The AHA has sent a letter to the Texas Senate Committee on Education K–16 objecting to provisions in the engrossed version of House Bill 4 that “would eliminate existing requirements for state assessments in both US history and social studies, removing any incentive for schools and districts to invest in these foundational subjects.” “All students deserve the right to learn history; all communities benefit from historically literate citizens,” the letter states. “The educational consequences of eliminating the end-of-course assessment in US history would not end with high school graduation.”
May 21, 2025
Texas Senate Committee on Education K-16
Austin, TX
Dear Committee Members,
The American Historical Association objects to provisions in the engrossed version of House Bill 4 that would eliminate existing requirements for state assessments in both US history and social studies, removing any incentive for schools and districts to invest in these foundational subjects. This change threatens to rob future generations of Texans of an adequate understanding of our nation’s past. Our students deserve better.
The AHA welcomes efforts to refine and improve systems for public school accountability. We also applaud the bill’s pursuit of “an instructionally supportive assessment program” designed “to benefit the students of this state.”
But this version of HB4 would relegate history to the periphery of the public school curriculum. Under current law, State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) measure individual student performance in core subjects. Existing STAAR requirements in social studies (grade 8) and US history (typically grade 11) encourage school districts to prioritize instruction in these subjects. Deleting these requirements will reward schools for shifting scarce funding, resources, and class time to other core subjects.
Optional assessments, as provided for in HB4, are unlikely to provide any clear educational benefit. The AHA’s comprehensive American Lesson Plan: Teaching US History in Secondary Schools provides ample empirical evidence for the significance of assessment to history education in Texas and across the country. In states with standardized tests, what is assessed is far likelier to be taught. As long as Texas relies on test scores for school accountability and as a criterion for high school graduation, downgrading history and social studies from the core set of required assessments will hamper student learning in these subjects.
All students deserve the right to learn history; all communities benefit from historically literate citizens. Texas must continue to assess and evaluate students in these subjects if they are to remain integral to public education across the state. Evidence shows that keeping history on the list of subjects to be tested increases attention to and improves teaching in it, while removing history from assessment reduces class hours spent on teaching it, which lowers standards and expectations and results in irregular student access to social studies instruction.
The educational consequences of eliminating the end-of-course assessment in US history would not end with high school graduation. State law requires students at all public institutions of higher education to complete a two-semester sequence in US or Texas history. Many colleges and universities use these introductory courses to help first-year students acclimate to college life. Fewer incoming students adequately prepared for college history courses will almost certainly mean more failing grades. Neither colleges nor their students can afford more obstacles on the path toward undergraduate degrees.
As recently as 2021, Texas lawmakers reinforced the centrality of social studies knowledge and understanding to educating future citizens. During that year’s legislative session, SB3 acknowledged the state’s vital interest in ensuring adequate historical knowledge and understanding as an essential function of the public schools, one that was to be achieved through the social studies curriculum.
With more than 10,500 members, the AHA is the largest membership association of professional historians in the world. Founded in 1884 and incorporated by Congress in 1889 for the promotion of historical studies, the Association provides leadership for the discipline, helps to sustain and enhance the work of historians, and promotes the imperative of historical thinking in public life.
History matters. The engrossed version of HB4 threatens the place of social studies and history in Texas public education. Making STAAR social studies and US history optional will create an incentive for districts to reallocate scarce resources and invest them elsewhere in the curriculum. We urge lawmakers to maintain social studies as an assessed subject in whatever assessment system they envision for the state’s future.
Sincerely,
James R. Grossman
Executive Director