Long Range Plan

In December of 2004, the NCHE Board of Trustees met at Princeton University for two days of intense planning. During their retreat, the Trustees developed a Long Range Plan to help guide the Council's policies for the next five years.

The Plan identifies Goals and Objectives the Board feels are most important for the organization to achieve. The Goals are organized under three categories:

I. TEACHER EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Improving the formal education and professional development of K-12 history teachers from their early college years and through their careers from new to veteran teachers.

GOAL: By 2010, the NCHE will have become a national leader in pre-service history teacher education.

Objectives:
1. To hold a national conference on university preparation of aspiring teachers.
2. To publish and disseminate the conference findings and position papers on needed reforms.
3. To establish a model program with a chosen university and to identify other models.
GOAL: By 2010, the NCHE will enhance its position as a national leader in the professional development of history teachers.

Objectives:
1. To work from a tentative 5-year plan to set each of the Council's national conferences.
2. To recruit diverse attendees, including under-represented groups from the region in which the national conference is held.
3. To ensure that our national conferences are self-sustaining.
4. To move toward conference presentations that are more equally divided between U. S. History and World History.
5. To seek funding for professional development focused on World History.
6. To increase the number of our colloquia and academies on World History, funded if necessary by NCHE.
7. To identify and promote well-selected and effective curricular material in World History.
8. To identify and promote high quality material for teaching history in the elementary grades.
II. ADVOCACY: Raising the power and effectiveness of our advocacy programs, consonant with the Council's original mission.

GOAL: By 2010, NCHE will have raised awareness of its activities and the importance of history education to a new level, nation-wide.

Objectives:
1. To decide on the particular ways that state-level councils could best contribute to extended advocay.
2. To present NCHE as more closely identified with teaching World History, and strengthening its role in the curriculum.
3. To collaborate with existing World History organizations to design and staff projects.
4. To publicize NCHE's mission and works to the general public through such venues as parenting magazines. PTA and school board publications, press and television treatment of school issues.
5. To mobilize public support for the "Crisis in History" statement and its advocacy of more serious history instruction, especially in the elementary and middle schools.
6. To expand NCHE's watchdog role with respect to the evaluation of state standards, testing, curricular frameworks, and teacher preparation in the field of history, in cooperation with governmental and non-profit organizations.
III. ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Raising the capacity of our organizations, in the home office and across the nation, for new or expanded work.

GOAL: By 20l0, the NCHE will have enhanced and effective organizations at the center and across the country.
Objectives:
1. To ensure that every state has its own strong state Council for History Education.
2. To ensure that the national office is well-organized by creative and flexible staffing to meet goals and objectives established by the Board of Trustees.
3. To select Board members with strong, active commitment to history education and are diverse enough to represent the mission and members of the NCHE and to carry out its objectives.
4. To attract new Council members by being the organization of choice for advocates of history education at all levels of society.
5. To craft systematic fundraising to support the objectives and projects set as priorities by the Board and Executive Director.