The American History and Civics Academies Program (Academies Program) supports the establishment of:
- Presidential Academies for the Teaching of American History and Civics that offer workshops for both veteran and new teachers to strengthen their knowledge of American history and civics (Presidential Academies); and
- Congressional Academies for Students of American History and Civics that provide high school students with opportunities to develop a broader and deeper understanding of these subjects (Congressional Academies).
The Academies Program supports projects to raise student achievement in American history and civics by improving teachers' and students' knowledge, understanding, and engagement with these subjects through intensive workshops with scholars, master teachers, and curriculum experts. Project activities should reflect the best available research and practice in teaching and learning.
Offering a wide array of perspectives in teaching and learning American history and civics is essential to acknowledging students' rich and diverse perspectives and experiences, and to stimulating their long-term interest in these subjects. Accordingly, projects funded under this grant program might consider incorporating diverse historical perspectives and relying on an array of resources (e.g., historical documents, oral histories, and artifacts) that convey the full range of American experiences.
The Department encourages applicants to consider projects that will focus on serving high-need students and students from underserved populations to help ensure that these students have access to high-quality, interactive instruction that will help them become college- and career-ready and be better prepared to participate fully in civic activities.
Applicants may also want to consider projects that are designed to recruit teachers and students from the same schools and school districts in order to promote a seamless delivery of training and instruction into a target district and maximize project benefits. Grantees will be expected to measure the impact of their projects on teacher development and student learning. Early findings from grantee evaluations are expected to help guide the grantee's subsequent teacher professional development and student learning efforts over the three-year project period.
This program contains two absolute priorities and two competitive preference priorities.