External Evaluation of the Life During Wartime Project

Funding Source

Subcontract from Cooperative Educational Services Agency 5, Portage, WI

Project Director, External Evaluation

John Gugerty, Researcher, Center on Education and Work
jgugerty@education.wisc.edu

Overall Project Funding

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Innovation and Improvement, Teaching American History Grant Program

Implementation Time Frame for the External Evaluation

07/01/2008—06/30/2011 [36 months]

Goal of the External Evaluation

This external evaluation will collect and analyze data in order to answer two key questions:

  1. Did completion of the TAH professional development experiences sponsored by this project significantly increase participating teachers’ knowledge of traditional American History when measured against that of a comparison group of teachers of history?
  2. Did teachers of history who complete professional development experiences sponsored by this project significantly increase their students’ knowledge of traditional American History when compared to the knowledge of history exhibited by a comparison group of students?

Data Collection and Analysis

Data collection will include surveys of those participating in professional development, measures of their American History knowledge, observations, interviews, and document analysis. Data collection/analysis will also include aggregate student scores on teacher-developed and/or appropriate standardized measures of student performance used by participating school districts.

Background: Teaching American History Grant Program

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced the award of $114.7 million for 121 new grants to improve the quality of American history education. The grants are being awarded to school districts in 40 states nationwide.

"The Teaching American History grant program offers educators opportunities to work with colleges and universities, nonprofit organizations, libraries, or museums to learn more about our country's history, culture, and democratic tradition," said Secretary Spellings. "By providing professional development for teachers, we can help them support young people in becoming active, informed citizens."

The Teaching American History grant program is designed to improve student achievement by enhancing teachers' knowledge of traditional American history through intensive ongoing professional development in both content and research-based teaching strategies. Grants fund projects for up to five years, and grantees must partner with one or more organizations that have extensive knowledge of American history, including libraries, museums, nonprofit history or humanities organizations and higher education institutions.

History is one of the core academic subjects under the No Child Left Behind Act. The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which is commonly known as the "Nation's Report Card," shows some overall improvement in history performance at all three grade levels, however, less than one-quarter of America's students in grades 4, 8, and 12 are performing at the highest, or proficient, level in American history.

More information about the Teaching American History Grant program is available at:

http://www.ed.gov/programs/teachinghistory/index.html

Background: Life During Wartime Project Summary

CESA 5, in collaboration with Madison Area Technical College, the University of Wisconsin—Madison, the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, and the Madison Metropolitan School District, has been awarded a three-year grant from the United States Department of Education’s Teaching American History program. Entitled Life During Wartime, this grant supports the teaching of traditional U. S. history through primary sources. Participants in Life During Wartime can elect to join the program for one, two, or three years. Subtopics for each year are:

2008-09, Prelude to War: Why did the United States commit troops to wars in the twentieth century? How did proponents and opponents of waging wars make their cases to Congress, the President, and the American public?

2009-10, Wartime America: How has the U. S. fought wars in changing and consistent ways? How have the relationships between home-front politics and theaters of battle developed? How do wars shape society and the economy?

2010-11, Reconstruction and Reconversion: How has the United States made the transition from a war-time to a peacetime footing? What happens to the military after war’s end? How has American society met the needs of returning veterans?

Teacher Participants

Participate in three regional workshops and a one-week United States History summer institute designed specifically for teachers. All materials and lunches will be provided.Districts will be reimbursed for substitute teachers for the school-year regional workshops.

  1. Receive a stipend for successful completion of all grant requirements.This stipend can be used to purchase one or two graduate credits from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
  2. Practice using primary sources to study the impact of wartime on American society.In the first year, participants will examine documents, images, and artifacts related to the prelude to twentieth-century wars. This prelude includes justifications for committing American troops to war, from domestic and foreign-policy perspectives. Subsequent institutes will focus on the wars themselves and postwar reconversion to peacetime conditions.
  3. Learn from noted scholars discussing the impact of wartime on all segments of American society.
  4. Gain access to a Website, hosted by the University of Wisconsin—Madison, which will include primary sources from the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, the State Historical Society. Participants can use this online library to enhance their teaching of U. S. history.
  5. Strategies for integrating primary document materials into lesson/unit plans.During their participation in the program, participants will create and implement lesson/unit plan(s) to use and apply materials learned into the classroom.
  6. Receive funding for a Teacher Bookshelf of resource books/classroom materials.

All participants commit to:

  1. Actively participate in three regional one-day workshops during the 2008-2009 academic year.
  2. Actively participate in a five-day summer institute (June 2009 in Portage & Madison).
  3. Complete required readings and assignments, including online resources and online monthly discussions.
  4. Submit lesson/unit plan(s) with student work and teacher reflection.
  5. Complete pre- and post-tests, surveys, and other data collection requests as required for grant evaluation.

Recruitment/Application Brochure for Teachers from CESA 5: Application

Recruitment/Application Brochure for Teachers from CESA 2: Application

Life During Wartime Project web site:

http://us.history.wisc.edu/ldw/

Contacts for Additional Information About the Life During Wartime Project's Goals, Procedures, Timelines, and Professional Development Content

Dr. Jonathan Pollack, Project Director and Teacher Liaison

mjpollack@matcmadison.edu
(608) 246-6554

Sue Fulks, CESA 5 Curriculum and Technology

fulkss@cesa5.wi.us
(608) 742-8814, extension 229

Susan Hamblin, MMSD Instructional Resource Teacher

shamblin@madison.k12.wi.us
(608) 442-2147

Life During Wartime Faculty/Academic Staff

Jonathan Z. S. Pollack, Project Director, Life During Wartime, (608) 246-6554, jpollack@matcmadison.edu
Jonathan Z. S. Pollack received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999, and has been a full-time instructor of history at Madison Area Technical College since 1998. From 2001 to 2003, he worked on Faces of America, a National Endowment for the Humanities project that traced localhistory through family snapshots. He is co-editor of The Voice of the People: Primary Sources on the History of American labor, Industrial Relations, and Working-Class Culture (2004), and is a frequent guest on call-in programs on the Wisconsin Ideas Network of Wisconsin Public Radio, addressing the historical aspects of popular culture.

Stanley K. Schultz, Project Co-Director for Life During Wartime, skschult@facstaff.wisc.edu      
Stanley K. Schultz is an emeritus professor of history (retired 2005) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his Ph.D. in History at the University of Chicago in 1970. Schultz is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the covered Pelzer Prize (1965) of the Organization of American Historians, and runner-up for the Frederick Jackson Turner Prize (1973). He has written numerous books, the most recent being the youth book The Great Depression in 2005, and has won a National Telly Award for “Best Educational Non-Network Programming” for his cable television course “American History, Civil War to Present,” broadcast regionally by Wisconsin Public Television.

Jeremi Suri, Academic Program Director for Life During Wartime, (608) 263-1852, suri@facstaff.wisc.edu
Jeremi Suri is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a senior fellow at the University of Wisconsin Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy. He is the author of three major books on contemporary politics and foreign policy, the most recent being Henry Kissinger and the American Century in 2007, and has written articles for numerous scholarly publications and major newspapers including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Times, the Wisconsin State Journal, and Chosun Ilbo (South Korea). The History News Network has named Suri as one of the nation’s “top young historians,” and his work has received many awards.

William J. Reese, Faculty Expert
William J. Reese is Carl F. Kaestle WARF Professor of Educational Policy Studies and History, University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research and teaching interests focus on the history of American education, and his books include Hoosier Schools, Past and Present (1998), The Origins of the American High School (1995), and The Social History of American Education (1988). Professor Reese lectures on topics including, why Americans love to reform the public schools, youth culture and the American high school, and school reform and contemporary American history.

Richard Zeitlin, Director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, (608) 266-1009, richard.zeitlin@dva.state.wi.us
After graduating from Queens College, of the City University of New York, Zeitlin earned a Ph.D. in American history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and went on to teach at the UW, work for the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and become the director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum. He supervised the museum’s major re-development during 1990-1993, and has presided over the museum’s continued success since then.

William P. Tishler, Media Specialist, (608) 333-2745, wptishler@wisc.edu
Mr. Tishler has a degree in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Masters of Arts and Liberal Studies from Dartmouth College with a focus on History. He currently serves as an Outreach Media Specialist in the Division of Continuing Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.