The multi-year project includes school systems in West Springfield, Westfield, Chicopee and Pittsfield, as well as the Hampshire and Gateway regional school districts.
HUNTINGTON – The Gateway Regional School District is at the helm of a Western Massachusetts educational consortium that has been granted $1.6 million in federal funding to advance the teaching of American history and democracy.
The five-year teaching American history grant, administered by the U.S. Department of Education, is designed to hone history teacher skills and expand the resources they use to make a greater impact on students.
The consortium includes the Center for Teacher Education and Research in Westfield, Westfield State College, the Veteran’s Education Project in Amherst, and the Historical Journal of Massachusetts in Westfield, all of whom collaborated to design the program.
Gateway, said district Spokesperson Wendy V. Long, will serve as the fiscal agent for the grant, and the multi-year project includes the participating public school systems of West Springfield, Westfield, Chicopee, Pittsfield, as well as the Hampshire Regional School District.
“Resources from this grant will pay for a series of professional development programs for secondary level U.S. History teachers in six Western Massachusetts school districts,” she said.
The grant project, entitled “Memorializing Promise and Conflict: A Monumental History of U.S. Democracy,” focuses on the events and people who shaped American democracy.
Long explained that a new period of history spanning approximately 50 years will be studied each of the five years, beginning with 1950 and working backwards through history. In addition to the classroom component, students and teachers will begin with an immersion field trip to visit monuments and historic sites relevant to the era.
“Funding will allow each teacher to create an ‘archive box’ of primary sources, documents, tools, books and artifacts to bring history back to students in the classroom,” she added. “Based upon research verifying that interest in history stems from family experiences and personal stories, the Veterans Education Project will bring personal accounts of people who witnessed or ‘lived’ history as part of teacher training.”
Training will continue throughout the school year with a series of seminars focused on U.S. History content and analysis of student work, and participating teachers will also take part in after-school workshops that include book groups and instructional technology training.
In announcing the awarding of the grant, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Gateway is among three Massachusetts school districts, including Arlington public schools and the Education Cooperative in Dedham, as well as 124 nationwide, to receive a total of $115.3 million in funding to improve the quality of teaching American history in the nation’s schools. History is one of the core academic subjects under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
“The Teaching American History grant program aims to enhance teachers’ understanding of American history through intensive professional development, including study trips to historic sites and mentoring with professional historians and other experts,” Duncan said.