EDUCATION SECRETARY DUNCAN ANNOUNCES $115.2 MILLION FOR 124 GRANTS TO IMPROVE TEACHING OF AMERICAN HISTORY

from TTKN News Service

9 August 2010 - U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced the award of $115.3 million to 124 school districts to improve the quality of teaching American history in our nation’s schools.

The Teaching American History grant program aims to enhance teachers’ understanding of American history through intensive professional development, including study trips to historic sites and mentoring with professional historians and other experts. Projects are required to partner with organizations that have broad knowledge of American history, such as libraries, museums, nonprofit historical or humanities organizations, and higher education institutions.

History is one of the core academic subjects under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Teaching American History grants are funded for a three-year period. They will be awarded to school districts in 40 states, the District of Columbia, and American Samoa.

Note to Editors: Following is a list of grantees by state. Included are the grant recipients, contacts and grant award amount for the first year of the grant. (CA. LISTED ONLY – COMPLETE LIST:http://bit.ly/bWCQrv)

• CA — COSTA MESA — Orange County Superintendent of Schools, Deborah Granger, dgranger@ocde.us, $997,933.
• CA — FAIRFIELD — Solano County Superintendent of Schools, Stacey Greer, sbgreer@ucdavis.edu, $1,000,000.
• CA — GLENDALE — Glendale Unified School District, Joanna Junge, jjunge@gusd.net, $999,962.
• CA — HAYWARD — Alameda County Office of Education, Avi Black, ablack@acoe.org, $999,954.
• CA — LAKE ELSINORE — Lake Elsinore Unified School District, Nancy Andrzejczak, nancy.andrzejczak@leusd.k12.ca.us, $999,966.
• CA — LONG BEACH — Long Beach Unified School District, Linda Mehlbrech, lmehlbrech@lbschools.net, $980,580.
• CA — LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Unified School District, Michael Reed, michael.reed@lausd.net, $1,998,978.
• CA — MISSION VIEJO — Saddleback Valley Unified School District, Gloria Roelen, roelen@svusd.org, $998,659.
• CA — MOORPARK — Moorpark Unified School District, Larry Jones, ljones@mrpk.org, $998,946.
• CA — PICO RIVERA — El Rancho Unified School District, Susanna Smith, ssmith@erusd.k12.ca.us, $966,999.
• CA — REDDING — Shasta County Office of Education, Tom Forbes, tforbes@shastacoe.org, $985,658.
• CA — RICHMOND — West Contra Costa Unified School District, Natalie Wojinski, natalie.wojinski@gmail.com, $996,368.
• CA — SAN BERNARDINO — San Bernardino County Schools, Angela Dorough, angela_dorough@sbcss.k12.ca.us, $1,987,156.
• CA — SAN MARCOS — San Marcos Unified School District, Gina Bishop, gina.bishop@smusd.org, $822,216.
• CA — UKIAH — Mendocino County Office of Education, Nancy Rogers-Zegarra, nrogers@mcoe.us, $1,000,000