William Paterson University to Collaborate with Three Partners to Bring Local History into the Curriculum of Bergen County Schools

William Paterson University has been named a partner in a three-year project funded by a $1 million grant from the U. S. Department of Education designed to enhance the American history curriculum in primary and secondary schools in Bergen County.

The Department of History will work with the Bergen County Technical School District, the lead agency, to benefit both teachers and students. Partners in the project include the Bergen County Historical Society, the New Jersey Historical Society, and the American Labor Museum/Botto House. The University’s role will be to provide teachers with content resources, professional development, technological assistance and practicum students.

"OurStory: A Place Based Approach to the Teaching of Traditional American History," will serve 172 teachers, five high schools (Garfield High School, Dwight Morrow High School, Academies @ Englewood, Bergen County Academies and the Bergen County Technical High School at Teterboro) and more than 8,000 students.

"The University will assist teachers in the participating districts to draw upon local historical sources and infuse them into the American history curriculum in the five high schools," said Terence Finnegan, associate professor of history, and chair of the department. "We will assist teachers in finding information, identifying a format for dissemination of the material, editing documents and cataloging artifacts."

Additionally, the university will sponsor two one-week summer institutes for teachers next summer. "During the summer program we will be going deeper into the information, to help conceptualize documents in the historical institutions, and how they can use those documents to illustrate trends," Finnegan said. Two graduate students and several professors are expected to participate in the project.

"We hope to build on History Day," Finnegan said, referring to a successful project sponsored by the University for many years which annually brings hundreds of middle and high school students to the campus for a competition that is part of a national program. "This project will help us build on our strengths, and serve as a catalyst so that we can do even more with the secondary schools and later with the primary schools. Our own students will benefit by having an opportunity to work directly with experienced teachers and see how to utilize new information and incorporate that into an existing curriculum."

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12/02/02
For Further Information, contact:

Mary Beth Zeman, Director, Public Relations 973-720-2966