Teachers in Stark County schools often have limited American history knowledge—and limited resources available to improve their knowledge. Each year of The Meaning of Freedom will begin with a 1-week summer institute that includes scholar-led seminars and a 3-day visit to the National Constitution Center as well as nearby historic sites. During the school year, teachers will attend four theme-related seminars and visit two Ohio historic sites; in addition, mentor teachers will meet regularly with participants. In Year 1, intensive training will be provided to four teachers to prepare them as mentor teachers, and these teachers will support project staff to train an additional 30 teachers each remaining year of the project. The project theme looks at how the meaning of freedom—as first articulated in the founding documents of the state and nation—has been central to the struggles and achievements that have been key turning points in American history. The content outlined in the topic strands will be developed to align with state standards and to connect Ohio's people, places, documents and events to those significant to the nation's history; it will be delivered through a blend of in-person and proven online strategies. Applying a backward design process, teachers will learn to use and create inquiry-based lesson plans that integrate 21st century skills and technologies. When complete, the lessons and other project materials, such as seminar content and primary source documents, will be mounted on a Web site and made available to all teachers who want effective and engaging history resources.

This project will recruit teachers from mainly rural, small, relatively disadvantaged Ohio districts with significant instructional deficiencies (50 percent are in school improvement) and a lack of professional development opportunities in history. Each year, the project will present new historical materials and concepts during three all-day seminars and a 5-day summer institute. Between seminars, teachers will participate in guided discussion, assessment of digital resources and other activities organized through the project Web site. Project activities, such as lesson plan presentations and team collaboration, will take place across each year. In Year 1, 50 teachers will participate; in each succeeding year, 25 new recruits will join 25 veterans of the project. This mix will allow some teachers to continue their development while simultaneously reaching additional teachers in more schools. The teachers will explore the central issues and turning points of traditional U.S. history through the lenses of regional, state and local history. The project will incorporate a rigorous curriculum of graduate-level history founded on recognized milestones and movements in American history. In terms of strategies, the seminar instruction and teacher-generated products will emphasize detailed analyses of key documents, and the professional development format will offer three graduate credits in history from Miami University. A project Web site will include portfolios of instructional activities and resources developed by the teachers, presentations given by the content providers, and videos and other documentation from the most effective activities and content seminars.

In this northeastern Ohio consortium, the teachers lack adequate preparation in American history, and the fifth grade passage rate for the Ohio Achievement Test in American history is less than half the state expected average. The project will include (1) professional development with field study experience; (2) a teacher training program for CICERO: History Beyond the Textbook; (3) a monthly online, live professional development program for historical content and strategies; and (4) a bimonthly book reading and discussion group. Each year, 40 fellows will participate in a 2-day fall colloquium, a 3-day winter colloquium, a 2-day field study, four half days of research and review, and a 5-day summer institute. All elementary and U.S. history teachers not selected for a fellowship will be allowed to participate in the online professional development program and attend one day of CICERO training. The project's overarching themes are to examine traditional American history through the lenses of conflict and cooperation, and to study the political, economic, legal, social and ideological contrasts found throughout American history. The teachers will learn to research substantive historical content and collaborate with fellow students, teachers, project historians and history education specialists to generate historical narratives. Scholars will instruct the teachers in investigating specific events, primary sources, personalities, turning points, contemporary interpretations and historiographies pertaining to each field of study. Teacher-developed Web 2.0 sites will include wikis, blogs, peer-reviewed historical narratives and lessons, book reviews and teacher-vetted student work. In addition, student and teacher video resources will be made available on TeacherTube.com.

The overall average of teachers with master's degrees in these southwest Ohio districts is 64 percent, but only one percent of teachers of American history and related courses have a master's degree in history. In addition to boosting their content knowledge, teachers want to learn to use historical thinking skills and Web 2.0 technologies. Each year, project activities will include a 5-day summer institute and three 1-day seminars, plus online discussions and a 1-day field experience. Seminars will be presented by historians, professors and teacher leaders to combine scholarship, primary source analysis and teaching strategies; summer institutes will be intensive explorations of content, historical thinking skills and pedagogy. Teachers may elect to participate in more than one year and enter the teacher leader component of the project; this will prepare them to provide ongoing professional development to their colleagues. Voices of America aims to free teachers from textbook-based teaching and to re-ignite their enthusiasm for American history. Annual themes will be developed with an emphasis on using founding documents, determining the impacts of the actions of individuals, connecting national themes to state and local history, understanding economic development, and examining population movement and growth. All content will connect to state standards and will be eligible for graduate or continuing education credits. Field visits to local and regional sites will be tied to the year's theme and state standards. Project participants will create original multimedia history resources, lessons, document-based questions and more, all of which will be available on a Web site ("Gateway to History") and through presentations at professional conferences.

Adapting Project HISTORY will serve seven districts in central New York State, where a 2010 needs assessment demonstrated that a large majority of secondary history teachers need professional development related to interacting with content experts, using new research-based teaching skills and strategies, developing primary sources, integrating new technology and examining local history resources. The project will combine historians' presentations, related technology integration sessions, and visits to these historic sites and museums: Oneida Community Mansion House, the Oneida County Historical Society, the Erie Canal Museum and Fort Stanwix. Each cadre of 25 secondary teachers will participate in 75 hours of seminars led by the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs; the professional development programs for the two cadres will be split into two consecutive 30-month periods. The seminars will follow the National Assessment of Educational Progress subject areas for U.S. history and focus on significant events, issues and turning points in American history. In addition to attending the seminars, the teachers will learn to align their content to state standards and analyze original American history documents. The project is adapted from Issues in American History, a professional development program established in 1976 to help teachers improve students' knowledge of American history and problem-solving skills. The project directors will develop a Web site that serves as a teaching, learning and research resource; the Web products will include teacher-prepared Webquests and PowerPoint presentations, which other teachers can access and replicate.