Education and Social Science Faculty Receive Grant to Teach Reading in Civics, Economics, Geography and History
A team of faculty led by Social Science Professor Matthew Downey received $160,000 in funding from the Colorado Department of Higher Education. The 2007-08 No Child Left Behind Grant will support the first year of the group's project, "Reading in the Social Studies Project: Teaching Reading in Civics, Economics, Geography and History." The project was one of seven across the state selected for funding by CDHE. It will create a partnership with elementary schools in Denver Public Schools to teach reading in the core social studies disciplines in grades 3-5. DPS and UNC content specialists will collaborate to review DPS social studies curriculum for how adequately it includes civics, economics, geography and history. The group will also identify and select grade appropriate reading material for the subjects. Instruction on content-area reading will be provided for teachers from 13 DPS pilot schools. Downey coordinates the Social Science major at UNC, directs the Interdisciplinary Studies Liberal Arts major and is also director of the William E. Hewit Institute for History and Social Science Education. Downey, the lead principal investigator, is joined on the project by co-principal investigators Robert Brunswig, director of the School of Social Sciences, and Alexander Sidorkin, director of the School for Teacher Education. Other UNC faculty involved include Christiane Olivo, assistant professor of Political Science and director of the Center for Civic Education; David Aske, associate professor of Economics and director of the Center for Economics Education; Phil Klein, associate professor of Geography and co-coordinator of the Colorado Geographic Alliance; Jim Erekson, assistant professor of Teacher Education; and Susan Thompson, coordinator, Early Childhood Education.