Southeastern Colorado American History Project:
Preparing Teachers as Historians and
Instructors of American History

The Southeastern Colorado American History Project (SECAHP), a collaborative professional development project administered through Pueblo’s District 70 as Lead Educational Agency, brings together elementary and secondary educators from a wide variety of school districts covering southeastern Colorado with Colorado State University-Pueblo and a network of regional historical agencies and foundations. Teams of K-12 teachers will be provided with these opportunities through the project:

• Participate in summer academies and immersion activities designed to increase content knowledge in traditional American history.

• Engage in school-based joint efforts to develop history curricula.

• Form professional networks for interaction among all history teachers.

• Help disseminate curricula that will improve student achievement, focusing on students in high-poverty schools.

The project emphasizes ongoing, embedded assessment to drive the design of all activities. Content study emphasizes the “first principles” of the American experience, as laid out in founding documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

Summer Academies will focus on these content areas:

• Wars that Changed America

• America: the Economic Engine of the World: Commercial and Industrial History from Colonial Mercantilism to Modern Capitalism

• History of the American West.

SECAHP will also promote and support National History Day activities and a Spring History Conference, featuring opportunities for K-12 educators to share history-related curriculum activities and to hear regionally and nationally recognized keynote speakers.

For information on how to participate in SECAHP activities, please contact the Project Coordinator:

Wm. Scott Whited
(719) 369-3026
w.s.whited@colostate-pueblo.edu