George Mason University has won a $7.5 million contract from the U.S. Department of Education to create an online clearinghouse for history educators that is expected to benefit teachers across the country, university officials announced this week.
The competitive federal contract, if fully funded, will be among the largest in the school’s history, according to Tom Scheinfeldt, assistant director of Mason’s Center for History and New Media, which will undertake the project.
He described the clearinghouse as a database for “teaching materials, best practices, lesson plans, and professional development opportunities for teachers at all levels.”
The project is meant to bridge a “content and knowledge gap” among history educators, according to Scheinfeldt.
Among the online and offline features of the project, he said researchers will produce annual reports on the state of history teaching in the United States, examine the evolution of state education standards, and study what classroom practices are and aren’t useful.
“It’s going to be a central place for teachers to go,” Scheinfeldt said.
A draft version of the clearinghouse should be ready to present to the Department of Education early next year, with a public version slated to be available in the spring.
It is a joint venture with Stanford University, which will receive about 20 percent of the total grant, the Americans Historical Association and the National History Center.
The project, however, will be fully developed over the course five years, and its success will hinge on whether the federal government extends the contract each year over that time.
The project is funded completely through those monies, though Scheinfeldt said the university will lend its own resources.
