Grantee: Charlotte-Mecklenberg Schools, Charlotte, NC
Project Name: AP: A.T.T.A.C.K.
Project Director: Becky Finger (704) 444-2744
Funding: $970,045
Number of Teachers Served: 67
Number of School Districts Served: 1
Number of Students Served: No information available

AP: A.T.T.A.C.K (Advanced Placement: Analysis, Thinking, Training, Articulation, and Content Knowledge) unites the district with Davidson College, Museum of the New South, Afro-American Cultural Center, Charlotte Museum of History, and Charlotte-Mecklenberg Public Library in a program for American history and Advanced Placement (AP) American history teachers in grades 8 and 11. Supported by the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies and College Board, the project aims to improve student test scores, increase earned AP diplomas, boost academic rigor by establishing a pre-AP course in middle school, expand classroom resources, and reduce the number of American history teachers who leave teaching. Activities include training in vertical team building, Smithsonian workshops on historical investigation, monthly meetings led by history professors and museum educators, mentoring and team teaching, and development of local networks. Instructional strategies focus on student ability to analyze and write about primary and secondary sources. The project builds on a grant providing teachers in grades 5, 8, and 11 with training based on the History Alive! program. Key staff bring expertise in the post-Civil War era, Constitution, American internationalism, New Deal, post-Cold War era, the Presidency, peace heroes in 20^th century American, the American South, and other topics.

Grantee: Durham Public Schools, Durham, NC
Project Name: History Connect! Teaching American History in Durham
Project Director: Darnell Tabron (919) 560-3917
Funding: $885,434
Number of Teachers Served: 70
Number of School Districts Served: 1
Number of Students Served: 10,500

The district will collaborate with Duke University, North Carolina Central University, NC Museum of History, and 12 other partners to provide a sustained professional development program for all American history teachers in grades 8, 10 and 12. Cohorts of 35 will have 160 hours of training including 2-week summer institutes and 2 10-session seminar series during the school year. Aimed at providing intensive courses, methods for increasing student achievement, and sustaining relationships with organizational partners, the project involves site visits, research, presentations, and preparation of papers. Summer institutes focus on: The History of the Constitution; Slavery, 1600-1863; The Civil War; Industrialization and the New South; The Jim Crow Era and the Civil Rights Movement; and The U.S. as a World Power-covering World War I-War on Terrorism.

Grantee: North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Durham, NC
Project Name: Learn More - Teach More
Project Director: Virginia S. Wilson (919) 416-2707
Funding: $996,267
Number of Teachers Served: 160
Number of School Districts Served: 5
Number of Students Served: No information available

This professional development project to enhance American history teachers' content knowledge and methodological skills aims to foster active learning in history classrooms across North Carolina. The project includes 100 videotaped presentations by historians providing teachers in grades 8, 10 and 11 with access to views on the 10 eras specified by the National History Standards. Participants will also receive materials and intensive instruction in class preparation and lesson design via NCSSM distance learning broadcasts and on-campus workshops. The 5 partner LEAs represent low-income areas where students have traditionally scored lower than both state and national averages. Project partners include Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina Museums of History and Art, and Learn NC. Learn NC's website will make materials available for American history teachers throughout the state.

Grantee: Cumberland County Schools, Fayetteville, NC
Project Name: Teaching American History
Project Director: Michelle McLaughlin (910) 678-2413
Funding: $915,057
Number of Teachers Served: 127
Number of School Districts Served: 1
Number of Students Served: No information available

This project addresses middle and high school teachers' needs for increased American history content knowledge and improved teaching skills by providing interactive learning experiences, opportunity to learn and practice innovative instructional strategies, and ongoing support from history experts and peers. Activities include colloquia and summer institutes conducted by project partner, Fayetteville State University; History Alive! training featuring immersion experiences and certification opportunities; Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and Museum of Cape Fear summer institutes; a summit conference convened by Ohio Underground Railroad Association/Friends of Freedom Society; professional educator programs by the National Close Up Foundation . Content is aligned with state standards including history courses on Settlement to Reconstruction and the Modern Era. Study includes economic, social and political developments from America's beginnings to the present.

Grantee: Pitt County Schools, Greenville, NC
Project Name: Partnerships for Teaching American History
Project Director: Margaret Ryan /Jan Stennette (252) 830-6604
Funding: $940,705
Number of Teachers Served: 60+
Number of School Districts Served: 4
Number of Students Served: No information available

In cooperation with 3 other school districts, the Organization of American Historians, the National Council for History Education, East Carolina University, Teachers' Curriculum Institute, the National Humanities Center, National History Day, and Pitt County Historical Society, Pitt County Schools will develop a leadership team of 20 teachers per year in grades 9-12 to improve American history content knowledge and instructional strategies. Members attend summer institutes and conferences, develop lesson plans, learn how to become History Alive! trainers, participate in focus groups, and organize a regional symposium. Training also target teachers in grades 3-8 in an effort to build a stronger foundation for history learning. National History Day, Lenoir County Schools, Martin County Schools, and Beaufort County Schools are additional partners. Historians working with the project bring expertise in the Reconstruction period, Congress and war planning 1916-1939, the New Deal and World War II, the Great Depression, American Indian culture, and historical biographies.

Grantee: Roanoke Rapids Graded Schools, Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina
Project Name: Partnering to Deepen Students' Understanding of American History
Project Director: Kathy White and Michelle Laughridge (252) 537-8563
Funding: $830,025
Number of Teachers Served: 120
Number of School Districts Served: 4
Number of Students Served: 6,000

This effort to increase the content knowledge and instructional skills of teachers and improve student performance in U.S. history targets teachers in grades 4, 5, and 8-11 in 4 school districts in rural northeastern North Carolina. Partnering with the schools are the Paideia Group, SERVE, National Humanities Center, North Carolina State University, North Carolina State University Humanities Extension and Engagement Program, College Board, Center for Effectiveness in Research, Teaching, and Learning, and Curriculum Design for Excellence. During the first semester of each school year, a cohort of 40 teachers work on aligning the U.S. history content using the vertical teaming concept of the College Board. During the second semester, participants will collaboratively assess the quality of their American history assignments and unit plans. During the summer, they attend 2-week summer institutes focusing on eras in American history and related instructional strategies. Mini-seminars may address such topics as presidential inaugural addresses, the Monroe Doctrine, or Seneca Falls Declaration on Women's Rights. Other seminars may cover America in 1850, expansion, the cult of domesticity, religion, or the cult of the common man.