Houston Independent School District proposes to create staff development opportunities for new and experienced U.S. history teachers, primarily those at the middle school and high school levels. Teachers will learn deeper history content and a large number of instructional techniques. The project will encourage networking and sharing among teachers. The district's partners (Rice University, University of Houston, and Colonial Williamsburg Foundation) will help to create learning environments for teachers that leave them far stronger in both history content and classroom practice. These newly trained teachers will assist students in meeting state history standards as measured on the statewide assessment test.

The Region IV Education Service Center serves 7 counties and 54 school districts in southeast Texas. The project aims to: improve teachers' knowledge of history content, identify effective teaching strategies; train teachers to use technology, create a corps of teacher-mentors, create a forum for teacher interaction with professional historians and museum professionals, and produce online resources. The project will serve teachers from elementary, middle school, and high school levels will be served, with priority given to teachers from schools that scored poorly on the statewide assessment tests in history. The partners are the University of Houston and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

This school district encompasses much of downtown San Antonio. The district partners include the University of Texas-San Antonio, KLRN-TV, the National Council for History Education, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and School Vision. The project will work with 5th, 8th, and high school U.S. history teachers to help prepare their students to achieve success on the statewide test in U. S. History. A total of 245 teachers will participate in both summer and academic year sessions, which will stress content knowledge, but will also discuss viable ways to teach this knowledge in a way that will incorporate students' interests.

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