Eighteen schools in four districts on the central California coast have been identified as in need of improvement. Many teachers in this multi-ethnic region have said they need more support for teaching American history. The Equity project will provide support in the form of workshops, study groups that meet in person and online, mentoring, book studies, and summer academies that include field studies at local, regional, and national historic sites. Historians and master teachers will lead sessions and field trips, and teachers will identify and gather classroom resources as part of the activities. The project cohort of 50 teachers will blend grades and school levels, with the aim of giving teachers a vertical perspective and within and cross-grade interactions. The Equity project theme of exploring history in a scholarly way will be reinforced by contacts with professional historians throughout the 5-year project. Content will be selected to meet the needs of elementary and middle school teachers, who want chronological surveys of content, and the needs of high school teachers, who want in-depth exploration of specific topics. Content will include findings from current research, primary source analysis, and review of historiographic issues. Instructional strategies will focus on how to design inquiry-based instructional activities that incorporate primary sources, help students build context or background knowledge, and make connections to the present, as well as integrate multiple perspectives. Equity teachers will develop lesson plans and compile classroom resources to help them create rich learning environments and to share with other teachers on the project Web site.

The ALL Americans districts are on the California coast near Los Angeles. Across the districts, 8th grade student achievement in history is low, especially among Hispanic students and English Language Learners, who are 48 percent and 26 percent of the student population, respectively. Each year's activities will include nine seminar/workshop events (content, pedagogy, book/film club), several hours of individual coaching, and a summer institute with a field study trip. Teachers will be recruited to participate as fellows (40 per year), who commit to regular attendance, and associates (20 per year), who attend on an event-by-event basis. Fellows apply annually and may stay for more than one year. Within its theme, the project will help teachers examine American history through the lens of immigration and internal migration, looking at the interactions of peoples, cultures, and ideas. In response to teacher-defined needs, the project will present content related to immigrants in U.S. history; Mexican-American and California history; and the basics of significant documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Teachers defined three areas of pedagogical needs: improving student engagement, closing the achievement gap, and making the curriculum accessible to English learners. Strategies to support these needs will include training on affirming different cultures in the classroom; using Marzano's Classroom Instruction That Works; and using digital pictures, video, audio, and text to integrate into multimedia classroom presentations. At the end of each year, teachers will share multimedia presentations, units, and lessons on the project Web site.

The Elk Grove Unified School District serves culturally, ethnically, linguistically, and economically diverse students in southern Sacramento County and Elk Grove. Twelve of its 22 secondary schools are not achieving Adequate Yearly Progress, and on the California Standards Test, 48 percent to 68 percent of eighth and eleventh-graders score below "proficient" on questions related to American history. Teachers who participate in American Citizen: A Study of Liberty and Rights (American Citizen) in Years 1-3 will take one or more professional development pathways: Mastering History (an intensive, 2½-year master's degree program in history that includes evening and weekend classes and reading seminars); Talking History (an annual series of six scholarly lectures, including two book studies); Doing History (four 2-day workshops); and Living History (four 2-day colloquia, a week-long summer institute at a historic site, and collaboratively developed units). In Years 1-3, 16 teachers will participate in the master's degree program, 50 in Talking History, and 25 each in Doing History and Living History. In Years 4-5, American Citizen will expand its reach through district-wide extension activities: a learning collaborative, monthly professional development trainings led by master teachers, participation in National History Day, continuation of Talking History and Living History programs, and possibly a master's degree program for a second cohort. The unifying theme will be the liberty and rights of the American citizen. Teachers will learn strategies for differentiated instruction, primary source analysis, historical writing, historical inquiry, document-based questioning, and the effective use of biography and multimedia. A program Web site will publish lesson plans and enable history teachers to share ideas for improving instruction.

Fresno County, in the San Joaquin Valley halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, includes many rural areas where teachers have few professional development opportunities and students come from a variety of cultural backgrounds. The region's students tend to score below average on the state history test. Reflecting on Our Past offers three components: (1) the Teaching American History certificate program, which will offer teachers opportunities for advanced study to earn a certificate; (2) the colloquium series, with six 2-day events each year that cover both content and pedagogy; and (3) the summer travel study and curriculum history institute, a 5-day, content-driven, scholar-guided event. These components are designed to different levels of complexity, and the colloquia and summer institutes will be organized around each year's topic area. The 50 teachers who participate in the year-long colloquium series will be recruited from the appropriate grade level and from schools with the greatest needs. During the grant period, two cohorts of 15 teachers (30 total) will complete the 2-year certification for teaching American history. The summer travel study and curriculum institute will accommodate 50 teachers, who will be drawn from both groups. Reflecting on Our Past aims to restore American history teaching and learning to the elementary classroom. Teachers will learn about integrating language arts and history instruction, so both receive the classroom time they deserve. Teachers, and then their students, will be able to comprehend and analyze expository history texts, use primary sources, and apply historical thinking skills. The project will produce a cadre of teachers who can assist their colleagues.

America's Story: Forging Identity Through E Pluribus Unum (America's Story) involves three urban, K-8 districts in east San Jose, California. Many students in these ethnically diverse schools (40 languages are spoken) are English Language Learners, and teachers want support with history teaching in general and with teaching to English learners specifically. Annual project activities will include both content and academic literacy instruction during four school-year colloquia, a 5-day summer institute, and grade-level groups supporting teachers. The participant cohorts will contain 12 teachers each year; they will be supported by three academic literacy coaches and two teacher advisory team members. America's Story will examine how American identity has developed over time through people's words and deeds, successes and setbacks in nation-building, and immigration and migration. Elements of this theme will be matched with specific state content standards. American history coaches will lead professional development and facilitate lesson creation, using the Backward Design approach for framing lessons and driving student inquiry. Academic literacy teacher facilitators will provide leadership for implementing strategies in the schools, using the UC Berkeley project's academic literacy program, which develops students' reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. The project will result in a collection of teacher-designed instructional units to be posted online, plus information and resources about the project that can be used to replicate the training with other teachers.

The Teaching American History program in Arkansas's Little Rock School District will target teachers who are new to the district or to teaching American history in 19 schools most in need of improvement and where student literacy levels are low. Only one percent of the district's history teachers have a degree in American history; therefore, Teaching American History will provide content-rich professional development: an American History Academy (a 45-hour online course and seven 1-day colloquia during the year); a 5-day summer history institute; a 5-day summer field study; three seminars on using history sources in an online environment; history book club meetings; community-based symposia featuring guest speakers; and a co-teaching program for high school teachers. A cadre of six lead teachers will create opportunities for collaboration among history teachers across the district. Teaching American History will begin with a core group of 28 teachers participating in the academy; by the end of Year 1, 53 teachers will be engaged, with approximately 50 teachers added in each subsequent year until all 201 history teachers in the targeted schools are included by Year 5. Participating teachers will explore how the concepts in the Preamble to the Constitution (justice, domestic tranquility, common defense, general welfare, and liberty) have been a refining and defining force in shaping a more perfect union. Instructional strategies will focus on historical thinking, reading and writing in the content areas, technology integration, and analysis of primary sources. Lessons learned and best practices will be disseminated within professional networks at the local, regional, and national levels.

Mesa Unified School District, the largest school district in Arizona, serves students from Mesa, Salt River, Fort McDowell, and the Navaho and Hopi communities. East Meets Southwest will focus on 10 of the district's most disadvantaged/underachieving schools as it immerses teachers in substantive professional development. Annual activities will include a day-long Library of Congress training and a 2-day National Archives Training (Year 1), summer mentoring institutes (Years 1 and 2), a 5-day summer colloquium, two 1-day seminars, a 2-day workshop, two half-day curriculum mapping sessions, and travel-study field experiences. Lectures, peer discussions, independent study, research, and electronic field trips will be embedded in program activities. Under the mentorship of teachers with experience in another Teaching American History grant, participating teachers will meet in Professional Learning Communities to accomplish vertical articulation of content and teaching practices, to develop assessments, to review lesson plans, and to develop new content that can be incorporated by teachers throughout the district. Thirty teachers from six elementary schools and four junior high schools will participate throughout all three years of the program. East Meets Southwest will explore the country's traditions, founding principles, and ongoing struggles by connecting regional history to a meaningful narrative of traditional American history. Teachers will learn to incorporate historical thinking, primary source materials, biography, content-based teaching strategies, and strategies such as debate, role-play, and historical reenactment. Professional Learning Communities will be sustained beyond the life of the program, and a Web site will provide district-wide access to lesson plans, alternative assessments, primary source information, and other resources.

The Deer Valley School District in Phoenix has many teachers who have little formal history training and have expressed a lack of confidence in teaching the full scope of American history content. At annual Gathering Lessons from Yesterday's Peoples and Happenings (GLYPH) kick-off events, staff will preview the year's topics and teachers will receive materials for book studies and classroom use. Day-long history workshops, week-long summer academies at historic sites, book studies, Lesson Study, mentoring, and elective activities will provide content information, field experiences, and instructional strategies practice. The cohort of 45 teachers will be selected through nominations by principals and invitations to all history teachers from schools in need of improvement, with a goal of including teachers who need the most support. The theme of highlighting the perspectives of diverse groups in American history provides the backdrop for historical inquiry and developing relevant context and multidimensional understanding of history. GLYPH activities will address identified gaps in teachers' knowledge by selecting two topics for each summer academy and other topics for workshops during the school year. Teachers who participate in at least 75 percent of annual activities will be eligible to attend the summer academy. University historians and skilled GLYPH teachers will lead two book study circles each year, and GLYPH staff will provide classroom demonstrations and observations, as well as ongoing, one-on-one mentoring in using Lesson Study. The Lesson Study cycle will result in lessons to be shared with other teachers, and the project will also provide classroom resource materials, including multimedia libraries related to specific topics.

Tuscaloosa City and County Schools will collaborate with Hale County Schools, which is located in Alabama's Black Belt. Many teachers in these districts have not taken a formal American history course for 10 or more years, and a survey of selected students found little or no knowledge about the way historians study and think about history. Each year will feature a kick-off event designed to set the historical context and to distribute books for independent study and classroom resource packets. Other annual activities will include day-long workshops, evening speakers' forums, a week-long summer institute, an independent book study, online discussions and team study, and peer coaching in small groups that combine veteran and less experienced teachers. A two-part cohort approach will select 20 high-needs teachers to participate in all 5 years, and add 10 teachers each year who will participate on a year-to-year basis. OUR will focus on delivering relevant context and multidimensional understanding of history topics that teachers have identified as important and that align with Alabama content standards. Delivery of content and instructional strategies will conform to the OUR blueprint for an ideal classroom environment: using primary source analysis and historical inquiry, history-related service learning, print and electronic resources, and intellectual challenge; collaborating with colleagues to plan, teach, observe, and critique lessons; and implementing best teaching practices and new historical content and resources. OUR products will include the classroom blueprint, teaching materials (e.g., primary source documents, DVDs, historical fiction, and nonfiction), an online community, and traveling history trunks for classroom use.

The Lee County, Tallapoosa County, Alexander City, and Phoenix City School Districts in eastern Alabama include four schools that had not achieved Adequate Yearly Progress and two that were in Year 2 Delay status at the time of the grant application. Plowing Freedom's Ground will target schools with low student achievement in history and few teachers who have completed advanced course work in U.S. history. Yearly activities will include a week-long summer seminar, a week-long lesson study workshop during which teachers will prepare problem-based historical inquiry lessons, three day-long professional development retreats during the school year, and mentoring and technical support through affiliates of the Persistent Issues in History Network at Auburn and Indiana Universities. Lesson Study teams will visit one another's classrooms during the year to observe and videotape fellow teachers delivering jointly designed lessons. A cohort of 30 teachers will participate in the program each year and will be encouraged to develop themselves as curriculum leaders and mentors in their districts. The thematic focus of Plowing Freedom's Ground will be pivotal events in American history that exemplify the persistent democratic challenge of ensuring fairness and justice for all Americans. The primary instructional strategy to be employed is problem-based historical inquiry learning; Lesson Study workshops will help teachers develop technology-enhanced, problem-based historical inquiry lessons that promote student engagement, historical thinking, and reasoning and democratic citizenship. Each Lesson Study team’s refined lesson plan, support materials, and video products will become part of the Persistent Issues in History Web site.