History of a Nation

The fifth and final year of our grant has arrived! And, we are ready to finish the grant off with the same high quality programming as we have through the grant.

Check out our American Institute for History Education web site at http://historyofanationlibertyfellowship.org/.

History of a Nation is a Teaching American History program administered by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools' Instructional Services Department. 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 24 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.

The Office of the Kern County Superintendent of Schools (as the LEA) leads the partnership of professional development content providers. The American Institute for History Education serves as the primary provider throughout the grant. The History of a Nation project has partnered with California State University, Bakersfield, several Presidential Libraries, the Bill of Rights Institute, the California Technology Assistance Projects, the New Jersey Center for Civic and Law-Related Education of Rutgers University, The Civil War Society, and Colonial Williamsburg among others.

The Kern County Superintendent of Schools and American Institute for History Education will provide the following professional development in fifth and final year of this grant:

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: Fellows will attend seminars to collaborate on lesson plan and local/national history project development.

Full-Day Seminar: a full-day seminar open to up to eighty teachers will focus not only only American History, but the Common Core as well.

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 seven-day content driven, scholar guided professional development field trip pertinent to the framework of the annual theme.Participating Fellows must attend 90% of professional development sessions and complete lesson plans with project to qualify for field study.