Approve Agreement for Technical Services with Teachers Curriculum Institute (TCI) to Present Three High-Quality Civics Training Sessions - $9,900 (Curriculum and Instruction Division)

We request approval of the Agreement for Technical Services with Teachers Curriculum Institute (TCI) to deliver three 7-hour workshops, "The Constitution in a New Nation." The workshops will be presented to ninety middle and high school social studies teachers and are designed to improve teachers’ civics content, knowledge, student engagement relative to government and civics, and to connect government to the everyday lives of high school students. TCI will conduct the workshops at Freedom High School and provide the trainer and materials for each session.

TCI empowers educators across the nation to teach social studies with a passion to bring learning alive to all learners. Committed to setting a new standard for excellence in social studies teaching, TCI has based their innovative social studies materials and training programs on the powerful TCI Approach, which is a set of proven teaching strategies and practices that bring history to life, and achieves consistent, positive classroom results, while still being mindful of educational standards.

Goal 1 - The percentage of students scoring at Level 3 or higher on FCAT reading will increase a minimum of five percentage points.

Funds of $9,900 are available in the Project Education Learns to Engage in Civics Today (ELECT), Project 1425.

Evaluation will be conducted in December 2008 by the Hillsborough County Public Schools Office of Assessment and Evaluation. Teachers and students will be administered the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for Civics to determine the effectiveness of this training. Student performance on district government exams will be used to assess student performance as well.