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Ozarks and the Nation: Teaching American History Grant
Southwest Center for Education Excellence
600 S. Ellis, Suite B
Webb City, MO 64870
The United States Department of Education recently awarded a Teaching American History grant, Ozarks and the Nation, to Southwest Center for Educational Excellence, a partnership of area schools and museums; Missouri Southern State College and Carl Junction R-1 School District.
The program is designed to raise student achievement by strengthening teachers' knowledge, understanding and appreciation of American history. The project award for $772,053 is among the largest funded in the FY 2002 competition and is one of the 2 awarded in Missouri. The Department of Education received 469 applications and 114 of those projects were funded in 39 states plus the District of Columbia. Grants range in size from $19,000 to $1 million for three-year projects.
The Ozarks and the Nation project is a cooperative effort of the Carl Junction R-1 School District, representing the forty-three K-12 districts in the Southwest Center for Educational Excellence consortium, Missouri State College, Joplin Museum Complex, George Washington Carver National Monument, Harry S Truman Birthplace State Historic Site, Powers Museum, and Prairie State Park, to enable local history teachers to become a community of learners. Among the goals of the project are increasing teachers' content knowledge; providing pedagogical training for teachers in inquiry-based learning and teaching with primary sources; creating a series of online learning modules of local history; hosting a conference; creating and maintaining teaching collaboration between MSSC history faculty and local teachers; and increasing participation in the National History Day Competition. Local humanities partners will provide expertise and resources for the development and implementation of the modules.
A leadership team composed of all partner representatives will guide the planning of the project. Team members from the Southwest Center for Educational Excellence will include the Project Director, Marilyn Rowe, Bob Collier, Director of the center, along with Julie Riley, Professional Development Coordinator for the project. Team representatives from Missouri Southern State College will be Dr. Larry Cebula and Dr. Paul Teverow. Dr. Cebula will serve as the coordinator for organizing and delivering historical content information and training for the teachers. In addition, Dr. Cebula, Dr. Teverow and other MSSC American history professors, will plan and facilitate reading seminars and Summer Institutes and will play a major role in the development of the conference. Also serving on the leadership team will be Brad Belk of Joplin Museum Complex; Lana Henry of George Washington Carver National Monument; Pam Myers of Harry S Truman Birthplace State Historic Site; and Michele Hansford of Powers Museum. In addition, two teachers of American history in the Carl Junction School District will join the team as representatives of the teachers in the area.
Thirty teachers of American history from 42 districts (members of the Southwest Center for Educational Excellence) will be selected to participate in the project during each of the first two years and fifteen the last year. The competitive application process for teachers will include a letter of recommendation from their building principal and a cover letter detailing interest, commitment and qualification for participation in the project.
In a recent Rose Garden speech, President Bush made the following remarks relevant to the Teaching American History Program: "Our Founders believe the study of history and citizenship should be at the core of every American's education. Yet today, our children have large and disturbing gaps in their knowledge of history. This is more than academic failure. Ignorance of American history and civics weakens our sense of citizenship. To be an American is not just a matter of blood or birth; we are bound by ideas, and our children must know those ideals. The primary responsibility for teaching history and civics rests with our elementary and secondary schools, and they've got to do their job."
The Ozarks and the Nation project will help teachers meet President Bush's challenge.
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1617 West Oak • P.O. Box 593 • Carthage, MO 64836
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