Project Summary

School districts in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York along with the Southeastern Massachusetts Teaching American History Consortium, contracted individually with The Education Alliance to conduct evaluations of their Teaching American History programs.

Data collection activities included the development of assessment tools to measure quality of instructional practice and associated student achievement indicators, surveys, focus groups, professional development provider interviews, collections of classroom artifacts, student achievement data assessments, and teacher assessments. Evaluation questions measured teachers' perceptions of what they learned through the program; teachers' demonstration of increased knowledge on competency assessments; effectiveness of professional development activities; participating student achievement; and how increased content knowledge is reflected in classroom practices.