The Teaching American History Grant program is designed to raise student achievement by improving teachers’ knowledge and understanding of and appreciation of traditional U.S. history. Local education agencies apply for the grants in partnership with colleges, universities, non-profit history or humanities organizations, libraries, or museum. (Further information, including application information, is available on-line at: http://www.ed.gov/programs/teachinghistory/.)

The Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University has been a partner on nine Teaching American History grants. (List of TAH Grant partners.)

In addition to helping you write your Teaching American History grant application, there are two ways you can partner with the Ashbrook Center and Ashland University for your Teaching American History grant.

Each year, the Ashbrook Center works closely with a few school districts and local education agencies to develop customized Teaching American History Grant partnerships. Please contact Roger Beckett if you would like to discuss one of these partnerships. The Ashbrook Center can help you write your Teaching American History Grant and you can partner with the Ashbrook Center to send your teachers to intensive summer institutes offered for graduate credit.

Intensive Summer Institutes

Ashland University offers week-long intensive summer institutes for social studies teachers through its Master of American History and Government program. The programs cover a wide variety of topics in American history and are taught by excellent historians and political scientists from colleges and universities throughout the country. Hundreds of teachers attend the institutes each summer.

The Ashbrook Center has developed unique graduate courses for teachers. Both the academic nature and the schedule of these courses were designed with school teachers in mind. The courses are offered only in the Summer, in the form of intensive one-week institutes that emphasize historical content based on original texts and documents.

Your teachers will participate as audit students in these graduate courses each summer, and if they choose, they can use part of their stipend to obtain two history/political science graduate credits from Ashland University. The institutes will last for six days (five nights) and take place on the campus Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio.

Courses are offered in five one-week sessions each summer, with several courses offered during each session. (List of the 17 courses offered in Summer 2007.) Teachers may choose as many courses as they would like each summer from the many courses offered. With the wide variety of topics available, teachers have the flexibility to select topics of particular usefulness to them for their classroom instruction.

Institute Topics. Your teachers will have a broad range of courses to choose from during the three years of this project, and each of these courses focuses on significant issues, episodes, and turning points in American history. Teachers may select specific topics, depending on their particular classroom needs. They will be encouraged to focus on a sequence of courses in American history: “The American Revolution,” “The American Founding, “Sectionalism and Civil War,” “Civil War and Reconstruction,” and “The Progressive Era”.

“The American Revolution” institute focuses on three topics: political developments in North America and the British empire and the arguments for and against independence, culminating in the Declaration of Independence; the Revolutionary War as a military, social and cultural event in the development of the American nation; and the United States under the articles of confederation.

“The American Founding” institute begins with an intensive study of the constitutional convention. It goes without saying that the issue of slavery in a republic was a massive and debilitating fact. The debates in the Constitutional Convention are a gold mine in our study of the prudence that needed to be practiced. The institute considers the struggle over ratification of the Constitution. The Federalist Papers are both a profound treatise of political theory and as rhetorically effective an argument on behalf of a large political action as any ever undertaken by Americans. The Anti-Federalists’ victory with the Bill of Rights is also closely considered.

The “Sectionalism and Civil War” institute is a study of the sectional conflict beginning with the nullification crisis. The sectionalism crisis makes clear that the arguments heard at the beginning were not conclusive. While the extension of slavery was the practical cause of the Civil War, in fact invidious doctrines questioning the equality of human beings were afoot in the new world. So powerful were they that the self-evident truth had now, at best, become a proposition, and the Constitution itself was breaking. Both pro-slavery men and abolitionists were ready to break it. Lincoln saw the problem. The problem became acute when Senator Stephen Douglas thought the Kansas-Nebraska Act was the appropriate compromise. Lincoln debated that solution with the senator. Although the senator won the race, Lincoln won the moral and constitutional argument and, two years later, the presidency.

The “Civil War and Reconstruction” institute examines the military aspects of the war, as well as political developments during it, including the political history of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural. But the untimely death of Lincoln did not help the reconstruction of the South, and its limited progress was halted by 1877. While amendments were passed to ensure the freedom and equal protection of the former slaves, the federal government was unwilling or unable to enforce its own policy of racial equality. It also failed to ensure the education of freedmen and declined to give them land permanently. So long as some states were determined to discriminate against them and disenfranchise them in other ways, and so long as the nation was compelled to compromise with race interests of various states, citizens' rights and responsibilities could not live up to the promise of the Revolution.

“The Progressive Era” examines the new reform movement that championed democratization, wanting government first hand, directly by the people. Self-government was in need of assistance. Between 1870 and 1900 the population of the United States doubled. Urbanization and industrialization, mixed with immigration, led toward large-scale industries and national corporations. It seemed that a new kind of unchecked and concentrated economic power led to another form of injustice that challenged the ability of the still decentralized republic to respond. The Progressives, as they came to be known, were a powerful and persuasive intellectual voice, and their political victories had a deep effect on all levels of government. Government became strengthened with greater power to regulate the society and the economy. Brewing behind this reform was the ever present call for racial equality. The call went unheeded for almost a century after the Civil War. Yet, African-Americans, with different methods, and sometimes with different ends, argued and debated, struggled and sacrificed, and finally persuaded their fellow citizens to re-kindle their ancient faith.

These sequential courses will help teachers improve their teaching by developing their understanding of traditional American history. Studying periods and themes in American history is also pedagogically important, as they are connected with the American History content standards. All of these courses will be taught each year, giving teachers ample opportunity to study these defining and consequential periods or themes in American history. Many additional courses will also be offered each year (List of the 17 courses offered in Summer 2007), allowing the teachers to select from a broad range of topics.

Quality of the Faculty. Two instructors teach each course/summer institute. All of these instructors, from colleges and universities throughout the nation, have either published or taught courses on the topic of each institute. (Resumes for faculty will be included in the application materials.)

In the many programs they have offered for teachers in the past, the Ashbrook Center has found the selection of the instructors to be critical for the success of the institutes. The professors conducting our institutes are excellent scholars, passionate about the subject they teach, and outstanding classroom teachers. Many of them are recipients of teaching awards at their respective colleges and universities. Students in seminars with such instructors are reminded that history is not a dry subject; it is a conversation among human beings across time. These students are moved to study and think about important historical questions in an engaging and insightful way.

These instructors develop the list of reading materials and lead the discussions during the institute. They are present for the entire institute, from breakfast until the end of each day.

The following is list of recent faculty:

• Will Atto (University of Dallas)
• Jeremy Bailey (University of Houston)
• Christopher Burkett (Ashland University)
• Andrew Busch (Claremont McKenna College)
• Paul Carrese (United States Air Force Academy)
• Christoher Flannery (Azusa Pacific University)
• David Foster (Ashland University)
• Stephen Knott (University of Virginia)
• Tom Krannawitter (Hillsdale College)
• David Krugler (University of Wisconsin-Platteville)
• Marc Landy (Boston College)
• Gordon Lloyd (Pepperdine University)
• Melanie Marlowe (Miami University)
• Robert S. McDonald (United States Military Academy)
• Sidney M. Milkis (University of Virginia)
• Tiffany J. Miller (University of Dallas)
• Danial Monroe (Millikin University)
• Lucas Morel (Washington and Lee University)
• Paul Moreno (Hillsdale College)
• John Moser (Ashland University)
• Mackubin T. Owens (United States Naval War College)
• Ronald J. Pestritto (Hillsdale College)
• David Raney (Hillsdale College)
• Diana Schaub (Loyola College)
• Jeffrey Sikkenga (Ashland University)
• Jean Edward Smith (Marshall University)
• Jeremi Suri (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
• David Tucker (United States Naval Postgraduate School)

Teaching with Primary Documents. In addition to increasing teachers’ knowledge and appreciation of American history, your partnership with the Ashbrook Center will also seek to help your teachers improve their instructional methods. In particular, your teachers will study and review the core original historical documents of American history and improve their ability to teach their students how to analyze these historical documents.

During each of the institutes, the professors will model the use of original documents. These programs will help our teachers learn where to find original documents, how to examine documents as a tool for making historical explanations, and how to use documents effectively in the classroom. (Sample syllabi showing the extensive use of original documents will be included in the application appendices.)

Recruitment. Teacher participation is one of the greatest challenges for those people running Teaching American History grants. The Ashbrook Center has been a partner on six Teaching American History grants over the past six years, and through that work, has developed many methods of recruiting teachers. Teacher recruitment has not been a problem for these summer institutes. We will provide extensive advice on teacher recruitment as you write and implement your Teaching American History grant.

Cost. Your teachers will be participating in graduate courses at Ashland University. Accordingly, your grant will be charged the normal rates for tuition, room, and board for each course. We also build in $150 to cover the cost of books for participants and $500 to pay for a stipend that will be paid to each participant. All of the costs will be charged to your Teaching American History grant, and the institutes will be offered at no charge to your teachers. Your teachers will be able to select from among the many summer institutes offered each summer, allowing them to choose topics most useful for their classroom teaching.

The following are the costs of the program:

Tuition ($459/credit hour)		$918
Room and Board		$432
Books		$150
Stipend		$500
Total		$2,000

In your grant, you can include participation in Ashland's Summer Institutes for as many teachers as you would like, from one to hundreds. To calculate the total cost to your grant, multiply the number of participants you would like to send to Ashland each summer by $2,000.

You can also include a travel stipend into your grant that can be paid directly by you or added to the amount paid by Ashland.

In partnership with our evaluation partner, Evaluation Solutions, we can also work with you to develop an evaluation plan for your teachers' participation in the summer institutes or you can have your external evaluator conduct an evaluation the summer institutes.

The creation of these graduate courses was inspired by the Ashbrook Center’s six previous Teaching American History grant partnerships. These courses are intentionally designed to be especially beneficial to teachers. Unlike most graduate courses, the great majority of students taking these week-long courses are not enrolled in the Master’s program, and many students simply audit the courses. The primary purpose of these graduate courses is to offer intensive professional development opportunities for teachers.

Writing Your Grant Application. The staff at the Ashbrook Center will assist in any way possible as you write your Teaching American History grant application. If you partner with the Ashbrook Center, you will receive the following for your grant application:

• text about the summer institutes at Ashland which you can use in your grant narrative,
• memorandum of understanding between you and Ashland University detailing the services that Ashland will provide for your grant, and
• extensive appendix materials, including syllabi and faculty resumes.

For further information, please contact:
      Roger Beckett
      Director, Master of American History and Government
      Ashland University
      401 College Avenue
      Ashland, Ohio 44805
      419-289-5413
      rbeckett@ashland.edu

About the Ashbrook Center

The Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio is an organization experienced in offering content-based professional development programs for American history teachers.

The largest program at the Ashbrook Center is a series of professional development institutes and seminars for American history teachers. Originally funded by the Commission of the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution, the Center first offered these intensive, content-based summer institutes in 1990. Over the past 17 years, more than 800 teachers from every state have participated in the Ashbrook Center's programs. The programs have been funded by a variety of private foundations and government grants, including nine Teaching American History Grants.

The Ashbrook Center's intensive institutes encourage history teachers to deepen and broaden their understanding of American history. The programs hosted by the Center always focus on historical topics that social studies teachers need to understand to be well-prepared. Unlike most professional development programs for teachers which focus almost exclusively on teaching methods, these seminars emphasize substantive themes of American history. Their discussions revolve around primary source documents and their use in the classroom as a way to engage students and increase student achievement.

An important element of the Center's programs is a web site for teachers: TeachingAmericanHistory.org. This user-friendly web site features many interactive tools, including an extensive library of original historical documents, an audio archive of previous Summer Institutes, links to other archives and resources, and special exhibits, including an interactive exhibit on the Constitutional Convention.

At the suggestion of many teachers, the Ashbrook Center has worked with the Department of History and Political Science at Ashland University to create a Master of American History and Government degree program. The academic program and schedule have been designed with junior high and high school teachers in mind. The courses are offered only during the summer, a unique feature of this program, making it convenient for teachers from across the nation to enroll. While the program is designed for teachers, the program's coursework is in the substance of history and government rather than in teaching methodology. The program is taught by faculty from colleges and universities nationwide.

In 2004, the Ashbrook Center was selected by the National Endowment for the Humanities to develop web-based high school U.S. history lesson plans and associated interactive student exercises for the NEH's Edsitement website. The Ashbrook Center was one of two organizations selected by the NEH to increase the U.S. history and civics content on this important web site.

In 2005, the Ashbrook Center was selected by the U.S. Department of Education to run one of two Presidential Academies for American History and Civics. The Presidential Academy leads secondary school teachers in a careful on site study of three pivotal turning points in American history: The American Revolution, the Civil War, and the Civil Rights Movement. The study of these turning points is framed by the three famous documents that memorialize these American epochs: the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and the "I Have a Dream" speech. Participating teachers spend five days in Philadelphia, six days in Gettysburg, and six days in Washington, DC. Fifty-two teachers, one from each state, one from the District of Columbia, and one from a U.S. Territory, are selected to participate in the Academy. The professors conducting the Academy are among the finest scholars of American history and government from across the country. The faculty includes two Pulitzer Prize winning authors and many recipients of teaching awards at their respective colleges and universities.

The Ashbrook Center's extensive experience working with teachers, experience working with the U.S. Department of Education, and work with the National Endowment for the Humanities to develop web-based high school U.S. history lesson plans demonstrate that the Ashbrook Center provides a strong and vital institutional home for your grant partnership, a partnership that will emphasizing the importance of American history for your teachers.