Arlington public schools has been awarded a $999,990 three-year grant from the US Department of Education as part of the Teaching American History Grants Program, which funds intensive professional development for teachers in American history, a core academic subject.

A news release from Superintendent Kathleen Bodie says the award will support teacher preparation to allow teachers to deepen their students’ understanding of the documents that established the framework for the United States and how that very framework affected key turning points, individuals, and events of our nation’s history.

As a result, teachers will be able to impart a greater understanding of how the principles of liberty and democratic government expressed in our founding documents have shaped America’s social, political, and legal institutions. Arlington’s application was one of three Massachusetts districts chosen, with 124 awards given nationwide out of more than 500 applicants.

In response to learning of this grant, Bodie said, "We are very pleased to receive this award, which will provide rich professional development for our teachers in support of students learning about American history through historical documents. Given Arlington/Menotomy’s role in the events that shaped the birth of our nation, it is a special honor to be chosen to receive this grant.

"The Teaching American History grant provides an exciting opportunity to make a long term commitment to improving historical education in Arlington and our six partner districts,” said Kerry Dunne, director of social studies K-12.

Arlington was awarded this grant as the leader of a partnership of other local school districts (Acton-Boxborough, Ashland, Cambridge, Winchester, Boston College High School, and Excel Academy Charter School).

Teachers in these seven districts will have the opportunity to attend two-week, full-time summer graduate courses offered by Framingham State University in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

Additionally, teachers will be able to participate in eighteen hours of in-district content-specific training during the school year offered in conjunction with local and regional historical organizations including:  the Commonwealth Museum, the Peabody-Essex Museum, the Cambridge and Arlington historical societies, the John F. Kennedy Museum and Library, the Lowell Mills, and the Paul Revere House.

The grant will fund the purchase of teaching resources, from Gilder Lehrman’s collection of primary source and rare document curriculum kits, Teachers’ Curriculum Institute’s History Alive! program, and WebLessons’ online learning tools.