The American History Teachers' Collaborative is a project funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Teaching American History Grant program. In September, Urbana School District #116 received its fourth three-year Teaching American History grant, which is enabling us to expand the AHTC.

The AHTC provides content-driven professional development to social studies and history teachers (grades K-12) in our area. These teachers work with The Urbana Free Library (home of the Champaign County Historical Archives), the Champaign County Forest Preserve District's Early American Museum, the Macon County Historical Society and Museum in Decatur, the Illinois State Archives, the Great Lakes Regional Center of the National Archives and Records Administration, the Chicago History Museum, the Boston Museum, the California Historical Society, and the Atlanta History Center. These partnerships with historical organizations help teachers view the broad themes of American history through the lens of local, state, and national historical documents, artifacts, and events.

The AHTC works with teachers to develop lesson plans based on primary documents as well as provides a variety of professional development activities including summer institutes, Saturday workshops, book discussion groups, and summer fellowships for teachers to work with local partner organizations.