We believe listening can transform education.
Polaris Education is built by Human Restoration Project, a nonprofit rooted in public educators working inside schools to make change. We learned early on that lasting change starts by listening and learning to your community. Polaris is built to help schools and organizations do that.
Change the data, change the system
Schools have more data about students than they know what to do with, and most of it arrives late and is difficult to make sense of. The answers to making schools better tend to live in the stories, the context, and the reasons behind a number. You learn this by asking people what they think and giving them room to answer. That is the point of an empathy interview, a practice we have run with schools for years. Done by hand it is slow: a few focus groups, months of transcription and coding, and a report that lands long after the moment has passed.
Polaris Education makes listening much easier. A district can hold hundreds of student conversations in a week and read what came back while it still matters. Our white paper explains the research behind this and how the analysis works.
“What would happen if we treated the student as someone whose opinion mattered in the introduction and implementation of reform in schools?”
Michael Fullan, The New Meaning of Educational Change
We build for the students a standard survey skips past. That means being in the room: with young people, with the teachers who know them, and with communities working out what school could be.
A nonprofit rooted in public education
Polaris Education is one part of Human Restoration Project.
Nick Covington
Creative Director
Nick taught social studies in Iowa public schools. He argues for a version of school built on students' own ideas and knowledge rather than a handed-down “future ready” curriculum.
Chris McNutt
Executive Director
Chris taught digital media and design at a public high school before co-founding Human Restoration Project. He works on how shifts like project-based learning and ungrading can reshape school around what students and teachers actually need.
Cassie Nastase
Grant Coordinator
Cassie was a public school counselor in West Michigan. She brings social and emotional learning and therapeutic practice into everyday teaching, and coordinates HRP's Third Coast Learning Collaborative.
Julia Valenti
Full-Stack Engineer
Julia is the engineer who builds Polaris. She writes the software that records conversations, strips out identifying information, and turns what students say into something a school can read and act on.
The rest of what we do
Polaris is one part of Human Restoration Project. The rest of our work runs on the same belief: schools get better when the people in them are listened to.
Empathy interviews
The listening practice Polaris scales. We have run these with schools for years.
Human-centered PD
Workshops and coaching for schools moving toward student-centered practice.
Essays & writing
What we think about grading, assessment, and the purpose of school.
Conference to Restore Humanity!
Our biannual virtual online conference.
Floop
A feedback tool for educators.
Third Coast Learning Collaborative
A West Michigan network of educators building alternatives together.