Slavery and Freedom in American History and Memory is a professional development program for middle school teachers developed by ACES in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University and a consortium of other Connecticut public school districts. Secondary partners are the New York Historical Society, the Penn Center, and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The program will focus on interrelationships between slavery and culture, politics, immigration, and the family. The first year will focus on slavery from the colonial period through 1807. Year 2 examines chattel slavery, its abolition, and legacy. The third year will focus on the Civil Rights Movement. Participants are expected to expand their knowledge base and pedagogical skills, and to develop practical strategies for translating their new learning into improved student performance. Monthly academic-year forums-combining lectures, readings, and primary documents workshops—will familiarize teachers with key trends and events, and are supplemented with web-based resources. The annual capstone will be a one-week summer institute involving field trips to local historical societies and museums.

This professional development program in teaching U.S. history partners the LEA with the Library of Congress, Connecticut Historical Society, Trinity College, and historian Eric Foner to provide an annual cohort of 30 teachers in Grades5, 8, 10, and 11 with intensive, advanced training on the content, context and use of critical documents in American history. In addition to improving teachers' instructional skills, the program seeks to increase the number of eleventh grade students enrolled in Advanced Placement U.S. History classes. Each cohort will attend a one-week summer institute and three follow-up sessions during the school year. Year 1's topic is War and Peace Through American History. Year 2 explores The Struggle for Civil Rights Throughout American History. Year 3 focuses on Individuals Who Have Shaped the Course of the Nation. Eric Foner and Trinity College scholars will lecture on the content and context of documents, while educators from the Library of Congress and the Connecticut Historical Society will train teachers in accessing and using primary documents. A Connecticut-based Document Resource Book will be prepared for all district American history teachers.

HISTORY IS CENTRAL is a collaborative program comprised of a statewide system of 17 technical high schools and six school districts in central and southern Connecticut, the Department of History at Central Connecticut State University, and the Connecticut State Library and Archives. In addition to 100 seventh through twelfth grade teachers, pre-service history teachers will participate in the program's book circles and become members of the Organization of American Historians and the Association for the Study of Connecticut History. Program participants attend scholarly colloquia, summer institutes, and school-year workshops while working with mentors to integrate historical content into lesson plans. Historic site visits and Internet networking supplement the course. The program is designed around three themes: Social Movements, Social Change: The Story of American Freedom; Technology and Industry: Changing Economy, Changing Society; and American Ideals in a Changing Nation. Numerous readings reflect 18th, 19th, and 20th century issues and events.

Stratford and New Haven Public Schools are partnering with Sacred Heart, Yale, and Fairfield Universities, the Stratford Historical Society, the New Britain Museum of American Art, and the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition to provide an immersion program in American history content knowledge and pedagogy for teachers of Grades 4, 6, 8, and 10. The core of the program involves five graduate courses of history content and related teaching skills and another series of three undergraduate courses for which credit is awarded. Summer immersion institutes allow small groups to examine specific topics, travel to archival sites, interact with experts, discuss classroom approaches, and train in multimedia technology. The overarching theme is Equity and Equal Access in America, with the subtopics of Human Rights, Women's Studies, Immigration, and Labor History. Under Human Rights in Year 1, for example, participants study the principles of equity in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, 19th Century, minority populations, and the history of human rights in the 20th and 21st Centuries.