HTA News, September 1986

The History Teaching Alliance has success­ fully completed its first year of operations. Special thanks are owed to six dedicated and enthusiastic local directors who proved the value of the collaborative ideal for teachers of history: Alice Mathews, Director of the Asheville History Teaching Alliance, Depart­ment of History, Western Carolina Universi­ty; *Augustus Burns, Director of the Gaines­ville History Teaching Alliance, Department of History, University of Florida; *Mary K. Bonsteel Tachau, Director of the Louisville History Teaching Alliance, Department of History, University of Louisville; Ann W. Ellis and Helen Ridley, Co-Directors of the Marietta History Teaching Alliance, Depart­ments of History and Political Science, Ken­nesaw State College; John W. Johnson, Di­rector of the Clemson History Tcaching Alli­ance, Department of History, Clemson University.

As part of the History Teaching Alliance, these directors organized year-long pro­ grams engaging teachers from the local school districts and universities in a joint study of the US Constitution. Two-week institutes were held in the summer of 1985 followed by monthly meetings throughout the school year. All participants in these five Alliance programs have been overwhelming­ ly enthusiastic in their response to the semi­nar discussions and the opportunity to work in a substantive, continuing relationship with their university and secondary school col­ leagues. Writes John Johnson on his experi­ence at Clemson, “Last October I wrote, ‘So far, this seminar has been an intellectual joy.’ Having completed the year’s work and hav­ing had a short amount of time to reflect upon the entire enterprise, I find  no reason to alter my earlier assessment.”

 

Sixteen New Alliances Beginning in 1986

Early reports have begun to come in from our 1986-87 projects’ summer institutes-we are pleased that these projects also have favorable opinions of the collaborative ideal. All of the projects have been very successful. Although several projects will be having their summer institutes later in the summer, below are just a few of the comments received in the HTA offices.

“In the twelve years I have been involved in education, I can truthfully say, this project ranks very high in programs aimed at better equipping the teacher for the substantive rigors of the classroom. In fact, this is proba­bly the best program I have seen of this nature,” said Jim Copple, Coordinator, Gar­den City Alliance.

“The Ogden Area History Teaching Alli­ance (fourteen high school social studies teachers, three school district social studies specialists, and five faculty members from Weber State College) just completed a highly successful two-week summer seminar on the Constitution. The group is now preparing for ten on-going seminars throughout the 1986-87 school year. These seminars will feature such local constitutional experts as Senator Orrin Hatch, former governor Scott Matheson, former US Solicitor General Rex Lee, and a member of the Utah Supreme Court,” said Scott Greenwell, Co-Director, Ogden Area Alliance.

“The summer seminar has provided a wel­come chance for the participating university and secondary school history teachers to sit down together and enjoy an enthusiastic dis­cussion of their fields—an opportunity rarely available in the busy schedules of all teachers whether in the university or high school,” said J. Howell Smith, Director, Winston-Sa­lem Alliance.

From over 250 inquiries and applications, the History Teaching Alliance at its Novem­ber meeting of the Oversight Committee in Washington, DC, selected sixteen new colla­boratives to begin in the academic year I986-87. Those programs and participants are:

Amherst History Teaching Alliance
Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the Hampden County Schools, Hamp­ shire County Schools, and and Franklin County Schools
Project Director: Mary Alice Wilson, Director, Five Colleges, Inc.
Project Coordinator: Robert A. Gross, Department of History, Amherst Col­lege

Charlotte History Teaching Alliance
University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
Project Director: Paul Escott, Chair, De­partment of History, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Chicago History Teaching Alliance
Loyola University of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools
Project Director: Harold L. Platt, De­partment of History, Loyola University of Chicago
Secondary School Coordinator: Dr. Al­ice Jurica, Director, Bureau of Social Studies, Chicago Public Schools

Greater Cleveland History Teaching Alliance
Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland public and parochial schools
Project Director: Michael Grossberg, Department of History, Case Western Reserve University

Detroit History Teaching Alliance
Wayne State University and the Detroit Public Schools
Project Director: Sandra VanBurkleo, Department of History, Wayne State University

Garden City History Teaching Alliance
University of Kansas, Lawrence and the Garden City Schools
Project Director: Phillip S. Paludan, De­partment of History, University of Kansas, Lawrence
Project Coordinator: James Copple, Dean of Students, Garden City High School

Kansas City History Teaching Alliance
University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City Schools, Center School District, North Kansas City Schools, Raytown and Inde­pendence, Missouri schools
Project Director: Louis W. Potts, De­partment of History, University of Mis­souri-Kansas City

Los Angeles History Teaching Alliance
California State University, Los  Angeles and the Orange and Los Angeles County Schools
Co-Directors: Donald Dewey, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, California State University, Los Angeles; Gordon Bakken, Academic Vice-President for Faculty Affairs, California State Univer­sity, Fullerton

Middletown History Teaching Alliance
Pennsylvania State University and Middle­town area schools
Project Director: Jacob L. Susskind, So­cial Science and Education, Pennsylvania State University, Capitol Campus

Missoula History Teaching Alliance
University of Montana and School District #1, Missoula County
Project Director: Harry W. Fritz, Department of History, University of Mon­tana
Secondary School Coordinator: Edward Eschler, Social Studies Coordinator, Montana Office of Public Instruction

Ogden Area History Teaching Alliance

Weber State College and the Ogden City and Davis County Schools

Co-Directors: Richard C. Roberts, Chair, Department of History, Weber State College; Scott L. Greenwell, Presi­ dent, Utah Council for the Social Studies

Omaha History Teaching Alliance
Creighton University and the Omaha Schools
Project Director: Bryan F. LeBeau, De­partment of History, Creighton Univer­sity
Secondary School Coordinator: Gary Caldwell, Supervisor of Social Studies, Omaha Public Schools

Pembroke, North Carolina History Teaching Alli­ance
Pembroke State University and the Blade County, Columbus County, Whiteville City, Hoke County, Robeson County, Fair­mont City, Lumberton City, Red Springs City, St. Pauls City, Richmond County, and Scotland County Schools
Project Director: Jerome A. McDuffie, Department of History, Pembroke State University
Secondary School Coordinators: Mary Vann Eslinger, Social Studies Consul­ tant, State Department of Public Instruc­tion; Jackie Sherrod, Social Studies Coordinator, Robeson County Schools

San Antonio History Teaching Alliance
University of Texas and the Northside Independent School District
Project Director: Steven R. Boyd, De­partment of History, University of Tex­as at San Antonio

Wausau Histo1y Teaching Alliance
University of Wisconsin Center-Marathon County and the Wausau City Schools
Project Director: James J. Lorence, De­partment of History, University of Wis­consin Center-Marathon County

Winston-Salem History Teaching Alliance
Wake Forest University and the Forsyth County Schools
Project Director: J. Howell Smith, De­partment of History, Wake Forest Uni­versity

In Gratitude to Our Supporters . . .

Generous grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Exxon Education Foun­dation support the work of the national Alli­ance office. In addition, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation made possible the full support of all five Alliance projects in 1985-86 and the disbursal of seed-money grants to new projects beginning in 1986. Funds awarded to the Alliance projects are used to pay a project director, cooperating faculty and teacher-participant stipends, as well as honoraria for local speakers.

Adequate funding for the 1986-87 pro­jects would have been impossible to achieve without the support provided by local corpo­rate and foundation funders. We welcome this opportunity to thank the following indi­vidual and organizations for their contribu­tions to history education:

The Atlantic Richfield Corporation
Duke Power Company
The Joyce Foundation
The Cleveland Foundation
Time, Inc.
*Mr. Arthur Schultz, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Arts Institute of Chicago
The Brown Foundation
The Martha Stevens Piper Foundation
The Kempner Foundation
Gannett Corporation
Florida Endowment for the Humanities
Wisconsin Humanities Committee
University of Missouri, Kansas City
Truman Library

*Panelists for the History Teaching Alliance session at the 1986 AHA Annual Meeting.