities or local faith organizations.
Step 2 — Focus area 3 Staff professional development
These four frameworks are best used as PD infrastructure — not one-off sessions. Introduce them early in the year so staff have shared vocabulary when hard conversations arise.
- Resetting the Table: Courageous Communication Across DividesStructured facilitation framework for conversations across political and identity divides.Start here. Strongest whole-school PD investment in this list.
- Candid and Constructive Conversations — Harvard Kennedy SchoolDeliberative democracy model for political and social disagreement. Works for staff and for sharing with the broader community.Pair with Resetting the Table for a two-part PD sequence.
- Navigating Difficult Conversations — Harvard GSEEducators as community bridge-builders. Broad facilitation toolkit from Making Caring Common.Use as the ongoing facilitation reference your teachers return to across all topic areas.
- Tanenbaum: Courageous Conversations ActivityStructured activity for conversations about religion and identity. Works for both staff PD and classroom use.Use as a structured exercise during staff orientation or the first PD day.
Step 3 — Go deeper Curriculum overview and additional resources
These resources give you an administrator-level overview of the teacher-facing curriculum so you can make informed adoption decisions and anticipate parent or community questions.
- Teach Palestinian Stories — full curriculumThe primary Palestinian history curriculum your teachers may be using. Review before approving for classroom deployment.Understand the scope and framing before teachers begin using it.
- Zinn Project: Teaching Palestine and IsraelHistorical grounding, source-based approach. A second Palestinian history framework your teachers may draw from.Pair with the curriculum above for a complete picture of what is in use.
- Costs of War Project — Brown UniversityInterdisciplinary framework on the post-9/11 wars. Strong for grades 10–12 but requires advance review.Review scope and framing before approving for high school classroom use.