NIU faculty will lend expertise to boost
history lessons in northwest Illinois

by Tom Parisi

NIU Professor J.D. Bowers will play a crucial role as “historian-in-residence” for a new project aiming to enhance students' knowledge of U.S. history in the Woodstock, DeKalb, Harvard, Belvidere and Prairie Grove public school districts.

Officials from the districts recently announced that they will share nearly $1 million in federal funding to launch the “Challenge of Freedom” project. The three-year effort will provide high quality professional development to as many as 160 history teachers, with the objective of improving instruction and raising student achievement at the elementary, middle school and high school levels. The five districts serve more than 23,000 students.

The Woodstock School District is spearheading the collaborative effort, with funding provided through a federal Teaching American History grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education.

Bowers is a professor of history at NIU and previously worked as an American history teacher in Hawaii, Virginia and Uruguay high schools. As historian-in-residence for the Challenge of Freedom project, Bowers said he will work directly with teachers in various schools to help them enhance their content knowledge as they teach.

“The more depth teachers have, the more they can present to their students and improve their students' ability to think critically,” Bowers said. “Critical thinking has been missing in social studies curriculum for a long time, and many students lack an understanding of our nation's past. We need to be familiar with history in order to put current events into proper context.”

NIU's Mary Beth Henning, a professor of elementary social studies education, also has signed on to the project. “My role would be to help the teachers develop innovative instructional methods, so they can translate their new-found knowledge of history into dynamic and meaningful lessons for students,” she said.

The Challenge of Freedom project involves two dozen organizations, including museums, libraries, school districts and institutions of higher education. Teachers will participate in workshops, seminars, online discussions and a summer institute. They also will have the opportunity to take graduate-level courses in American history, including at NIU.

Bowers said he expects to have frequent on-site contact with teachers, serving as a resource for both curriculum content and instructional method.

He has been involved in a similar effort in Rockford Public Schools, which received a Teaching American History grant of nearly $1 million in 2004. In both cases, Bowers played an instrumental role in the design of the proposals. In Rockford, he now serves as the external evaluator, examining grant activities and assessing their effectiveness.

“We're in the first active year in Rockford, and it's making inroads and great gains with the teachers,” he said.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, also known as “the Nation's Report Card,” indicates that less than one-quarter of U.S. students in the fourth, eighth and 12th grades are proficient in American history. The Teaching American History grant program, initially sponsored by U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, now has given more than 500 such grants to various school districts and their partners nationwide.

The funding supports programs that work to raise student achievement by improving teachers' knowledge, understanding and appreciation of American history.

“We fully recognize the importance of a global history and social studies curriculum, but the fact of the matter is that our students – regardless of their ages, locales or backgrounds – need to know all they can about our nation, its past and its shaping influences,” Bowers said. “Our world is complex, and the teaching of our nation's history should reflect that. Only by teaching students in that way, through a variety of content, can we be sure that we are preparing the best possible future citizens and laying the groundwork for the future of the United States.”

10-10-05