Naperville, IL -  Kristine Cohn, Secretary of Education’s Regional Representative for the U.S. Department of Education, presented a $971,000 Teaching American History grant on Monday to a west suburban consortium led by Indian Prairie School District 204 in partnership with the Naperville Heritage Society and Naper Settlement and North Central College. In addition to District 204, the other school districts participating in the grant include Naperville School District 203, Wheaton Warrenville School District 200, East Aurora School District 131 and West Aurora School District 129.

The federal “Teaching American History: Sharing the Past, Shaping the Future” grant supports a three-year project to increase student achievement by improving the way teachers approach American history. The goal is to help teachers increase content knowledge and learn new ways to bring American history to life through introducing students to historians, actual historical documents and artifacts.

District 204 Supt. Howard Crouse said it’s exciting to work with leaders from surrounding districts and the rich resources of Naper Settlement and North Central College. “This project brings together historians and historical collections with history teachers to enhance our students’ understanding of American history,” he said.

On behalf of the consortium, the Naperville Heritage Society and Naper Settlement, in cooperation with North Central College, will develop, produce, coordinate and implement all aspects of the grant. The grant will serve elementary, middle and high school American history teachers from the five school districts, which encompass 105 schools and serve 83,469 students.

The goals of the project are threefold: to increase teacher content knowledge in traditional American history; to enhance history curriculum planning skills for grades K-12 history teachers in order to improve student academic achievement in history; and to increase local history awareness and access, especially in the area of primary source documents (original materials, such as letters, diaries, ledgers or other items written during a specific time period) and artifacts (tangible objects from a particular time period). The program components will align with the Illinois Learning Standards and State Goals for History.

Teachers will be able to tap into the expertise of nationally renowned history experts, such as Professor Ann Durkin Keating, chairman of the North Central College History Department, who is serving as the content specialist for the project.

“It’s a great day for history,” Keating said.

Teachers also will be able learn from and develop long-term partnerships with area museum professionals, history scholars, content and curriculum specialists, and local organizations, such as Naperville Community Television, Channel 17. Weeklong summer institutes, workshops, field trips to Chicago, Springfield, Ill., and Washington, D.C., are also part of the program. In addition, teachers will have access to a history-based Web site that will feature primary source materials and curriculum-planning ideas.

“By working together, we are creating advanced learning opportunities for our local history teachers so that they may acquire new content knowledge by using historic sources not normally available to them,” said Donna Sack, Director of Visitor Services for Naper Settlement. “It is an exciting time when academic historians, museum professionals, school administrators and history teachers join together to create dynamic and engaging history curriculum. When we recognize, through programs like the Teaching American History Grant Program, that U.S. history is an integral and vital part in students’ education, we are helping to develop future generations of informed citizens.”