Resumen de Evaluating Professional Development of American History Teachers

Karen Kortecamp, Kathleen Anderson Steeves

• The first Teaching American History (TAH) grants were made available to K-12 schools from the Department of Education in 2002. They provide money to school systems for three-year projects to form partnerships with area organizations with the goal of increasing the American history knowledge of teachers and students. This study focuses on the evaluation plan, project implementation, and results from one such TAH grant. The teacher participants were from targeted elementary and secondary schools. Where possible, teams of teachers (history and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) or Special Education (SPED) participated. A formative and summative evaluation was designed to ensure the efficacy of the project design and to guarantee its outcomes. This is a report on year one of the evaluation, focusing on the design, its impact on the conduct of the grant, and the prospects for success in meeting the goals of the grant.