C.W. Post, Nassau BOCES in $1M History Teaching Initiative
Will offer professional development to 135 Nassau County teachers to enhance instruction in U.S. history; kick-off at Roosevelt’s Sagamore Hill

Oyster Bay, N.Y. – Educators from Nassau County school districts and the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University gathered at Sagamore Hill, President Theodore Roosevelt’s home, on Thursday, Oct. 4 to kick off a $1 million effort to enhance instruction in American history at more than a dozen Nassau County high schools.

The program will include workshops with historians from Harvard, Stanford, Columbia and other top universities for more than 150 teachers from the Farmingdale, Glen Cove, Hempstead, Jericho, Lawrence, Long Beach, Mineola, Oceanside, Oyster Bay-East Norwich, Roosevelt, Sewanhaka, Uniondale and Westbury school districts. The teachers will come away from the workshops with a richer understanding of U.S. history – and better teaching tools to pass it along to their students.

The project is being funded primarily by a $999,999 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to C.W. Post and the Nassau Board of Cooperative Education Services, which jointly developed the project and will administer it.

“This grant has the potential to significantly impact 45,000 students in Nassau County,” Dr. James Mapes, superintendent of Nassau BOCES, told more than 50 teachers who gathered at Roosevelt’s “Summer White House” in Oyster Bay Cove for the announcement.

Dr. Jeffrey Kane, vice president of academic affairs for Long Island University, said, “This grant, which is a public and private partnership and is a partnership between higher education and secondary education, provides an opportunity for history to come alive for Nassau County students. We’re embarking on a great venture together.”

Fewer than one-quarter of America's students in grades 4, 8 and 12 are proficient in American history, according to the Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress, commonly known as the “Nation's Report Card.” A survey by Nassau BOCES found that high school history teachers had taken relatively few courses in American history as undergraduate and graduate college students, and determined which subjects they wished to reinforce through professional development.

The Teaching American History discretionary grant program supports three-year projects to improve teachers' knowledge and understanding of traditional American history through intensive, on-going professional development. C.W. Post will host day-long seminars with some of the country’s top academic historians. The program also includes follow-up retreat days and summer institute days.

“Thanks to this grant, teachers from 13 Nassau County school districts will study with nationally known historians,” said Fred Podolski, executive director of the Nassau BOCES Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Technology. “In addition, we’ll be providing professional development that will help them integrate technology and online content into their lessons. We’re particularly excited about the positive impact on students from special populations,” Podolski continued, “such as English language learners.”

Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad, associate professor of education at C.W. Post, said, “We believe that teachers who participate in our project will become more knowledgeable about American history, learn new pedagogical skills, and become more effective teachers of American history. Moreover, this project will validate the view that collaboration between higher education and public education is inevitable. It is vital that universities and K-12 schools join hands to improve students' achievement in American history.”

Topics in the three-year lecture series range from the ideology of the American Revolution to the Iraq War and public opinion. The lectures for the 2007-08 academic year include:

Lectures in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years will continue through the timeline of American history, with presentations scheduled by historians from Emory University, Columbia University, Stanford University, the University of Maryland, Rutgers University, the University of Houston, Harvard University and the University of Oklahoma.

Dr. Jeffrey Kane, Long Island University vice president for academic affairs, addreses more than 50 Nassau County high school history teachers at the announcement ceremony of the C.W. Post-Nassau BOCES Teaching American History initiative at Sagamore Hill, Theodore Roosevelt’s “Summer White House” in Oyster Bay. Seen at left is Fred Podolski, executive director of the Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Technology.		C.W. Post Associate Professor of Education Iftikhar Ahmad is seen to the right of Theodore Roosevelt impersonator James Foote at the ceremony announcing the teaching American History project of C.W. Post and Nassau BOCES at Roosevelt’s Oyster Bay home, Sagamore Hill. Left to right: Dr. Valerie D’Aguanno, assistant director, Nassau BOCES Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Technology; Fred Podolski, executive director, Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Technology; Dr. James D. Mapes, superintendent of Nassau BOCES; Foote; Ahmad; and Pat Koehler, supervisor of Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Technology.

Posted: October 9, 2007