the mill
institute

Less certain, more curious.

SUPPORT THE MILL INSTITUTE

OUR MISSION

several girls sitting on the floor in a room with a man in the background

The Mill Institute provides training and resources to teachers and advisory support to school leaders so they can build a culture that supports an open and rigorous exchange of ideas across their classroom and school communities.

Our programs create a foundation for open dialogue by:

Developing a shared vision and ground rules that enable honest discussions about contentious topics,
Sharing tools to help explore the assumptions, values, and beliefs that underlie competing perspectives,
Helping people move away from oversimplified explanations and instead define their logic and their words with more precision.

We help students challenge the belief that sensitive topics tied to identity, justice, or equality have obvious or easy answers.

boy writing on a piece of paper with a red marker

two women standing around a table with sticky notes on it

Every man who says frankly and fully what he thinks is so far doing a public service. We should be grateful to him for attacking most unsparingly our most cherished opinions.

John Stuart Mill

Educators and students alike face a national social and political climate that can stifle open classroom conversations, leading to a reluctance to speak openly, honestly, and rigorously. By the time they get to university, 60% of students actively self-censor. This is not a “Right” or a “Left” problem, but an education problem, with students lacking the practice and mindset to actively engage across intellectual and political differences. This has implications not only for students’ lives but also for the institutions that enable a democratic society to thrive.

School communities play an important role in determining how students respond to this dilemma.

Learning to engage across ideological and political divides, establishing an historically grounded understanding of why diverse viewpoints matter, and practicing the skills of open inquiry all start in the classroom - and they are reinforced by school culture. Beyond teaching simple conversation techniques, this culture depends on a mindset that students and faculty carry with them from class to class and beyond the school walls. It requires schools to have explicit conversations about why talking openly and honestly about contentious topics matters. It means finding ways to welcome diverse views, even in the face of strong disagreement - rather than presuming (or attempting to cultivate) consensus.

The stakes for sustaining a democratic society could not be higher. Join us in helping students to be less certain, and more curious throughout their lives.

WHAT WE DO

Run Programs

Teacher Fellowship

Each year we select 25 high school teachers who are passionate about cultivating viewpoint diversity and open inquiry in the classroom. Fellows gather in Austin for a weekend intensive of professional development, have access to expert Q&As, engage with a supportive peer community, and receive a $1,000 stipend at the end of the fellowship.

Over the next six months these educators then launch projects in their classrooms and school communities to promote open dialogue. They also develop free and accessible resources for the Mill Institute to publish and share with its broader teacher community.

Testimonials from Fellowship Alumni

The most significant change I have seen in my students since I started the Mill fellowship is their profound engagement and sophistication in addressing complex, global issues, underscored by a newfound readiness to question settled beliefs

Dallas, Texas

Testimonials from Fellowship Alumni

Participation in this fellowship has opened my eyes to ways to more successfully plan and implement activities to increase viewpoint diversity and get students talking about controversial or difficult topics.

New Bern, NC

Testimonials from Fellowship Alumni

I have much more confidence facilitating discussions with co-workers in my department to help navigate the complexities that we have to deal with and understand the nuances of varying opinions. I cannot stress how valuable this is.

Alberta, Canada

Reach out to Lauren (lkish@uaustin.org) with any questions.

School Leader Fellowship (anticipated Summer 2025)

By popular demand, we are excited to announce our new School Leader Fellowship, launching in Summer of 2025. This Fellowship will bring together School Leaders from across North America to receive training and support to develop cultures of open inquiry in their school communities. Applications for the first cohort are anticipated to launch Winter 2025.

Reach out to Erin (ecook@uaustin.org) with questions or to express early interest in participating in the School Leader Fellowship.

Professional Development

The Mill Institute provides professional development for educators including:

Virtual Workshops

Conference Presentations

Customized Workshops for individual schools and learning communities

Our professional development offerings include:

Support to develop classroom structures that support open inquiry, including activities that support the start of the school year

An opportunity to craft a personal narrative for why viewpoint diversity matters to you as an educator

Tools to support nuanced classroom discussions around particular topics, such as immigration, gun ownership, abortion or economic inequality

Ways to help students build a culture that moves away from echo chamber discussions and instead makes room for intellectual rigor and curiosity

Reach out to Ellie (eavishai@uaustin.org) for more information.

Teacher Discussion Group

Each month we host a discussion group exclusively for educators. This virtual group is a space for educators to examine contentious topics together and to consider pedagogical approaches to addressing these topics in the classroom.

Past topics have included immigration, the impact of AI on language arts education, free speech and college campus protests, and what it means to teach the “truth.”

Join our mailing list to receive invitations to these discussion groups.

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Support Learning Communities

The Mill Institute also offers support to individual learning communities in a variety of ways.

Customized Workshops.

We offer specialized programs for secondary or post-secondary institutions interested in building on the skills of administrative teams, instructors or students. These programs include whole faculty training, supporting students to discuss a particular contentious issue, or laying a foundation for dialogue throughout the year during university orientation programs.

Case Example: The Mill Institute at the Munk School

School leader advisory and coaching.

We help school leaders who want to increase their school’s commitment to viewpoint diversity, and would like strategic support. We help leaders create a workable plan aligned with the school mission and values.

Support for Teacher PLCs.

When requested, the Mill Institute also provides limited support to local teacher professional learning communities who are working to increase a culture of open inquiry at their school(s).

Reach out to Ellie (eavishai@uaustin.org) for more information.

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Create Resources

Viewpoint Diversity Challenge

The Viewpoint Diversity Challenge supports high school students to have conversations about sensitive political topics in a way that lets all voices be heard.

During the one-hour challenge, students engage with current news stories while learning tools for exploring the underlying values, assumptions and beliefs of opposing viewpoints. Together they also set personal goals and class ground rules for constructive dialogue.

 The Fall 2023 challenge saw 130 classrooms across 25 states registered. Our next challenge starts in August 2024.

100% of surveyed teachers said they will run the challenge again.

90% of surveyed teachers said the lesson made it easier to discuss issues in class.

Access this free resource here.

The Democracy Project

The Democracy Project is a collection of educational resources designed to support teachers as they engage students in many of the complex issues that divide us. It is a project focused not on what we think, but how we think and the consequences of our ideas for American democracy.

Our resources will help teachers introduce contentious issues through a range of pedagogical frameworks, with an emphasis on creating a learning environment that privileges open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and good-faith discourse.

The aim is to create opportunities for students to open their minds, take intellectual risks, and break free from the us vs. them modes of thinking that have proven so destructive to our democratic ideals and a commitment to the common good.

Access The Democracy Project resources here.
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Reach out to Erin Cook (ecook@uaustin.org) with any questions.

Resource Hub

The Mill Institute is dedicated to providing educators with resources that foster open inquiry and intellectual curiosity in the classroom, and we're proud to announce the launch of our new Resource Hub! Here you will find primary resources created by The Mill Institute as well as a collection of classroom materials inspired by our 2023-24 Teaching Fellows. These materials include lesson plans, student activities, and pedagogical resources that prompt students to question their assumptions, seek new perspectives, and engage in open dialogue. Access the resource hub here.
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We will continue to add teaching resources to the hub throughout the year.

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conduct research

We conduct research that furthers the public understanding of what educators and students need to create viewpoint diversity in the classroom.

If you are interested in learning more or in collaborating on a research project, please email Ellie Avishai at eavishai@uaustin.org.

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What sets us apart

Practical and Actionable

We support schools in practical and actionable ways to develop an open-inquiry culture across their entire community.

Non-Partisan

Our programs and resources are non-partisan and offer multiple lenses to explore important social and political questions. We do not believe that our most pressing issues can be reduced to a simple “Right vs. Left” frame.

Critical Thinking Without a Political Agenda

We fill a gap in the education landscape left by organizations that teach critical thinking skills but shy away from tough political topics, or those that address controversial topics in ideological ways. We help teachers dig into topics that others may be afraid to touch, and we do so without a political agenda.

Focus on Transferable Skills

We focus on educational skills and structures that are transferable between subject areas and applicable to different classroom contexts.

WHO WE ARE

team

Ellie Avishai

Co-Founder and Executive Director

Lauren Kish

Operations Manager

Erin Cook

Program Director

Ambika Spinazzola

Content Writer and Editor

advisors

Nadine Strossen

Senior Fellow, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

New York Law School Professor Emerita, past national President of the American Civil Liberties Union (1991-2008), Senior Fellow with FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression)

Ian Rowe

Founder and CEO of Vertex Partnership Academies, Senior Fellow American Enterprise Institute

Elizabeth Micci

Director of Client Results at District Management Group

Dennis Manning

Retired Headmaster, Education Leader

Drew McKnight

Co-Chief Executive Officer, Managing Partner and Co-CIO of the Fortress Credit Funds business

support our work

In the past year, our programs and resources have reached more than 14,000 students across 30 states, and we are just getting started.

We need your support to transform the experiences of students and teachers across America, and to help thousands of classrooms be spaces where open and honest conversations can happen.

Your generous donations will support:

The establishment of a fellowship to support school leaders to create open inquiry cultures at their schools

Research to discover and spread teaching practices that help students engage openly with contentious social and political issues

Support for schools that cannot afford large-scale professional development programs

An open access library of resources that guide and support teachers to engage students in rigorous classroom conversations about topics related to politics, free speech, identity, global affairs, and civic engagement

The Mill Institute is funded separately from the University of Austin, and we are entirely responsible for raising the funds that keep our work going.

Help us reach our goal of supporting 10,000 classrooms across the country by 2027.

support our work

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the mill
institute

Less certain, more curious.

OUR MISSION

The Mill Institute provides training and resources to teachers and advisory support to school leaders so they can build a culture that supports an open and rigorous exchange of ideas across their classroom and school communities.

Our programs create a foundation for open dialogue by:

Every man who says frankly and fully what he thinks is so far doing a public service. We should be grateful to him for attacking most unsparingly our most cherished opinions.