This five-unit, multimedia, web-based curriculum is available free to high-school social studies, U.S. history, and music teachers, to help students explore jazz as an indigenous American art form that also provides a means to understand American history.

The curriculum was created by the joint efforts of The National Endowment for the Arts and Jazz at Lincoln Center, a not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to enriching the artistic substance and perpetuating the democratic spirit of the music, and supported by a $100,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation.

In January 2006 it was released to 2,000 high-school teachers nationwide. The program intends to provide high-school students with meaningful connections to the arts, offering an opportunity to experience American history through the alternative, multimedia lens of music and web-based technology.

The five units included in the kit are created for optimum flexibility, expanding into a comprehensive series of lessons or providing concise, one or two-day lesson plans. Each unit includes a short introductory video, a lesson essay, links to a wealth or multimedia resources, a teacher's guide with tips, cross-curricular activities, and assessment methods.

This interdisciplinary approach accesses and satisfies the lesson objectives and national curriculum standards in the five subject areas of U.S. history, social studies, arts education/music, civics and government, and geography. With jazz serving as the instigator and mediator, students are provided with an engaging insight (perspective on) into our culturally rich American history.

Go to the official NEA Jazz in Schools website for complete information.