History Grant Puts Teachers in the Research Seats

For a fifth straight year, a history education project headed up by the Urbana school district is getting a million-dollar federal grant.

The American History Teachers Collaborative is aimed at giving teachers the research time and resources they need to paint a more realistic and gripping picture of history in their classrooms.

The group's coordinator, Kathy Barbour, says when teachers conduct their own research, they can teach their students about national history through a local lens.

"For the teachers to be able to bring newspaper articles or photographs or documents or letters from right here in central Illinois and bring those to their classrooms, it's a very powerful thing for the students to be able to see that history happens here and we're tied to the bigger picture," Barbour said.

For instance, Barber says teachers have found articles and other documents about events in Champaign County that illustrate the national civil rights movement. She says the money helps fund workshops for teachers in seven area districts as well as research trips to museums.