An important objective of the History Academy for Ohio Teachers was to shift the participating teachers' beliefs and orientation to history. Through the examination of the portfolios and interviews, the study looked at the changes from the participants' perspective. A subset of 12 teachers were selected from the Academy's participants and were interviewed during portfolio conferences at the end of the 4-week summer session, and a second interview was held between February and April of the next year. Emerging patterns were discussed, and a coding system was developed and revised. The results indicated that overall the Academy appeared to achieve its purpose of creating a momentum for history education and affected changes in teachers' views of themselves, their knowledge, and their practice. The Academy successfully customized its approach to meet the diverse backgrounds, needs, assumptions, and individual differences of the participants. The findings suggested that the portfolio evaluation produced more trustworthy and richer data than traditional means of assessment and that the Academy was successful in its attempt to change participants' perspectives about the discipline of history and about themselves as teachers. Appendix A provides a summary of key terms and elements, and appendix B describes a sample case study of a participant. (CK)