Homewood-Flossmoor American History Consortium


						Teaching American History Grant Program Project Evaluation: (back to about HFAHC) Project Evaluation The state of Illinois has no standardized test in U.S. History, or even in the Social Studies more broadly. To measure the effectiveness of these courses in strengthening teacher content knowledge and improving student achievement, therefore, Professor J.D. Bowers of Northern Illinois University (NIU) has agreed to serve as chief evaluator. Dr. J. D. Bowers, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History, Northern Illinois University. With a doctorate in U.S. History from Indiana University, his area of special academic interest concentrates on religion in America. In addition, he is Coordinator of NIU’s History and Social Science Secondary Teacher Certification Program, and University Supervisor, Student Teacher Clinical Experiences, with instructor responsibility for social studies curriculum development and teaching methods. Dr. Bowers taught high school in Virginia and Hawaii prior to moving to Oakland City University, Indiana University, and finally NIU. While at Indiana University he received the Susan O’Kell Outstanding Teaching Award, History Department. He serves as College Board/Advanced Placement Program reader for AP US History, and is a Certification Testing System consultant for the Illinois State Board of Education. (see Résumé section for further information) Professor Bowers will, working with other NIU faculty members, be responsible for: a) developing, distributing, collecting, and analyzing surveys of the graduate-course instructors. These surveys are to be returned to Professor Bowers within one week after the completion of each course. Course instructors will: provide information about the quality of discussions that occurred during the class; the extent to which teacher knowledge of, and appreciation for, American history appears to have grown as a result of the course; the potential of the teacher developed lessons to impact student understanding of the content of American history; the extent to which the primary- and secondary-source selections made by teachers reflect major issues in American history; and, suggestions for the way future professors of these courses can succeed in developing teachers’ understanding of, and appreciation for, American history. b) developing, distributing, collecting, and analyzing surveys of course participants at the appropriate time during the school year (with the help of the department chairs at each school). These surveys will focus on: the impact of the course in developing teacher understanding of, and appreciation for, American history; the impact of the course in shaping unit structure and lesson design not just for the topic of the course, but for teaching U.S. History generally; the degree to which lessons designed during the course were implemented in the classroom; why a certain lesson(s) was chosen for use in the classroom and others were not; the teacher’s evaluation of the effectiveness of the lesson(s); and, plans the teacher has for changing the way he/she approaches instruction on topics related to the course and in teaching U.S. History generally. c) developing, distributing, collecting, and analyzing surveys of students at the end of each school year (with the help of department chairs at each school). These surveys, administered to the students of any teacher who participated in a graduate course that year, focus on: the extent to which students believe their knowledge of American history grew during the year; the extent to which they like studying American history, and how they perceive their attitude has/has not changed over the year; the confidence they have in their teachers’ understanding of American history; the extent to which the teacher required them to think critically about primary documents in American history; the extent to which the course helped them understand that history consists of debates and perspectives and not just the memorization of facts; and, the extent they look forward to taking additional courses about American history in the future. d) conducting classroom observations of teachers at a time in which they are utilizing a lesson developed as a result of their participation in the project courses. These observations will be given to every teacher involved in one of the graduate level courses, at the time an appropriate lesson from the course is being presented. Observations will include a post-observation conference with the teacher and a written evaluation. During these observations, Professor Bowers will focus on: the significance and accuracy of the content covered during the class period; the appropriateness of the methodologies selected in light of the content objectives; the engagement of the students in the lessons; and, the extent to which their content knowledge appears to have grown during the course of the lesson. Professor Bowers, and his assistants, will review a sampling of student work produced as a result of the lessons to measure their impact on student understanding of content, and the extent to which they promote critical thinking about the content. Professor Bowers will submit a report of his findings with regard to each of the above tools by July 1 of each year of the grant. The accumulated data will be utilized to adjust course content, Symposia discussions, and institute topics to further improve teacher knowledge and ability to develop a deeper understanding of American history, and better share their appreciation of it with students. As can be seen from the budget narrative a substantial portion of the project funds are devoted to evaluation each year. All activities of the HFAHC are 100% funded by a $967,900, three year Teaching American History grant from the US Department of Education – grant program period (10/05 – 9/08). Note: Some links on these pages use .pdf files and require the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Last Modified: 4/5/2006