A team of social studies coordinators from Fayette, Henry and Cobb County school systems have been awarded their second $1 million grant from the Teaching American History Project.

The grant was given to the consortium for a program they developed called “Creating a Nation: Seeds of Democracy.” The goals of the three-year program are to increase the historical knowledge of the colonial area (1607-1776), including how the events, people and core historical documents led to our civic ideals and principals, improved instructional strategies, increased us of nonfiction materials to strengthen understanding of history and improved student achievement through increased knowledge, understanding and appreciation of American history.

The program is expected to improve content knowledge, teaching strategies, reading in content, research techniques and writing and presentation skills for both teachers and students.

The three school systems have partnered with the Georgia Archives, the National Archives-SE Region, the Georgia Humanities Council, the Atlanta History Center and the Massie Heritage Interpretation Center of Savannah to create the Seeds of Democracy program.

The team received its first grant from the Teaching American History Project in 2003 for the project “Linking American History: Past to Present,” which addressed weaknesses in students’ knowledge of American history during the era of 1945 to present.

The Teaching American History Grant Project is offered through the U.S. Department of Education. The goal of the program is to support programs that raise student achievement by improving teachers’ knowledge, understanding and appreciation of American History. Grants are used to improve the quality of history instruction by supporting professional development for teachers of American history. In order to receive a grant, a local agency must agree to carry out the proposed activities in partnership with one or more of the following: institutions of higher education, nonprofit history or humanities organizations, libraries or museums.

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