Partnership to receive $1 million to aid history teaching

COLUMBUS - Columbus Public Schools (CPS) will receive a significant boost toward its goal of academic improvement and training more high-quality teachers with a $1 million grant to History WORKS, a partnership that includes CPS, The Ohio State University’s Department of History and the Ohio Historical Society.

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded 114 Teaching American History grants nationally to improve the quality of instruction as well as offer professional development and teacher education activities in American history. The Columbus collaboration ranked 12th of 469 applicants and was the highest-ranking proposal in the Midwest.

Ken Andrien, chair of the Ohio State Department of History, said History WORKS will increase teachers’ knowledge, understanding and appreciation of American history through an intensive, ongoing professional development program.

“If history is taught well, there are a number of ways in which it improves other skills, like reading and writing,” he said. “History WORKS will deliver everything teachers need to mold the CPS history program into one that puts the district into the Academic Excellence category.“

CPS is the nation’s 16th largest urban district.

“Improving academic achievement among district students is our number one priority, and this is the kind of partnership that will help us get there,” said Gene T. Harris, Ph.D., Columbus Public Schools’ superintendent. “While we have improved in 21 of 22 state standards over the past year, we remain focused on continuing improvement and progress toward academic excellence.”

The History Department’s Harvey Goldberg Program for Excellence in Teaching will coordinate the program. The Goldberg Program already oversees the History Teaching Institute at Ohio State, a three-year-old initiative designed to improve the quality of history teaching in Ohio.

U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Columbus, helped the partnership receive the grant. “In reauthorizing the Teaching American History program as part of the Elementary and Secondary Education act, Congress has recognized the importance of improving teachers’ instruction skills and student performance in American history. I congratulate Columbus Public Schools, The Ohio State University and the Ohio Historical Society for their partnership on behalf of our children through this most worthwhile project.”

History WORKS is laid out over a three-year period with three major components: monthly seminars, summer institutes and a web-based resource center. The program focuses on improving teachers’ understanding of six core themes in American history: Ohio history, the Constitution and American democracy, foreign relations, people of America, economic history and social movements and change. All of the schools’ eighth- and ninth-grade and advanced-placement history teachers will participate in the program and will receive graduate credit hours for completing workshops and attending the seminars.

“This program reaffirms our department’s long-standing commitment to the community,” Andrien said. “Moreover, the timing of the grant coincides with the introduction of a new set of statewide standards for history and social studies. This investment in improving the quality of education will benefit both teachers and students for many years to come.”

The history partnership between Ohio State and the Columbus schools is just one initiative of the university’s P-12 Project, a program designed to help improve Ohio’s schools, particularly in districts that serve children and youths from lower socio-economic families. The project is one of the university’s three outreach priorities as defined in its Academic Plan.

U.S. Rep. Patrick Tiberi, R-Columbus, who also assisted in seeking the grant, said the National Assessment of Educational Progress released in May shows “how far we have to go nationally in teaching history. Some 57 percent of 12th-graders across the country fall below a basic level of knowledge of U.S. history, the worst showing among any of the major subjects. This grant will allow Columbus schools and The Ohio State University to develop innovative strategies to ensure that our community’s kids can obtain a better knowledge of our nation’s history, culture and civics.”

The Ohio Historical Society, through its Archives/Library Division, will help teachers identify primary sources to support the development of curriculum and lesson plans, and instruct teachers and students on the use of primary sources in historical research. The society also will provide access to primary source material in the society’s vast collections through digitization, traveling kits and classroom visits, and will help develop the History WORKS website and host it in conjunction with its website – www.ohiohistory.org.

“Education is a primary focus of the Ohio Historical Society,” said Executive Director Gary C. Ness. “Our partnership through the History WORKS program is an exciting opportunity to continue to share the state's history content with educators. By collaborating with Ohio State and Columbus Public Schools on this project, we are able to effectively leverage resources toward the teaching and appreciation of history.”

The Ohio Historical Society is a not-for-profit organization that serves as
the state’s partner in preserving and interpreting Ohio’s history, archaeology and natural history. It is the only institution in the nation that is directly involved in three programs that received national Teaching American History grants. The other initiatives involve the National Afro-American Museum in partnership with the Dayton Public Schools and a partnership between the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center and the Fremont City Schools.