--- Mark Tebeau
October 10, 2003

About the Program:

Beginning in 2001, the United States Department of Education began offering grants of up to $1 million to support programs that raised student achievement by improving teachers' knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of American history. The Teaching American History Grants (also known as Byrd Grants) further sought to create collaborations between local school districts and institutions with expertise in American history, especially colleges and universities, but also local historical societies and other organizations. The program emphasizes teacher professional development in the content of "traditional" American history instruction, expecting that K-12 students will develop an appreciation for the great ideas of American history.

In 2002, the U.S. Department of Education received and reviewed nearly 500 applications and awarded 114 grants ranging from $19,561 to $1,000,000 for three-year projects.

A collaboration intitated by the Department of History at Cleveland State University was funded. Our innovative collaboration is a partnership between the department of history and the Center for Urban School Collaboration and College of Education at CSU, Kenyon College, Oberlin College, Facing History and Ourselves, and twelve first-ring suburban school districts in Northeastern Ohio, including Euclid, Parma, Shaker Heights, Warrensville, East Cleveland, and Cleveland Heights/University Heights.

As of October 2003, we are now recruiting a second wave of teachers from other "first-ring" suburbs.

For more information on the grant program, please contact Dr. Mark Tebeau in the Department of History at Cleveland State University. Click here for an abstract of our proposal (in pdf format.)