Grantee: Richmond County Board of Education, Augusta, GA
Project Name: Teaching American History
Project Director: Patricia Moore Shaffer (706) 828-3813
Funding: $881,486
Number of Teachers Served: 171
Number of School Districts Served: 1
Number of Students Served: No information available

Participants in this professional development program to enhance the quality of American history instruction include 1 history teacher each year from the district's 57 elementary, middle and high schools. An additional 400 teachers in grades 4, 5, 8, and 11 will benefit from follow-up activities in the schools. The district's partners-Augusta Museum of History, Augusta State University, Morris Museum of Art, Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History, Historic Augusta, Georgia Humanities Council, and Georgia Public Broadcasting's PeachStar Education Services-will assist in providing 2-week summer institutes, fall and spring seminars, video production of model lessons, technology training, and development of a professional network of historians and teachers.

Grantee: Coastal Plains Region Education Service Agency, Lenox, GA
Project Name: South Georgia History Project
Project Director: Charles J. Walsh (229) 333-5645
Funding: $806,715
Number of Teachers Served: 45
Number of School Districts Served: 41
Number of Students Served: No information available

This effort to increase student performance in American history and teacher content knowledge and use of technological and inquiry-based instructional strategies immerses American history teachers in grades 8-11 in graduate courses, workshops and conferences aimed at creating regional Master Teachers of History. The project provides memberships to the Organization of American Historians (OAS), attendance at a national U.S. history conference, creation of a regional history teachers' consortium for ongoing collaboration, and classroom technology offering access to web-based resources. Partners include Valdosta State University's College of Education and Department of History, Okefonokee RESA, U.S. National Archives, Carter Presidential Center, Teachers Curriculum Institute, History Alive! and OAS. Graduate courses focus on the 1877-1921 era of U.S. history, examining social, political, economic and foreign affairs topics. A coordinated secondary education course requires development of lesson plans and activities for classroom application.

Grantee: Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools, Savannah, GA
Project Name: History is Monumental
Project Director: Candy Lowe (912) 201-5070
Funding: $1,000,000
Number of Teachers Served: 200
Number of School Districts Served: 1
Number of Students Served: 26,534

History is Monumental links local Savannah monuments with broad events in America's history with the help of project partners including History Alive!, Armstrong Atlantic State University, and the Georgia Historical Society. Designed to prepare teachers to deliver content-rich, creative and motivational lessons, establish a U.S. history mentoring program, and increase educators' technological skills, the project provides American history teachers in grades 4, 5, and 8 with summer institutes, a graduate-level survey course in American history, best practices, special history sessions, immersion days, evening lecture series, and creation of an on-line archive of primary source documents. The overall goal is a knowledgeable citizenry with a clear understanding of U.S. history and the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, Federalist Papers, and Constitution.