The mission of Humanities Amped is to model and share transformative educational practices that result in people’s power to shape their world. Since 2014, Humanities Amped has worked with students and teachers in EBRPSS classrooms to implement approaches that nurture belonging, kindle social responsibility, and root academic standards in creativity and problem-solving. Through our current residency at Tara High School, Humanities Amped is impacting a campus that serves over 1000 students.

Across the nation, 30% of high school students don’t even make it to graduation. This tragedy is the direct result of many teenaged youth feeling disconnected from school, both interpersonally and academically. When students’ voices, concerns, and interests are not considered an important part of what happens in classes, they are taught to feel that they don’t matter and that school doesn’t matter. School disconnection for marginalized youth is an egregious missed opportunity: a recent CDC study on youth well-being and the crisis of youth mental health reports that school connectedness is a very powerful protective factor with a long-lasting impact on development into adulthood.

Humanities Amped directly addresses these systemic shortcomings in education by creating in-school conditions that call students into challenging, meaningful learning that is sustained through supportive relationships. In Amped classrooms, Amped and Tara educators partner to facilitate civically engaged project-based learning that synthesizes creative and academic practices to strengthen community and student accountability. Because our approaches center both belonging and meaningful work, Amped students are more likely to stay in, finish, and thrive in school. Four years of data have shown that Humanities Amped students graduate at a 30% higher rate than their peers, effectively closing the graduation gap. Since beginning its residency at Tara High School in 2022, the English Learner graduation rate has increased from 13% to 62%.

Humanities Amped

Amplifying healing justice, radical imagination, & beloved community in Baton Rouge public schools

Amped SGA

Adelante Initiative