Grant Award Press Release
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Contact: | Tony Sanders |
| April 7, 2008 | Phone: | 847-888-5000 ext. 4160 |
School District U-46 Awarded $1 Million Grant for American History Education
One of six Illinois districts to receive grant
Elgin - U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings recently announced a $985,448 competitive grant has been awarded to School District U-46 to support the teaching of American History. The Teaching American History grant is designed to improve student achievement by enhancing teachers' knowledge of traditional American History through intensive, ongoing professional development in both content and research-based teaching strategies. Only six school districts in Illinois received the grant.
"By providing professional development for teachers, we can help them support young people in becoming active, informed citizens," said Secretary Spellings.
The U-46 project, entitled the “Roadmap of American History,” is a three-year professional development program for American History that includes partnerships with four organizations: The Illinois State Historical Library at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, the Elgin Area Historical Society and Old Main Museum, Northern Illinois University, and the Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago. The project will also include seminars by professors from Northwestern University, The University of Wisconsin, and DePaul University.
Each year, the partnership will involve high school teachers in a series of institutes designed to support the fourteen content titles of the new teacher-created “Curriculum Roadmap” for U.S. History. The project focuses on instruction that engages students, especially those representing diverse backgrounds.
Jeff Feucht, Social Studies and World Languages Divisional at Bartlett High School and project director for the new grant, says that these seminars “will seek to make the new curriculum a living document that will be continually revised as teachers discover ways to make American History more engaging and relevant to students in classrooms throughout the district.” He added, “It is really exciting to receive such a considerable source of funds to provide support for the teaching of American History. This is really a boon to the great U.S. History teachers we have here in U-46.”
The funds will provide dozens of individualized seminars from experts who specialize in each historical era of the new curriculum, significant resources for teachers to use when developing lessons, and professional development opportunities for teacher participants in the grant.
Superintendent Mary Jayne Broncato acknowledged the work currently being done by U.S. History divisionals and teachers to align the curriculum and instruction with the state standards. Dr. Broncato noted, “Just a few weeks ago, the district team coordinating the work being done on U.S. History made a presentation to the Board of Education. The team’s work has become a district model for collaborative curriculum alignment and ongoing professional development to support teachers. This grant provides even more resources for the work yet to be done.”
The U.S. Department of Education's Kristine Cohn will present School District U-46 the check for the Teaching American History grant award at Bartlett High School, Monday, April 14, beginning at 1 p.m. She will also hear first-hand how the district plans to use the funding from the U.S. History grant, and visit classrooms that will benefit from the new resources. Cohn, based in Chicago, is U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings' top official for Region V, comprised of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Additional information on the U.S. History grant program is available online at www.ed.gov.
