**2006 Teaching American History Grants Abstracts**

# **Alabama**

**Grantee Name:** Jefferson County Board of Education, AL

**Project Name:** Jefferson County Teaching American History Program

**Project Director:** Martha V. Bouyer, mbouyer@jefcoed.com

**Funding:** \$993,888

**Number of Teachers Served:** 90

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 37,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** the University of Alabama (Birmingham), the University of
Montevallo, Samford University, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American
History, the Alabama Civil Rights Institute, the American Village, the
Alabama Humanities Foundation, Technology in Motion, the Birmingham
Museum of Art, and the National Geographic Society

**Topics:** the colonial era, the American Revolution, technology, and
civil rights

**Methods:** workshops, field trips, classroom observations and support,
Internet activities, and Saturday content-specific classes

As evidenced by low test scores, many Jefferson County students are not
receiving high-quality instruction in American history due greatly in
part to a lack of teacher content knowledge. Due to the requirements of
the *No Child Left Behind Act* and determination to provide a
high-quality education to all students, the district will provide
teachers with the content knowledge and skills they need to be effective
in the classroom. Each year the project will provide a different cohort
of 30 primary, middle, and high school teachers 216 hours of graduate
level American history instruction and pedagogical training as well as
additional direct observation and instruction in their classrooms by the
project director. Each year participants will read twelve historical
texts, study other important documents, and develop instructional units
and other resources for classroom use. To further enhance their study of
American history, teachers will also participate in three experiential
field studies.

**Grantee Name Name:** Montgomery Public Schools, AL

**Project Name:** Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks Liberty
Fellowship

**Project Director:** Gloria S. Odutola, gloriaodutola@mps.k12.al.us

**Funding:** \$970,655

**Number of Teachers Served:** 50

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 33,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** the University of Southern Mississippi, Old Alabama Town,
Fort Toulouse/Fort Jackson, the American Institute for History
Education, and the Bill of Rights Institute

**Topics: y**ear 1: the Empire versus the Colonies, year 2: the Agrarian
South versus the Industrializing North, and year 3: Liberal Democracy
versus Totalitarianism

**Methods:** colloquia, field trips, summer institutes, CDs, and web
bulletin boards

Seventy-seven percent of district students are minorities, and more than
75% are African-American. At least 66% of students qualify for
free/reduced lunches. Eighty percent of the schools receive Title I
funds. The majority of students in grades 3-12 failed to make Adequate
Yearly Progress in math and reading in 2004-05. This project will enable
teachers to write classroom-appropriate lessons and make salient
connections with earlier historical precedents. They will infuse their
lessons into a larger Weblessons™ program and augment the
colloquia-based lessons they receive throughout the project period. To
accomplish this, teachers will participate in six seasonal colloquia, a
field trip series, and three summer institutes. Teachers will also take
part in a turnkey replication program to train other teachers in their
district, and they will be provided with three annual, interactive
CD-ROMs covering the material learned in the professional development
sessions.

**Grantee Name:** Tuscaloosa City Board of Education, AL

**Project Name:** Making a Nation: Laying Claim to Democracy

**Project Director:** Jolene Stanford, jstanfor@bamaed.ua.edu

**Funding:** \$999,210

**Number of Teachers Served:** 30

**Number of School Districts Served:** 2

**Number of Students Served:** 3,000

**Grade Levels:** 4-12

**Partners:** the University of Alabama, the Alabama Consortium of
Educational Renewal, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History,
the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, History Alive!, and the University
of Alabama and Henry Ford Museums

**Topics:** the American Revolution, the Era of Expansion, the Civil
War, the World Wars, the Great Depression, the New Deal,
industrialization and urbanization, and the influences of intellectual
and religious thought on the U.S. political system

**Methods:** graduate-level summer institutes, field studies, workshops,
coaching, and distribution of content materials and resources

At present, less than half of the schools in the two districts would
meet the proficiency standards set for the 2006-07 academic year.
Currently six of the nine high schools have a failure rate of 20% or
more on the Alabama High School Graduation Exam social studies section,
which primarily covers U.S. history. The failure rate on the Advanced
Placement exam in U.S. history ranges from to 39-100% in the two
districts. The project will use a five-pronged approach of intensive
summer institutes at the graduate level, scholar-led field studies, team
study/peer coaching during the academic year, single day
content-oriented workshops, and an infusion of content materials and
resources to increase teacher content knowledge and student learning of
American history. This collaboration will 1) provide teachers in grades
4-12 with multiple avenues to develop and strengthen their knowledge,
understanding, and appreciation of traditional American history as a
separate subject in the core curriculum and 2) develop the historical
literacy of students so that they can comprehend informational and
functional textual material including primary sources and analyze and
interpret historical data presented in charts, tables and graphs.

# 

# **Alaska**

**Grantee Name:** Anchorage School District, AK

**Project Name:** Clio

**Project Director:** Steve Ex, ex_steve@asdk12.org

**Funding:** \$893,901

**Number of Teachers Served:** 80

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 2,000

**Grade Levels:** 5, 6, 8, 10

**Partners:** the University of Alaska (Anchorage), the Alaska
Humanities Forum, and the National Archives and Records Administration's
Pacific Alaska Region.

**Topics:** the founding of America, slavery and the Civil War, and
20^th^ Century America

**Methods:** graduate-credit courses, workshops, seminars, public
forums, summer institutes, and colloquia

Anchorage School District enrolls over 50,000 students, 26% of whom live
in poverty. Ethnic minorities make up 45% of the population, with 93
languages spoken. Due to that diversity and the geographic remoteness of
the state, students have little connection to their American heritage.
Project Clio, named for the Greek muse of history, will help connect
students with their own national heritage and will make the study of
American history an exciting, engaging experience. Nationally prominent
scholars and historians will join with partnering professors and
district teacher leaders in a three-year interlocking sequence of
colloquia, summer institutes, public forums, and school year seminars
for graduate credit. The project prepares history teachers to teach with
depth and authenticity and provides coursework leading to the attainment
of highly qualified status.

# 

# **Arizona**

**Grantee Name:** Deer Valley Unified School District, AZ

**Project Name:** Learning History by Doing History

**Project Director:** Kimberly Crooks, kim.crooks@dvusd.org

**Funding:** \$960,072

**Number of Teachers Served:** 30

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 35,000

**Grade Levels:** 6-12

**Partners:** Arizona State University and the Gilder Lehrman Institute
of American History

**Topics:** early American colonization, the American Revolution and the
Declaration of Independence, the Civil War and Reconstruction, Westward
Expansion, the Spanish-American War to World War I, the Progressive Era,
and immigration

**Methods:** workshops, web activities, online courses, seminars

Significant growth rates of student populations anticipated over the
next five years means that the district projects more than 300 new
hires, with over a third coming in as first-year teachers and a sixth of
the group as second-year teachers. Good training of these new teachers
is a district priority. Current American history teachers demonstrate
low levels of professional training and minimal knowledge of subject
matter content. The project will sharpen teacher skills in interpreting
historic material to understand the deeper meaning of events. Teachers
will work with historians and curriculum experts to link the content
learned to classroom instruction, newly revised Arizona state standards,
and common assessments.

**Grantee Name:** Tucson Unified School District, AZ

**Project Name:** TUSD American History Grant

**Project Director:** Mary Stuewe, mary.stuewe@tusd.k12.az.us

**Funding:** \$991,574

**Number of Teachers Served:** 214

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 5,000

**Grade Levels:** 7-8

**Partners:** the University of Arizona and the Arizona Historical
Society

**Topics:** the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence,
elections and voting, civil rights issues, Western Expansion, the Great
Depression and its economic impact, and the Constitution and the Bill of
Rights

**Methods:** summer institutes, university coursework, study groups,
mentoring, coaching, curriculum alignment to state history standards,
online activities, and peer/resource network building activities

Tucson Unified students come from diverse backgrounds. There are more
than 500 refugees---primarily from Somalia and Liberia---and many
immigrants from Mexico. With more than 50 languages spoken at home, 13%
of the middle school students are English language learners. The overall
purpose of this grant is to provide ongoing and intensive professional
development to enable teachers to deepen their content knowledge and
pedagogy skills in American history and apply that knowledge in their
classroom when teaching the Arizona State American History standards.
Immersion experiences for both teachers and students and the integration
of technology into the teaching of American history will support the
project's ultimate goal, which is to raise student achievement in
American History. All teachers will have access to content and strategy
instruction. Schools will receive additional coaching and mentoring
support provided by doctoral students in history and a master history
teacher.

# 

# 

# **Arkansas**

**Grantee Name:** Little Rock School District, AR

**Project Name:** Liberty: The Fifth Preamble Concept

**Project Director:** Laura Arnold, laura.arnold@lrsd.org

**Funding:** \$979,057

**Number of Teachers Served:** 123

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 26,524

**Grade Levels:** 5, 8, 11

**Partners:** National History Day, the University of Arkansas (Little
Rock), the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the Clinton
Presidential Library, and the Central High School Historic National Park

**Topics:** year 1: Liberty versus Authority/Property, year 2: Liberty
versus Order, and year 3: Liberty versus Justice

**Methods:** colloquia, a history academy, networking sessions, the
development of master teachers, field trips, lesson plan development

Sixty-one percent of Little Rock students are economically
disadvantaged, and 53% participate in Title I programs. Only 1% of the
district's American history teachers hold a degree in history. This
project will use the concept of liberty to provide an in-depth study of
how that concept has been a refining, defining force in shaping "a more
perfect Union." The initiative is focused on in-depth content knowledge
and related teaching practices for all district American history
teachers that will prepare all students to achieve higher standards in
this area of study.

# **California**

**Grantee Name:** Alameda County Office of Education, CA

**Project Name:** Words that Made America 2 (WTMA2)

**Project Director:** Hector Garcia, hgarcia@acoe.k12.ca.us

**Funding:** \$999,936

**Number of Teachers Served:** 90

**Number of School Districts Served:** 5

**Number of Students Served:** 23,000

**Grade Levels:** 8, 11

**Partners:** California State University (East Bay) and the National
Archives and Record Administration's (NARA) Pacific Region

**Topics:** historiography, Benjamin Franklin, various political,
economic, and socio-cultural issues, curriculum design and development,
"competing paradigms" (e.g., division of wealth), and NARA's *100
Milestone Documents of American History*

**Methods:** monthly after-school and release-day sessions, summer
institutes, and website expansion

The participating school districts have not demonstrated high levels of
performance in state assessments in history---over half of the students
in three of the four districts fail to perform at the "proficient"
level. Districts with the highest level of Hispanic and African-American
students and English language learners have the lowest levels in history
performance. WTMA2 builds on a previous program that brought
professional development activities to elementary school teachers of
American history. This project will develop teacher-mentors who will
take on leadership roles to advance the work of their colleagues who
teach American history to diverse populations of students at risk for
failure in school.

**Grantee Name:** Del Norte Unified School District, CA

**Project Name:** California/Oregon Teaching American History Program

**Project Director:** Steve J. Godla, sgodla@delnorte.k12.ca.us

**Funding:** \$987,645

**Number of Teachers Served:** 90

**Number of School Districts Served:** 35

**Number of Students Served:** 27,000

**Grade Levels:** 5, 8, 11

**Partners:** Humboldt and Sonoma State Universities; the Del Norte,
Coos, Curry, and Josephine County Historical Societies; the Siskiyou
County Museum; the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History; the
White House Historical Association; the Center for Civic Education; and
the National Archives - Pacific Region

**Topics:** (5^th^ grade) Pre-Columbian settlement and cultures,
colonial life, the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the
Constitution, and Lewis and Clark. (8^th^ grade) the Pre-Revolutionary
era, the American Revolution, the Constitution, Lewis and Clark, the
antebellum West, antebellum reform movements, and Reconstruction.
(11^th^ grade) the Constitution, Reconstruction, the African-American
experience, the Progressive Era, the Great Depression and World War II,
and the Cold War

**Methods:** Saturday classes/workshops, Saturday museum workshop,
website, video workshops, summer curriculum development institute,
monthly newsletter, and field trips

The counties presented in this proposal suffer from chronic unemployment
significantly higher than the national average due to the decline of the
timber and fishing industries. Teachers in the region face geographic
isolation (the nearest largest cities are five to eight hours away) and
professional isolation, as they often are the only ones who teach
American history at school. There are no four-year colleges of any kind
in any of the five counties served by this project. A recent survey
given to history teachers in the target area showed that they had taken
fewer than two U.S. history classes while attending college. Each year
30 teachers will receive over 120 hours of instruction in American
History from, scholars and historians including a two-week trip to
historic sites on the east coast. In addition to the professor-led
graduate courses, participants will teleconference with historians, read
eleven historical texts, study other important documents, and develop
lesson and other resources for classroom use.

**Grantee Name:** Elk Grove Unified School District, CA

**Project Name:** Founding Documents in American History: A Passport to
Liberty

**Project Director:** David C. Byrd, dbyrd@egusd.net

**Funding:** \$991,526

**Number of Teachers Served:** 90

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 62,000

**Grade Levels:** 7-12

**Partners:** the American Institute for History Education and the
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

**Topics:** the Declaration of Independence, the Northwest Land
Ordinances, the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, the Bill of Rights,
Washington's Farewell Address, the Missouri Compromise, the Monroe
Doctrine, and Amendments 13-19 of the Constitution

**Methods:** colloquia, summer institutes, field trips, and formation of
a district-wide historical learning community

Only 34% of the district's 8^th^ grade students scored "proficient" or
above in the most recent assessment, down 2% from 2003. The number of
11^th^ grade students classified as "far below basic" has increased 7%
over the last three years, while the number of students performing at
the "basic" level has dropped five percent. Only 39% scored "proficient"
or above in the most recent assessment. In addition, only 13.9% of the
district's history teachers at the secondary level have a degree in
history. The district will partner with two of America's most scholarly
and well-respected educational service providers in the area of
traditional American history: the American Institute for History
Education and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Teachers will
participate in a year-long professional development series that
culminates with intensive on-site training in Washington, D.C. In-depth
instruction will be followed with the formation of a district-wide
historical learning community that will integrate the work of site-based
learning community teams from each school site.

**Grantee Name:** Folsom-Cordova Unified School District, CA

**Project Name:** Every Teacher a Historian: Merging Content and
Discipline in the American History Classroom

**Project Director:** Pamela Tindall, ptindall@ucdavis.edu

**Funding:** \$1,000,000

**Number of Teachers Served:** 89

**Number of School Districts Served:** 2

**Number of Students Served:** 17,000

**Grade Levels:** 5, 8, 11

**Partners:** California State University (Sacramento), and the
University of California (Davis)

**Topics:** "Reading, Thinking, and Writing in the American History
Classroom," "The Civil War in American Memory," and "Landmarks of
American History"

**Methods:** seminars, colloquia, summer institutes, book groups,
coaching, showcases and other presentations, support sessions, and
publication of lessons on the web

In 2005, only 38% of 8^th^, 10^th^, and 11^th^ grade students in the two
participating districts scored at or above the proficient level in state
history/social science tests. Only 20% of economically disadvantaged
students and 7% of English language learners reached the proficient
level. This project's sustained discipline-specific training will equip
U.S. history teachers in grades 5, 8, and 11 with a greater knowledge of
our nation's history, a deep understanding of the discipline of history,
and a vast toolbox of strategies. Trained teachers will be better
prepared to engage their students in historical inquiry, lead them in
the analysis of primary documents crucial to an appreciation and
understanding of American history, and create the kind of memorable
instruction critical for preparing all students to become tomorrow's
citizens.

**Grantee Name:** Imperial County Office of Education, CA

**Project Name:** Imperial Teaching American History Project: the Course
of Republicanism

**Project Director:** Linda Menville, lmenville@icoe.org

**Funding:** \$997,792

**Number of Teachers Served:** 90

**Number of School Districts Served:** 17

**Number of Students Served:** 32,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** the Pioneer, Railroad, Purisma, and Allensworth Town
Museums, San Diego State University (Imperial), and Imperial Valley
Community College

**Topics:** republicanism as a value system and qualities found in
Republicanism: liberty, civic virtue, service, sacrifice for the greater
good, and anti-corruption

**Methods:** summer institutes, Saturday workshops, interactive
websites, coaching, working with historians, and video conferences

In this very large, rural, isolated county, three of every four 11^th^
grade students fall below the basic level on standardized tests in
American history, a low percentage of teachers have a solid college
foundation in American history, and almost no professional development
in history is available. Many of the students' parents are farm workers,
resulting in a seasonal unemployment rate of 17.4%. Teaching historical
vocabulary will receive emphasis in the project, as English is not the
language spoken at home for most students. The goal of the project is to
increase learning outcomes among students in traditional American
history taught as a separate subject through quality professional
development of teachers. During the course of the project, 90 teachers
will participate in two-week summer institutes (focusing on content and
pedagogy) and Saturday workshops. In addition, teachers will receive
coaching support and help in the establishment of a county-wide history
education organization. History content will be studied through the
organizing principle of "republicanism" and focusing on the themes of
liberty, civic virtue, service, and sacrifice.

**Grantee Name:** Long Beach Unified School District, CA

**Project Name:** History in 4D: Documents, Deeds, Diversity, and
Professional Development

**Project Director:** Linda A. Mehlbrech, lmehlbrech@lbusd.k12.ca

**Funding:** \$982,441

**Number of Teachers Served:** 100

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 95,483

**Grade Levels:** 8, 11-12

**Partners:** National Archives Regional Office, the Constitutional
Rights Foundation, the History Channel, and California State University
(Long Beach)

**Topics:** monthly seminars---(8^th^ grade) creating a strong central
government; problems confronting the new nation; and sectionalism and
slavery, (11^th^ grade) rise to world power; civil rights; and the
Progressive Era to the New Deal, and (12^th^ grade) creating a strong
central government; rights and obligations under the Constitution; the
Constitution as a living, flexible document

summer seminars---(8^th^ grade) The Early republic and the Jacksonian
era, (11^th^ grade) Industrialization and urbanization in the late
1800's and the Cold War, and (12^th^ grade) Foundations of American
democracy and the Constitution in the 19^th^ and 20^th^ Centuries

**Methods:** visits to the National Archives and the Library of Congress
in Washington, D.C.; summer institutes, workshops, scholarly panels,
monthly seminars, and classroom visits with scholars

As a result of this project, the district seeks to improve student test
scores in American history, including internal benchmarks, state
assessments, and national assessments. Internal and external evaluation,
including sustained classroom observation and feedback and electronic
submission of lesson plans, will trigger useful data to improve
instruction in traditional American history. Of particular interest is
the proposal to allow up to 15 teachers from low-performing schools who
are not "highly qualified" to teach American history to earn a master's
degree in history education from California State University (Long
Beach). Teachers who want to improve their skills in historical
interpretation and analysis through immersion in content, pedagogy,
state standards, field experiences, history book clubs, summer
institute, and monthly seminars will spend three years in intense study,
research, and classroom teaching that will include on-site visits and
feedback.

**Grantee Name:** Los Angeles Leadership Academy, CA

**Project Name:** Essential Learning: The History of America

**Project Director:** Robin Potchka, robinpotchka@pepperdine.edu

**Funding:** \$499,972

**Number of Teachers Served:** 25

**Number of School Districts Served:** 5 independent charter schools

**Number of Students Served:** 2,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** Loyola Marymount University, the Constitutional Rights
Foundation, the Skirball Cultural Center, and the California African
American History Museum

**Topics:** democracy, constitutional government, national identity, and
citizenship

**Methods:** lectures, workshops, planning sessions, lesson/unit
development, and field trips

In 2004, the state piloted its first California Standards Test (CST) in
history and social science. Results showed that all schools in Los
Angeles performed at a lower level than the state average. The picture
was bleaker for Hispanic, English language learners, and African
American students, who had the lowest rates of students performing at a
proficient or advanced level. The project's target schools serve these
exact populations---approximately 75% of students in the five schools
are Hispanic and 19% are African American. The project's overall goal is
to provide a meaningful, memorable thematic lens through which teachers
can view the major ideas, people, and decisive moments in our nation's
historic struggle to realize the ideals of our democracy. Focusing on
historical inquiry and use of primary sources, teachers will study
democracy, constitutional government, national identity, and
citizenship. Project administrators hope to raise the schools' CST
American history scores to "proficient" by 2009.

**Grantee Name:** Lynwood Unified School District, CA

**Project Name:** Forging a Nation: Individuals, Institutions, and
Turning Points in U.S. History

**Project Director:** Chidi Onyia, conyia@lynwood.k12.ca.us

**Funding:** \$499,999

**Number of Teachers Served:** 90

**Number of School Districts Served:** 15

**Number of Students Served:** 10,000

**Grade Levels:** 5, 8, 11

**Partners:** California State University (Long Beach and Dominguez
Hills) and the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy

**Topics:** the philosophical foundations of the American political
system, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation,
the U.S. Constitution, the Mexican-American War, the Missouri
Compromise, and the Cold War

**Methods:** summer institutes, monthly seminars, field trips,
workshops, mentoring, and the development of teacher-leaders

Located in Los Angeles County, Lynwood students are among the neediest
in the nation. Over 70% live in poverty, nearly 46% are English language
learners, and only 27% of 11^th^ grade students passed the California
exit exam in 2005. The professional development in this three-year plan
will deepen and expand teachers' knowledge of history, develop their
historical thinking, and improve their means of engaging their students
in the study of American history. This project also aims to increase
teachers' knowledge and understanding of discipline-specific
instructional approaches to teaching history including literacy skills
that are critically needed to access the content. Projected outcomes of
the program include higher student achievement on state and district
assessments of American history knowledge and on the AP U.S. history
exam. Other outcomes include increased student achievement in history
and in literacy at schools that did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress
standards and deeper content knowledge for teachers who did not major in
U.S. history.

**Grantee Name:** Mendocino County Office of Education, CA

**Project Name:** Mendocino/Lake/Northern Sonoma Counties TAH Project

**Project Director:** Jamey M. Gill, jgill@mcoe.us

**Funding:** \$999,755

**Number of Teachers Served:** 45

**Number of School Districts Served:** 25

**Number of Students Served:** No Information Available

**Grade Levels:** 8, 11

**Partners:** Sonoma State University, Grace Hudson Museum, and the
Mendocino County Historical Association

**Topics:** year 1: Founding democratic principles, the roots of
American founding principles, American principles in action, and
California connections, year 2: Democratic institutions and California
connections, and year 3: Emergence as a continental power, emergence as
a global power, and California connections

**Methods:** summer institutes, field trips to local sites and to
Washington, D.C., and a website

Many districts in the project have high rates of poverty and
unemployment, as reflected in the percentage of students enrolled in the
free/reduced lunch program. The number of English Language Learner
students doubled in the region between 1995 and 2000. The regional also
has a large Native American population. This project will strengthen
teachers' knowledge and skills by providing two orientation meetings, a
two-week summer institute, four institute follow-up days, and a one-day
follow at the end of the project. The project will also offer an
interactive website and a number of field trips to places such as the
National Archives in San Bruno and the San Francisco Pioneer Museum.

**Grantee Name:** Montebello Unified School District, CA

**Project Name:** A Constitutional Lens on Teaching American History

**Project Director:** Donna Esperon, esperon_donna@montebello.k12.ca.us

**Funding:** \$630,419

**Number of Teachers Served:** 60

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 35,000

**Grade Levels:** 4, 5, 8, 11

**Partners:** the Huntington Library, the Constitutional Rights
Foundation, and the Autry National Center's Museum of the American West

**Topics:** the Colonial Era, founding principles, the Jacksonian Age,
Manifest Destiny, the Civil War amendments, Woodrow Wilson, the role of
California in American history, and FDR and the New Deal

**Methods:** seminars with scholars, ongoing professional development
sessions, and mentoring

Montebello Unified serves a high-poverty, diverse student population.
Only half of its elementary schools, none of its middle schools, and two
of three high schools met Adequate Yearly Progress. This 36-month
project has been divided into two 18-month tracks. Activities will take
place throughout the 18-month period to ensure that the project serves
the year round schools in the district, where many of the teachers with
less seniority are assigned. Project designers elected to provide
opportunities for teachers to use knowledge and skills gained
immediately in the classroom. The project establishes a district-based
teaching American history professional development center where a master
teacher assigned to the project will support teachers in planning
professional development activities on an ongoing basis.

**Grantee Name:** Mount Diablo Unified School District, CA

**Project Name:** Teaching American History for All

**Project Director:** Evie Groch, groche@mdusd.k12.ca.us

**Funding:** \$996,755

**Number of Teachers Served:** 50

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 11,000

**Grade Levels:** 5, 8, 11

**Partners:** the University of California (Berkeley)

**Topics:** colonists as citizens, self-government in the colonies,
Reconstruction, and corporations as citizens

**Methods:** summer institutes, colloquia, coaching, and online
activities

The project aims to lessen the wide achievement gap in American history
between those proficient in English and those who are not. Teachers will
learn how to lower language barriers by providing models for the
strategic application of language development to history texts. They
also will learn to analyze sources for historical value and
accessibility to English learners and low-literacy students, developing
source-specific reading and writing skills, and keeping students fully
involved in subject-matter discussions. Content and literacy instruction
will provide teachers with the tools they need to increase student
achievement.

**Grantee Name:** San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, CA

**Project Name:** Teaching American History II (TAHII)

**Project Director:** Janice Hamner, janice.hamner@sbcss.k12.ca.us

**Funding:** \$998,000

**Number of Teachers Served:** 36

**Number of School Districts Served:** 3

**Number of Students Served:** 67,320

**Grade Levels:** 8, 11

**Partners:** the Nixon Birthplace and Library, the Reagan Presidential
Library, the National Archives and Records Administration's Pacific
Region, the Lincoln Memorial Shrine, Brown University, the
Constitutional Rights Foundation, and the World Affairs Council of
Inland Southern California

**Topics:** year 1: From Colonies to Colonialist: From the American
Revolution to the "Open Door" Policy in Asia, year 2: The U.S. as a
World Power: From "Big Stick" Diplomacy to Post-WWII International
Institutions, and year 3: The American Century and After: From Cold War
Diplomacy to 21^st^ Century Foreign Relations

**Methods:** seminars

Of the 64 11^th^ grade U.S. history teachers in the partner districts,
only 12 (19%) have degrees in history. TAHII will promote and strengthen
the teaching of 8^th^ and 11^th^ grade American history teachers to
affect positively student achievement as measured by student
standards-based content knowledge surveys and the state test.
Participating teachers will meet for monthly scholarly seminars with
presentations on topics related to major trends in the history of
American foreign policy, with the intention of increasing their
effectiveness with students. The six sessions will begin in September
and end in May with the culminating event, a student town meeting on
American foreign policy. The project will also provide opportunities for
teachers to forge on-going relationships with scholars and curators,
archivists, and education staff from participating historical
organizations.

**Grantee Name:** San Diego County Office of Education, CA

**Project Name:** Perspectives on the American Experience

**Project Director:** Laurie Mosier, lmosier@sdcoe.net

**Funding:** \$1,998,899

**Number of Teachers Served:** 150

**Number of School Districts Served:** 42

**Number of Students Served:** 500,000

**Grade Levels:** 8, 11

**Partners:** California State University (San Marcos), the
Constitutional Rights Foundation, the International Studies Education
Project (San Diego), and the San Diego Historical Society and Museum

**Topics:** A Developing Nation; Unity and Diversity---Perspectives on
Social Change; Immigration and the American Dream; America's Role in the
Changing World; and Images in American History

**Methods:** summer institutes, broadcast sessions, weekend seminars,
mentoring, and online activities

Of 8^th^ grade American history teachers in the participating districts,
71% did not major in the subject. Sixty-four percent of 8^th^ grade
students and 60% of 11^th^ grade students scored below or far below
basic in history on the 2005 California Standards Test; on the same
tests, only 6% of English language learners scored proficient. Teachers
in this project will increase their knowledge of American history by
working closely with history scholars, curriculum specialists, district
leadership, mentor/lead teachers and organizations with content area
expertise. Professional development project activities and products will
be provided using technology-based strategies to teach and learn
American history in the 21^st^ century. Participants will be engaged in
accessing, researching, analyzing, and evaluating primary source
documents, and using digital media to support the teaching of American
history.

**Grantee Name:** San Joaquin County Office of Education, CA

**Project Name:** Religion in American History: What to Teach and How to
Teach It

**Project Director:** Gary F. Dei Rossi, gdeirossi@sjcoe.net

**Funding:** \$999,000

**Number of Teachers Served:** 105

**Number of School Districts Served:** 3

**Number of Students Served:** 1,100,000

**Grade Levels:** 4, 5, 8, 11, 12

**Partners:** California State University (San Bernardino), the
Constitutional Rights Foundation, the Center for Civic Education, and
the First Amendment Center

**Topics:** John Winthrop, Rogers Williams, Native American religions,
the Reformation's impact on American religion, Catholic influences,
Protestant influences, growing religious diversity, religion and
slavery, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, 19^th^ Century
religion, the Scopes trial, religion versus communism, anti-Jewish and

anti-Catholic rhetoric, Islam in America, and the Constitution and
religion

**Methods:** summer institutes and symposia

In San Bernardino and San Joaquin, 70% or more of the students are
"below proficient" on state American history assessments at the 8^th^
and 11^th^ grades, while in Orange County it is closer to half. The U.S.
is the most religiously diverse nation in the world, and the most
religious among the developed nations. Many teachers shy away from
coverage of religion and its importance because they have received
little information on the subject in college, or are worried that they
will deal with highly charged topics incorrectly and will offend
students and/or create political issues for their schools. This project
will train a cadre of teacher leaders who will build the capacity of
their schools and districts to teach about the evolution of religious
liberty in the United States, and pivotal issues and events in American
history reflecting the influence of religion on society. Institute
scholars will include historians, religion experts, constitutional
scholars and specialists on the proper methods for teaching about
religion. The institute participants will implement and then write
lessons about the influence of religion on key events and movements of
American history such as colonial settlement, the War for Independence,
settlement of the west, and the various waves of social reform in the
19th and 20th Centuries.

**Grantee Name:** Santa Clara County Office of Education, CA

**Project Name:** Inventing America: Creating the Teacher/Scholar
Community in the Santa Clara Valley

**Project Director:** David Walters, david_walters@sccoe.org

**Funding:** \$999,994

**Number of Teachers Served:** 175

**Number of School Districts Served:** 5

**Number of Students Served:** 254,000

**Grade Levels:** 6-12

**Partners:** San Jose State University and Silicon Valley History
Online

**Topics:** Colonial history, the 19^th^ and 20^th^ Centuries, and
researching and writing history

**Methods:** summer symposia, guest/historian lectures, book talks,
website, archival collection, and local History Day events

The first goal of the project is to deepen the knowledge of 35
teacher/scholars on the significant issues, episodes, and turning points
in the history of the U.S. They, in turn, will conduct professional
development seminars for up to 140 of their peers. Another result of the
project will be the creation of a community of historians, archivists,
librarians, professional development experts, master teachers,
pedagogical experts, and local administrators. History Day events, such
as junior and senior history paper competitions, will be conducted in
the second and third years of the project. In addition, historians, in
collaboration with archivists, master teachers, and professional
development experts, will modify coursework in such a way that it
combines traditional American historiography and dynamic interpretative
history with the requirements of the California Academic Content
Standards in American history.

# **Colorado**

**Grantee Name:** Greeley-Evans Weld County School District 6, CO

**Project Name:** Colorado Academy of History

**Project Director:** Fritz Fischer, fritz.fischer@unco.edu

**Funding:** \$982,320

**Number of Teachers Served:** 40

**Number of School Districts Served:** 6

**Number of Students Served:** 30,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** the University of Northern Colorado, Colorado History Day,
and the National Archives and Records Administration

**Topics:** year 1: Essential Learning in American Political History,
including the Constitution, year 2: Essential Learning in the History of
American Society, and year 3: Essential Historical Learning in and the
Idea of America

**Methods:** workshops, study groups, summer institutes, field trips,
mentoring, and participation in state and national historical
organizations

Consortium schools serve high numbers of Native Americans (four tribes)
and Hispanics, many of whom live in extreme poverty and struggle with
literacy and reading comprehension. Nearly half of consortium schools
failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress in 2005. To bring history to
life for students, teachers will learn to teach American history through
a variety of proven methods that are engaging and culturally resonant
for diverse learning. They will learn, for example, American Indian
practices for communicating and preserving history through oral
histories and the arts. A variety of training sessions, varying in
intensity, duration, and frequency will equip teachers with the
knowledge and understanding needed to confidently create and implement
in-depth American history curriculum units of significant value to
student learning. After their training, the 40 participating teachers
will serve as American history curriculum leaders and provide informal
mentoring to their schools' teachers.

**Grantee Name:** Jefferson County Public Schools, CO

**Project Name:** Using Historical Habits of Mind to Teach Traditional
American History: Project 5Cs (Context, Change Over Time, Causation,
Complexity, and Contingency)

**Project Director:** Cynthia K. Stout, cstout@jeffco.k12.co.us

**Funding:** \$950,198

**Number of Teachers Served:** 360

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 18,000

**Grade Levels:** 5, 8, 10-11

**Partners:** the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College,
the Library of Congress, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

**Topics:** America 1800-1840, 1840-1880, and 1865-1914; America
1890-1929, 1929-1945, and 1945-2000

**Methods:** summer institutes, lesson study model, leadership training,
technology training, workshops, and conferences

The largest school system in the state, schools in this school district
typically are in the vanguard of programs and initiatives intended to
enhance teacher instructional practices to provide students with a
high-quality education. Lessons learned from the district's 2001 grant
experience will be reflected in the design of this project. The project
will provide teachers with a deeper understanding of the history they
teach and the use of the habits of mind that will enable them to ensure
the success of all students in American history as they do history to
learn history. The course of study for teachers participating in this
project is a balance among content instruction that will deepen their
knowledge of the historical eras and/or subject matter assigned to the
grade levels they teach, understanding the application of the 5Cs, and
instructional strategies for teaching students to think historically
that are most effective for ensuring the success of all students taking
American history courses.

**Grantee Name:** Pueblo School District No. 70, CO

**Project Name:** Experiencing American History Initiative

**Project Director:** Virginia A. Andenucio, gandenucio@district70.org

**Funding:** \$999,723

**Number of Teachers Served:** 80

**Number of School Districts Served:** 16

**Number of Students Served:** 5,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** Colorado State University (Pueblo), the Chicago Historical
Society, Salem State College, the American Institute for History
Education, and the Southern Colorado Teacher Education Alliance

**Topics:** Colonial America: Natives, Newcomers, and the Founding of
New England; the Making of a Nation; and American Industrialization and
the Westward Movement

**Methods:** colloquia, curriculum development and dissemination
activities, workshops, and field trips

In addition to the challenges of a teacher shortage, student poverty,
and low academic achievement across a large, isolated region, gaps in
services limit teacher access and opportunity for professional
development. This project is designed to impact the quality of American
history instruction by elementary and secondary teachers in 16 school
districts in southeastern Colorado by providing in-depth, hands-on
experience with primary documents, sites, and artifacts central to a
high-level understanding of American history, with personal guidance by
expert scholars in the various fields of study. Historic site visits to
Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago will broaden teacher perspectives and
help them to make history come alive for their students.

**Grantee Name:** Denver Public Schools District 1, CO

**Project Name:** Thinking Like Historians: Building Bridges to
America's Past, Phase II

**Project Director:** Theress Pidick, theresspidick@dpsk12.org

**Funding:** \$999,560

**Number of Teachers Served:** 60

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 73,000

**Grade Levels:** 5, 8, 11

**Partners:** the University of Colorado (Denver) and Metro State
College

**Topics:** significant issues, episodes, and turning points in
pre-colonial and colonial America; the American Revolution and the new
nation; the Constitution

**Methods:** summer institutes, seminars, after-school discussion
groups, and online support

Twenty percent of Denver's students are English language learners, the
vast majority of whom speak Spanish. Most of Denver's students (61%)
qualify for free/reduced lunches. The graduation rate for Hispanics is
approximately 50 % and that for African-Americans is approximately 65%.
The district's challenge is to graduate all students and to close the
achievement gap among all ethnic groups. This proposal builds on the
successful completion of a previously funded Teaching American History
project, which redesigned the district's 11th grade U.S. history course.
As the groundwork for the present project, we will refine the U.S.
history course for grade 11 and revise the grade 5 and 8 history
curricula to bring them into line with its structures and content.
Project activities include annual summer workshops accompanied by
school-day activities and Saturday institutes during the school year to
improve teachers\' knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of
traditional American history.

**Grantee Name:** South Central Board of Cooperative Educational
Services, CO

**Project Name:** SCBOCES Consortium RIGHTS Project

**Project Director:** Cynthia L. Seidel, seidel-c@SCBOCES.k12.co.us

**Funding:** \$914,378

**Number of Teachers Served:** 52

**Number of School Districts Served:** 9

**Number of Students Served:** 6,314

**Grade Levels:** 5-12

**Partners:** Colorado State University (Pueblo), Southeastern Colorado
Heritage Center, and Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center

**Topics:** liberty and equality, the American economy,
localism/regionalism/nationalism, the 18^th^ Century (Year 1), the
19^th^ Century (Year 2), and the 20^th^ Century (Year 3)

**Methods:** summer academies, mentoring, development of professional
learning communities, history trunks, and history reenactors

According to Colorado State Assessment Program (CSAP) results, the nine
target districts (small, isolated, rural communities) have significant
percentages of students at risk for academic failure. A large number of
students exhibit below proficiency achievement levels in reading and
writing. As school districts focus on developing proficiency in reading
and writing, no resources remain for improving and developing American
history as a separate subject. Professional development, through the use
of primary sources integrated with the state history standards, will
provide teachers with improved content knowledge and effective
understanding. This approach to the study of history uses the process of
examining artifacts and primary documents in order to highlight the
themes and ideas of the narrative and provides a tangible connection
that extends the learning process and increases retention.

# **Connecticut**

**Grantee Name:** Capitol Region Education Council, CT

**Project Name:** Charter Oak Collaborative: U.S. History in the
Elementary School

**Project Director:** Anne Raymond, araymond@crec.org

**Funding:** \$999,999

**Number of Teachers Served:** 1,252

**Number of School Districts Served:** 9

**Number of Students Served:** 21,096

**Grade Levels:** K-5

**Partners:** the University of Connecticut, the Connecticut Historical
Society, the Noah Webster House and Museum, Plimoth Plantation, Old
Sturbridge Village, the Antiquarian and Landmarks Society, the National
Heritage Foundation, the Institute for American Indian Studies, the
Webb, Dean, Stevens House and Museum, and the Boston Freedom Trail (Old
North Church, the Paul Revere House, the Boston Tea Party Ship and
Museum, and Faneuil Hall)

**Topics:** religious diversity and liberty, colonial economics and
labor systems, the American Revolution, major ideas of independence, the
Founding Fathers, daily life, post-Revolution economic and social
development, and pre- and post-Revolution State history

**Methods:** summer institute, workshops, classroom observations, and
mentoring

The council's K-3 students have little or no exposure to American
history, and those in grades 4 and 5 learn from textbooks. Few go on to
middle school with any interest or enthusiasm for knowing our country's
past and how it affects the future. The project's major strategies are
to create a cadre of lead teachers who will be highly trained in the use
of primary sources at K-5 levels, will understand the interdisciplinary
nature of U.S. history, will make effective use of the Internet, use
field trips, and will participate in professional development activities
that will improve the teaching of American history within the
collaborative and beyond. Teachers in this initiative will learn how to
use primary sources, historical fiction, historical non-fiction,
biographies, and field trips to foster a lifelong interest in and
appreciation for our country's history, principles, and values in all
students.

## Florida

**Grantee Name:** Duval County Public Schools, FL

**Project Name:** Teaching American History in Jacksonville

**Project Director:** Patricia C. Cascone, casconep@educationcentral.org

**Funding:** \$984,331

**Number of Teachers Served:** 75

**Number of School Districts Served:** 7

**Number of Students Served:** 133,400

**Grade Levels:** 5, 8, 11

**Partners:** the Jacksonville Beach and St. Augustine historical
societies, Jacksonville University, Florida State University, the Cummer
Museum of Art and Gardens, the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art, the
Museum of Science and History, the Jacksonville Maritime Museum, and the
Karpeles Manuscript Library

**Topics:** migration, the original colonies, the American Revolution,
European exploration, the Colonial Era, social and economic change,
cultural collisions, settlement patterns, and the Gilded Age

**Methods:** summer institutes, workshops, technology integration,
graduate coursework, field trips, and professional learning communities

With the goal of improving student achievement in American history, the
project will deliver a community-supported professional development
design and Internet-based publication of history instructional units
that will extend project benefits beyond the grant period. All
professional development formats will focus on enabling participants to
understand and appreciate American history through hands-on field
experiences and content-rich activities that will translate into the
development of inquiry-based teaching units for use in the K-12
classroom. Involvement of community agencies in art and history will
bring personal relevance to American history content.

**Grantee Name:** Lake County Schools, FL

**Project Name:** Teacher Evaluations in American Constitutional History

**Project Director:** Liz Holbert, hobertl@lake.k12.fl.us

**Funding:** \$950,635

**Number of Teachers Served:** 35

**Number of School Districts Served:** No Information Available

**Number of Students Served:** 16,000

**Grade Levels:** 6-8

**Partners:** the University of Florida, the Florida Humanities Council,
the Organization of American Historians, the Lake County Library System,
and Sam Houston University

**Topics**: year 1: the 15^th^ to 18^th^ Centuries, year 2: the 19^th^
Century, and year 3: the 20^th^ and 21^st^ Centuries

**Methods:** summer institutes, semi-annual lecture series, quarterly
professional learning community meetings, monthly online discussion
boards, workshops, and CD teaching tools

Florida's 8^th^ grade curriculum recently changed from "Florida:
Challenges and Choices" to "U.S. History," creating an urgent need for
content-rich American history classes. Eight of the county's nine middle
schools did not make adequate yearly progress for 2004-05. Teachers from
these schools will be given priority in the selection of project
participants. In addition, Lake County's enrollment of limited English
proficiency (LEP) students has increased by 380 students per year. This
project will improve the rigor and relevance of instruction in American
history and increase student appreciation of and achievement in American
history. The project will develop, document, evaluate, and disseminate a
comprehensive model of professional development that focuses on eight
recurring themes as they relate to three time periods of America's
history. The project's themes were chosen based on the Bradley
Commission Report that responded to concerns over the quantity and
quality of the history taught in U.S. classrooms. Themes also closely
parallel the College Board model that leads students to think
conceptually about America's past and to focus on historical change over
time.

**Grantee Name:** School Board of Polk County, FL

**Project Name:** Turning Points

**Project Director:** Rozy Scott, rozyscott@polk-fl.net

**Funding:** \$861,094

**Number of Teachers Served:** 50

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 93,000

**Grade Levels:** 8, 11

**Partners:** the National Council for History Education, the University
of Florida, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Museum for Florida
History

**Topics:** year 1: the American Revolution, the Declaration of
Independence, the establishment of a new government, the Louisiana
Purchase, the Monroe Doctrine, the Mexican-American War, and early
reform movements, year 2: the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Gilded Age,
the Progressive Movement, and debate over international involvement, and
year 3: the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, civil rights,
and Sputnik and the technological revolution

**Methods:** colloquia, seminars, and workshops

Students in eight classes representing a cross-section of socio-economic
demographics took a 25-question test covering basic American history
facts and concepts. Results were alarming---56.7% failed the test, and
18.8% earned a "D." To counteract the lack of student knowledge on the
nation's history, the project will focus on giving teachers high-quality
U.S. history content and helping them develop expertise in the
incorporation and analysis of artifacts, documents, art, and music to
make history come alive for students. This professional development
program will focus around twelve key turning points in the nation's
history. These turning points, identified by historians consulting with
district content staff, will give teachers the opportunity to identify,
explore, and understand the pivotal points that shaped the course of
American history and to consider the course the nation's history might
have taken if a different path had been followed. Fifty teachers will
participate in colloquia, seminars, and workshops delivered by
professional historians, museum staff, and learning specialists and will
become colleague trainers.

**Grantee Name:** School District of Clay County, FL

**Project Name:** Andrew Jackson Liberty Fellowship

**Project Director:** Dianna L. Miller, dlmiller@mail.clay.k12.fl.us

**Funding:** \$994,845

**Number of Teachers Served:** 50

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 33,000

**Grade Levels:** 5-12

**Partners:** the Clay County Historical Society, the American Institute
for History Education, and Learners Online

**Topics:** year 1: the Empire versus the Colonies, year 2: the Agrarian
South and the Industrializing North, and year 3: Liberal Democracy
versus Totalitarianism

**Methods:** summer institutes, colloquia, field trips, Web-based
content delivery system, and workshops

In the past 15 years, the district has seen a 40% increase in the
general student population and a significant increase in the number of
English language learner students. There also is a high rate of mobility
of students and teachers due to proximity to area naval bases. Project
goals are to increase teacher and student knowledge of American history,
develop a permanent professional development community of history
teachers, develop a team of trainers to teach peers, teach the use of
historical sites and visual enhancements, create more than 100
historical narratives and unit lessons, and improve student achievement.
Through this project, district teachers will have the opportunity to
advance their understanding of our nation's history through sustained,
intensive professional development consisting of workshops led by
experts in their fields and collaborative efforts with the content
partners. All professional development will meet the benchmarks of the
Florida Sunshine State Standards and the benchmarks recommended by the
American Historical Association.

**Grantee Name:** School District of Palm Beach County, FL

**Project Name:** Studying Triumphs, Eras, People, and Struggles (STEPS)
in Time

**Project Director:** Mary Arbogast, arbogam@palmbeach.k12.fl.us

**Funding:** \$993,811

**Number of Teachers Served:** 102

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 15,000

**Grade Levels:** 8, 11

**Partners:** the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Florida
Atlantic University, the Organization of American Historians, the
University of Central Florida, the Historical Society of Palm Beach
County, the Palm Beach County Public Library, the Flagler and Norton
museums, Digital History, and the College Board

**Topics:** 18^th^ century colonial America, the American Revolution,
the Constitution, the Civil War, the Gilded Age, the Industrial
Revolution, economics of the 1920's and 1930's, World War II, and the
Cold War

**Methods:** seminars, online activities, lectures, field trips,
workshops, summer institutes, and summer retreats

Of the 346 secondary school American history teachers in SDPBC, 111 have
less than five years of teaching experience, 42 are teaching out of
field, and 65 hold only a temporary Florida teaching certificate. Only
19 of 346 American history teachers majored or minored in the subject.
The county has become a diverse, overpopulated place where 43% of youth
under age 18 live below the poverty line and 141 languages and dialects
are spoken in the public schools. This project will provide rigorous,
content-rich professional development to increase teachers' traditional
American history content knowledge, understanding, and appreciation,
along with improved student engagement through research-based content
enhancement strategies. Partnerships will provide a wealth of expertise
and resources to help teachers make important connections in learning
and understanding traditional American history, enliven the classroom
experience, and increase student achievement.

# 

# **Georgia**

**Grantee Name:** Richmond County Board of Education, GA

**Project Name:** Witnessing History: Experiencing the Past to
Understand the Future

**Project Director:** Lounelle Beecher, beechlo@boe.richmond.k12.ga.us

**Funding:** \$999,969

**Number of Teachers Served:** 62

**Number of School Districts Served:** 2

**Number of Students Served:** 2,700

**Grade Levels:** 4, 5, 8-12

**Partners:** Augusta State University, the Georgia Archives, the South
Carolina Archives and History Center, Fort Sumter National Monument, and
the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum

**Topics:** year 1: 1700- 1840, year 2: 1840-1913, and year 3: 1914-2005

**Methods:** development of 372 standards-based online American history
lessons, field trips, summer institutes, history days, and virtual
learning meetings

In Richmond County, 69% of students are economically disadvantaged, and
nearly one-third of schools in the district did not make Adequate Yearly
Progress (AYP). In partnering Jefferson County, 80% of students are
economically disadvantaged, and no schools achieved AYP. Both counties
have high rates of dropouts and low American history test scores. This
project provides authentic professional learning that is deeply embedded
in real-world settings and based upon an existing successful program.
The 62 participants (one from each elementary, middle, and high school)
will earn a special endorsement in the teaching of American history as a
single subject at the end of this three-year program. They will also
earn all professional learning units required for teaching certificate
renewal.

**Grantee Name:** Savannah-Chatham County Public School System, GA

**Project Name:** Made in America: Courage, Imagination, Determination

**Project Director:** Candy Lowe, candylowe@savannah.chatham.k12.ga.us

**Funding:** \$1,000,000

**Number of Teachers Served:** 120

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 33,816

**Grade Levels:** K-3, 9-12

**Partners:** the Georgia Historical Society and the Gilder Lehrman
Institute of American History

**Topics:** year 1: Colonization, year 2: Western Expansion, and year 3:
Industrial America

**Methods:** reading scholarly texts, interaction with historians,
travel to historic sites, coaching, "History in a Box," traveling panel
exhibits, and online technology

With over half of its schools designated as Title I, schools in the
Savannah-Chatham school system consistently rank below the state average
in social studies on state criterion-referenced tests and below the
national average on norm-referenced tests. Only four of 30 elementary
schools and one of six high schools ranked in the top quartile of
schools on the 2005 Georgia Criterion Reference Test. The project will
ensure that teachers will have the knowledge to improve the current
state of student achievement in history. Reading scholarly historical
texts of major events, periods, and ideas in American history, engaging
in evocative interactions with professional historians, traveling to
historic sites, and learning from a history content coach will provide
participating teachers with a strong foundation of knowledge of the
nation's history. This newly acquired knowledge will enable district
teachers to deliver better instruction in American history content to
learners at pivotal moments in their educational careers.

# **Illinois**

**Grantee Name:** Chicago Public Schools District \# 299, IL

**Project Name:** Chicago History Advanced Placement Project (CHAPP)

**Project Director:** Afina Lockhart, aslockhart@cps.k12.il.us

**Funding:** \$1,705,755

**Number of Teachers Served:** 75

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 3,000

**Grade Levels:** 11-12

**Partners:** the Newberry Library, the Constitutional Rights
Foundation, the Chicago Historical Society, and the National Archives
and Records Administration - Great Lakes Region

**Topics:** Colonial America, the American Revolution, the Constitution,
antebellum America, slavery and abolition, the Civil War and
Reconstruction, the Industrial Revolution, America as a world power, the
Great Depression and the New Deal, World War II, the Cold War, and the
Civil Rights Movement

**Methods:** academic seminars, pedagogy experts, and summer institutes

The proposed CHAPP participants---Advanced Placement (AP) teachers---are
not traditionally thought of as a group most in need of professional
development. However, two factors overturn this commonly held
perception: (1) the instructional demands of teaching AP courses that
feature college-level content, work, and exams, and an ongoing district
effort to improve the postsecondary preparation that includes increasing
the number of nontraditional students taking AP courses, and (2) the
need of AP teachers for content knowledge at a very sophisticated level,
a repertoire of best practice strategies, and skills to engage actively
students in the historical process. To meet this challenge, the
professional development model will feature academic seminars during the
school year and in the summer with a dual focus on content and pedagogy.
The content centers on significant issues, events, and defining moments
of the seminal periods of traditional American history aligned with AP
U.S. History topics.

# **Indiana**

**Grantee Name:** Anderson Community School Corporation, IN

**Project Name:** People's History

**Project Director:** JoDean Washington, jdw@acsc.net

**Funding:** \$996,060

**Number of Teachers Served:** 90

**Number of School Districts Served:** 4

**Number of Students Served:** 21,427

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** Anderson University, the National Association of Scholars,
and the Madison County Historical Society

**Topics:** Classical vs. Modern Republicanism, the Causes and
Consequences of the American Revolution, from the Crisis of
Confederation to the Ratification Debates, and from the Ratification
Debates to Party Conflict

**Methods:** summer, fall, and winter institutes, workshops, colloquia,
mentoring, field trips, online activities, and website development

The People's History project will develop on multiple levels. It will
train teachers during one-week summer sessions and follow-up colloquia
throughout the year, create mentoring relationships, and develop
sustainable methods to carry on student learning after the completion of
this grant. In addition to other learning experiences offered by the
project, each participating teacher will focus on one historic figure
per year. At the end of the year, each teacher will offer a first-person
presentation to students and other teachers, allowing students to
experience history in a unique and meaningful way and to interact with a
historic figure. Teachers will sign up their classes to participate in a
history festival at the end of the school year, where students will be
able to interact with historical figures in a 3-D website called
"History World."

**Grantee Name:** Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and
Humanities, IN

**Project Name:** Building a Nation

**Project Director:** David C. Williams, dwilliam@bsu.edu

**Funding:** \$830,925

**Number of Teachers Served:** 30

**Number of School Districts Served:** 30

**Number of Students Served:** No Information Available

**Grade Levels:** 8

**Partner:** Ball State University

**Topics:** relationships among the Dutch, English, French, and Spanish
during colonization; the American Revolution; the creation of the nation
and the development of political parties, 1787-1800; Jefferson's
presidency; national expansion; the Marshall Court; foreign policy,
1800-1825; northern and southern states, 1800-1830; Jacksonian
Democracy, Manifest Destiny, and William Henry Harrison; reform
movements, 1815-1850; the conflict over slavery; the Civil War and
Reconstruction; and *ex parte* Milligan

**Methods:** distance learning, summer workshops, and a website

The 40 schools from which the 30 schools for the project will be chosen
rank below the state averages in every data category recorded by the
Indiana Department of Education that measures factors important to this
project. An average of 34.9% of students in these schools is enrolled in
the free/reduced lunch program. The average score for 8^th^ grade
students on the Indiana Testing for Educational Progress is 72.8%; the
students in the project schools average 57.9%. The grant will focus its
activities on American history teachers in 30 rural and small town
middle/junior high schools with large numbers of low-income students.
The goals will be attained through three components: (1) teacher cohort
groups that will meet regionally during the school year to (a) interact
via distance learning with content experts from Ball State University
and the project's instructional design specialist and (b) develop unit
plans based on the content presented using the "Understanding by Design"
(UbD) planning process; (2) summer workshops that will facilitate the
refinement of unit plans based on the UbD process and focus on
research-based instructional strategies; and (3) a website that will
contain a digital library of primary and secondary resources, exemplary
unit and lesson plans, and a chat feature for teacher communication.

**Grantee Name:** Indianapolis Public Schools, IN

**Project Name:** Indianapolis Public Schools Liberty Fellowship

**Project Director:** Wanda Riesz, rieszw@ips.k12.in.us

**Funding:** \$962,979

**Number of Teachers Served:** 35

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 38,121

**Grade Levels:** 4-12

**Partners:** Martin University, the Indiana State Multicultural Museum,
the Crispus Attucks Museum, the Indiana Historical Landmarks Foundation,
the Indiana Historical Society, the Mexican Consulate, Crown Point
Cemetery, Freetown Village, the American Institute for History
Education, the Madame C.J. Walker Theatre, and McNeal Productions

**Topics:** Roots of the American Nation, the American Revolution, the
Constitution and the Federalist Period, the Old South and the Changing
North, the Civil War, the Great War and Wilsonian Liberal
Internationalism, World War II, and the Cold War

**Methods:** colloquia, historic site visits, online lessons, summer
institutes, and CD lessons

In 2002, *Education Week* identified the Indianapolis system as "the
dropout factory of the nation." The rate of poverty among students is
83%, 19% receive special education, and 8% are English language
learners. It has been said that many district students do not see the
connection between historical events, nor do they see the connection
between school and life. The majority of American history teachers in
the system are poorly prepared to teach the subject. To improve this
situation, 35 teachers will be selected to train as Fellows who, in
turn, will assist their colleagues by mentoring, coaching, modeling, and
reviewing lesson plans. Projected outcomes for the project will be
increases of 10%, 20%, and 50% respectively in knowledge for district
American history students during Years 1, 2, and 3 of the program.

**Grantee Name:** Metropolitan School District of Martinsville, IN

**Project Name:** Bringing History to Life

**Project Director:** Jerry R. Sanders, jsanders@msdmail.net

**Funding:** \$999,735

**Number of Teachers Served:** 120

**Number of School Districts Served:** 2

**Number of Students Served:** 7,200

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis and
the Indiana Historical Society

**Topics:** colonial life, the American Revolution, the Underground
Railroad, artifacts and literacy, industrialization and expansion, and
20^th^ century wars and the atomic age

**Methods:** seminars, workshops, field trips, the development of
curriculum DVDs, distance learning, and web activities

Both participating school districts are rural and isolated, which
creates a number of problems for both teachers and students. Consortium
teachers are aware that their students need to be introduced to people
and places beyond state boundaries. This geographic isolation also
hinders teachers' ability to earn graduate credit, one of the primary
ways a teacher in Indiana maintains a teaching license and stays
current. The project will "shrink" the distance between the resources of
Indianapolis and the consortium teachers by bringing history scholars to
local teachers. It also will enable teachers to visit historic sites and
bring resources and experiences back to their students and colleagues.

# **Iowa**

**Grantee Name:** Washington Community School District, IA

**Project Name:** Bringing History Home (BHH), Phase III: The Grant Wood
History Institute

**Project Director:** Elise Fillpot, bringinghistoryhome@msn.com

**Funding:** \$958,356

**Number of Teachers Served:** 60

**Number of School Districts Served:** 33

**Number of Students Served:** 68,000

**Grade Levels:** 7-12

**Partners:** the Grant Wood Area Education Association, the University
of Iowa, and Knox College

**Topics:** Native Americans, industry and labor, slavery, Westward
Expansion, the Industrial Revolution, the Constitution, party politics,
Reconstruction, the Missouri Compromise, the Civil War, the Women's
Rights movement, immigration, the Cold War, the election of 1948, the
World Wars, and the antiwar movement

**Methods:** pedagogy and paradigm workshops, summer institutes, lesson
modeling, classroom observations, planning assistance, in-service
sessions, an updated website, and biography mini-institutes

Building on the two previous Teaching American History grants that
developed a successful history curriculum for the elementary school
grades, BHH is set to use project activities to improve the quality of
instruction of secondary-level American history teachers. The Grant Wood
History Institute's primary goal is for students to attain a firm grasp
of essential U.S. historical narratives and a broad range of historical
thinking skills with which they can develop, explore, question and
enrich their understanding of U.S. history. The leading history
pedagogical research suggests this goal is best accomplished through
teachers who themselves have a command of historical narratives and
interpretations, and who systematically incorporate inquiry-based
activities and thoughtful reflection in their lessons. The project will
improve teachers' command of historical narratives, improve teachers'
knowledge and use of historical inquiry teaching strategies, increase
student academic achievement in American history, and mentor other
American history teachers.

# 

# 

# **Kansas**

**Grantee Name:** Valley Heights Public Schools USD 498, KS

**Project Name:** Teaching American History with Primary Sources

**Project Director:** Jim Rodman, jim.rodman@greenbush.org

**Funding:** \$999,959

**Number of Teachers Served:** 100

**Number of School Districts Served:** 30

**Number of Students Served:** 23,700

**Grade Levels:** 6-12

**Partners:** Pittsburg State University, the National Archives and
Records Administration, the Organization of American Historians, the
Kansas Council for History Education/National Council for History
Education, the National Council for Public History, the Gilder Lehrman
Institute of American History, the Liberty Memorial, the American Jazz
Museum, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and the steamship *Arabia*

**Topics:** consumer republic and the Cold War, the economic history of
the U.S., the Harlem Renaissance, 20^th^ Century America, the U.S. and
the Middle East, Kansas and the West, the 19^th^ Century, the Dred Scott
case, the Civil War, the Gilded Age, the Age of Empire and the American
colonies, English foundations of the Constitution, New World
exploration, and citizenship in the 18^th^ Century

**Methods:** institutes, a hands-on exhibit workshop, archival research,
teacher showcase, museum tours, and field trips

Among the schools in the consortium, more than 20% of 11^th^ grade
students scored in the "unsatisfactory" category. Almost half of all
consortium schools reported a percentage of 8^th^ grade students scoring
at the unsatisfactory level higher than the state average of 11.7%. This
project will significantly increase middle and high school teachers'
knowledge of American history and will help them incorporate
content-specific teaching strategies into their classrooms in order to
enhance student learning. All activities described in this grant
proposal will be tied directly to state history standards and will
connect to the larger themes of civil rights and civil liberties defined
in their broadest terms to include the examination of the nation's
social, political, and economic history. The project will establish a
network of history mentors to provide the infrastructure, training, and
support to expand historical resources and activities to other teachers
across Kansas, the region, and beyond.

# 

# 

# 

# 

# **Kentucky**

**Grantee Name:** Bourbon County Public Schools, KY

**Project Name:** Traveling the Trails of Freedom Network

**Project Director:** Tom Mills, tom.mills@bourbon.kyschools.us

**Funding:** \$499,851

**Number of Teachers Served:** 120

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 5,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** Georgetown College, the National Council for History
Education, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and the Hopewell Museum

**Topics:** year 1: Colonization and the Road to Revolution, year 2: the
American Revolution and the Creation of a Nation, and year 3: Early
Years of the Nation and the Road to Civil War

**Methods:** summer institutes, history immersion institutes, outreach
seminars, and a peer mentoring and observation program

The state uses the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System to hold
schools accountable for student progress. Students are assessed in
grades 5, 8, and 11 in social studies. CATS scores of students in 2005
who scored below "proficient" in social studies were 34 % (5^th^ grade),
61.07 % (8^th^ grade), and 67.01 % (11^th^ grade). Project objectives
include increased teacher knowledge in traditional American history, and
improved student interest, knowledge, and achievement in American
history. To achieve this, each year a group of 40 teachers will
participate in a series of three two-day history immersion institutes
during the school year along with a two-day outreach seminar, a
three-day Summer Institute sponsored by NCHE, and a peer mentoring and
observation program. The project will provide sustained intensive
professional development consisting of lectures and guided readings by
expert historians, immersion in Bourbon County's extensive collections
of rare original manuscripts and materials, and guided field
experiences.

**Grantee Name:** Green River Regional Educational Cooperative, KY

**Project Name:** We Hold These Truths: The Struggle for Freedom from
Revolution to Reconstruction

**Project Director:** Elizabeth C. Storey, liz.storey@crrec.ky.gov

**Funding:** \$1,000,000

**Number of Teachers Served:** 20

**Number of School Districts Served:** 17

**Number of Students Served:** 7,000

**Grade Levels:** 8

**Partners:** Western Kentucky University, the Kentucky Library and
Museum, the Kentucky Humanities Council, and History Alive!

**Topics:** year 1: the American Revolution, year 2: Forging the New
Nation, and year 3: the Civil War

**Methods:** summer institutes, field trips, mentoring, digital
storytelling, conferences, and literary learning communities

Although they live in the land of Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Boone, and
Henry Clay, 54% of the 8th grade students in the target areas fail to
meet Kentucky state standards in traditional American history. The
Cooperative's American history teachers often work in isolated areas
that preclude collaboration with their peers. None of the target schools
have offered professional development in American history at the local
level for five years, and 35% of teachers have had no American history
professional development at all during that time. In this project, 20
teachers will work in four teams, likely determined by geographic
proximity, and will come together as a whole for Summer Institutes,
travel to sites of historical significance, follow-up days, work
sessions, development of units of study, and more. Each summer, our 20
teachers will meet at Western Kentucky University for a 10-day American
history Summer Institute. The 10 days will include six days of content
immersion and hands-on teaching/learning activities integrated with a
four-day excursion to a historically significant site.

**Grantee Name:** Jefferson County Public Schools, KY

**Project Name:** America in Transition: Challenges and Achievements

**Project Director:** Laura Clifford,
laura.Clifford@jefferson.kyschools.us

**Funding:** \$494,682

**Number of Teachers Served:** 100

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 95,000

**Grade Levels:** 8, 11

**Partners:** the University of Louisville, the Gilder Lehrman Institute
of American History, the Filson Historical Society, and the Frazier
Historical Arms and the Conrad-Caldwell House Museums

**Topics:** year 1: the New Industrial and Urban Order, 1877-1900, year
2: Progressivism at High Tide, 1900-1929, and year 3: America's New Deal
and World War II

**Methods:** summer institutes; field study programs in Chicago, New
York City, and Washington, D.C.; book club and visiting scholar
seminars; eGroup online community; and other scholarly seminars

The goals of the project are to build a network of American history
teachers committed to professional growth; increase teacher knowledge of
traditional American history and improve teaching practices; and improve
the level of student achievement on the Kentucky Core Content Test and
on the Advanced Placement American history exam.

**Grantee Name:** Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative, KY

**Project Name:** Project USA: Understanding the Study of American
History

**Project Director:** Michael Franken, mfranken@ovec.org

**Funding:** \$1,000,000

**Number of Teachers Served:** 39

**Number of School Districts Served:** 6

**Number of Students Served:** 2,008

**Grade Levels:** 5, 8

**Partners:** The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History,
Teachers' Curriculum Institute, the Kentucky Historical Society, the
Kentucky Association of Teachers of History, the Administrative Office
of the Courts, the Frazier Historical Arms Museum, and the Underground
Railroad Freedom Center

**Topics:** Colonial America, colonization and the American Revolution,
the Founding Fathers, the Constitution, colonial and constitutional
history, American heroes, Westward Expansion, slavery, and the Civil War

**Methods:** workshops, summer institutes, field experience and
scholarship opportunities, study groups, battlefield tours, and living
history reenactments

The goal of Project USA is to raise student achievement by improving the
quality of instruction in traditional American history through
professional development

experiences, frequent and ongoing follow-up to support implementation,
and key partnerships, which enhance teacher knowledge of history,
content and improve classroom instruction. The project will take place
in six rural school districts characterized by high rates of poverty.
Participating schools report low student achievement in U.S. history;
69% of the schools fall below the state mean. The project will serve to
improve content delivery strategies in American history to motivate and
engage students and to raise levels of academic achievement. High
turnover of teachers is also an aspect in poor student response;
mentoring activities and creation of networks will help to alleviate
this factor.

**Grantee Name:** Owen County Public Schools, KY

**Project Name:** Exploring America's Greatness, Leaders, and Events
(EAGLE)

**Project Director:** Michael Franken, mfranken@ovec.org

**Funding:** \$997,200

**Number of Teachers Served:** 43

**Number of School Districts Served:** 9

**Number of Students Served:** 3,047

**Grade Levels:** 9-12

**Partners:** The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the
Teachers' Curriculum Institute, the Kentucky Historical Society, the
Kentucky Association of Teachers of History, the Kentucky Humanities
Council, the Kentucky Council on Economic Education, the National
Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and the Ohio Valley Educational
Cooperative

**Topics:** reconstruction, the Gilded Age, immigration, expansionism,
the Spanish-American War, industrialization, the Progressive Movement,
20^th^ Century wars, the Great Depression, the 1920's, and civil rights

**Methods:** institutes, workshops, coaching, mentoring,
networking/study groups, and field trips

Many of the participating schools report low student achievement in U.S.
history on standardized state tests. There is a high turnover rate among
teachers of American history in the area, and the small number of
American history teachers in these rural districts discourages collegial
networks. The goal of Project EAGLE is to raise student achievement by
improving the quality of instruction in traditional American history
through high-level professional development experiences, frequent
ongoing follow-up to support implementation, and key partnerships that
enhance teacher knowledge of history content and improve classroom
instruction. The project will also develop a supportive network of
American history teachers.

# **Louisiana**

**Grantee Name:** Jefferson Parish Public Schools, LA

**Project Name:** The Thomas Jefferson Liberty Fellowship

**Project Director:** Carl J. Dermady, Jr., carl.dermady@jppss.k12.la.us

**Funding:** \$894,737

**Number of Teachers Served:** No Information Available

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 52,367

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** the Bill of Rights Institute, the American Institute for
History Education, the D-Day Museum, the New Orleans Historical Museum,
and Learners Online

**Topics:** year 1: the Empire versus the Colonies, year 2: the Agrarian
South versus the Industrializing North, and year 3: Liberal Democracy
versus Totalitarianism

**Methods:** summer institutes, fall and winter seminars, CD-ROMs,
online historical resources, and museum visits

Even before becoming victims of Hurricane Katrina, the school system's
students faced enormous poverty. For the school year 2003-04, 13.7% of
families were living below the poverty line, as well as 20% of children.
Standardized test scores for grades 4, 8, and 12 are below state
averages. Although all high school teachers have a state social studies
certification, most of them did not major in history. The project will
significantly improve teacher knowledge of traditional American history,
which will result in measurable improvements in student achievement.
Teachers will design traditional, though innovative, American history
curricula and lesson-units that will provide students with a substantive
historical continuum, not a series of disconnected events, interspersed
throughout a social studies curriculum.

# 

# 

# 

# 

# **Maryland**

**Grantee Name:** Howard County Public Schools, MD

**Project Name:** Making American History Master Teachers in Howard
County

**Project Director:** Mark J. Stout, mark_stout@hcpss.org

**Funding:** \$999,797

**Number of Teachers Served:** 30

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** No Information Available

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** University of Maryland (Baltimore), the Maryland State
Archives, the Howard County Historical Society, and the Martha Ross
Center for Oral History

**Topics:** year 1: Reading American history: Reading strategies in the
history classroom, year 2: Teaching American history: Primary source
investigations, and year 3: Writing American history: Implementing
writing strategies to teach American history

**Methods:** summer institutes, Saturday workshops, and a culminating
project

Howard County Public Schools will train a cohort of 30 American history
teachers in low-performing elementary, middle, and high schools. The
project will enhance teacher knowledge of traditional American history,
classroom resources, and instructional skills. Its long-term goal is to
create master American history teachers who will, in turn, mentor and
support other HCPSS history teachers, conduct professional-development
workshops, and participate in regional and national history education
conferences.

**Grantee Name:** Montgomery County Public Schools, MD

**Project Name:** Conflict and Consensus: Key Moments in U.S. History

**Project Director:** Elizabeth Brown, betsy_brown@mcpsmd.org

**Funding:** \$997,433

**Number of Teachers Served:** 90

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** No Information Available

**Grade Levels:** 8-9

**Partner:** George Mason University

**Topics:** the Revolutionary and Civil Wars and the Civil Rights
Movement

**Methods:** summer institutes, workshops, online resources, and online
discussions

Only 12% of 8th and 9th grade American history teachers in the district
are highly qualified in history and few have had significant
college-level training in American history. The project would target
teachers in schools with the highest levels of poverty, diverse
populations, and English speakers of other languages (ESOL). Project
goals are to increase teacher knowledge of traditional American history,
to augment teacher use of primary sources in the classroom, and to
broaden student knowledge and interest in traditional American history.
This project is designed around key moments of conflict and consensus in
U.S. history, such as the American Revolution, the Civil War, and the
Civil Rights Movement. These watershed events provide opportunities to
view the ongoing debate over fundamental values and beliefs that unite
and divide us. The workshops unite middle and high school American
history teachers, including ESOL and special education teachers who are
seeking content certification, with prominent historians to improve
teachers' content knowledge in U.S. history.

**Grantee Name:** Washington County Public Schools, MD

**Project Name:** Western Maryland American History Teachers Initiative

**Project Director:** Clyde Harrell, harrecly@wcboe.k12.md.us

**Funding:** \$999,019

**Number of Teachers Served:** 80

**Number of School Districts Served:** 3

**Number of Students Served:** 35,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the
Maryland Humanities Council, the Maryland Historical Society, the
Western Maryland Regional Library System, the Tri-County Council for
Western Maryland, and the historical societies of Garrett, Allegany, and
Washington Counties

**Topics:** the Constitution, westward migration, and the 20^th^ Century
struggle for freedom and justice

**Methods:** summer institutes, seminars, and weekend study tours

Few secondary school American history teachers in the consortium have
had any further training in the subject since beginning their teaching
careers. Only 11 of 80 secondary history teachers have master's degrees
in history. The project will combine historical content and best
practices for teaching American history. Included will be document-based
teaching, teaching for historical thinking, and effective use of
technology in the classroom. Participants will create model lessons and
will be provided follow-up coaching by master teacher specialists.

# 

# 

# **Massachusetts**

**Grantee Name:** Boston Public Schools, MA

**Project Name:** The Rise of American Democracy

**Project Director:** Judy Berkowitz, mroberts@boston.k12.ma.us

**Funding:** \$1,000,000

**Number of Teachers Served:** 150

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 28,000

**Grade Levels:** 3, 5, 8-11

**Partners:** Boston University, the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum,
and the Museum of African-American History

**Topics:** civil rights and majority rule in the U.S., the Constitution
in American history, the apparatus of democracy, the choices in Little
Rock, and a gathering place for freedom

**Methods:** seminars, institutes, mentoring, coaching, and field trips

Founded in 1647, Boston Public Schools is the oldest public school
system in the nation. The majority of today's Boston students are
economically disadvantaged and educationally at risk. This school year,
43% of all schools have failed to make AYP, and preliminary data show
that this problem will likely increase during the next school year. The
district will build on the accomplishments of its two previous Teaching
American History grants. Upon completion of this project, 19% of history
teachers in grades 3, 5, and 8-11 who are not certified will have taken
sufficient coursework to become certified history minors.

**Grantee Name:** Malden Public Schools, MA

**Project Name:** Voices Rising: Assimilation and the American
Experience

**Project Director:** Cynthia Fiducia, cfiducia@tritec-inc.org

**Funding:** \$1,000,000

**Number of Teachers Served:** 72

**Number of School Districts Served:** 4

**Number of Students Served:** 2,000

**Grade Levels:** 3, 5, 8

**Partners:** University of Massachusetts (Lowell), Suffolk University,
and local national parks and libraries

**Topics:** colonial life in New England, the American Revolution,
colonial government, the French and Indian War, the War of 1812, the
Civil War, industrialization, economic and labor issues, slavery,
women's suffrage, notable leaders and individuals, and immigration and
assimilation

**Methods:** summer institutes, history content seminars, and sessions
with mentors

With a recent influx of immigrants, the four school districts have seen
an increase in the number of students who have free/reduced lunches and
the number of minority students. Of these, 13.5% of those aged 5 to 17
live below the federal poverty level. The need for professional
development in American history content and analysis is most severe at
the elementary and middle school levels, given the results of the
districts' surveys that indicate almost no coursework or in-service
credits in American history by teachers in grades 3, 5, and 8. Suffolk
University and the University of Massachusetts (Lowell) will share the
responsibility of providing yearly, week-long summer institutes, in
addition to eight, three-hour, district-based content seminars per year,
to twenty-four teachers per year from these school districts. Other
teachers in the districts will videotape district-based seminars for
future use in later years. Supporting this university-led effort will be
six Boston-area national parks and historic sites that will offer a
hands-on component to the classroom professional development by allowing
teachers to experience first-hand the primary sources that these
historic places embody.

**Grantee Name:** Reading Public Schools, MA

**Project Name:** Encounters and Exchanges in U.S. History

**Project Director:** Kara Gleason, kgleason@reading.k12.ma.us

**Funding:** \$998,084

**Number of Teachers Served:** 150

**Number of School Districts Served:** 4

**Number of Students Served:** 25,234

**Grade Levels:** 3-5, 8-11

**Partners:** University of Massachusetts (Lowell) and Primary Source

**Topics:** year 1: Colonial America, the French and Indian War,
founding philosophies, the Enlightenment and political thought in the
early Republic, ethnic groups and cultures, the U.S. Constitution, year
2: Religion and reform, slavery and abolition, the women's movement,
foreign perspectives, the Barbary War, the Mexican-American War, and the
War of 1812, the Monroe Doctrine, the Lewis and Clark expedition, trade
and industry, and the Gold Rush, and year 3: Early Massachusetts history
from the Pilgrims to the post-Revolutionary period and the Cold and
Vietnam Wars, the Conservative Revolution, immigration, and race
relations

**Methods:** summer institutes, seminars, field trips, workshops, study
groups, and conferences

In 2001, an average of 79% of students received a "needs improvement" or
a failing grade. Nineteen percent of U.S. history teachers in the
districts are not certified in social studies or history, and only two
of 166 grades 3-5 teachers have a degree in history (none are certified
in social studies). The program's goal is to appreciably strengthen the
district programs to teach traditional American history as a separate
academic subject in grades three to five and eight to eleven. The
program content spirals around the overarching theme "Encounters and
Exchanges in U.S. History" as participants study the country's founding
to the twentieth century. Activities include content-based summer
institutes, school year content-based institutes and seminars, history
book discussion study groups, history research and information
management training workshops and institutes, mini-sabbaticals for
research projects, an annual conference, the modeling of teaching with
primary sources in the classroom, continuation activities, and a
website.

**Grantee Name:** Springfield Public Schools, MA

**Project Name:** Creating, Challenging, and Sustaining Democracy

**Project Director:** Rosemary E. Kalloch,
kallochr@sps.springfield.ma.us

**Funding:** \$999,991

**Number of Teachers Served:** 40

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 27,590

**Grade Levels:** 3, 5, 8, 11

**Partners:** the Five Colleges, Inc. (Amherst, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke,
and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst),
Historic Deerfield, the Wistariahurst Museum, the Springfield Library
and Museums, and the Teachers' Curriculum Institute

**Topics:** year 1: the Declaration of Independence, the American
Revolution, the Federalist debates, the Constitution, and the
presidencies of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, year 2: the
presidencies of Jackson and Lincoln, abolition, the Civil War,
emancipation, and Reconstruction, and year 3: Industrialization,
immigration, urbanization, the Depression, the New Deal, 20^th^ Century
social movements, and America at war

**Methods:** summer institute, traveling field study, history academy,
and the Teaching History forum

Seventy-seven percent of Springfield's residents live at or below the
federal poverty line. Out of 49, only 12 elementary schools meet
Adequate Yearly Progress. Springfield's secondary school students have a
79% failure rate in history as opposed to 44% statewide. This project
will improve teacher knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of
traditional American history, raise student achievement, build a network
of American history teachers in the Connecticut River Valley, and build
on the prior experiences of other TAH projects to develop a model
program of content-driven professional development that can be
disseminated nationally. The project will provide over 350 hours of
intensive professional development in history content and pedagogy to a
new cohort of 40 teachers from the district through annual two-week
summer institutes, traveling field study experiences, academic-year
history academies (book clubs, special topics, and technology and
media), and an annual forum.

# 

# 

# **Michigan**

**Grantee Name:** Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, MI

**Project Name:** Laying Foundations for Historical Inquiry in American
History II

**Project Director:** Beth A. Onusko Savalox, savalob@pccs.k12.mi.us

**Funding:** \$999,819

**Number of Teachers Served:** 50

**Number of School Districts Served:** 2

**Number of Students Served:** 21,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12 (with an emphasis on K-5)

**Partners:** Huron School District, the Henry Ford Museum, the Michigan
History Museum, and the University of Michigan (Dearborn)

**Topics:** migration and mobility in local, state, and regional history
1790-1850; the importance of individuals in history; ethnic groups in
the nation's founding; causes of the American Revolution; the
Constitution; and civil rights

**Methods:** summer institutes, field experiences, and workshops

Within the elementary social studies standards, history is one-fourth of
the curriculum, yet less than 1% of elementary teachers majored in
history, and less than 12% are rated as "highly qualified" in social
studies. This project seeks to rectify this situation by offering
content-based professional development, district-adopted units to raise
student achievement, and ongoing support for teachers as they implement
history units. The centerpiece of the project, the Summer Institutes,
will build upon teachers' foundation of knowledge by scaffolding
critical elements of history education. The first cornerstone will be
placed by the lead historian, drawn from partner institutions, who will
address the teacher as a learner by exploring a central theme of the
national story with interactive lectures and a sound reading list. The
next layer will incorporate small breakout sessions based on primary
resource analysis and critical discussion. Here historians will
challenge teachers' interpretation of evidence and push them to think
like professional historians.

**Grantee Name:** Waterford School District, MI

**Project Name:** Historians and Teachers Together

**Project Director:** Carol Bacak-Egbo, bacakc01@wsdmi.org

**Funding:** \$499,546

**Number of Teachers Served:** 136

**Number of School Districts Served:** 2

**Number of Students Served:** 13,380

**Grade Levels:** 5, 8, 10

**Partners:** the Oakland County Pioneer and Historical Society, Oakland
University, the Michigan Council for History Education, the Historical
Society of Michigan, the Henry Ford Museum, and the Waterford Historical
Society

**Topics:** the American Revolution, political culture in early America,
free Blacks in the colonies, how southern resistance defeated northern
and southern Republicans, the Roaring Twenties, the Vietnam era, and the
origins of the Cold War

**Methods:** creation of an American history team, mentoring,
networking, workshops, informal group learning, summer institutes,
technology support, and field trips

Waterford faces a high failure rate of students in American history
classes, with state assessment scores at or below state scores and well
below county scores. Recent local assessment data indicated that fewer
than half of students met or exceeded standards relating to American
history knowledge. Current American history teachers demonstrate low
levels of professional training and minimal knowledge of subject matter
content in grades 5, 8, and 10. The project will provide these teachers
with extended, sustained professional development led by distinguished
historians. The result will be an increase in content knowledge of
American history and a heightened understanding of effective
instructional strategies for delivering this content.

# **Minnesota**

**Grantee Name:** Southeast Service Cooperative, MN

**Project Name:** Blufflands and Prairies: Southern Minnesota's Place in
the Fabric of American History

**Project Director:** Rebekka A. Meyer, rmeyer@ssc.coop

**Funding:** \$999,814

**Number of Teachers Served:** 700

**Number of School Districts Served:** No Information Available

**Number of Students Served:** 125,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** Winona State University, the Minnesota History Center, and
the Southwest/West Center Service Cooperative

**Topics:** political and constitutional history, Native American
cultures, immigration, the region's role in American history, and
economics and commerce in American history

**Methods:** professional development sessions, summer institutes,
visits from historians, field trips, electronic networking, and
consulting assistance

The state's comprehensive assessments show a significant achievement gap
between White and minority students, as much as 44.7% between subgroups
in some subjects. From 2000-01 to 2004-05, the numbers of limited
English proficient, free and reduced price lunch, and special education
students rose by 19, four, and 28%, respectively. The project will
broaden teacher knowledge of American history content, improve teaching
strategies, and create an ongoing relationship among southern
Minnesota's K-16 educators and other history specialists. The project
will do this by providing professional development for up to 700
American history teachers that includes inquiry-based learning
approaches with content introduction and research. The content delivery
will increase teacher content knowledge, centered on five core themes,
through week-long summer institutes and one-day trainings held
throughout the school year.

# 

# 

# 

# **Mississippi**

**Grantee Name:** Alcorn School District, MS

**Project Name:** THE PAST: Teaching History Educators Pedagogy,
Academic Standards, and Technology

**Project Director:** Mike Wamsley, mcfarlj@mde.k12.ms.us

**Funding:** \$996,526

**Number of Teachers Served:** 33

**Number of School Districts Served:** 11

**Number of Students Served:** 25,376

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** the National Association of Scholars, Mississippi State
University, Anodyne PDS, the national military parks of Chickamauga and
Chattanooga, Shiloh, and Vicksburg, and the Fort Sumter National
Monument

**Topics:** year 1: Early America (elementary school level), year 2: the
19^th^ century (middle school level), and year 3: the 1880s to the
present (high school level)

**Methods:** summer colloquia, technology training, local history
visits, curriculum development activities, and quarterly follow-up
activities

Mississippi is the poorest state in the nation, and the target area that
this project will serve is one of the poorest regions in the state.
Fifty-seven percent of students live below the poverty line. Working
with history subject specialists across the consortium, THE PAST's team
has put together a list of approaches that will best improve history
teaching practices in the region. Each aspect of the project was
intentionally tailored to meet one of the unique needs of the region.
The Summer Colloquium will strongly work to raise content knowledge in
participating teachers. The local history program will send the teachers
out of their area -- and via digital cameras and multimedia equipment,
they will bring historic places from the outside world back into their
classrooms, thus helping to ameliorate the problems of cultural and
social isolation. Teachers will demonstrate increased proficiency in
history content, pedagogy, and the use of technology.

**Grantee Name:** Winona Public Schools, MS

**Project Name:** Project History in Schools (HIS)

**Project Director:** Marsha Cummings, mcummings@mde.k12.ms.us

**Funding:** \$499,404

**Number of Teachers Served:** 32

**Number of School Districts Served:** 2

**Number of Students Served:** 900

**Grade Levels:** 5-12

**Partners:** the National Council for History Education and Mississippi
Valley State University

**Topics:** the American Revolution, the Civil War, and World War II

**Methods:** colloquia, university-sponsored enrichment activities,
group and individual instruction, mentoring, and documentation of best
practices

The two partnering school districts are located in Montgomery County,
Mississippi, which meets the U.S. Census definition of an economically
distressed community. Project HIS will give teachers critical content
knowledge and content-related teaching strategies to take into the
classroom and instruct students in a manner that will raise student
achievement. Project teachers will be trained to use a content-rich
approach, with content-related teaching strategies, that augments
increased content knowledge and appreciation of traditional American
history as a separate subject within the core curriculum. The project
expects that, by the end of the 2008-09 school year, 90% of 11^th^ grade
U.S. history students in consortium districts will exceed minimum
expectations on the U.S. history exit test as prescribed by the
Mississippi Department of Education.

# **Missouri**

**Grantee Name:** Carthage R-9 School District, MO

**Project Name:** Mastering American History: Professional Development
for Missouri Teachers

**Project Director:** Renee M. Cebula, renee.cebula@gmail.com

**Funding:** \$995,429

**Number of Teachers Served:** 24

**Number of School Districts Served:** No Information Available

**Number of Students Served:** No Information Available

**Grade Levels:** 4, 8, 11

**Partners:** the University of Missouri (St. Louis), Missouri Southern
State University, the State Historical Society of Missouri, the
Southwest Center for Educational Excellence, the Missouri Department of
Education's SuccessLink, the Powers Museum, and Missouri State History
Day

**Topics:** Historiography, colonial and early national America,
Missouri in the westward movement, the Civil War and Reconstruction,
19^th^ century America, comparative urban history, Civil War St. Louis,
U.S. foreign relations since 1900, documenting hometown history, and
progressivism and American democracy

**Methods:** graduate seminars, lecture series, History Day workshops,
and the creation of new lesson and unit plans

In Missouri, Only 51.8 % of 4^th^ graders, 42.5% of 8^th^ graders, and
20.1% of 11^th^ graders scored "advanced" or "proficient" in grades on
state social studies achievement tests taken during the 2004-05 school
year. This project seeks to improve student performance by offering a
cohort of Missouri teachers from under-privileged and under-performing
school districts across the state a graduate degree in traditional
American History. In addition, the project will promote National History
Day in Missouri with a series of statewide workshops, sponsor a lecture
series open to teachers and the public, create hundreds of innovative
lessons and distribute them electronically in a proven format, and
improve the capacities of the project partners to support Missouri
teachers and their students.

**Grantee Name:** Cooperating School Districts of Greater St. Louis, MO

**Project Name:** Perspectives on American Democracy from 1776 to 9/11

**Project Director:** Dennis Lubeck, dlubeck@csd.org

**Funding:** \$998,888

**Number of Teachers Served:** 66

**Number of School Districts Served:** 6

**Number of Students Served:** 65,226

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** the University of Missouri (St. Louis), the National
Council on History Education, and the Truman and Lincoln Presidential
Museums

**Topics:** year 1: the founding documents, the founding generation,
Jacksonian democracy, abolition, and social reform, year 2: abolition,
social reform, the Civil War, Reconstruction, perspectives on democracy
(1870-1920), the Great Depression, the New Deal, World War II, and the
Civil Rights Movement (1900-1954), and year 3: post-World War II
America, the Cold War, affluence, the Great Society, and modern
conservatism

**Methods:** seminars, colloquia, summer institutes, mentoring,
workshops, networking activities, and website development

Fewer than 20% of American history teachers in the consortium majored in
history, and the number of those with graduate degrees is very low.
There is also a desire to increase enrollment in Advanced Placement
history courses, especially among African-American students. Through
this program, teachers will have opportunities to read serious
monographs, work with primary sources that illuminate the changing
definitions of freedom, and to learn more about the research in the
teaching and learning of history that will guide their lesson and unit
planning. A select group of teachers will also learn mentoring skills to
assist younger colleagues who have recently entered the profession. 

**Grantee Name:** Poplar Bluff R-1 School District, MO

**Project Name:** Bricks and Bridges: Building American History Teachers
in Southeast Missouri

**Project Director:** Randy Winston, rwinston@pb.k12.mo.us

**Funding:** \$499,833

**Number of Teachers Served:** 40

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** No Information Available

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** Southeast Missouri State University, the Lincoln Library
and Museum, and the Truman Library and Museum

**Topics:** year 1: Liberty and Equality, year 2: Identities and Power,
and year 3: Enterprise and Land

**Methods:** workshops and seminars, use of scholarly books and
e-learning resources, collaborative learning, and experiential learning

This project will improve student achievement and teacher knowledge and
practice by adopting a detailed thematic content framework that
specifies and organizes what participants will learn about traditional
American history. The project's goals are to raise student achievement
as measured by grade-specific assessments, to increase the depth and
breadth of teacher knowledge as measured by core-based assessments, and
to improve teacher ability to teach American history. To this end, the
project will (1) adopt a detailed thematic content framework, (2)
identify and formalizing best practices in an instructional
specification, (3) engage all eligible teachers, and (4) implement an
evaluation program to gather objective evidence of project success. A
thematic content framework will underpin each and every Bricks & Bridges
activity. The Framework is built upon six main themes that take into
account Missouri's U.S. history core and the teaching and research
strengths of faculty at Southeast Missouri State University, the Lincoln
Library and Museum, and the Truman Library and Museum.

# **Nebraska**

**Grantee Name:** Educational Service Unit #2, NE

**Project Name:** The Constitution in American History

**Project Director:** Diane M. Wolfe, dmwolfe@esu2.org

**Funding:** \$994,660

**Number of Teachers Served:** Up to 40

**Number of School Districts Served:** 20

**Number of Students Served:** 21,000

**Grade Levels:** 5, 9-12

**Partners:** Wayne State College and Eastern Nebraska Distance Learning
Consortium

**Topics:** the Constitution, year 1: Development and foundation, year
2: Tests brought on by the Civil War and Reconstruction, and year 3:
Expansion of rights

**Methods:** graduate-level coursework, writing lesson plans, travel,
online activity, and workshops

Enrollment in this very rural, four-county area ranges from one K-12
school with 3,900 students to a K-6 country school with four students.
Approximately 42% of the unit's schools reported that less than 100% of
their American history teachers are "highly qualified." Of these 16
schools, 44% of them had 50% or lower highly qualified staff. These
teachers reported a lack of access or exposure to American history
content in their undergraduate or graduate programs. To remedy this
situation, teachers will be provided the opportunity to take
graduate-level coursework, develop and post on-line lesson plans, and
take part in an on-line American history course.

# 

# 

# 

# **New Jersey**

**Grantee Name:** Bergen County Technical Schools, NJ

**Project Name:** Making Highly Qualified History Teachers: A Statewide
American History Professional Development Model

**Project Director:** Christine Wallace, chrwal@bergen.org

**Funding:** \$1,000,000

**Number of Teachers Served:** 500

**Number of School Districts Served:** 133

**Number of Students Served:** 420,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** Bergen County Special Services School District Teacher
Training Center, William Paterson University, the New Jersey and Bergen
County Historical Societies, and the American Labor Museum/Botto House

**Topics:** (Grades K-8) Native Americans, colonization, the American
Revolution, the formation of the new Republic, and slavery. (Grades
9-12) Industrialization, the Labor, Progressive, and Civil Rights
Movements, women's suffrage, the World and Cold Wars, and the Depression

**Methods:** on-site and online professional development workshops,
graduate-level courses, field trips, mentoring by expert teachers,
development of online clearinghouse for curriculum and resources

At least 28.7% of the region's students are classified as needing
special education and are, for the most part, being taught by American
history teachers who are not highly qualified in the subject matter.
This project is a fully inclusive program model that targets K-12
teachers in high-poverty urban districts, teachers in compartmentalized
schools, and special educators in self-contained classrooms, resource
rooms, and inclusion programs. The project is a state-approved Highly
Qualified Teacher professional development model in the core subject
area of traditional American and New Jersey History. The project
addresses the diverse learning needs of teachers and "at-risk" students
within this region by providing a sustained and ongoing professional
development program that "interweaves" historical content and
differentiated delivery methods. The content knowledge, skills, and
curriculum outcomes of this program reinforces a vision of the highly
qualified American history teacher that supports the delivery of
traditional American history as a separate and vital subject area across
all grade levels and student populations.

**Grantee Name:** Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District, NJ

**Project Name:** The James Madison Seminar on the Origins and
Development of the American Constitution

**Project Director:** Bradford P. Wilson, bpwilson@princeton.edu

**Funding:** \$997,380

**Number of Teachers Served:** 45

**Number of School Districts Served:** 5

**Number of Students Served:** 21,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** the James Madison Program in American Ideals and
Institutions at Princeton University, the Philadelphia Museum of Art,
and the National Association of Scholars

**Topics:** year 1: the American Revolution and development of the
Constitution, year 2: the Secession Crisis and the Civil War, year 3:
20^th^ and 21^st^ century constitutional and cultural conflicts, the
Civil Rights movement, and personal autonomy

**Methods:** summer seminar, school year professional development
activities, museum visits, period musical performances, and online
activities

The project's chief objective will be to deepen the knowledge of the
districts' history teachers about three defining periods in the
constitutional history of the United States from the time of the
American Revolution to the present. In doing so, it will maintain a
steady focus on the origins and evolution of America's fundamental
political ideals, traditions, and constitutional institutions. Attention
will be given to development of the pedagogical skills that will guide
teachers and their students in the gathering, examination, and
organization of historical data in the interests of making historical
explanations. A website of historical materials, essays on basic issues
and events in American history, lessons plans, and other teaching
materials will be created for the project. The project has been designed
with a view toward its replication by other programs and scholars both
within and beyond the extended network of the James Madison Program.

**Grantee Name:** Fort Lee School District, NJ

**Project Name:** The General George Washington Liberty Fellowship

**Project Director:** Daniel Ward, wardd@fortlee-boe.net

**Funding:** \$952,305

**Number of Teachers Served:** 50

**Number of School Districts Served:** 76

**Number of Students Served:** 50,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** the New Jersey Historical Society, Seton Hall University,
the Civil War Institute, Mount Vernon, Gunston Hall, the Cold War
Museum, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and the American
Institute for History Education

**Topics:** year 1: the Empire versus the Colonies, year 2: the Agrarian
South versus the Industrializing North, and year 3: Liberal Democracy
versus Totalitarianism

**Methods:** colloquia, seminars, summer institutes, visits to
historical sites, research, and web activities

The new wave of immigration has had a profound impact on consortium
schools. In Fort Lee, over 45 languages are spoken, and 66% of students
speak a language other than English at home. Although the county has a
number of high achieving school districts, all of its American history
programs suffer from a lack of specialists on the teaching staff. Many
long time teachers have not had a class in American history for over 20
years. Participants in this program will research history, write
historical narratives, create substantive lessons, and generate
vivacious, web-based history activities from the New Jersey history
standards. Educators will be able to write classroom-appropriate
lessons, making salient connections with earlier historical precedents.
They will infuse their lessons into a larger Weblessons program and
augment the colloquia-based lessons they receive throughout the grant.

**Grantee Name:** Freehold Regional High School District, NJ

**Project Name:** The James Madison Seminar on Teaching American
History: the Origins and Development of the American Constitution

**Project Director:** Bradford P. Wilson, bpwilson@princeton.edu

**Funding:** \$997,380

**Number of Teachers Served:** 45

**Number of School Districts Served:** 4

**Number of Students Served:** No Information Available

**Grade Levels:** 6-12

**Partners:** Princeton University, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and
the National Association of Scholars

**Topics:** year 1: the American Revolution and the constitutional
period, year 2: the Secession Crisis: the American Civil War and its
aftermath, and year 3: civil rights, personal autonomy, and cultural
conflict

**Methods:** summer seminars, professional development meetings, a
website, and museum visits

The New Jersey board of education recently amended policy so that the
"complete cycle of U.S. history" will be presented during high school,
not just historical events primarily occurring in the late 19^th^ and
20^th^ centuries. During the period of the project, attention will be
given to the development of pedagogical skills that will guide teachers
and students in gathering, examining, and organizing historical data in
the interests of making historical explanations. A website of historical
materials, essays on basic issues and events in American history,
lessons plans, and other teaching materials will be created for the
project.

**Grantee Name:** Berkeley Heights Public School District, NJ

**Project Name:** Governor Livingston Liberty Fellowship

**Project Director:** Ronald J. Nash, ronaldnash@us.army.mil

**Funding:** \$952,308

**Number of teachers served:** 50

**Number of school districts served:** 19

**Number of students served:** 75,000

**Grade levels:** K-12

**Partners:** Seton Hall University, the New Jersey Historical Society,
the Civil War Institute, Gunston Hall, the Cold War Museum, Mount
Vernon, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and the American
Institute for History Education

**Topics:** year 1: the Empire versus the Colonies, year 2: the Agrarian
South versus the Industrializing North, and year 3: Liberal Democracy
versus Totalitarianism

**Methods:** colloquia, field trips, CD-ROMs, summer institutes

Many New Jersey secondary student study American history under a teacher
who never obtained a major or a minor in American history. A very high
percentage of American history teachers in the state have not had a U.S.
history survey course since their own high school career. This project
seeks to remedy this situation by providing intensive content-based
professional development for these teachers. This project will
investigate traditional American history in a systematic, chronological,
and thematic fashion, as part of the Binary Paideia approach to teaching
history. In addition, it will publish a compilation of all of the
Fellowship's events, materials, video's of the scholars' discussions,
and notes, along with the Fellows' work, on 3 annual, interactive
CD-ROMs and on a website, using experienced multimedia personnel with
national credentials and award-winning portfolios.

**Grantee Name:** Manalapan-Englishtown Regional Schools, NJ

**Project Name:** The Molly Pitcher Fellowship

**Project Director:** Bruce Mitzak, bmitzak@mers.k12.nj.us

**Funding:** \$953,990

**Number of Teachers Served:** No Information Available

**Number of School Districts Served:** 4

**Number of Students Served:** 25,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** Temple University, the American Institute for History
Education, the New Jersey Historical Society, the New Jersey Park
Service, Mount Vernon, Gunston Hall, the Civil War Institute, the
Foreign Policy Research Institute, and the Cold War Museum

**Topics:** year 1: the Empire versus the Colonies, year 2: the Agrarian
South versus the Industrializing North, and year 3: Liberal Democracy
versus Totalitarianism

**Methods:** colloquia, seminars, summer institutes, visits to
historical sites, research, and web activities

While the consortium districts represent outstanding educational
communities, they are deficient in the teaching of American history,
especially at the elementary level. Those certified in social studies at
the secondary level took few history courses in college. Of elementary
school teachers, not one majored in the subject. Fellows participating
in this project will be trained to train all history teachers within
their districts and beyond, in much needed turnkey replication programs
and to establish traditional American history curricula for all
districts. Trainers will form core vertical-teams that will review their
district's history curricula for gaps and overlaps. Consequently,
students will be immersed in the contents of this program. The project
will publish a compilation of all of the Fellowship's events, materials,
videos of the scholars' discussions, and notes, along with the Fellows'
work, on three annual, interactive CD-ROMs and on a website.

**Grantee Name:** Millville Public School District, NJ

**Project Name:** Millville P-47 Thunderbolts Liberty Fellowship Program

**Project Director:** Robert Trivellini, robert.trivellini@millville.org

**Funding:** \$472,673

**Number of Teachers Served:** 35

**Number of School Districts Served:** 5

**Number of Students Served:** 8,050

**Grade Levels:** 4-12

**Partners:** Temple University, the Civil War Institute, the Cold War
Museum, Gunston Hall, the International Spy Museum, Mount Vernon, the
Millville Army Air Field Museum, the New Jersey Historical Society, the
New Jersey Park Service, and the American Institute for History
Education

**Topics:** year 1: the Empire versus the Colonies, year 2: the Agrarian
South versus the Industrializing North, and year 3: Liberal Democracy
versus Totalitarianism

**Methods:** colloquia, field trips, summer institutes, discussions with
scholars, the creation of unit lessons, mentoring, and peer coaching

Thirty-five educators teach history in the target schools but most do
not have formal training or qualifications in the study and teaching of
American history. Their students live in a region that suffers from
extreme poverty and high unemployment. Six schools in the county have
been ranked Category One (schools in need of improvement) and three are
Category Two (schools that require close monitoring). The program will
allow the consortium to design traditional, though innovative, American
history curricula and lesson-units that will provide students with a
substantive historical continuum, not a series of disconnected events,
interspersed throughout a Social Studies curriculum. The districts will
be able to develop American history curricula and teach it as a separate
subject. Fellows enrolled in the project will be trained to train all
history teachers within their districts and beyond in turnkey
replication programs that will establish traditional American history
curricula for all districts.

**Grantee Name:** Moorestown Township Public Schools, NJ

**Project Name:** The Alice Paul Liberty Fellowship

**Project Director:** Geeta Heble, gheble@mtps.com

**Funding:** \$952,308

**Number of Teachers Served:** 50

**Number of School Districts Served:** 10

**Number of Students Served:** 30,951

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** Temple University, the American Institute for History
Education, the New Jersey Historical Society, the New Jersey Park
Service, Mount Vernon, Gunston Hall, the Foreign Policy Research
Institute, the Civil War Institute, the Cold War Museum, and the
International Spy Museum

**Topics:** year 1: the Empire versus the Colonies, year 2: the Agrarian
South and the Industrializing North, and year 3: Liberal Democracy
versus Totalitarianism

**Methods:** colloquia, field trips, mentoring, and summer institutes

At present, New Jersey does not assess its students in social studies.
As a result, many school districts have taken monies budgeted for social
studies and have used them to support language arts and mathematics,
which are assessed by the state. In New Jersey, all high school teachers
in social studies departments are certified to teach American history
even if it is not one's area of specialization in college. Middle school
and elementary school teachers have an even more limited education in
the subject. Participating teachers will research and study the major
political, economic, and ideological contrasts found in each of the
centuries of American history, as they then create innovative classroom
lessons. In addition, the teachers will investigate specific events,
primary documents, personalities, turning points in American history,
contemporary interpretations, and later historiographies pertaining to
each period of study.

**Grantee Name:** Somerville Public School District, NJ

**Project Name:** James Madison Seminar on Teaching American History:
the Origins and Development of the American Constitution

**Project Director:** Bradford P. Wilson, bpwilson@princeton.edu

**Funding:** \$997,380

**Number of Teachers Served:** 45

**Number of School Districts Served:** 9

**Number of Students Served:** No Information Available

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** Princeton University, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and
the National Association of Scholars

**Topics:** the American Revolution and the Constitutional era, the
American Civil War and its aftermath, and civil rights, personal
autonomy, and cultural conflict

**Methods:** summer seminars, professional development meetings, field
trips, museum visits, period music concerts, website

In 2005, the New Jersey State Board of Education changed the two-year
high school history curriculum to include "the complete cycle of
American history," not just the Progressive Era to the present, as had
been the practice. This project will prepare teachers to better
understand, and to more effectively teach, the origins and early
development of the new nation. Attention will be given to the
development of pedagogical skills that will guide teachers and their
students in the gathering, examination, and organization of historical
data in the interests of making historical explanations. The project
includes a two-week summer residential seminar hosted by the James
Madison Program on the campus of Princeton University and four half-days
of professional development activities during the academic year.

**Grantee Name:** Toms River Regional Schools, NJ

**Project Name:** James Madison Liberty Fellowship

Project Director: Michael B. O'Connell, moconnell@trschools.com

**Funding:** \$952,307

**Number of Teachers Served:** 50

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 20,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** Temple University, the American Institute for History
Education, the New Jersey Historical Society, the New Jersey Park
Service, Mount Vernon, Gunston Hall, the Foreign Policy Research
Institute, the Civil War Institute, the Cold War Museum, the
International Spy Museum

**Topics:** year 1: the Empire versus the Colonies, year 2: the Agrarian
South and the Industrializing North, and year 3: Liberal Democracy
versus Totalitarianism

**Methods:** colloquia, field trips, and summer institutes

This project will help to improve results in American history high
school final exams, as far too many students achieve in the 60^th^
percentile. At the same time, increased rigor in the district's American
history courses is a goal, and the district would like to see increased
enrollment in Advanced Placement American history programs. Elementary
school and special education teachers will benefit strongly from
participation. The teacher/fellows will be trained to train all history
teachers within their districts and beyond, in much needed turnkey
replication programs and to establish traditional American History
curricula for all districts. The program will allow the district to
design traditional, though innovative, American History curricula and
lesson-units that will provide students with a substantive historical
continuum, not a series of disconnected events, interspersed throughout
a social studies curriculum. Fellows will research and study the major
political, economic, and ideological contrasts found in each of the
centuries of American history, as they then create innovative classroom
lessons.

# 

# 

# 

# **New Mexico**

**Grantee Name:** Alamogordo Public Schools, NM

**Project Name:** Project 1776: The Shaping of the American Democratic
Republic

**Project Director:** Gregory S. Butler, gbutler@nmsu.edu

**Funding:** \$998,892

**Number of Teachers Served:** 25

**Number of School Districts Served:** 2

**Number of Students Served:** 20,729

**Grade Levels:** 9-12

**Partners:** New Mexico State University, the National Association of
Scholars, the National Humanities Council, the Museum of New Mexico, and
the Los Alamos History Museum

**Topics:** the centrality of American history; the Protestant
Reformation; religion and colonial American political consciousness;
birth of a constitutional society; the Declaration of Independence;
George Washington and his presidency; the Articles of Confederation;
framers of the Constitution; ratification issues; Bill of Rights issues;
the beginnings of the American Republic; and the early Republic

**Methods:** summer academic conferences, field trip to Philadelphia,
public lectures, teacher support network, and mentoring system

In 2003-04, only 6% of Gadsden eighth grade students reached advanced
proficiency in reading and eight percent of the eleventh graders reached
advanced proficiency. This record of low achievement may be related to
the fact that Dona Aña County is home to the highest child poverty rate
in New Mexico, the state with the highest overall poverty rate in the
nation. In regard to American history and social studies in particular,
the state falls well below standard. New Mexico has received a failing
grade in 1998, 2000, and 2003 on the "report card" issued by the Thomas
B. Fordham Institute, which measures effective standards for teaching
American history. The project will cover a full range of traditional
American history content, from the beginnings of the republic in
colonial times up to the present day. In order to facilitate the study
of such a wealth of historical material, Project 1776 will be organized
around a central general theme: the history and development of American
constitutional democracy. The major premise behind this organizational
theme is that American history ought to be understood as more than a
series of random events, ideas, documents, and personalities.

**Grantee Name:** Albuquerque Public Schools, NM

**Project Name:** East Meets West: Traditional American History for New
Mexico Teachers

**Project Director:** Martha Fenstermacher, fenstermacher@aps.edu

**Funding:** \$1,000,000

**Number of Teachers Served:** 35

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 91,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** the National Council for History Education, Colonial
Williamsburg, the University of New Mexico, the Indian Pueblo Cultural
Center, the Albuquerque Museum of Art, and the National Atomic Museum

**Topics:** comparative frontiers of colonial and revolutionary America;
battlegrounds, 19^th^ Century meeting grounds, and territorial
expansion; and science and technology in the 20^th^ Century

**Methods:** seminars, museum visits, field trips, and summer colloquia

Because of its location in the southwest, Albuquerque Public Schools
serves a higher percentage (4.8%) of Native American students than many
larger school districts in the nation, where the norm is usually less
than one percent. The district also serves a large Latino population
(52%). The demographic makeup of the district's student population lends
itself to cultivating high interest in many of the key threads of
traditional American history, such as conflicts between indigenous
peoples and colonialism, and the birth and evolution of a nation seeking
to provide freedom and justice for diverse populations. Academic and
public historians will lead teachers through sessions and courses, and
learning specialists and master teachers will work with APS teachers to
help them deliver traditional themes and topics of American history to
students in their classrooms. Over the three years of the grant,
district teachers will study and understand the key issues, episodes,
people, documents, and turning points in American history, how the
historical actions of individuals have determined the course of the
nation, and how founding documents have affected the country
politically, socially, and globally.

**Grantee Name:** Portales Municipal School District, NM

**Project Name:** Portales Pioneers: Teaching American History in
Eastern New Mexico

**Project Director:** Wendy Brooks, wbrooks@portalesschools.com

**Funding:** \$1,000,000

**Number of Teachers Served:** 75

**Number of School Districts Served:** 14

**Number of Students Served:** 23,700

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** Eastern New Mexico University, the Roswell Museum and Art
Center, the New Mexico Museum of Space History, the Amarillo Railroad
Museum, the City of Las Vegas Museum, and the Rough Rider Memorial
Collection

**Topics:** the Civil War, Westward Expansion, the Space Age, and the
Nuclear Age

**Methods:** summer institutes, monthly professional development
activities, website, and museum visits

The consortium serves the most impoverished, lowest-performing children
in the state; eligible teachers will be selected from Title I and "needs
improvement" schools that operate in the region. The ultimate
beneficiaries will be consortium students, who will gain a better
understanding of the ideas, issues, and events of American history and
will be better prepared to appreciate and exercise their civic rights,
liberties, and responsibilities as American citizens. The goal of the
project is to establish a network of highly skilled, highly trained,
master American history teachers who will share their knowledge with
colleagues. This will be achieved by providing participating teachers
with the opportunity to attend three week-long summer institutes and
monthly professional development meetings, as well as receive coaching
by a Master Teacher. An interactive website offering distance learning
opportunities will also be offered. Among the U.S. history topics to be
covered are the Civil War, Reconstruction, Westward Expansion, and the
Manhattan Project.

# **New York**

**Grantee Name:** Albany-Schoharie-Schenectady-Saratoga BOCES, NY

**Project Name:** Upstate New York Teaching of American History Project

**Project Director:** Cheryl Marcella, cmarcell@gw.neric.org

**Funding:** \$995,679

**Number of Teachers Served:** 28

**Number of School Districts Served:** 14

**Number of Students Served:** 60,000

**Grade Levels:** 7-8

**Partners:** Union College, the New York State Historical Society,
Mohawk Valley Heritage Corridor Commission, and the Greater Capital
Region Teacher Center

**Topics:** year 1: Revolution and Constitution; the development of the
new republic; and Westward Expansion, year 2: Slavery, abolition, and
emancipation; extension of suffrage and citizenship; and the Civil
Rights Movement, and year 3: The rise of industrial America; the rise of
urban America; and the growth of America as a world leader

**Methods:** after-school and Saturday workshops, three summer
institutes, field trips, and consultation with historians

Six middle schools of the 14 project consortium districts have been
identified as not having made Adequate Yearly Progress for two
consecutive years in the same subject and grade. Six of the 28 project
lead teachers have been selected from these schools. These lead teachers
will participate in project activities, assist in the writing of lesson
plans and instructional units, and disseminate lessons learned to their
fellow teachers. The centerpiece of the project is a set of three annual
summer institutes held on the campus of Union College. For four weeks
each summer, Lead Teachers will work with local and nationally
recognized historians to explore in depth topics of traditional American
history organized around themes taken from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address,
then translate them into lesson plans and units of instruction that will
make American history come alive for 7th and 8th graders. The knowledge
gained will be disseminated to other middle school teachers.

**Grantee Name:** Albion Central School District, NY

**Project Name:** History in Action

**Project Director:** Laura E. Rog, lrog@albionk12.org

**Funding:** \$891,610

**Number of Teachers Served:** 75

**Number of School Districts Served:** 13

**Number of Students Served:** 41,000

**Grade Levels**: 6-12

**Partners:** Buffalo State College the Documentary Heritage Program,
the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, the New York State Service
Learning Leadership Institutes, and Orleans/Niagara Board of Cooperative
Educational Services

**Topics:** Native Americans, African Americans, women, and immigrants,
and the use of historical tools of inquiry, such as museums and oral
history

**Methods:** full-day training sessions and workshops, a residential
institute in Washington, D.C., and experiences in historical museums
with oral histories and at historical sites

The project will develop a regional American history learning community
in two rural counties. There is a large deficit in their American
history offerings as compared to suburban schools, specifically in
Advanced Placement (AP) courses. Two schools in the target project area
do not offer AP classes in history, while all of the schools in nearby
suburban Rochester do. To remedy this situation, participating teachers
will take part in eight full-day workshops, a four-day residential
summer institute, and a two-day curriculum planning session. Half of the
workshops will focus on content, and half will focus on historical tools
of inquiry. The history content will focus on four groups in American
history who have struggled for full rights and citizenship.

**Grantee Name:** Jamestown Public Schools, NY

**Project Name:** Teachers Discovering History as Historians

**Project Director:** Paul J. Benson, pbenson@jamestown.wnyric.org

**Funding:** \$997,710

**Number of Teachers Served:** 300

**Number of School Districts Served:** 68

**Number of Students Served:** 44,598

**Grade Levels:** 4-5, 7-8, 11-12

**Partners:** Southern Tier Social Studies Consortium, Corning and
Jamestown Community Colleges, St. Bonaventure University, AccelerateU,
Corning Museum of Glass, the Chautauqua Institution, the Robert H.
Jackson Center, and the Fenton History Center

**Topics:** growth of government and impact of turning points; struggles
for justice in the U.S.; and U.S. foreign policy and international
relations

**Methods:** summer institutes, online courses, fall in-service days,
conferences, and summer symposia

The region is a classic "rust-belt" area that suffers from a declining
tax base and population, rural isolation, and state neglect. Over half
of the districts have been designated by the state as high need. The
goal of the project is to improve student achievement across all of the
districts. Other goals include development of deeper knowledge of
history among teachers; expanded range of teaching methods; and
promotion of a model for professional development. The program will
focus on relevant historical and primary source documents, court cases,
legislation and eyewitness historical accounts. Extensive technology
training will be provided to enhance hardware, software and electronic
resources in the classroom. This program strengthens teacher\'s
cognitive processes and teaching strategies to develop a staff able to
engage disconnected students in history not as a litany of facts, but as
an interconnected series of ideas relevant to the past, present, and
future.

**Grantee Name:** New York City Department of Education, NY

**Project Name:** Content and Continuity: A Citywide Approach to
American History

**Project Director:** Elise Abegg, eabegg@nycboe.net

**Funding:** \$1,966,343

**Number of Teachers Served:** 1,000

**Number of School Districts Served:** 32

**Number of Students Served:** 1,000,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Columbia
University, Bank Street College of Education, the New York Public
Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Channel 13/WNET (PBS), Facing
History and Ourselves, and the American Place Theatre

**Topics:** defining the American Dream, realizing the American Dream
(the Constitution), and successes and challenges of the American Dream

**Methods:** forums, workshops, lectures, museum visits, and summer
institutes

The largest and most complex in the nation, the New York City school
system is one of the neediest. With over 1,500 schools, it serves a
population of more than 1,000,000 students. An estimated 750,000
students are from low-income families, and 94,000 are immigrants who
have arrived within the past three years. The primary goal of Content
and Continuity is to increase the content knowledge of teachers of
American history at all levels in order to create a cohesive K--12
approach to the teaching of American history. As such, we will examine
the content through the lens of the American Dream. At each school
level, teachers will work with historians and cultural partners to
examine content and how that content relates to each grade level. In our
recently centralized system, it is crucial that we address this K--12
continuum so that teachers and students are able to deepen their
knowledge of the various traditional American history topics. A subgroup
of teachers will be chosen to participate in a follow-up mini-series of
four after-school sessions during which they will work with historians
and colleagues at local archives and at local historical
sites/institutions to differentiate and expand on the content for each
grade level.

**Grantee Name:** New York City Department of Education Autonomous Zone
Schools, NY

**Project Name:** Inventing the People: Autonomous Zone Schools Teaching
American History Grant

**Project Director:** Avram Barlowe, abarlow@nycboe.net

**Funding:** \$1,000,000

**Number of Teachers Served:** 30-90

**Number of School Districts Served:** No Information Available

**Number of Students Served:** No Information Available

**Grade Levels:** 7-12

**Partners:** Queens College, the City University of New York, and
George Mason University

**Topics:** year 1: Constituting the People---colonies, revolution and
the Constitution, year 2: Redefining the People---the Civil War and
Reconstruction, industrial America, and the U.S. in the world, and year
3: the American people at home and abroad---the Great Depression, the
New Deal, civil rights, Vietnam, and Brown v. Board of Education

**Methods:** History/inquiry summer school, summer institutes, school
year retreats, classroom support, and interactive web tools

Of the highly diverse urban schools served by this project, 28 are Title
I schools, and six are under NCLB review. There are high levels of
poverty and significant numbers of English language learners. The New
York City teaching force loses about 44 percent of its entering teachers
after only four years, creating severe problems of continuity and
control, as well as curriculum application and adaptation. Whatever
their past preparation, a survey found that American history teachers
could not keep up in their field, and found it hard to identify as
historians and history educators without knowing where to find
professional discussions centered around history and history teaching.
The project will end the isolation of lone American history teachers in
small schools, integrate strategies with the latest American history
content knowledge, and connect teachers and scholars around nationally
supported lessons and tools.

**Grantee Name:** Community School District 15, NY

**Project Name:** District 15 Teaching American History Project

**Project Director:** Linda Harris, lharris10@nycboe.net

**Funding:** \$1,000,000

**Number of Teachers Served:** 175

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** No Information Available

**Grade Levels:** 2, 4-5, 7-12

**Partners:** the College of Mount St. Vincent, the Brooklyn and New
York Historical Societies, the Brooklyn Museum, the Historic House Trust
of New York City, and the Museum of the City of New York

**Topics:** change and continuity in American democracy; gathering and
interactions of peoples, cultures, and ideas; economic and technological
changes and their relations to society, ideas, and environment; and the
changing role of America in the world

**Methods:** graduate-level coursework, museum studies, seminars,
curriculum development activities, and field trips

Of the district's 46 schools, 10 have been identified for intervention
as Title I Corrective Action Schools or Schools in Need of Improvement.
Recent test results have indicated that only half of the questions in
American history were answered correctly on standardized tests taken by
the district's eighth grade students. In grades 2, 4, and 5, none of the
district's American history teachers are qualified in history or social
studies; 60 percent are qualified at the secondary school level. The
project will address four goals: providing professional development that
improves teacher knowledge of content and related teaching skills;
raising student achievement in American history; promoting traditional
American history as a separate academic subject; and creating
collaborative partnerships that support American history instruction.
The project's content will include the historical themes contained in
the National Assessment of Educational Progress in U.S. history.

**Grantee Name:** New York City Board of Education Districts 17, 18, and
22, NY

**Project Name:** Region 6 Secondary Schools Teacher as Historian
Project

**Project Director:** Barbara Berg, bberg@nycboe.net

**Funding:** \$999,500

**Number of Teachers Served:** 360

**Number of School Districts Served:** 3

**Number of Students Served:** 100,500

**Grade Levels:** 9-12

**Partners:** Rutgers School of Law, Brooklyn College, the Library of
America, the Brooklyn Museum, and Teaching Matters

**Topics:** the American Revolution, Native Americans, Westward
Expansion, Reconstruction, the Civil War, World II, and the Civil Rights
Movement

**Methods:** summer institutes, mentoring network, historical research
workshops, and website

More than 80 % of secondary school students in the target districts
score below the state passing rate on American history/social studies
standardized measurements. The existing traditional American history
curriculum is deficient, and teachers are not allocating enough time to
teach the subject. This project will create a comprehensive, dynamic
sustainable and replicable partnership that will improve student
achievement in American history. Specifically, the project will prepare
15-20 Master Teachers who will be the core for improved traditional
American history instruction in districts 17, 18 and 22 now and in the
future; infuse invigorating high-quality, teacher-developed content into
the existing curriculum; contribute nationally to best-practices;
establish an ongoing infrastructure for high quality professional
learning that can be used as a catalyst for research; create products
that will support the dissemination of the project model, its philosophy
and approaches; and engage teachers in a dialogue focused on sharing
best practices in the teaching of traditional American history as a
separate academic subject with noted historians from across the country
through interactive video and Internet technologies.

**Grantee Name:** New York City Department of Education District 20, NY

**Project Name:** James Madison Seminar on TAH

**Project Director:** Bradford P. Wilson, bpwilson@princeton.edu

**Funding:** \$994,755

**Number of Teachers Served:** 135

**Number of School Districts Served:** 3

**Number of Students Served:** 137,370

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** the James Madison Program in American Ideals and
Institutions at Princeton University, the Philadelphia Museum of Art,
and the National Association of Scholars

**Topics:** classical versus modern republicanism, the American
Revolution, the Constitution, the Civil War and its aftermath, and civil
rights, personal autonomy, and cultural conflict

**Methods:** summer seminars, professional development meetings,
website, and museum visits

Data indicate that 50.8% of the districts' students are eligible for
free lunch. Recent immigrants make up 9.9 % of the student population.
Of the American history teachers in the districts, 40% have five or
fewer years of experience, many are not certified to teach American
history, and many of those who are certified did not major in history.
During the period of the project, attention will be given to the
development of pivotal ideas and institutions in American history, as
well as pedagogical skills. The project will maintain a steady focus on
the origins and evolution of America's fundamental political ideals,
traditions, and constitutional institutions. The teacher participants
will be asked to read a substantial amount of material, both of a
narrative and documentary type. A website of historical materials,
essays on basic issues and events in American history, lessons plans,
and other teaching materials will be created for the project.

**Grantee Name:** New York City Department of Education District 21, NY

**Project Name:** Exploring the American Past: A Partnership to Improve
Knowledge, Teaching, and Learning

**Project Director:** Simone McIntosh, smcinto2@nycboe.net

**Funding:** \$994,886

**Number of Teachers Served:** 96, plus 24 assistant principals

**Number of School Districts Served:** 2

**Number of Students Served:** 13,000

**Grade Levels:** 7, 8, and 11

**Partners:** the City University of New York, Brooklyn Historical
Society, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Television and Radio, and
the Education Development Center

**Topics:** year 1: Democracy and Citizenship: the American Revolution,
the Civil War, Reconstruction, the rise of Jim Crow, the Progressive
Era, and the Civil Rights Movement, year 2: Becoming American:
Jamestown, immigration trends, and the slave trade, and year 3: America
and the world: Westward Expansion, the 1890s, and 20^th^ Century wars

**Methods:** retreats with historians, summer institutes, and classroom
visits

The middle and high schools that this program will serve are highly
diverse urban schools, with 50% of students eligible to receive free
lunch. Fifty-three percent of 8^th^ graders in these schools failed the
most recent New York State Intermediate Exam in U.S. history and
government. An in-depth experience with traditional American history
will spur their social and civic development, empower them as thinkers
and doers in a democratic society, engage them in the community, and
smooth transitions from middle to high school. Teachers and
administrators who participate directly in this Project will undertake
yearlong cycles of content training, collaborative planning of new
instructional activities, and classroom testing and revision of those
activities. The structure is designed not only to immerse teachers and
supervisors in rigorous study of major events and themes with leading
historians, but also to engage them in a sustained and collaborative
process of implementation that will improve their students' literacy and
their achievement in history.

**Grantee Name:** New York City Department of Education District 25, NY

**Project Name:** Region 3 Teacher as Historian Program

**Project Director:** Gus Hatzidimitriou, ghatzid@nycboe.net

**Funding:** \$999,975

**Number of Teachers Served:** 45-60 master teachers, 150-300 classroom
teachers

**Number of School Districts Served:** 2

**Number of Students Served:** 90,000

**Grade Levels:** 5, 8, 10-11

**Partners:** the Library of America, St. John's University, Teaching
Matters, Inc., Rutgers University, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of
American History, and the Whitney Museum of American Art

**Topics:** elections, civil rights, the American Revolution, Native
Americans, Westward Expansion, the Civil War, Reconstruction, George
Washington, slavery, Abraham Lincoln, and the Cold War

**Methods:** summer institutes, mentoring, networking, independent
research study, web activities, and an online art gallery

More than 50% of secondary school students in the participating
districts score below the state passing rate on American history/social
studies standardized measurements, and only 40% of 10^th^ and 11^th^
graders met or exceeded state standards in history. This project will
create a comprehensive, dynamic, sustainable, and replicable partnership
that will improve student achievement in American history. Specifically,
the project will prepare 15-20 master teachers who will be the core for
improved traditional American history instruction in the two
participating districts now and in the future; infuse invigorating
high-quality, teacher-developed content into the existing curriculum;
contribute nationally to best practices; establish an ongoing
infrastructure for high quality professional learning that can be used
as a catalyst for research; create products that will support the
dissemination of the project model, its philosophy and approaches; and
engage teachers in a dialogue focused on sharing best practices in the
teaching of traditional American history as a separate academic subject
with noted historians from across the country through interactive video
and Internet technologies.

**Grantee Name:** New York City Department of Education District 27, NY

**Project Name:** America Across the Ages

**Project Director:** Jacob M. Gutnicki, jgutnicki@nycboe.net

**Funding:** \$990,957

**Number of Teachers Served:** 105

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 46,841

**Grade Levels:** 5, 7-8, 11

**Partners:** City College of New York, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of
American History, the American Institute for History Education, WLIW
Channel 13, United Streaming, New York Learns, Think Quest NYC, and
C-SPAN in the Classroom

**Topics:** the American Revolution, the War of 1812, Madison, Monroe,
the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Industrial Revolution, westward
migration, the Gold Rush, the origins of democracy, the development of
the legal system, the Constitution

**Methods:** summer institutes, workshops, web activities, and field
trips

Community School District 27 is the largest geographical school district
in the New York City Department of Education. The overall level of
poverty in this area qualifies 73 percent of the students for
free/reduced lunch. Results of the district's social studies exams
indicate a need for a focus on American history instruction. With 43.8%
dropping out of school or not taking the American history Regents
exam---which is required of all students to graduate--- it is critical
that reforms take place in teaching American History. The project will
impact directly on the quality of instruction in the classroom as
teachers work with students in creation of projects. This will be
accomplished by offering teachers summer institutes and workshops
throughout the year in which they will learn how to develop American
history units of study. Teacher will also participate in field trips and
take graduate courses leading to New York State certification in
history.

**Grantee Name:** New York City Department of Education Region II, NY

**Project Name:** Telling America's Story: Traditional American History
through a Local Lens

**Project Director:** Philip D. Panaritis, ppanari@nycboe.net

**Funding:** \$998,189

**Number of Teachers Served:** 75

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 60,000

**Grade Levels:** 4, 7-8, 11

**Partners:** the Bartow-Pell Mansion, the Van Cortlandt House, the
South Street Seaport Museum, the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum,
Lehman College, the Museum of the City of New York, the New York
Historical Society, and the Bronx African-American History Project

**Topics:** Liberty and diversity in New Netherlands/New York; the first
capital and the framing of the Constitution; Empire State
democratization in the Ages of Jefferson and Jackson; New York and the
Civil War; the conflict over liberties in industrializing New York; the
Progressive in Era New York; New York between the wars; New York in
World War II; and the Big Apple today

**Methods:** institute, history lectures, mini-sessions, study groups,
museum visits, newsletters, and website

The overwhelming majority of Region II students face serious obstacles
to academic success. Lagging skills development in literacy make is
difficult for the region's lowest performing students to comprehend
adequately critical issues and events in American history. In addition,
inadequate pre-service teacher preparation is a major factor in poor
American history performance. The 63 targeted low-performing schools
have larger percentages of poorly prepared teachers, high teacher
turnover, and student populations with a wider range of needs than other
schools in the region. The content focus of the project will be on
learning the nation's history through the "local lens" of New York City
history. The decision to focus on New York City is based on the concept
that local history, with its immediacy for participants and their
students, will be a powerful mediator for understanding American History
concepts, knowledge, and skills. The project will provide teachers with
in-depth content knowledge in all periods of American History and
greatly expand the instructional strategies they can use, focusing on
primary and web-mediated sources.

**Grantee Name:** New York City Department of Education Region 4, NY

**Project Name:** Learning History Together: the Content, Documents, and
Artifacts of United States History for the Elementary Grades

**Project Director:** John-Paul Bianchi, jbianch@nycboe.net

**Funding:** \$999,998

**Number of Teachers Served:** 80-90

**Number of School Districts Served:** 3

**Number of Students Served:** No Information Available

**Grade Levels:** K-6

**Partners:** Queens College and the New York and Brooklyn historical
Societies

**Topics:** year 1: Change (Native Americans, exploration and discovery,
early European settlements, and U.S. history content in non-fiction
materials), year 2: Nationalism (the colonial period in New York, the
American Revolution, creating a new nation, and creating a democratic
citizenry.), and year 3: Identity (Westward Expansion,
industrialization, immigration then and now, and New York City--its
place in U.S. history)

**Methods:** content knowledge sessions, staff development retreats,
summer institutes, teacher observations and visits, interactions with
historians, small group work, and conferences

A recent survey revealed that Region 4's elementary teachers are poorly
prepared to teach American history. Most did not major in history, nor
do they have the pedagogical preparation to teach historical inquiry in
which students are encouraged to structure questions and interpret
difference sources of information. In 2004, 40% of Region 4's 5^th^
grade students failed the statewide social studies exam, with less than
12% performing at a proficient level. The project would provide Region
4's teachers with the content and the ability to deliver the content in
an age-appropriate manner. Implementation of the project will be through
ongoing staff development in both content and pedagogical practices and
the development and field-testing of units of study. There will be four
content knowledge sessions each year in which the participants will
explore four topics in American history directly related to the content
of the curriculum required in the elementary grades by the New York
State Department of Education.

**Grantee Name:** Sullivan County Board of Education, NY

**Project Name:** Frontiers of American History

**Project Director:** George Will, gewill@roscoe.k12.ny.us

**Funding:** \$999,986

**Number of Teachers Served:** 127

**Number of School Districts Served:** 10

**Number of Students Served:** 21,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** the Smithsonian Institution, the National Council for
History Education, Cornell University, and the New York State Education
Department

**Topics:** year 1: A New Nation, year 2: Westward Expansion, and year
3: A Global Nation

**Methods:** seminars, colloquia, field excursions, summer institutes,
Internet-based research, the use of master teachers, and peer discussion
groups

The New York State Department of Education has identified a number of
consortium schools as Schools in Need of Improvement, Schools in
Corrective Action, or Schools Requiring Academic Progress. Countywide,
more than 30% of high school students are failing to achieve Regents
Diploma standards in American history and 57% of middle school students
are failing to achieve proficiency standards in American history
assessments. During the first year of Frontiers, the project director
will align elementary school American history standards curriculum with
content standards. During years two and three, the director will align
middle school content and high school instruction and content to the
age-appropriate standards and grade level expectations defined by the
State Department of Education. As a result, teachers will enter
classrooms with research-based teaching techniques that will spark
student interest in American history and lead to improved academic
achievement.

**Grantee Name:** Yonkers Public Schools, NY

**Project Name:** Project Preamble

**Project Director:** Fern Eisgrub, feisgrub@yonkerspublicschools.org

**Funding:** \$925,764

**Number of Teachers Served:** 70

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** No Information Available

**Grade Levels:** 7-8, 11-12

**Partners:** Manhattan College, History Alive!, the New York Historical
Society, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Schomburg
Center for Research in Black Culture, Yonkers Historical Society,
WNET/Channel 13, and the Museum of Television and Radio

**Topics:** year 1: the Constitutional Era, the Civil War and
Reconstruction, the Age of Industrialization, the New Deal era, and the
post-Civil Rights Movement, year 2: the judicial system, civil rights,
Amendment 14, and the expanding role of the President, and year 3:
Amendments 15 and 19, the Electoral College, the election process,
turning point elections, and voting rights

**Methods:** summer institutes, seminars, and field trips

Over the life of the project, five distinct American periods---the
Constitutional Era, Civil War and Reconstruction, the Age of
Industrialization, the New Deal Era, and the Post-Civil Rights
Movement---will be examined in light of immigration patterns, elections
and voting rights, amendments to the Constitution, the judicial system,
and the President's expanding role. The project will increase teacher
knowledge and improve the quality of instruction by providing 70
American history teachers each project year, including special and
bilingual education and library-media teachers of grades 7, 8, 11, and
12 at the district's middle and high schools, with intensive, systematic
professional development. Eleven of the thirteen enduring Constitutional
issues will be addressed through an in-depth study of the Preamble of
the Constitution: national power, federalism, the judiciary, civil
liberties, rights of the accused, equality, the rights of women, rights
of ethnic and racial groups, presidential powers in wartime and foreign
affairs, separation of powers, and avenues of representation.

# **North Carolina**

**Grantee Name:** Cleveland County Public Schools, NC

**Project Name:** Making of America Liberty Fellowship

**Project Director:** Robert Brown, rbrown@clevelandcountyschools.org

**Funding:** \$999,382

**Number of Teachers Served:** 90

**Number of School Districts Served:** 2 (and 1 charter school)

**Number of Students Served:** 26,000

**Grade Levels:** K-8

**Partners:** the University of North Carolina (Greensboro), the
American Institute for History Education, the National Humanities
Center, Mount Vernon, Gunston Hall, the Civil War Institute, the Bill of
Rights Institute, the Cold War Museum, and Learners Online

**Topics:** year 1: the Empire versus the Colonies, year 2: the Agrarian
South versus the Industrializing North, and year 3: Liberal Democracy
versus Totalitarianism

**Methods:** colloquia, seminars, summer institutes, visits to
historical sites, research, and web activities

The target schools suffer from high rates of teacher turnover, poor
teacher background in the subject matter, and low test scores. In fact,
overall scores in American history are significantly lower than in any
other tested content area. To remedy this, project Fellows will be
trained to be teacher-leaders who will bring fellowship information back
into their own schools and districts. They will assist other teachers by
mentoring, modeling, reviewing lesson plans, and peer coaching. The
ultimate goal is to increase student knowledge of American history and
to engage them in developing an interest in their nation's past.

**Grantee Name:** North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, NC

**Project Name:** The Embodied Presidency: Eight Men, the Office, the
Historical Moment

**Project Director:** Virginia S. Wilson, Wilson@ncssm.edu

**Funding:** \$998,910

**Number of Teachers Served:** 150

**Number of School Districts Served:** 2

**Number of Students Served:** 155,420

**Grade Levels:** 8, 10-11

**Partners:** the University of Virginia Library, the Hermitage, and the
presidential libraries of Lincoln, Wilson, F.D. Roosevelt, Johnson, and
Reagan

**Topics:** The Presidencies of Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln,
Wilson, F.D. Roosevelt, Johnson, and Reagan

**Methods:** workshops, online resources, travel to presidential
research sites, mentoring, the development of presidential instructional
packets, and the creation of a website

The project will involve teachers in hands-on research on the presidency
of the U.S. in eight historical moments. The project focuses on eight
men---George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham
Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Ronald
Reagan---and how they mirrored the historical fabric of their times and
transformed the office of the Presidency through their force of
personality. The project will be coordinated by the school's highly
trained history faculty and will be enriched by leading scholars from
universities and presidential libraries. Immediate beneficiaries of the
project also include the school systems of Charlotte-Mecklenburg and
Durham.

# **North Dakota**

**Grantee Name:** Williston Public School District 1, ND

**Project Name:** Lewis and Clark Liberty Fellowship

**Project Director:** David W. Richter, d.richter@wsc.nodak.edu

**Funding:** \$499,881

**Number of Teachers Served:** 80

**Number of School Districts Served:** 29

**Number of Students Served:** 11,937

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** Williston State College, the Fort Union Trading Post
Historical Site, the American Institute for History Education, the Bill
of Rights Institute, and Distance Education Consultants

**Topics:** year 1: the Formation of the Nation: Conflict within the
Nation, year 2: Rebuilding the Nation: Today's Nation, and year 3:
Coaching, dissemination, and sustainability activities

**Methods:** colloquia, field trips, summer institutes, and coaching

Remote, isolated, and rural, the target region has a population density
of 3.7 persons per square mile. Six districts failed to meet Adequate
Yearly Progress. The purpose of the Fellowship is to significantly
improve teachers' knowledge of traditional American history, resulting
in measurable improvements in student achievement. Teams of historians,
instructional experts, and master teachers will emphasize content
attainment, instructional methodology, and technology in 2-day colloquia
in the fall, winter and spring, as well as during summer institutes. To
combat the lack of historical knowledge throughout much of the region,
the project will provide professional development to 80 teachers who
will be trained as teacher-leaders. As turnkey trainers, these 80
Fellows will teach their colleagues to translate historical information
to students.

# **Ohio**

**Grantee Name:** Educational Service Center of Cuyahoga County, OH

**Project Name:** Sounds of American History

**Project Director:** Jennifer A. Felker, Jennifer.felker@lnoca.org

**Funding:** \$1,994,120

**Number of Teachers Served:** 72

**Number of School Districts Served:** 103

**Number of Students Served:** 500,000

**Grade Levels:** 4, 8, 10

**Partners:** Cleveland State University, Ideastream^SM^, the
Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame, the Library of Congress, the University of
South Carolina, Georgia State University, the University of Buffalo, and
the University of Virginia

**Topics:** year 1: the sounds of democracy, 1750-1880 (e.g., 19^th^
Century music and folk traditions and slave narratives), year 2: oral
history and the sounds of industry and immigration, 1880-1940 (e.g.,
radio broadcasts of FDR's fireside chats and jazz, blues, and music
clubs), and year 3: oral history and the sounds of post-war America,
1940-2006 (e.g., American leaders on tape and modern music)

**Methods:** workshops, mentoring, and recording equipment

The Ohio Department of Education classifies 27 of the districts being
served as having "high poverty" or "very high poverty," while others
enjoy a "high median income." Judging from proficiency test scores,
student achievement in history remains problematic for much of the
eight-county area. Nearly 40% of the schools being served fall below the
median in Ohio, which identifies these 38 districts as being on
"academic watch," "emergency," or "continuous improvement." "Sounds of
American History" will explore sound in all of its dimensions: voices
(e.g., oral histories), technologies, music, and the aural worlds of
everyday experience, including sounds heard at work, at home, and at
leisure. Using a variety of multimedia materials, teachers will increase
their content knowledge by creating lesson plans, mentoring their
colleagues, and participating in distance learning meetings. Among the
various topics to be covered are colonial America, the nation's
founding, the growth of slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow, the Great
Migration, World Wars I and II, the Depression, the Civil Rights
Movement, and the Cold War.

**Grantee Name:** Franklin County Educational Service Center, OH

**Project Name:** Hands-On History (HOH): The Central Ohio History
Project

**Project Director:** Jody A. Blankenship, jblankenship@ohiohistory.org

**Funding:** \$994,218

**Number of Teachers Served:** 120

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 80,000

**Grade Levels:** 3-5, 8

**Partners:** Ohio Dominican University and the Ohio Historical Society

**Topics:** Westward Expansion and growth, the Constitution and
governance, changing technologies and economies, migration and
immigration, and 20^th^ Century conflicts

**Methods:** summer institute, research workshops, seminars, and field
trips

The region's student population is 18.11% minority, and more than 19%
receive free/reduced lunches. Central Ohio is expected to receive 20,000
new Somali immigrants in 2007. In addition, all students must pass the
Ohio Graduation Test (OGT) to graduate from high school. The OGT
includes a significant American history component, focused on content
knowledge and skills application. Hands on History will immerse teachers
in historically significant documents, objects, and sites that are
lasting reminders of the ideas and people that laid the foundations of
American freedom and democracy. Through participating in Hands of
History, Central Ohio teachers will gain an in-depth understanding of
five key historical themes aligned with the Ohio Academic Content
Standards, learn how to locate, appraise and analyze primary sources,
and learn how to transfer the knowledge and skills to their students
using best practices in American history education.

**Grantee Name:** Hamilton City School District, OH

**Project Name:** America's Journey: the Beacon of Liberty 1492-1965

**Project Director:** Everett C. Mann, hasa_em@swoca.net

**Funding:** \$999,953

**Number of Teachers Served:** 50

**Number of School Districts Served:** 3

**Number of Students Served:** 20,000

**Grade Levels:** 4-5, 8, 10

**Partners:** Miami University (Hamilton), the Michael J. Colligan
History Project, and the Lane, Middletown, and Mason public libraries

**Topics:** year 1: *E Pluribus Unum*: industrialization, immigration,
reform movements, global power, World Wars I and II, the Cold War, Wall
Street, and civil rights (1877-1965), year 2: Making the Nation: the
Declaration of Independence, the Louisiana Purchase, the Civil War, the
Mexican-American War, Reconstruction, immigration, and slavery
(1775-1877), and year 3: A City on a Hill: Native American cultures,
European cultures in America, the French and Indian War, the Trail of
Tears, and religion (1492-1850)

**Methods:** summer institutes, academic-year seminars, a Website, field
trips, DVDs, and CDs

Hamilton and Middletown schools serve a large population of students
living in poverty, and the problem is increasing. Approximately half of
all students in both districts are considered economically
disadvantaged. In Mason schools, concern centers on enormous growth. For
the last five years, enrollment has grown by nearly 8% each year, which
translates to approximately 20 new classrooms per year; growth is not
expected to slow until 2010. Diversity also has increased in all three
districts, as the Hispanic population has grown substantially. The
project will increase teacher knowledge of American history content.
Participating teachers will read and discuss a variety of lively primary
documents, individual biographies, and respected works by the best
historians, which will give them a deeper understanding of the dynamic
of liberty and democracy at the center of our nation's experience. All
Ohio academic standards for U.S. history will be included in project
subject matter.

**Grantee Name:** Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center, OH

**Project Name:** History in the Heartland II: Explore History

**Project Director:** Stuart Hobbs, hobbs.2@osu.edu

**Funding:** \$999,149

**Number of Teachers Served:** 108

**Number of School Districts Served:** 77

**Number of Students Served:** 58,000

**Grade Levels:** 4-5, 8-10

**Partners:** Ohio State University and the Ohio Historical Society

**Topics:** Frontiers and Borderlands: Native Americans and the Settler
Experience. From Farm to Factory: Rural Life and the Impact of
Industrialization. Presidents and Politics: Ohio and American Political
History. Dominion of War: American Military and Technological History

**Methods:** seminars, summer institutes, field trips, a website, and
the recruitment of master teachers

Among urban districts in the project area, schools in three cities are
on "academic watch," the state's second lowest rating, one of which is a
single year out of "academic emergency," the lowest rating. Many of the
districts are largely rural or small town, and lack resources and
opportunities for enhanced education and professional development for
teachers. Explore History's design is based on the profession's
benchmarks for professional development and is combined with the
resources of its fully committed partners. The project will have a
long-term impact on the teaching and learning of traditional American
history in the target area and beyond.

**Grantee Name:** Western Buckeye Educational Service Center, OH

**Project Name:** History Partners Educating, Enlivening, and Reviewing
Ourselves

**Project Director:** Christine Feichter, wb_feichter@noacsc.org

**Funding:** \$998,925

**Number of Teachers Served:** 1,500

**Number of School Districts Served:** 18

**Number of Students Served:** 23,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partner:** Ashland University

**Topics:** the American Revolution, the founding of America,
sectionalism and the Civil War, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and
the Progressive Era

**Methods:** summer institutes, the use of primary documents, local TAH
Website updating, seminars, action research teams, distance learning,
and site visits

Only 2% of K-12 teachers in the project have specific training in
traditional American history. They teach in an area that is largely
agricultural and has a small industrial base, and its school districts
are suffering deficits due to declining enrollments, reduced state
funding, declining property values, and factory and bank closures. There
is no funding for advanced-placement courses in American history. The
project will bring a renewed vigor to teachers and their students, who,
as of March 2005, must master concepts in American history, from the
nation's founding until the present day, to pass the history portion of
the Ohio Graduation Test. To do this, our teachers will participate in a
series of intensive institutes and seminars on the most significant
events, issues, and turning points in American history. They will
analyze original historical documents from throughout American history,
and they will study the actions of the men and women who have struggled
to shape our country.

# **Oklahoma**

**Grantee Name:** Moore Public Schools, OK

**Project Name:** A Journey through America's Past: Using Historic
Sites, Documents, and Scholarship to Explore History

**Project Director:** Shirley F. Starkey,
shirleystarkey@mooreschools.com

**Funding:** \$999,670

**Number of Teachers Served:** No Information Available

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 21,100

**Grade Levels:** 7-12

**Partners:** Mystic Seaport, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point,
the Oklahoma State Museum, the Oklahoma State Department of Education,
and Oklahoma State University

**Topics:** Colonial America, teaching Republicanism, the Constitution,
Native Americans, colonial social history, Ben Franklin, stages of
women's history, prejudice and pluralism, immigration and ethnicity,
slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Progressive Era, child
labor, the New Deal, civil rights, and the consumer revolution

**Methods:** technology workshops, content workshops, and field trips to
Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and Massachusetts

Only 10% of American history teachers in the district were history
majors, and very few of them have ever been to the East Coast, where
America's history began. Nationally prominent history experts will
prepare 15 sets of PowerPoint lectures that teachers will incorporate
into lesson plans. On the 12-day "staff ride" teachers will encounter
firsthand the great sites, documents, and museums from Washington, D.C.,
to Massachusetts. Accompanied by senior history professors, teachers
will experience the places that made American history and will be able
to incorporate these experiences into their lesson plans. These same
historians will prepare a graduate level course in historiography will
cover 15 main themes since colonial days, including traditional politics
as well as the new social history, republicanism, gender and minorities.
Teachers will be organized into teams with master teachers receiving
additional pay to mentor their colleagues and serve as liaison with the
project directors and staff historians.

# **Oregon**

**Grantee Name:** Lincoln County School District, OR

**Project Name:** Partnerships to Improve American History Instruction

**Project Director:** Matthew Love, matt_love@lincoln.k12.or.us

**Funding:** \$499,931

**Number of Teachers Served:** 32

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** No Information Available

**Grade Levels:** 3-12

**Partners:** Oregon State University, Western Oregon University, the
Lincoln County and North Lincoln County Historical Societies, the
Waldport Heritage Museum, the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians,
the Oregon Humanities Council, and the Oregon Department of Education

**Topics:** year 1: "Expansion and Conflict"---Westward movement
(elementary); territorial expansion (middle); and imperialism and
neocolonialism (high), year 2: "Democracy"---representation and
revolution/native concepts of government (elementary); slavery and
abolition/the Civil War in Oregon (middle); and rights movements/the
Progressive movement and the Oregon System (high), and year 3: "Economic
Growth"---colonial crafts and inventions/native crafts and arts
(elementary); industrialization and the rise of cities/community growth
in Oregon (middle); and new technologies and global reach/Oregon's
Pacific Rim ties (high)

**Methods:** summer seminars, colloquia, presentations, and discussions

In 2004-05, only 77 of the district's 445 11^th^ graders enrolled in
Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. history. Of that number, only 44% took the
AP test, of which only 4% received a passing grade. As a result of this
project, the district expects that 80% of participants will report
themselves better prepared to teach American history, and 75% will
report increased use of historical materials. Seventy-five percent will
increase the variety of instructional approaches, including a 65%
increase in the use of technology. To accomplish this, teachers will
participate in an annual Summer Seminar and three annual colloquia, in
addition to attending presentations at three humanities councils
sessions and interacting with curators and archivists at the partner
universities.

# **Pennsylvania**

**Grantee Name:** Greencastle-Antrim School District, PA

**Project Name:** Continuity and Change: America in the 20^th^ Century

**Project Director:** Michael J. Meier, mjmeier@innernet.net

**Funding:** \$936,011

**Number of Teachers Served:** 123

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 22,000

**Grade Levels:** 9-12

**Partners:** the National Council for History Education, the Gilder
Lehrman Institute of American History, and the Allison-Antrim and
Waynesboro Museums

**Topics:** year 1: Reordering American Life: Progressivism to the New
Deal---Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt
(1900-1940), year 2: America in the World: WWII, the Cold War, Korea,
and Vietnam (1941-1995), and year 3: Postwar America: Civil Rights, the
Sixties, and the Rise of Conservatism (1945-1995)

**Methods:** colloquia, information on annotated primary sources and
storytelling skills, "History in a Box" resource kits, traveling panel
exhibitions, workshops, summer seminars, and book discussions

The project will address the need for teachers trained in American
history, a lack of access to historians for content enrichment and a
lack of ongoing collaboration among teachers of American history. Its
ultimate goal is to improve student academic achievement through
improvements in teacher content knowledge of traditional American
history. Building on the concluding Teaching American History project
that examined 18th and 19th century American history, this project will
assist the Consortium's 123 secondary history instructors in becoming
scholar-teachers with a three-year, in-depth examination of how American
ideology and other key elements of American life from the 18th and 19th
centuries were carried into the 20th century world. Through this
content-rich professional development project, teachers will gain the
historical knowledge and resources necessary to reinvigorate their
classroom instruction and subsequently impact students' understanding of
important questions, themes and narratives of traditional American
history.

**Grantee Name:** Northwest Tri-County Intermediate Unit, PA

**Project Name:** Teaching American History through the Pennsylvania
Story

**Project Director:** JoAnn Bova, joann_bova@iu5.org

**Funding:** \$1,000,000

**Number of Teachers Served:** 111

**Number of School Districts Served:** 17

**Number of Students Served:** No Information Available

**Grade Levels:** 3-8

**Partners:** Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, the Erie County
Historical Society, Fort LeBoeuf Museum, and the Soldiers and Sailors
National Military Museum and Memorial

**Topics:** year 1: Pennsylvania Story: Building a Commonwealth, year 2:
Surviving a Catastrophe: Pennsylvania and the Civil War, and year 3:
America's Melting Pot: Politics, Labor, and Urbanization

**Methods:** three-credit coursework, summer institutes, colloquia, web
activities, visits to historical sites, and research activities

In the participating school districts, 79% of 4^th^ grade and 74% of
8^th^ grade students scored below proficiency on the state American
history test. Only 2% of both groups reached advanced proficiency on the
test. Participants---a portion of whom will be pre-service
teachers---will become familiar with historical methodology (including
analyzing primary and secondary source data) and examining key events in
state history. The ultimate goal is to increase student achievement
through reading and analysis of historical documents, and to demonstrate
mastery through writing and debate.

**Grantee Name:** Reading School District, PA

**Project Name:** William Penn Liberty Fellowship

**Project Director:** JuliAnne Kline, klinej@readingsd.org

**Funding:** \$995,024

**Number of Teachers Served:** 50

**Number of School Districts Served:** 18

**Number of Students Served:** 25,000

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** Temple University, the American Institute for History
Education, the Civil War Institute, the Cold War Museum, the Foreign
Policy Research Institute, Gunston Hall, the International Spy Museum,
and Mount Vernon

**Topics:** year 1: the Empire versus the Colonies, year 2: the Agrarian
South versus the Industrializing North, and year 3: Liberal Democracy
versus Totalitarianism

**Methods:** colloquia, seminars, summer institutes, visits to
historical sites, research, and web activities

With high levels of student poverty and a 15% rate of limited English
proficient students, the state has assigned the Reading School District
a "district improvement" status. Students district-wide have not made
AYP in reading and mathematics. The William Penn Liberty Fellowship will
deepen the Fellows' comprehension of traditional American history,
through the use of primary sources, the study of historical events,
issues, personalities, turning points, and interpretations of events by
coeval contemporaries, along with the study of modern historiographies.
The Fellowship will investigate traditional American history in a
systematic, chronological, and thematic fashion, as part of the Binary
Paideia approach to teaching history.

# **South Carolina**

**Grantee Name:** Berkeley County School District, SC

**Project Name:** Patriot Project

**Project Director:** Edward Moore, mooree@berkeley.k12.sc.us\
**Funding:** \$939,004

**Number of Teachers Served:** 18

**Number of School Districts Served:** 35

**Number of Students Served:** 6,200

**Grade Levels:** 4-5, 11

**Partners:** The Citadel, the Post and Courier Foundation, the Old
Exchange Building and Provost Dungeon, Patriot's Point Naval and
Maritime Museum, Friends of the *Hunley*, Old Santee National Park, the
Berkeley County Museum, and the National Park Service

**Topics:** grade 4: Exploration of the New World to the Civil War,
grade 5: Reconstruction to the present, and grade 11: U.S. History and
the Constitution

**Methods:** graduate coursework, district staff development, field
trips, and summer institutes

Of the 35 schools in the county, only 10 met Adequate Yearly Progress in
the 2004-05 academic year. Project participants will be trained as
"instructional specialists" who will be responsible for meeting
regularly with colleagues to identify training needs, clarify project
goals and expectations, review elements of selected instructional
pedagogy, and pilot test the pacing guides and curriculum documents that
will be developed as part of the Patriot Project. A significant portion
of project funds will be used to develop a curriculum management system
and software to aid in the development of curriculum guides, pacing
charts, and benchmark tests. This software also will be used to track
student performance.

**Grantee Name:** Chester County School District, SC

**Project Name:** American History: Telling Our Story

**Project Director:** Brooke W. Clinton, clintb_do@chester.k12.sc.us

**Funding:** \$1,000,000

**Number of Teachers Served:** 472

**Number of School Districts Served:** 9

**Number of Students Served:** 66,000

**Grade Levels:** 4-5, 11

**Partners:** the University of South Carolina (Lancaster), cultural and
heritage museums, and local historical societies and sites

**Topics:** founding documents in American history; issues, episodes,
and turning points in American history though local field experiences,
and individuals in American history

**Methods:** summer institutes, topical workshops series, development of
American history kits, field experiences, development of student
projects, website, and an American history conference

State student assessments revealed significant gaps in social studies
academic achievement within the consortium. Of the 4^th^ grade students,
23.6% scored "below basic" and 47.8% scored "basic" on the assessment.
Of 5^th^ grade students, the figures were 36.2% and 39.3%, respectively.
Of the high school students enrolled in Advanced Placement American
history, only 36% passed the final exam. Consortium teachers, too,
declared themselves lacking in American history knowledge. A survey
showed that only 5% rated themselves "very knowledgeable" in American
history. Planned project activities will advance the teaching of
American history, as a separate academic subject in grades 4, 5, and 11
by increasing the content knowledge and improving the teaching
strategies of the consortium's 472 American history teachers. The
consortium's American History Conference, an event packed with quality
breakout sessions covering various topics in American history, will
serve as the project's capstone. This conference will foster
collaboration, networking, best practices, and sharing among the 472
American history teachers.

**Grantee Name:** Sumter County School District 2, SC

**Project Name:** Exploring Our Past

**Project Director:** Julia S. Newman, jnewman@scsd2.k12.sc.us

**Funding:** \$499,609

**Number of Teachers Served:** No Information Available

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 9,300

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** the South Carolina History and Archives Center, the Sumter
County Historical Society, and Colonial Williamsburg

**Topics:** issues in colonial America, teaching Republicanism, the
Constitution, Native Americans, colonial social history, Ben Franklin,
stages of women's history, prejudice and pluralism, immigration and
ethnicity, slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Progressive Era,
child labor, the New Deal, civil rights, and the consumer revolution

**Methods:** technology workshops, content workshops, and field trips to
Williamsburg, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia

About half of the students are African-American; 71% of students are
eligible for free/reduced lunches. Only 12% score better than "basic" in
state social studies tests, and only 12% of teachers were history majors
in college. This project will help overcome the physical and
intellectual "provincialism" that affects this rural, poor, and
relatively isolated school district. Nationally prominent content
experts will prepare 15 sets of PowerPoint lectures that teachers will
incorporate into lesson plans. On the 12-day "staff ride" teachers will
encounter firsthand the great sites, documents, and museums from
Virginia to Pennsylvania. Accompanied by senior history professors,
teachers will experience the places that made American history and will
be able to incorporate these experiences into their lesson plans. In
addition, a content workshop component will focus on the content of
traditional American history, and the best practices and historiography
of teaching it. The teachers will meet 10 days a year with a senior
history professor, supported by email and readings.

# **Tennessee**

**Grantee Name:** Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, TN

**Project Name:** Teaching American History Grant, Discover Bringing
American History Alive

**Project Director**: Todd D. Wigginton, todd.wigginton@mnps.org

**Funding**: \$991,574

**Number of Teachers Served:** 210

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 36,000

**Grade Levels:** 4-5, 8-12

**Partners**: Vanderbilt University, the First Amendment Center,
Tennessee Civil War Heritage Area, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of
American History, Edusoft, the History Channel, Annenberg Media,
Nashville Public Television, Travellers Rest Plantation Museum, the
Organization of American Historians, Volunteer Voices, Tennessee State
Library and Archives, Nashville Public Library, Tennessee Council for
History Education, Tennessee State Museum, and the Tennessee Historical
Society

**Topics:** Native Americans through Removal; the Constitution and the
emerging Republic; Nationalism, sectionalism and reform; the Civil War
and Reconstruction; New Frontiers: the New South, the West, and the Rise
of Big Business; the emergence of modern America; and America's
transition to world power

**Methods:** summer institutes and mini-institutes, workshops , history
seminars, national and state conferences, and website

This project will increase teacher knowledge, boost the number of highly
qualified American history teachers, and improve the quality of
instruction. This, in turn, would lead to a greater number of students
who would demonstrate proficiency in American history. Also desired is
an increase in the number of Advanced Placement students in American
history. The project will increase teachers' use of primary materials,
local history resources, and technology in history instruction will be
addressed through the creation and provision of resources for design
teams to develop comprehensive model history curriculum units which
include the use of primary sources, literature, aligned test banks, and
technology. A tour of selected historic sites in Tennessee will also be
conducted at locations where there are recognizable links between events
and people of importance in local history and the broad patterns of
national history.

**Grantee Name:** Wilson County School System, TN

**Project Name:** Tennessee Educator's Active Colloquia for History
(TEACH): The Story of Freedom

**Project Director:** Carole S. Bucy, carolebucy@volstate.edu

**Funding:** \$998,508

**Number of Teachers Served:** 100

**Number of School Districts Served:** 13

**Number of Students Served:** 67,913

**Grade Levels:** 7-12

**Partners:** Volunteer State Community College, Middle Tennessee State
University, the Tennessee Historical Society, the Hermitage, the
Constitution Center, the National Civil War Heritage Center, the
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the Tenement House Museum, the Ellis
Island Foundation, and the Roosevelt Library

**Topics:** the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the
Gettysburg Address and other primary documents to look at the American
Revolution, expansion and reform, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the
emergence of modern America, the Great Depression and World War II, and
the postwar U.S. and civil rights

**Methods:** summer institutes, mini- institutes, Constitution Day
seminar, History Day workshops, and follow-up activities

The state consistently is ranked near the bottom of the nation's schools
in performance at every pre-collegiate educational level. The rural
schools participating in the project lack access to history scholars and
historical research resources. Teachers overwhelmingly are
first-generation college graduates with little experience in traveling
beyond the state of Tennessee. Through the efforts of the master and
mentor teachers and the educational specialist, training will be
provided that is closely attuned to the actual classroom needs of
teachers. This consortium will offer high quality professional
development in traditional American history to teachers in predominantly
rural counties. The Story of Freedom will use the Declaration of
Independence, the Constitution, and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address as the
central documents to trace the story of freedom from the beginnings of
this country to the present. The project is designed to create dialogues
among teachers and professional historians and to model teaching
strategies that work.

**Grantee Name:** Loudon County Schools, TN

**Project Name:** America's Republic: the Ongoing Story of Our Founding
Documents

**Project Director:** Lisa Oakley, oakley@east-tennessee-history.org

**Funding:** \$996,963

**Number of Teachers Served:** 110

**Number of School Districts Served:** 8

**Number of Students Served:** No Information Available

**Grade Levels:** 4-5, 8, 11

**Partners:** the East Tennessee Historical Society, the University of
Tennessee, and the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection

**Topics:** provide for the common defense: American society in time of
war; global power and responsibility: America and the world; the
evolution of American citizenship; the changing role of the
Commander-in-Chief; defending the rights of citizens; American diplomacy
1789-1828; and women of the Republic

**Methods:** mini-institutes, methods workshops, classroom follow-up
with a traveling teacher, National History Day training workshops,
summer institutes, museum visits, the development of a master teacher
corps, a consortium website, and history curriculum kits

The agreement of the participating districts to commit their teachers to
this project, as opposed to making participation voluntary as in an
earlier Teaching American History grant, is evidence of the capacity
building nature of the project. Many teachers in the consortium are not
highly qualified to teach the subject, and most of the districts
received a composite score of "C" in the 2005 state social studies
assessment. The organizing principal for the traditional American
history content presented by the project is how the significant issues,
episodes, and turning points in history all thread back to an
understanding and interpretation of the founding documents, particularly
the Constitution and Bill of Rights. 12 master and 18 mentor teachers
trained during the first grant will be given further training during
this project so that they may assist their 80 apprentice colleagues.

## Texas

**Grantee Name:** Alpine Independent School District, TX

**Project Name:** Teaching American History Squared

**Project Director:** Barbara Stooksberry, bstooksberry@alpine.esc18.net

**Funding:** \$500,000

**Number of Teachers Served:** 30

**Number of School Districts Served:** 8

**Number of Students Served**: 3,321

**Grade Levels:** 5, 8, 11

**Partners:** Sul Ross State University, the Museum of the Big Bend, and
the Alpine Public Library

**Topics:** year 1: Texas History, year 2: early American history, and
year 3: the Civil War

**Methods:** content knowledge workshops, participation in National
History Day activities, technology/teaching strategies training
workshops, summer immersion institutes, and field study excursions

The Big Bend region of Texas encompasses vast expanses of deserts,
hills, plains, and grasslands, but very few people. Most of the teachers
were born locally, educated locally, and have traveled very little
outside of the state. Most students are Hispanic, 63% of whom are
economically disadvantaged. The project will broaden and deepen teacher
and student knowledge of American history, and teachers will be able to
experience history, through field study excursions to historic sites in
Texas and Washington, D.C. Through an intensive, year-round program of
workshops, lectures, summer institutes, and field studies, the program
will ensure that teachers are well grounded in the history they teach.
Professional development activities will bridge the gap between content
knowledge training and classroom application, making history come alive
for both the teacher and the student.

**Grantee Name:** Hays Consolidated Independent School District, TX

**Project Name:** Inspiring a Love of American History at Hays CISD

**Project Director:** Betty Harrison, harrisonb@hayscisd.net

**Funding:** \$500,000

**Number of Teachers Served:** 60

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 10,600

**Grade Levels:** 5, 7, 8, 11

**Partners:** Texas State University (San Marcos), Texas State College
of Liberal Arts, Texas State College of Education, the Lyndon Johnson
Presidential Library, the Harry Ransom Center, and the Texas State
Archives

**Topics:** year 1: American republicanism, year 2: Republican
citizenship, and year 3: the American political system

**Methods:** summer institutes, primary document workshops,
teacher-leadership seminars, classroom observations and feedback from
master teachers, and travel to Philadelphia

Fifty-eight percent of those teaching history at Hays CISD schools took
two or fewer university-level courses in U.S. history. The project will
improve knowledge of content through institutes and workshops, as well
as address pedagogical issues that will lead to improved teaching
practices. A master teacher will visit all Hays CISD history classrooms,
and her recorded observations will be used to improve the instructional
skills of those who teach American history in the district. Project
participants will become teacher-leaders who will share their knowledge
with colleagues on their respective campuses.

**Grantee Name:** Laredo Independent School District, TX

**Project Name:** Our America---Teaching American History

**Project Director:** Elias Alonzo, ealonzo@laredoisd.org

**Funding:** \$792,133

**Number of Teachers Served:** 25

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 25,000

**Grade Levels:** 5, 8, 11

**Partners:** Texas A&M International University, the Laredo Public
Library, and the Webb County Heritage Foundation

**Topics:** exploration, settlement, migration and immigration, North
American foreign policy, the American Revolution, the Civil War, World
War II, the effects of Middle East tensions on the U.S. economy, civil
rights, and the Cold and Korean Wars

**Methods:** summer institutes, workshops, field trips, staff
development sessions, coaching sessions, colloquia, and web activities

The consortium serves the needs of a student population that is 98.4%
Hispanic, 65.9% of whom have limited proficiency in English. In
addition, 82% are at risk for dropping out of school. There is a very
low level of academic attainment in American history among teachers,
especially at the elementary school level. The goals of this project are
not only to provide professional development to improve teacher
proficiency in the area of American History, but also to provide
teachers with a vehicle that will transform those acquired skills into a
means of making our country's history relevant and vital to students.
This will strengthen the scope of current district curriculum toward one
that teaches traditional American history as a separate academic subject
within the instructional day of the elementary and secondary campuses.
Participants will be developed into "master" teachers who will, in turn,
extend their expertise in American history throughout the district and
create an oral and virtual history archive that will provide historic
relevancy for the community.

**Grantee Name:** Region 1 Education Service Center, TX

**Project Name:** Learning and Living History

**Project Director:** Tina Atkins, tina.atkins@esconett.org

**Funding:** \$1,436,235

**Number of Teachers Served:** 100

**Number of School Districts Served:** 13

**Number of Students Served:** 352,000

**Grade Levels:** K-8

**Partners:** the University of Texas-Pan American, the Museum of South
Texas History, Plimoth Plantation, Law-Related Education, Inc., Teachers
Curriculum Institute, and Palo Alto Battlefield

**Topics:** colonial settlements, the American Revolution, the
Declaration of Independence, Native Americans, slavery, the Boston
Massacre, Benjamin Franklin, and the Texas Declaration of
Independence/war with Mexico

**Methods:** colloquia, seminars, and travel study

The Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas is a region of high poverty;
two target counties are classified as two of the three poorest counties
in the nation, with an unemployment rate between 14 and 24%. Over 85% of
the student population in participating school districts are
economically disadvantaged, and over 95% are of Hispanic origin. Project
administrators will select 20 teachers who will pursue a master's degree
in American history at project partner UTPA. An additional 80 teachers
will participate in other professional development activities that will
increase teacher and student content knowledge of American history and
create peer networks.

**Grantee Name:** Region 4 Education Service Center, TX

**Project Name:** Gulf Coast American History Academy

**Project Director:** Debra Williams, dwilliams@esc4.net

**Funding:** \$1,127,736

**Number of Teachers Served:** No Information Available

**Number of School Districts Served:** 54

**Number of Students Served:** 94,443

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** the University of Houston, Digital History, and the Museum
of Fine Arts-Houston

**Topics:** year 1: the American Revolution, the Constitution, the Bill
of Rights, antebellum America, and the Civil War, year 2:
Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, the World Wars, the
post-war eras, and the Great Depression, and year 3: Constitutional
issues since World War II, such as race, citizenship, gender, economics,
and states' rights

**Methods:** summer institutes, seminars, colloquia, lectures,
workshops, visiting content specialists, travel to Boston, Philadelphia,
and Washington, D.C., mentoring, and online activities

Of the students served by the Region 4 ESC, 47.3% are economically
disadvantaged, 16.2% have low proficiency in English, and 39.9% have
been determined to be at risk. The region also includes 92,176
special-needs students, 42,778 of whom are learning disabled. In the
districts that are underserved (more than half of the districts in the
region), teachers often quickly "burn out" and many leave the
profession. The project will create a cadre of 25 American history
content specialists who will mentor and provide professional development
activities for K-12 teachers within district schools. These specialists
will also be prepared to "do history" by investigating and interpreting
landmark documents in American constitutional history. The project's
content will focus on the origins, framing, ratification, and
interpretation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights during six
distinct eras of American history.

# 

# 

# 

# 

# **Utah**

**Grantee Name:** Early College High School, UT

**Project Name:** Connections

**Project Director:** Stephen Zsiray, steve.zsiray@usu.edu

**Funding:** \$497,629

**Number of Teachers Served:** 25 per year

**Number of School Districts Served:** 52 charter schools

**Number of Students Served:** 12,000

**Grade Levels:** 4-5, 7-8, 11-12

**Partners:** Utah State University, Weber State University, 3Rs,
Federal Court House, This is the Place Heritage Park, the Utah Education
Network, the Utah Heritage Foundation, the Utah Historical Society, and
the Utah State Office of Education-Social Science

**Topics:** year 1: Colonial, Revolutionary, and the Early Republic
periods (including the Constitution), year 2: the Rise of the American
Nation (1815-1900), and year 3: Modern America (1900-present)

**Methods:** seminar-style workshops, experiential learning field trips,
virtual networks, mentoring, communities of practice, and media-based
technology

The Utah Charter Schools Consortium includes 52 schools all across Utah
and serves students of all ethnicities, from rural to inner-city
communities. Its annual rate of student population growth is 7%. Many
consortium students are at risk, while others are advanced learners;
both groups have turned to charter schools for an education that
accommodates their learning needs. Many of these schools have history
teachers who serve as "one-person" social studies departments, and many
are not considered highly qualified. Through the project, teachers
across Utah will be connected in their efforts to better understand and
teach American history. Their students will understand the connection of
history throughout the past and present as well as curricula in other
areas. Classrooms will be transformed into communities of active and
engaged historians.

**Grantee Name:** Granite School District, UT

**Project Name:** Granite Teaching American History (G-TAH) Institute

**Project Director:** Mary Alice Rudelich,
mary.rudelich@granite.k12.ut.us

**Funding:** \$999,954

**Number of Teachers Served:** 146

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 68,039

**Grade Levels:** 4-5, 7-8, 11-12

**Partners:** the University of Utah, the 3Rs Project (the First
Amendment Center), the Utah Historical Society, the Utah Law-Related
Education Project/Center for Civic Education, and the Utah State Office
of Education Social Science

**Topics:** year 1: the historic and philosophical foundations of
American government and thought, the colonial period, the Articles of
Confederation, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, year 2:
the expansion of rights, the rise of political parties, and the
protections of the Bill of Rights, and year 3: the role of the citizen
in American democracy and U.S. history and foreign policy

**Methods:** academies, Saturday symposia, lectures, exhibits, trainings
in lesson plan design, civic participation for students, and networking

GSD serves 68,039 students at 87 schools and is Utah's second largest
school district. Unfortunately, 29 of the district's schools did not
meet Adequate Yearly Progress. A large number (177) of 5^th^ grade
teachers have little or no coursework in American history and
government, and of the 145 secondary-level history teachers, 52 are not
highly qualified. The goals of the project are to increase subject
knowledge, expand pedagogical technique, improve higher-order thinking
skills, integrate historical inquiry/skills of historians, and engage in
civic participation. Diverse training sessions that vary in intensity,
duration, and frequency will give teachers the knowledge and
understanding needed to confidently create and implement in-depth
American history curriculum units of significant value to student
learning. Trainings will be college-level quality, ensured by the
utilization of expert instructors, embedded impacting pedagogical
methods, integration of quality resources, and focus on up-to-date
history research.

**Grantee Name:** Tooele County School District, UT

**Project Name:** Teaching American History Academy

**Project Director:** Bobbie Roberts, broberts@m.tooele.k12.ut.us

**Funding:** \$499,978

**Number of Teachers Served:** 20

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 11,462

**Grade Levels:** 4-5, 7-8, 11-12

**Partners:** Weber State University, the Salt Lake City Public Library,
the Utah Federal District Court, This is the Place Heritage Park, the
Utah State Archives, and the Law-Related Education Project/Center for
Civic Education

**Topics:** year 1: Foundations, framework, and function of the U.S.
government, year 2: We the People, and year 3: History in the making

**Methods:** symposia, workshops, mentoring, classroom observations, and
field trips

As the population served by the school district continues to grow and
diversify, it is escalating to near crisis. Influxes of new teachers
(many new and inexperienced in teaching American history) and students
(many new to the U.S.) lack awareness, interest, and understanding of
how America came to be, what it means to be an American, and how all of
this affects the history that is being made today and tomorrow. The
Teaching American History Academy will connect teachers to valuable
materials to support them as professional history educators, including
memberships in professional history organizations. Participating
teachers will be required to complete various assignments, such as a
curriculum unit, research project, online reflections, study guides, and
a portfolio. The project ultimately will create a community of
historians comprised of teachers and students actively engaging in
historic inquiry.

## Virginia

**Grantee Name:** Charlottesville City Public Schools, VA

**Project Name:** The Virginia Experiment: Growing Seeds of Democracy in
400 Years of American History

**Project Director:** Andrew T. Mink, atm5w@virginia.edu

**Funding:** \$997,418

**Number of Teachers Served:** No Information Available

**Number of School Districts Served:** 5

**Number of Students Served:** 25,718

**Grade Levels:** 4-8, 11

**Partners:** the University of Virginia, Indiana University-Purdue
University, Montpelier, the Monticello Foundation, the Virginia Council
on Indians, the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, the Virginia
Historical Society, and local libraries and museums

**Topics:** Early America, the Revolution and a new nation, expansion
and reform (1801-1860), the Civil War and Reconstruction, reshaping the
nation and the emergence of modern America (1877-1930), World War II,
the U.S. since WWII, and historical thinking skills

**Methods:** History speaker series, teacher institutes, summer seminar
field experience, and identification of teaching fellows to help create
instructional leaders

Charlottesville City schools did not make Adequate Yearly Progress for
the 2004-05 school year; students qualified for free/reduced lunches
number 50.3%. As a result, there is a pressing need to better prepare
the district's students, many of whom are disadvantaged, for success on
state tests. This project seeks to do that by improving the preparation
of history teachers. It will do this by providing the resources and
training for teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the evolution of
traditional democratic ideals by providing in-depth coverage of the
scope and chronology of American history. This project will provide
opportunities for teachers to interact with professional historians,
refine and extend their content knowledge, explore and apply the skills
of historical inquiry, and serve as instructional leaders in the
integration of content to classroom practice. Teachers will engage with
nationally renowned scholars through an annual History Speaker Series
and will engage in a summer seminar field experience that provides the
opportunity for authentic hands-on learning with a historian.

**Grantee Name:** Chesterfield County Public Schools, VA

**Project Name:** Teaching the American 20^th^ Century Institute

**Project Director:** William Obrochta, obrochta@vahistorical.org

**Funding:** \$687,716

**Number of Teachers Served:** 90

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 56,156

**Grade Levels:** 7, 10-11

**Partners:** the Virginia Historical Society, the Gilder Lehrman
Institute of American History, and the Smithsonian Institution

**Topics:** Mirror to America (e.g., John Hope Franklin, Douglas
Wilder), the emergence of modern America (e.g., rise of corporations,
growth of federal government, emergence of U.S. as a military power),
America during World War II, the Gilded Age, Immigration,
Industrialization and Labor, Rise of the Great Society, Civil Rights,
and the Cold War

**Methods:** summer seminars in Richmond, New York City, and Washington,
D.C.; workshops, tours, museum visits, interviews, electronic resource
portfolios, and coaching

The State's Board of Education recommended a significant change to its
Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments. As of spring 2004, fully half
of the questions on the end-of-course assessment for U.S. history now
cover the 20^th^ Century. While ideally placed to experience the early
history of the U.S., Chesterfield teachers are less familiar with, and
less comfortable teaching, more recent historic content. Analysis of the
spring 2005 SOL results indicate that the average percentage of correct
answers is only 50.4 percent, indicating a strong need for improved
teaching of the material related to these questions. Ninety of
Chesterfield's 240 secondary history teachers will have the opportunity
to learn about and understand the complex relationships between the
events of the nation's recent past. Each year's institute, held for
cohorts of 30 teachers, will consist of a series of two-day seminars
during the school year and culminate in two weeklong intensive Summer
Seminars in Richmond, Washington D.C., and New York City, for a total of
sixteen days of training over the course of the year.

**Grantee Name:** Newport News Public Schools, VA

**Project Name:** Foundations of Freedom III: Defining, Defending, and
Diffusing Democracy

**Project Director:** Sybil Young, sybil.young@nn.k12.va.us

**Funding:** \$991,840

**Number of Teachers Served:** 75

**Number of School Districts Served:** 1

**Number of Students Served:** 32,000

**Grade Levels:** 6-12

**Partners:** Old Dominion University, the Bill of Rights Institute, the
National Council for History Education, the Organization of American
Historians, the Virginia Historical Society, WHRO (a PBS affiliate), and
the Virginia War Museum

**Topics:** year 1: Defining democracy in the early 20^th^ Century, year
2: Defending democracy during the war years, and year 3: Diffusing
democracy in the Cold War

**Methods:** institutes, academies, colloquia, lectures, DVDs, and
development of lesson activity books

Sixty-six percent of district students are ethnic minorities, 49% are
economically disadvantaged, and 13.5% are special needs students. The
project is designed to reduce the history achievement gaps among these
subpopulations by increasing teacher content knowledge aligned with the
Virginia Standards of Learning history assessment and by better
equipping teachers to teach history to diverse learners. The goal of
this project is to ensure that all high school history teachers will
deliver high quality American history content as measured by student
achievement on the 11^th^ grade state assessment.

# **Washington**

**Grantee Name:** Educational Service District 113, WA

**Project Name:** Teaching American History Project

**Project Director:** Anna Kuntzathy, akuntz@esd113.k12.wa.us

**Funding:** \$999,703

**Number of Teachers Served:** 20

**Number of School Districts Served:** 45

**Number of Students Served:** 70,289

**Grade Levels:** 7-12

**Partners:** Evergreen State College, Washington State University, the
Washington State Archives, the Olympia Heritage Commission, and the
State History Museum

**Topics:** change and continuity in American democracy; the gathering
and interactions of peoples, cultures, and ideas; economic and technical
changes and their relations to society, ideas, and the environment; and
the changing role of America in the world

**Methods:** seminars, workshops, field trips, communities of practice,
mentoring, online workspace, and media-based technology

This service district serves 45 predominately rural, low-income, remote
districts in southwest Washington. Most history teachers are one-person
social studies departments and are two or more hours away from
high-quality professional development opportunities. Very few schools
offer honors or Advanced Placement American history courses, and most
schools have extremely outdated history resources. The project will use
a blended approach to professional development that capitalizes on the
best features of various strategies while eliminating the inadequacies
and gaps that arise when any one is used alone and taking advantage of
existing the distance education infrastructure. As a result, the blended
study approach will effectively connect the teachers to the content, the
partners, and each other. Professional development will focus on four
historical themes and two ways of knowing and thinking about U.S.
history. To make history come alive, a variety of pedagogical methods
will be embedded into the presentation of the American history content.

# 

# 

# 

# **West Virginia**

**Grantee Name:** Regional Education Service Agency III, WV

**Project Name:** The Constitution in Historical Context: Teaching
Exemplars of American Constitutional History

**Project Director:** Ronald R. Alexander, ralexander@wvutech.edu

**Funding:** \$1,000,000

**Number of Teachers Served:** 120

**Number of School Districts Served:** 4

**Number of Students Served:** 43,600

**Grade Levels:** K-12

**Partners:** the National Council for History Education, the University
of Charleston, West Virginia State University, Marshall University, the
West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts, the Clay Center for
the Performing Arts, the Center for Civic Education, and Fort Lee Scouts
(re-enactors)

**Topics:** the Constitution and origins of American political thought;
political ideas, values, and beliefs; issues in the early Republic;
slavery; the American West; the Civil War and Reconstruction; the Civil
Rights Movement; and continuity and change in the 20^th^ Century

**Methods:** colloquia, mentoring, field trips, re-enactments, living
history presentations, archival research, and oral history

West Virginia's overall rank in 2005, including such measures as dropout
rate and poverty of its children, is the 47^th^ lowest in the nation.
This project will help teachers to provide their students with the
knowledge and motivation to break the cycle of generational poverty and
underachievement that plagues many of the targeted schools. The project
seeks to improve students' knowledge and understanding of the underlying
principles, concepts, and continuing relevance of the Constitution. Each
year, 40 history teachers in grades K-12 will be selected to participate
in the project. Teachers will participate in 12 days of in-depth,
content-based professional development per year, two of which are
professional leave absences from their classrooms.