Grantee: Linn-Benton Lincoln Education Service District, Albany, OR
Project Name: LBL ESD U.S. History Project
Project Director: Nancy Vollmer (541) 812-2600
Funding: $1,000,000
Number of Teachers Served: 70
Number of School Districts Served: 12
Number of Students Served: No information available

To improve student achievement by building capacity and sustain teachers as they become better prepared to teach 18^th, 19^th, and 20^th century U.S. history, LEA will collaborate with Western Oregon University, the Oregon Historical Society and regional museums on a professional development program for "teacher-leaders" in grades 3-12. The project offers summer institutes bringing together in-/pre-service teachers with education and social studies specialists, and mini-grants to teachers for school-based efforts-release time to design materials, observe effective instruction, and mentor colleagues. "Doing History" and service learning activities aim to enhance skills in using primary sources, and focus groups are included to address roles of principals and library media specialists in supporting improved American history instruction. Content will address the colonial period, American Revolution and Constitution, American West and Oregon, immigration and industrialization, slavery, Civil War, civil rights, reform movements, and 20^th century studies.

Grantee: School District No. 1, Multnomah County, Portland, OR
Project Name: Teaching American History
Project Director: Thomas McKenna (503) 916-5840
Funding: $816,952
Number of Teachers Served: 75
Number of School Districts Served: 1
Number of Students Served: 5,254

In partnership with the Old Town History Project and the Community Geography Project, Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and Portland State University, the district will conduct a professional development program to increase the competence of all history and social studies teachers in the district's 10 high schools, 17 middle schools and grade 3-5 teachers in schools with the highest disadvantaged populations. New history curricula will link local history to national periods such as World War II, The Native World, Westward Expansion, the Progressive Era, and Industrialization and Immigration. Geographic Information Systems technology will be established in classrooms, collaborative relationships with scholars expanded, and long-term collegial training and information-sharing implemented. In addition to summer institutes for 75 teachers, who will present workshops for peers, all teachers can attend 4 school-year historian presentations.