Since the inception of the National Humanities Center's Teacher Professional Development Program, independent evaluators have tracked its progress and assessed its effectiveness. Through a variety of implementations their findings have remained uniform. They have documented that the Program achieves three major goals:

• it deepens teachers' content knowledge in American history and literature;
• it strengthens lesson plans through the addition of primary documents;
• and it improves classroom instruction by promoting active, seminar-style teaching.

Two major studies attest to the Program's effectiveness.

In 2004 evaluators from the Southeastern Regional Vision for Education (SERVE), a federally funded educational support laboratory,

	"The strength [of the seminar experience] is the combination of the development of our historical knowledge and the emphasis on pedagogy, as well. I have learned so much about historical content in the seminar, but I have also gone away with some practical new ways to implement that content knowledge." —Seminar participant, 2004

assessed a seminar organized by the Roanoke Rapids (NC) Graded School District under a Teaching American History grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The project consisted of several components but at its heart was a seminar on the Federalist period, constructed by the teachers and scholars in the project from "Living the Revolution, America: 1789-1820," a selection from the National Humanities Center's library of seminar toolboxes. In the spring of 2003 the Center trained the participants in seminar development and throughout the project consulted on implementation issues. The seminar itself took place in the summer of 2003. The following fall, before the teachers taught the Federalist period, SERVE evaluators conducted interviews with the participants to document lesson content, teaching practice, assessment techniques, and student engagement. In the spring of 2004, after the teachers taught the Federalist period, SERVE conducted interviews to assess the seminar's impact in these areas. The results are summarized below.

• 100% of the teachers reported an increase in content knowledge of the Federalist period.
• 100% used material from the NHC toolbox.
• For 58% the toolbox material was new to their courses.

• 75% increased their use of in-class discussion.
• 58% increased the number of reading assignments for students.
• 50% provided students more background information about learning goals.
• 33% added classroom reading resources.
• 20.5% more teachers provided students with formative feedback on performance.
• 16% increased the amount of in-class student writing.
• 16% adopted a common themes or essential questions to organize learning goals.

• 67.5% more teachers used essay questions on summative tests.
• 40% gave tests that consisted of all open-ended or constructed response questions.
• 20% used projects and summative tests as the culminating assessment for the unit.

• 75% reported enhanced levels of student engagement due to the use of primary sources, increased seminar teaching, and the introduction of multiple perspectives, especially those of the enslaved and women, to the Federalist lesson.

In 2004 Dr. William E. Bickel, professor of administrative and policy studies at the University of

"The addition of visual and auditory resources has provided depth to my teaching. . . . I have used some of the reading selections and artwork with my students. . . . [T]he students can relate to them on many different levels, even the low-ability students." —Seminar participant, 2004

Pittsburgh's School of Education and a senior scientist at the University's Learning Research and Development Center, directed the evaluation of a professional development seminar that took place at the University of North Carolina at Asheville in the summer of that year. The teachers and scholars in the program built the seminar from "The Making of African American Identity: Volume II, 1865-1917," a National Humanities Center toolbox. As in the Roanoke Rapids project, the Center trained the participants in seminar development and provided advice on structural matters. Dr. Bickel and his associate issued a report in 2005 in which they offered the following conclusion.

[T]he data indicate that the teachers rated highly the overall impact of the seminar experience. Teachers gave the implementation high marks for the professionalism and intellectual stimulation provided by the sessions, the quality of materials used, and the richness of the discussions among teachers and between teachers and the consulting scholars. Teachers reported growth in their understanding of the topic and in their knowledge of specific resources in the topic area. Their use of student-centered techniques in the classroom was enhanced, as was their ability to address sensitive topics and the use of the internet for resources germane to the topic. A number of teachers indicated that student engagement increased, as did their understanding of the topic. . . .

In written comments as well as in their survey data, teachers provided numerous examples of concepts, materials, and instructional strategies that would be usefully applied in their classrooms. As our report indicated, in a number of instances teachers cited how their practices are incorporating specific materials into redesigned lesson plans and courses of study that address the topic area, and how experiences of students are being enriched by both the instructional and material applications resulting from the seminar.

For those interested in discussing the effectiveness of the Center's professional development model with Dr. Bickel, he can be reached at bickel+@pitt.edu.

Both the SERVE and Bickel reports are available from the National Humanities Center upon request.