Metro State’s highly successful Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) has received an additional grant of $732,000 from the Library of Congress.

The grant is split between TPS’s regional program and its Colorado program.

The regional program received $400,000 to continue coordinating and directing programs in the 14 states that constitute the Western Region. The Colorado arm of TPS was refunded for another year with a grant of $332,000.

“The grant to the regional program means that we’re moving toward making it a permanent part of the Library of Congress,” says TPS Director Peggy O’Neill-Jones.

The $400,000 represents a $115,000 increase over last year’s funding, which O’Neill-Jones says will support expanded activities in additional states of the Western Region. When Metro State’s program was selected to become a pilot regional program in June of 2007, it covered seven states in the Mountain/Plains Region.

This summer, O’Neill-Jones has been to Arizona, Utah and Alaska helping them start statewide TPS programs or working with them to integrate TPS into existing initiatives.

“Working with primary sources from the Library of Congress can transform education,” says O’Neill-Jones. “The power of primary sources is they don’t answer questions, instead they generate questions. Students wonder about the topic and begin their own investigation. They are learning because they want to know.”