In April 2011, Congress slashed funding for a majority of programs tied to education. Several programs related to professional development for teachers did not survive. While cut severely--from $119 million in Fiscal Year 2010 to $46 million (a loss of $73 million or 61% of its funding)--Teaching American History (TAH) grants lived, albeit by…

Through his long career, Gary Nash has been a pioneer in opening the often-stuffy chambers of academia. He has shown a devotion to K-12 teachers throughout the nation and has ventured into their classrooms to observe, to teach, and, yes, to learn. It is all too rare for a noted historian, famous for his many seminal works, to roll up his sleeves…

In this article, the author recalls the time she met Gary Nash at UCLA on July 13, 1992, when they began the work of creating the National Standards in History. Professor Nash was the leader in the development of the United States History Standards. In creating the Standards, they were to focus on Historical Thinking. They needed to organize the…

In this article, the author looks back at the time Charlotte Crabtree, longtime Professor of Education at UCLA with a special interest in elementary history-social studies curriculum, asked him to join her in applying for a million dollar grant to be awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), chaired by Lynne Cheney. Crabtree had…

There is a long history in the United States of collaboration between the academy and K-12 educators. Indeed, history, as an academic discipline in America, began in an atmosphere of professorial concern about history's place in the schools. In this article, the author provides a brief and general overview of the history of collaborative efforts…

Both the Organization of American Historians (OAH) and The American Historical Association (AHA) have engaged in the debate about reform and improvement of pre-collegiate history education, which has been a hot political issue at least since the 1983 publication of "A Nation at Risk." Both the OAH and the AHA support initiatives that promote the…

Explores the interconnection between academic historians and the schools. Discusses the efforts of the Teaching Division of the American Historical Association, the barriers between academics and working teachers, and two recommendations to achieve progress in this area (collaborative professional development and addressing educational issues of…