This collaborative professional development effort between the Service District, the University of Oregon-Eugene, six libraries with archives of historical documents and images, and five local historical societies and museums is supported by the Oregon Department of Education, the Organization of American Historians, the National Park Service, and Oregon Public Broadcasting. Elementary and secondary school participants are drawn from three rural counties in central Oregon that are sparsely populated and separated from major population centers by the Cascade Mountains. Major project activities include summer institutes, inquiry projects where teachers learn new skills and instructional technologies, and participation in an online professional learning community focused on resource-sharing and extending knowledge about the program.

This project organizes its history content around five major themes: American Dreams, Growth of Democracy, Expansion of Borders and Influence, Cultural Contact and Conflict, and Industrial and Technological Change. Each of the selected themes are illustrated in different ways at different times and places throughout American history, and most can be applied to almost any significant historical event.

Volume II of America's History in the Making extends the success of Volume I, a collaborative multimedia workshop project to give teachers across the U.S. more content knowledge of American history, including an understanding of multiple perspectives, change over time, historical thinking skills, and use of digital technologies for researching and teaching. This consortium partners Education Service Districts in six states with Oregon Public Broadcasting, the National Center for History in the Schools, the Organization of American Historians, and Southern Oregon University to create, implement, evaluate, and nationally distribute a workshop series that will result in better teaching and raised student achievement. Volume II focuses on the Gilded Age through contemporary America, providing teachers with 30 contact hours of content and activities to support a three-credit course; it also develops a facilitator's guide, and evaluates at least 100 of the participating teachers across all six LEAs. The units for this program will include Agriculture and Politics in the Gilded Age, Smokestack America, America Becomes a Global Power, and Conflict at Home and Abroad.

In partnership with Portland State University and the Oregon Historical Society, the districts have formed an urban-suburban consortium to improve the teaching skills and content knowledge of 90 U.S. history/social studies teachers in Grades 7 through 12. The program includes winter and spring graduate-credit history courses, two-week summer institutes, teacher exchanges/demonstrations, research and use of primary source documents, development of curriculum units and new AP history classes, an interactive website, a historical play, and integrated assessment. Over the grant period, 12 topics will be covered. Middle school teachers focus on 19th century America from Jeffersonian Visions to Pacific Nation. High school teacher training will address 20th century issues, from New Industrial Nation to Freedom of Religion.