This professional development plan includes a one-week summer institute and five 4-hour Saturday workshops each year that discuss using primary documents, oral histories, and museum instruction. Content includes local history (e.g., the wreck of the Brother Jonathan), contemporary Indian tribes, and the Great Depression. Partnerships include the Indiana University Center for the Study of History and Memory, the Del Norte County Historical Society, and the Del Norte County Museum.

In partnership with California State University San Bernardino, the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute, the Four Directions Institute, the Center for Civic Education, and the Black Voice Foundation Footsteps to Freedom Program, this institute provides 25 teachers each year with American history content and interactive teaching strategies. This year-round endeavor offers 9 days of formal training in the spring, summer, and fall with monthly follow-up sessions to build a professional network. Year 1 focuses on the 17th and 18th century topics from the theme "The Meeting of Three Worlds" for grade 5 and 8 teachers. Year 2 focuses on 18th and 19th century topics on the theme "America's Struggle to Be Both Free and Equal" for grade 5 and 8 teachers. Year 3 focuses on late 19th and 20th century topics on the theme of "Fulfilling Democracy's Promise" for grade 8 and 11 teachers. The website for the project maintains active discussion boards (to compensate for the difficulty of holding physical meetings in this remote, desert area) and provides problem-based lessons. In the winter, a one-day convocation celebrates history and builds momentum for the project.

This collaboration provides in-service teachers in grades 4, 5, 8, and 11 and pre-service teachers planning to teach American History at the middle or high school level with opportunities to enhance history instruction in under-performing schools, to nurture mentoring and collaboration among historians and educators, to make effective use of technology resources, and to develop instructional units through two week-long summer institutes. It also provides release time for class observations, and collaborative professional development experiences. Content covers origin and development of the Constitution, territorial expansion, development of the national economy, and the people who created the American Republic. Within the context of state and national standards, summer institute programs address historiography and context, and discovery, analysis and interpretation of primary historical documents.

This partnership to improve U.S. History teaching for all schools in the LEA provides three cohorts of 5th, 8th and 11th grade teachers with two-week summer institutes, a spring seminar series, mentoring, coaching, and access to instructional resources in cooperation with California State University Monterey Bay and Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History. The project serves an area of high poverty in which one of five teachers is under qualified. Content addresses the Colonial Period and Early Republic, Influence of Religion and First Great Awakening, British Intellectual Traditions, Slavery, Continental Congress, Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, Bill of Rights, Historical Debates, Immigration, Rise of a World Power, and Civil Rights Era.

In partnership with the National Center for History in the Schools and UCLA's School Management Program, this project offers professional development to 30 11th grade U.S. history teachers and 60 5th and 8th grade teachers through summer institutes in 20 half-day sessions over 4 weeks. The institutes culminate in a weeklong trip to explore the resources of such institutions as the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, the National Archives, and Colonial Williamsburg. During the school year, teachers visit Southern California regional museums, such as the J. Paul Getty Museum, Henry Huntington Library and Scott Gallery of American Art, and the National Museum of Japanese American History. Content for the summer institutes is: year 1, 11th grade-America's Century (e.g., the Constitution, World War I and II, civil rights, Vietnam); year 2, 8th grade-U.S. History from the Revolution to 1900 (e.g., American Revolution and the Constitution Civil War, immigration); year 3, 5th grade-Early American History (e.g., American Revolution, the Constitution, religious toleration, the colonies).

This project partners the Sacramento City Unified School District in Sacramento County with the Area 3 History and Cultures Project, and the Department of History at the University of California Davis. Through American history, the project addresses low levels of literacy and overall achievement among both native English speakers and English learner student populations in grades 4, 5, 8, and 11. Thematic specialties include: political, social, religious, and cultural history; women's Mexican American, and African American history; environmental and Western history. Building on the History Project's 12-year-old summer institute model, the program begins with a two-week summer research and curriculum development institute, whose four components are lectures, guided research, modeled teaching strategies and lessons, and supported curriculum development. The project continues with: mentoring by experienced grade-level coaches and professional historians for teachers of U.S. history; an examination of local historic sites as gateways to our national history; coaching in historical methodology strategies; instruction in strategies for teaching U.S. history to English learners and students with low literacy in English; and training in reading comprehension strategies for U.S. history instructional texts and additional primary and secondary sources.

The Los Angeles Unified School District in collaboration with the Henry E. Huntington Library, Art Collection and Botanical Gardens implements six, 3-day history seminars and six single-day workshops for a total of 24 days of professional development in American history for grade 5 teachers. Workshop and seminar content include: Native Americans before and after European colonization of North America; establishment of the original 13 colonies; slavery; English roots; Benjamin Franklin, Sam and John Adams, and George Washington; the American Revolution; the Bill of Rights; the Constitution; the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition; and westward expansion until 1850.

In cooperation with Constitutional Rights Foundation, Huntington Library and Museum, Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Lincoln Memorial Shrine and Archives, and American history scholars from five universities, this project, serving a high poverty area, will increase historical knowledge and teaching ability of 8th and 11th grade teachers in the districts' lowest performing schools. The partnership provides for 30 hours of scholarly seminars, 45 hours of research-based professional development, ongoing relationships with colleagues in other schools, experts and resources, evaluation, and documentation of activities and products. Content addresses Colonial Underpinnings; Founding Principles; Age of Jackson; President Polk and Manifest Destiny; Lincoln; Slavery and Civil War/Amendments; Theodore Roosevelt; Woodrow Wilson; FDR and the New Deal; and Post-War Presidency.

Clovis Unified School District's project will train Fresno County American History teachers to become content experts in the teaching of American History. The project will bring together 60 5th, 8th and 11th grade teachers from 187 schools in 33 school districts in Fresno County, primarily from high poverty, rural areas. Through a series of collaborative sessions with history experts, teachers receive training in content knowledge and best teaching practices to create standards-based units of learning and raise student achievement and appreciation of American History. Teachers will participate in a four-day summer immersion program, "American History Camp," and six scheduled sessions during the school year covering topics ranging from the Civil War to World War II. Sample activities to enhance teacher American History knowledge include field trips to the Fresno Historical Society-Civil War Reenactment and participation in the National WWII-VFW-National Archives Oral History Project. Clovis Unified School District has established partnerships with Fresno Pacific University, California Department of Education, Library of Congress, Fresno County Office of Education, and Microsoft to provide the content and application expertise required to meet their project goals.

American history teachers in grades 5, 8, 11, and 12 will participate in this professional development effort to strengthen content knowledge, improve instructional strategies, sustain professional development in U.S. history teaching, and encourage collaboration among history educators. A core group of 40 teachers will take history course work, pedagogical training, and research-oriented trips to historic sites on the east and west coasts. In-service training, summer institutes, and U.S. history conferences are provided for an additional 40+, who will receive mentoring from core group teachers. Project partners include Humboldt State University, Humboldt County Historical Society, Blue Ox Millworks, Sumac Native American Village at Patrick's Point State Park, For Humboldt State Park, Humboldt County Maritime Museum, Clark Museum, Redwood Area History/Social Studies Project, and Stairway Academy. Course work focuses on U.S. history from pre-Columbian times to the present.