HUNTERDON CENTRAL REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT

In late April, fourteen HCRHS students and teachers, Lindsay Warren, Derek Khoudja, and Ryan Herbst visited
the Czech Republic and Poland. The HCRHS contingent stayed with counterparts from Lyceum V, Krakow
Poland. Upon their return to the US, HCRHS staff and students presented their reflections on their trip at the
Flemington Jewish Community Center. Videos, blogs, photos, and journals have been compiled for a
commemorative webpage on the Social Studies Department site.
Teaching American History Grant Application
The Teaching American History Grant program is a discretionary grant program funded under Title II-C,
Subpart 4 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The goal of the program is to support programs that
raise student achievement by improving teachers' knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of American
History. The program supports competitive grants to local educational agencies. The purpose of these grants is
to promote the teaching of traditional American History in elementary and secondary schools, as a separate
academic subject. Grants are used to improve the quality of history instruction by supporting professional
development for teachers of American History. In March, the Social Studies Department collaborated to submit
a 2011 Teaching American History Grant Application to the US Department of Education. If awarded, the grant
will be for $1,000,000. Funding for the grant is currently pending authorization by the US Congress. HCRHS
serves as the lead and organizing district of the Skylands Consortium for the Teaching of American History
(SCTAH). The consortium member districts are Elizabeth, Chatham, Watchung Hills Regional, North
Hunterdon-Voorhees Regional, Bernards Township, Bridgewater-Raritan, Warren Hills, Flemington-Raritan,
Readington Township, Delaware Township, and East Amwell Township. SCTAH has partnered with Rutgers
University, Columbia University Teachers College, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the
Foundation for Teaching Economics and local history centers including the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans
Memorial to propose a dynamic three-year (300 hour) professional development program. The specific project
goals of SCTAH are to increase teacher content knowledge of American History; recruit and retain program
participants; improve teaching practices; increase student content knowledge of American History; and increase
student appreciation of American History. SCTAH has enlisted the services of Dr. Paul Clemens of Rutgers
University to serve as project historian and Dr. William Gaudelli of Columbia University Teachers College who
will serve as the project’s pedagogical advisor. If SCTAH is not awarded a TAH grant this year due to budget
constraints, the application will be resubmitted in the 2012 competition.
Curriculum Mapping and Alignment with State and Voluntary National Standards
In 2010-2011, the Social Studies Department began revising and updating its required curricular offerings
pursuant to the HCRHS Vision and Goals, as well as the 2009 NJCCCSSS. In April, the department began an
investigation into Rubicon Atlas curriculum mapping software. Rubicon Atlas is a platform for writing online
curriculum units in Understanding by Design (UbD) format. Further, Atlas aligns the curriculum units with the
NJCCCSSS, the Common Core, and voluntary national standards. In May, department members attended a
professional development conference at Watchung Hills High School on curriculum mapping and the use of
Rubicon Atlas software. In June, the department voted unanimously to pilot Rubicon Atlas. The department will
utilize Atlas throughout 2011-12 to revise its required US History and Comparative World Studies curricula in
UbD format according to the NJCCCSSS.
Staff Development
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