| Grantee Name: | Gallia-Vincent Educational Service Center |
| Project Name: | Five Star Liberty Fellowship |
| Project Director: | Dr. Denise Shockley |
| Funding: | $833,250 over 5 years |
| Number of Teachers Served Overall: | 40 |
| Number of School Districts Served: | 4 |
| Grade Levels: | K-12 |
| Partners: | Villanova University, American Institute for History Education, National Council for the Social Studies, Bill of Rights Institute, National Constitution Center, American Revolution Museum, Italian-American Heritage Commission |
| Topics: | Year 1: The Empire vs. the Colonies Year 2: From Unity to Division: The Agrarian South and the Industrial North Year 3: From Division to Unity: War, Reconstruction, and World Power Year 4: Liberal Democracy vs. Totalitarianism Year 5: Liberal Democracy vs. Totalitarianism redux |
| Methods: | Classroom coaching, research activities, colloquia, summer institutes, videoconferences, electronic discussions, mentoring, field studies |
Four districts in southeastern Ohio make up the Five Star Liberty Fellowship (Fellowship) consortium, which has 29 schools in need of improvement, 66 percent of students in Grades 3-10 below proficiency in social studies, and only 22 percent of history teachers certified to teach United States history. Activities that support history professional development will provide interactions with scholars and specialists in settings that include colloquia, research studies, summer institutes, classroom coaching, mentoring, and field studies. Other activities for fellows will also welcome non-participants: these include videoconferences, online professional development and Web-based resources, and electronic discussions.
The core group of 35 participants will represent the schools and teachers most in need of support. Five veteran teachers will participate and receive intensive training to become teacher-leaders and content specialists to support participants and other consortium history teachers beginning in Year 2. The project is committed to developing strong history teaching across the consortium by employing a turnkey replication model, by which every participant works in a vertical team and becomes a content specialist for his or her home district.
Fellowship participants will learn by employing a variety of history instructional strategies, including Binary Paideia, content analysis, and a 12-step process for conducting research and creating historical narratives and lessons. Face-to-face and online professional development and participation in field studies at historical sites will help teachers earn master’s degree credits. Fellowship narratives, resource materials, virtual field trips and lesson plans will be published on the project Web site, and teachers who complete the training will go on to train other American history teachers.