Who We Are

Minerva provides professional development for educational professionals and beyond. Our story began on a basic premise: teachers wanted to learn more about the content they teach, and in a way that is engaging and easily replicable. What began in one suburban school district spread to eighty other suburban, rural and urban districts within four years.

What We Do

Minerva provides a menu of course offerings to a district, and teachers choose courses based on interest and needs. Course topics resemble a university humanities catalog and are directly applicable to the K-12 curriculum. While courses are typically several sessions, teachers can take an entire course or attend as many sessions as they can. Many teachers also partner with Minerva for curriculum consulting, or outsource new course curricula to Minerva directly.

Why Minerva is Different

The content is appealing to the teachers, but it’s perhaps Minerva’s delivery that separates this staff development from other opportunities. All the pedagogies and teaching strategies Minerva uses are identical with the common core standards adopted by many states. Minerva’s co-founders work closely with university humanities professors to ensure that topics are taught with text complexity, diverse multimedia, cultural connections, and multiple viewpoints. Teachers watch these techniques seamlessly modeled for them and in turn replicate these pedagogies with their students.

How Minerva Spread

Minerva has grown purely through word of mouth and grass roots teacher support. Many districts provide Minerva courses to their administrators, office staff and boards to treat all district staff as humanities learners. The corporate and nonprofit sectors also partner with Minerva for professional development opportunities.