The Wisconsin Collaborative United States History Professional Development Program

Abstract

A FIt'l Y MILLION DOLLAR GRANT PROGRAM for history education was announced by the United States Department of Education in April 2001. To many of us in the profession it was almost inconceivable that the study of history would receive such generous funding. While we as historians were convinced of the merits of improved history education, we had to ask what were the motivations behind the program? Congress was allocating all the resources: what were the planned outcomes? Even assuming that the objectives included historical literacy and cultivating a historical perspective, how would the nation be better served? In other words, what would be the impact of a more historically conscious generation upon American society? On a practical level, however, the grant guidelines seemed to respond to a serious need in the State of Wisconsin, in that history teachers only needed three history courses for certification to teach middle and high school level history. Our proposal, Wisconsin Collaborative United States History Professional Development Program, was successful and represents an effort to address the lack of content preparation with professional development opportunities through the development of K-16 collaborations led by the National Council for History Education (NCHE). The major components of the grant include one pre-colloquia assessment; three, five-day summer