Project HISTORY: Historians’ In-service; Standards;

Technology integration; and Outside Resources Yearly

Abstract

Project HISTORY, a project of 8 Central New York school districts led by the North Syracuse School District (and Liverpool, Mexico, Oswego, Hannibal, Utica, Oneida, and Syracuse Diocese), has developed a comprehensive program to strengthen the teaching of traditional American history. Project HISTORY integrates a rigorous evaluation design to measure project impact on three core goals: (1) Teacher knowledge and understanding of American history will increase; (2) Student achievement in American history will increase; and (3) Project HISTORY’s unique Internet applications (developed by the directors) and WebQuest lesson activities will improve the quality of classroom instruction of traditional American history among the participants. The project’s quasi-experimental design under Robert Peterson, who has evaluated numerous TAH projects, is detailed in the Evaluation section and contains several measurable outcomes for both teacher and student achievement. Two cadres of 30 elementary, middle, and high school American history teachers (60 total) will each participate in 30 months of presentations led by our partners: eight American history faculty members (Historians’ In-service) and our two directors with expertise in both American history and technology, all of whom are from the internationally renown Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs; and museum educators from the Erie Canal Museum, The Everson Museum, the Onondaga Historical Association Museum and Ste. Marie Among the Iroquois Museum. The narrative contains a detailed agenda that cover all of the NEAP Periods, the specific historical topics and presentations. Our format integrates historians’ presentations, followed by related technology integration sessions led by the directors using their American history Internet applications and visits to our four museums.

To teach U.S. history effectively requires a strong content knowledge. Our acronym’s process objectives do this by having teachers (1) participate in seminars on the significant events, issues, and turning points in American history led by scholars from the Syracuse University Maxwell School (Historians’ In-service) which will improve their (2) students’ test data on state Standards; Directors James Carroll, Ph.D. and Joseph Montecalvo will help teachers align their content to the standards through WebQuests (online lesson plans). (3) They will develop strategies for teaching this content by learning how to use the directors’ exemplary new technologies (Technology integration). (4) They will analyze original historical documents throughout American history, study the actions of the men and women who have struggled to shape our country, and visit historical sites and four museums to study unique, primary resources (Outside Resources Yearly). The four key ideas in the New York State Standards for American History will be highlighted throughout the year. By aligning our seminars and our teacher-prepared WebQuests (online lesson plans) with the state standards, we will ensure that the teachers will remain focused on the content that their students need to improve performance on the state Regents exam in grade 11 and the Advanced Placement test. It will also unify the seminars around these themes that extend over the whole course of American history.