American Lesson Plan: Teaching US History in Secondary Schools
The AHA’s 2024 report shares findings from the most comprehensive study of secondary US history education undertaken in the 21st century. AHA researchers appraised standards and legislation in all 50 states, conducted a survey of over 3,000 middle and high school US history educators, interviewed over 200 teachers and administrators, and reviewed thousands of pages of instructional materials from small towns to sprawling suburbs to big cities. The report provides empirical evidence and rigorous analysis to inform current debates over how history is taught in our schools.
About the Project
Mapping the Landscape of Secondary US History Education is the AHA’s multistage effort to provide a research-based grounding for ongoing civic deliberations about the teaching of US history in American classrooms. The AHA seeks to cut through political caricatures of American history classrooms and pose a more direct question: What are American schoolchildren supposed to be taught about US history?
The Mapping project deploys a variety of sources and methods to describe how layers of decision-making at the state, district, and schoolhouse affect curriculum. The project combines appraisals of state-level standards and legislation in all 50 states with a deep-dive sample of nine states, where we fielded a survey with over 3,000 educators, interviewed hundreds more teachers and administrators, and collected curricular materials from vendors, districts, and teachers. The resulting report provides a clear and evidence-based picture of the 21st-century history education landscape.
Good Question: Right-Sizing Inquiry with History Teachers
In this essay for the #AHRSyllabus project in the American Historical Review, Whitney E Barringer, Scot McFarlane, and Nicholas Kryczka trace curricular initiatives around “inquiry” from the late nineteenth century to the present moment to suggest a set of best practices for today’s classroom that can, in their words, allow “students to see what history can do for them, and what they must do for themselves.”
In the Media
Nick Kryczka with Juana Summers, "New report looks at how U.S. history is taught in classrooms" (NPR All Things Considered, September 2024).
"Editorial: History teachers simply want to teach history" (Observer-Reporter, September 2024).
Jenny Brundin, "What do teens think about the presidential election? We went inside a Colorado classroom to find out" (Colorado Public Radio, September 2024).
Peter Greene, "What Are History Teachers Really Teaching Students" (Forbes, September 2024).
Karen D'Souza, "Are history teachers replacing textbooks with the Internet?" (EdSource, September 2024).
"Editorial: Historically speaking" (The Barre Montpelier Times Argus, September 2024).
Sarah Schwartz, "The Topics That Dominate U.S. History Classes—And the Ones Teachers Want Help On" (EducationWeek, September 2024).
Sarah Schwartz, "There’s No Evidence That History Teachers Are ‘Indoctrinating’ Students, Report Says" (EducationWeek, September 2024).
LZ Granderson, "Column: Finally, a reckoning on how we teach American history" (Los Angeles Times, September 2024).
Dana Goldstein, "History Teachers Are Replacing Textbooks With the Internet" (New York Times, September 2024).
Whitney E. Barringer, Nicholas Kryczka, and Scot McFarlane, "Good Question: Right-Sizing Inquiry with History Teachers" (American Historical Review, 2024).
James Grossman, "What’s Being Taught? Mapping the Landscape of US History Education" (Perspectives on History, May 2, 2024).
Whitney E. Barringer, Nicholas Kryczka, and Scot McFarlane, "Who Is in Charge of History Curricula? Some Findings from the AHA’s Research" (Perspectives on History, April 17, 2024).
Olina Banerji, "History Group Finds Little Evidence of K—12 'Indoctrination'" (EdWeek, March 21, 2024).
Nicholas Kryczka, Whitney E. Barringer, Scot McFarlane, and James R. Grossman, "Culture Warriors—on Both Sides—Are Wrong About America’s History Classrooms" (TIME, March 14, 2024).
Whitney E. Barringer, Lauren Brand, and Nicholas Kryczka, "No Such Thing as a Bad Question?: Inquiry-Based Learning in the History Classroom” (Perspectives on History, September 26, 2023).
Sarah Schwartz, "What’s Really Going on in History Classrooms? A New Project Aims to Find Out" (EdWeek, December 15, 2022).
James Grossman, "What Are Students Learning? Mapping the Landscape of US History Education" (Perspectives on History, August 18, 2022).
Past Events & Recordings
What are Schoolchildren Learning About US History? Four Takeaways in Five Minutes
AHA research coordinator Nick Kryczka gave a 5-minute overview of the AHA's Mapping the Landscape of Secondary US History Education initiative as part of the CivXNow Research and Best Practice Affinity Group Monthly Brownbag on March 20, 2024.
American Lesson Plan: Mapping the Landscape of Secondary US History Education
Moderated by Katharina Matro (Walter Johnson High School and American Historical Assn.), this event featured AHA researchers Nick Kryczka, Whit Barringer Scot McFarlane.
History, the Past, and Public Culture: Results from a National Survey
This project aspired to take America’s historical pulse by assessing public perceptions of, and engagement with, the discipline of history and the past. The 40-question survey explored the public’s definition of the term “history,” where audiences access history, which sources of history are perceived to be reliable, their historical learning experiences, attitudes toward historical revision, correlations between civic engagement and an interest in history, and the perceived value of history.