Less than 25 percent of America's twelfth-graders are proficient in American history. One reason: educators' knowledge of the nation's history is lacking. On Long Island, on average, high school history teachers have taken relatively few American history courses.

They are part of a $1 million teaching initiative through Nassau BOCES and the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. This effort will help educators in 13 school districts - including Farmingdale, Glen Cove, Hempstead, Jericho, Lawrence, Long Beach, Mineola, Oceanside, Oyster Bay-East Norwich, Roosevelt, Sewanhaka, Uniondale and Westbury - to improve American history instruction.

Over the next three years the Teaching American History Grant Program, funded by a $999,999 grant from the U.S. Department of Education, will bring nationally renowned historians to Long Island and provide professional development workshops for local teachers.

"This grant has the potential to significantly impact 45,000 students in Nassau County," said Nassau BOCES District Superintendent Dr. James D. Mapes. "The program provides a wonderful opportunity for teachers to dialogue with national historians, a vital experience that will be brought back to the classroom."

Fred Podolski, executive director of the Nassau BOCES Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Technology, added, "The American History Grant enables us to provide professional development that will help teachers to integrate technology and online content into their lessons. We're particularly excited about the positive impact on students from special populations, such as English language learners." He further noted, "We look forward to the next three years of successful collaboration."

The official announcement of the grant was made at historic Sagamore Hill, President Theodore Roosevelt's Long Island home, dubbed the "Summer White House" during his presidency. The former president was on hand to celebrate the event, in the form of Theodore Roosevelt impersonator James Foote. "A nation's possibility of achieving greatness lies in the present as well as the past," Foote offered to the audience of educators. "Your destiny lies before you."

"The story of the world is the story of ourselves," reflected Dr. Jeffery Kane, Long Island University vice president for academic affairs. "We're embarking on a great adventure together and the students will be the ones who will reap the benefits."

"The study of history is much more than the memorization of facts," Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad, assistant professor of education at C. W. Post, added. "The purpose of teaching history is to create well-informed decision makers who will grow into productive citizens."

(A note on sources: The statistic on the percentage of twelfth-graders proficient in American History is from The Christian Science Monitor, October 2006; the statistic on teachers' American history educational background is from a survey by Nassau BOCES.)