Orangeburg Consolidated School District 5 will receive close to $1 million to improve its American history instruction.

The district will receive more than $980,000 over several years through the federal Teaching American History Grants program, U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint announced Tuesday.

"Improving student achievement is paramount and a grant of this magnitude will definitely serve as a catalyst in providing quality instruction for the children of the district," OCSD 5 spokesman Greg Carson said.

The program is designed to raise student achievement by improving teachers' knowledge of traditional U.S. history, according to the U.S. Department of Education's Web site. Teachers of grades 3-5, 8 and 11 throughout the district will benefit from the grant.

The grant will give teachers the opportunity to participate in workshops, field experiences, conferences and courses, Carson said. It will also allow the district to purchase history books, biographies and other teaching materials.

The district will also hire a project director and lead history teacher to administer the program.

"If you provide professional development and make teachers more knowledgeable about how to provide instruction, that has a trickle-down effect," Carson said. "It causes students to be able to ingest this instruction because you come up through the professional development with strategies to teach each individual student."

Partners in the grant include South Carolina State University, the S.C. Department of Archives and History, the S.C. Council for African American Studies and the Gilder Lehrman Institute.

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