A district-wide effort to improve teaching and learning in American history, the Voices program covering history content and instructional strategies is available to all American history teachers in grades 5, 8, and 11, but will focus initially on building expertise of new teachers. Summer institutes and coaching/mentoring for participants will benefit from partnerships with the California History-Social Sciences project at the University of California, Davis, History Alive! Teachers Curriculum Institutes, Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance, California State Archives Library and local history museums. The 3-year project will build a cadre of expert teachers to provide training in the future. Creation of CD-ROMS on exemplary teaching strategies and Internet exchange of model lessons expand the reach of the professional development program.