DeTocqueville's Ghost: Examining the Struggle for Democracy in America

Abstract

THE NEED TO INCREASE the content knowledge of American History teachers is emphasized by the Teaching American History Grant. This focus recognizes the crucial role played by classroom teachers in helping students increase their knowledge and understanding of American History. Oakland Unified School District's Teaching American History project, DeTocqueville's Ghost: Examining the Struggle for Democracy in America, is working to meet the challenge, and take advantage of the opportunity presented by this grant. Through this work we are trying to answer the fundamental question, How can increased and enhanced historical knowledge gained by teachers find its way into their lessons and thus increase student knowledge and understanding of American History? This article highlights how we have sought to answer this question during our first year. It notes the issues and questions raised as a result of that work, and outlines our plans for grappling with these issues and questions during the remaining two years of the project. The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) in Oakland, California, is a large urban district whose students, on the whole, have not performed well on state and national assessments of basic skills, or on assessments of knowledge of American History. A few statistics show the problems we face.'