The “Who Built America? Badges for Teaching Disciplinary Literacy in History” program, developed by the American Social History Project, uses proven professional development methods and leverages social media to build professional learning communities and promote subject expertise among grades 5–12 US History instructors.

With funding from the HASTAC Digital Media and Learning Competition, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CCT will provide formative evaluation of the program’s “inquiry units,” which are designed to help history and social studies teachers align their teaching practices to Common Core literacy standards. In addition, we will develop assessments and rubrics for the accreditation system, and will serve as assessment partner in evaluating teacher work submitted as part of the credentialing process for professional development.