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You
are here: Americans All:
Searching for Sponsors for a History and Civics Data Base System
Americans All is an initiative that aims to help our more than 50 million K–12 public and private school students become responsible citizens, educated consumers and productive employees in a democratic society. At a time when an understanding of the world around us has never been more important, the core subjects of history and civics, critical elements of the academic curriculum, are facing devastating cutbacks and even elimination.
This action is seriously crippling our nation's education efforts and we must take steps to encourage students to stay in school until graduation and to make classroom instruction relevant to their lives. To do this, a workable solution-- Americans All-- is needed. Its success lies in a three-party model that involves the People of America Foundation, state education systems and socially responsible corporations.
In this model, the Foundation will serve as the national operating entity. It will gather, organize, distribute and maintain electronic databases that support how individual states teach and test history and civics at various grade levels. These inclusive databases will comprise the complete political, social and cultural history of the nation, organized by state and grade level. The Foundation will also create universal databases to support the state databases; this will help avoid duplication and provide consistency in generic content areas of U.S. history and civics. All collected information will appear on interlinked Web sites, and each state will determine what data will appear in print format for their classrooms.
The relationship between the Foundation and state education systems has been established, and the Foundation's Strategic Partners are on board. The Foundation now needs an individual or an organization to introduce Americans All to socially responsible corporations. The initiative is a unique, win-win venture for all concerned. Americans All fulfills its mission to become the nation's leading repository of unbiased and inclusive information on the economic, social and political contributions of the diverse groups comprising the nation. The Foundation community gains a program model and database infrastructure that is scalable and can later be applied to other related subject areas, such as geography, economics, art, music, literature and world history.
State education systems will receive, at no cost, in addition to the Americans All National Education Program resources, the newly created state-specific information in both print and electronic formats. The Foundation's 153 linked state-specific databases and multiple universal databases will not contain advertising or pop-up messages. They will also be "closed," meaning that students cannot navigate to outside sites without shutting down their browsers. The content of the print materials and state-specific databases will fully support all state standards and curriculum frameworks. Moreover, that content, while designed to enable state testing in history and civics, will also support the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) as well as provide many of the resources needed for students receiving special education services.
Schools and local government jurisdictions meeting the minimum participation requirements will receive their own Web sites, which will be linked to the Foundation's network structure. These sites can be used to create or expand parent-oriented communication networks. They will closely link parents and students, within one domain, to listings of school activities, teacher lesson plans, school and student performance data, and homework assignments and resources to complete those assignments.
Sponsors will achieve visibility on Web sites that will reach an estimated 1 billion users per year, in a biweekly newspaper, on cable television programs, and at regional and national conferences. They will also be recognized for supporting more than 160 million pieces of printed, state-specific resource materials used regularly by students and teachers. Sponsors' ability to target and reach a new and diverse audience of unprecedented size and scope is critical.
Although not directly involved in the partnership, the federal government and all state governments will receive substantial benefit from the implementation of Americans All. The Foundation's willingness to ensure that the program's resources will also support the goals of NCLB will improve school performance and enable limited education funds to be reallocated for other education-related purposes. In addition, keeping students in school until graduation can significantly reduce the economic loss from underutilized human capital. During their lifetime, each year's group of high school dropouts will earn $260 billion less than an equivalent number of high school graduates. This translates into $78 billion in taxes that will be lost from this group.
Allan S. Kullen, businessman and entrepreneur, coordinated the development and organization of the People of America Foundation that runs the Americans All® program. As the program's national co-director, he compiled The Peopling of America: A Timeline of Events That Helped Shape Our Nation and was responsible for the research component that led to the program's poster and photograph collections. Mr. Kullen served as executive editor of the New American Encyclopedia, production manager for the International Library of Negro Life and History, now called the International Library of Afro-American Life and History. He has taught in the adult education program at The Catholic University of America. A charter member and major funder of The Coordinating Committee for Ellis Island, Inc which created the Americans All® program, he has also served on many local boards in the Washington, D. C., area. Email Allan Kullen at allantapco@aol.com.
More specific information on this initiative is available on the People of America Foundation's Web site at http://www.americansall.com.
©July 2006 New Horizons for Learning
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