Even before becoming victims of Hurricane Katrina, the school system's students faced enormous poverty. For the school year 2003-04, 13.7% of families were living below the poverty line, as well as 20% of children. Standardized test scores for grades 4, 8, and 12 are below state averages. Although all high school teachers have a state social studies certification, most of them did not major in history. The project will significantly improve teacher knowledge of traditional American history, which will result in measurable improvements in student achievement. Teachers will design traditional, though innovative, American history curricula and lesson-units that will provide students with a substantive historical continuum, not a series of disconnected events, interspersed throughout a social studies curriculum.