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.

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.

Only 34% of the district's 8th grade students scored "proficient" or above in the most recent assessment, down 2% from 2003. The number of 11th 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.

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.

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.

In this very large, rural, isolated county, three of every four 11th 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.

The LEA is partnering with the University of California at Los Angeles History and Geography Project to provide fifth, eighth, and eleventh grade teachers in the district with a professional development program designed to enrich the teaching of U.S. History. Participants will engage in summer institutes, workshops, technology integration, reading groups, history tours, conferences, and mentoring tied to understanding and teaching the following themes: Resolving Conflict in a New Democracy; Internal Conflict and Resolution; and the United States in the Larger World: Conflict and Consequences. The program seeks to expose teachers to divergences of opinion that shaped the nation as well as periods of consensus, and to teach the pedagogical skills needed to integrate reading and writing strategies into a curriculum requiring critical thinking. Year 1 focuses on the Constitution and the struggles of founding fathers; Year 2 addresses the War for independence, the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement. Year 3 looks at tension between Native Americans and settlers during Westward expansion.

This partnership brings together two school districts challenged by poverty, low performance, and language barriers with the Huntington Library and Constitutional Rights Foundation to increase teacher knowledge of American history, improve history instruction, and build a sustainable model for encouraging teachers to be lifelong learners of U.S. history. Using the Seminars with Scholars model, which emphasizes interaction between teachers and advanced scholars, the program provides 10 days of professional development to annual cohorts of 30 teachers, and 16 hours focused on content knowledge and building the capacity to teach topics mandated by state standards. Every fourth, fifth, eighth, and eleventh grade U.S. or California State history teacher will be invited to participate. Based on teacher-identified needs, the program focuses on strengthening knowledge of Constitutional and presidential history. Some of the topics are Colonial America, the Age of Jackson, President Polk and Manifest Destiny, Lincoln, Slavery, and the Civil War, and the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.

Up to 60 local elementary and charter schools in two counties are participating in this professional development program aimed at the needs of primary grade teachers in an area marked by dislocation, unemployment, and poverty. The counties are home to the two largest Native American tribes in California, along with several smaller tribes. Partners include historians from Humboldt State University, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, four museums, and the White House Historical Association. Based on the success of two previous TAH grants for middle and high school teachers, elementary teachers will receive 100 hours of graduate U.S. History instruction and pedagogical training, mentoring, in-service workshops, and observation. Participants will teleconference with noted historians, read 14 texts, study primary documents, develop lesson plans, and participate in a two-week study trip to historical sites on the East Coast. Content covers transformational moments of political and social change stemming from colonial struggles to the American Revolution, Federalist and Anti-Federalist debates, slavery, antebellum reformers, the Civil War, industrialism, immigration, imperialism and anti-imperialism, the 20th Century, the Civil Rights movement, the New Deal, World War II, and the Cold War. Readings range from Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood to The Week the World Stood Still: Inside the Cuban Missile Crisis.

This partnership of Santa Ana Unified School District with the California History/Social Science Project and the History Department at the University of California, Irvine, and the National Archives and Records Administration-Pacific Branch aims to raise student achievement on district benchmarks and State tests through an extensive program in teacher training on U.S. history content, curricular reforms, and literacy strategies for low performers. While 90 teachers in Grades 5 and 11 will participate in training institutes and follow-up workshops, history teachers in Grades 5, 8, and 11 will be vertically teamed to collectively address American History teaching. The program helps serve a low performing, urban district predominated by English Language Learners. Content includes the Constitution, Religion in America, A Nation of Immigrants, the Depression and New Deal, American Women, the Civil Rights Movement, and Post-War America. The first year's program will be organized around the theme, "Democratic Aspirations: Critical Questions in Twentieth-Century American History."