The Lane ESD and its partners, Portland State University Department of History and the Oregon State Historical Society in collaboration with the Oregon Department of Education and other history education organizations, will: (1) deliver a strong program of professional development in teaching American history to 50 participating teachers, grades 1-12;  (2) build countywide and statewide networks that will provide continuing history education and professional development for teachers; (3) strengthen the capacity of local history education organizations to provide resources and improve access to them.

We will build upon our successful 1st round Teaching American History project. We will: (1) Engage professional historians to help 50 teachers of American history, grades 1-12, deepen and broaden their content understanding and increase their familiarity with and use of varied and interesting American history materials; (2) Improve instruction and prepare students to meet Oregon’s Common Curriculum Goals and Content Standards” in American history by addressing the instructional needs the American history teachers in Lane County have identified; (3) Increase teachers’ and students’ access to engaging resources in local history organizations and develop additional local history education resources.

We will disseminate the results of the project on three levels.  Locally, each of the fifty participating teachers will develop a product suitable for classroom use or for educational use in a community history education organization and will be supported with resources to enable them to demonstrate and coach colleagues to use the product.  In Oregon, we will work with the OHS and ODE to provide information about the content/engaging instructional practices model of history education that we and our partners developed in the first TAH project and will continue to strengthen and refine.  Nationally, teachers will be able to use the Lane ESD Teaching American History web site, to find descriptions of products, rationales for use, and “How To” guides for replication and application of the products teachers develop.