History of a Nation

History of a Nation is a Teaching American History program being administered by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools and the Kern County Museum. It is funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

Kern County, located in California’s Central Valley, has 47 school districts with more than 230 schools of which thirty-seven percent are designated in Program Improvement Status. The History of a Nation project goal is to raise student achievement in American history throughout Kern County by deepening knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of traditional American history for up to 100 teachers each year in grades five, eight, and eleven. The project will recruit and train up to 40 cohort teachers (Fellows) who will disseminate American history resources and model lesson plans in their prospective districts. History of a Nation will provide a rigorous program of professional development and technology around the study of major themes in American history aligned to the California Content Standards.

The project objectives are as follows:

• To develop content rich lesson plans aligned with state standards.
  
• To use new resources and teaching practices to teach American history.
  
• To improve professional development outreach, resources, and quality.

Kern County Superintendent of Schools (as the LEA) will lead the partnership of professional development content providers (California State University, Bakersfield History Department, the Kern County Museum, and the American Institute for History Education). The History of a Nation project has also partnered with the Bill of Rights Institute, the California Technology Assistance Projects, the New Jersey Center for Civic and Law-Related Education of Rutgers University and The Civil War Society, among others. The content providers will support the following four main professional development components that address annual themes in American history:

History Colloquia: Three two-day colloquia will address the needs of teachers who want to increase their knowledge in specific topics of American history. Colloquia will include visiting scholar presentations.

History Seminars: Additional teachers will gain an overview of sequential topics in American history by attending seminars with scholar presentations scheduled throughout the year.

History Immersion Institute: An annual five-day summer institute, with visiting scholar presentations, will allow teachers to learn more effective methods of teaching American history through the use of primary sources and to study themes in American history at a deeper level.

Travel Study: An annual six-day content driven, scholar guided professional development field trip pertinent to the framework of the annual theme.