Preparing teachers in African American history: a major focus this year

by Clarisse Mesa

Good professional development for teachers is vital to the success of the School District's new mandated high school course in African American history.

“We have numerous teachers whose educational experience didn't include African American history as preparation for teaching history and social studies,” stated Nancy Hopkins-Evans, the School District's high school curriculum specialist, explaining the thinking behind the District's professional development strategy.

“Deep content knowledge is critical because for some ...this is really a first opportunity for them at an academic level,” she added.

This year's twice-monthly, District-sponsored professional development sessions focus on developing teachers' content knowledge about African American history.

“Trainers are experts in the field. They are some of the best we can get, and the teachers are responding magnificently,” added Melvin Garrison, an American history specialist in the District's Office of Curriculum and Instruction.

On a recent Saturday morning at the District's central office, 25 teachers congregated for a morning session. The District-sponsored sessions are voluntary, but teachers here are regulars. The group was diverse – some veterans, some new teachers, male and female, 14 of whom were African American, most of whom taught history or social studies.

As one African American teacher stated, “The big turnout has shown us that teachers have wanted this course all along.”

The District mandated African American history this year, meaning that from the class of 2009 on, all students must take the course to graduate. All schools were required to offer one section of the course, and many chose to offer more. Interest in the course is high, and the District has been proactive about providing support.

The School District started providing professional development for the course in the spring and summer, and voluntary Saturday sessions will continue through the year. As increasing numbers of students and teachers will be involved in the course, professional development will be expanded next year.

Each session this fall has focused on a topic in the curriculum that teachers should be covering at the time. Teachers have a District-created core curriculum that aligns with the new African American history textbook (see our review). There also is a resource CD, though many teachers said that they had not had time to look at it or had not received it. Information on additional workshops was distributed to the teachers, and all of the materials from the sessions were offered to teachers upon request.

Dr. Greg Carr, a professor of Afro-American studies at Howard University, is a frequent presenter at these sessions. His two-and-a-half hour professional development session ran like a well-organized college lecture. He briefly referred to the core curriculum and the textbook, but his emphasis was on extending and applying the topic to build teacher knowledge.