The American History Association and high school history teaching are in the news once again as the so-called “Culture Wars” continue to rage across the nation. History and Social Sciences teachers and their curricula often find themselves in the crosshairs of political activists and protesters from diverse ideological perspectives.

The New York Times reports that “as printed textbooks increasingly gather dust in classroom bookshelves, a new and expansive survey published on Thursday finds that social studies teachers are turning to digital sources and primary documents from the nation’s past.”

According to the New York Times, “While the most popular curriculum providers are not ideologically skewed, the report warned about a trend of ‘moralistic cues’ in some left-leaning school districts, with lessons that seemed to direct students toward viewing American history in an ’emotional’ manner, as a string of injustices.”

This news article is based on a new report on American Lesson Plan: Teaching US History in Secondary Schools (2024), issued by the American Historical Association (AHA), the flagship academic association of professional historians in the United States.

According to the report summary, “American Lesson Plan: Teaching US History in Secondary Schools distills insights gathered during a two-year exploration of secondary history education to illuminate the three levels where decisions are made about what students learn in US history: the state, the district, and the teacher. Combining a 50-state appraisal of standards and legislation with a nine-state dive into local contexts, we commissioned a survey of over 3,000 middle and high school US history educators, conducted long-form interviews with over 200 teachers and administrators, and collected thousands of pages of instructional materials from small towns to sprawling suburbs to big cities.”

The report is available on the New York Times website. The full AHA report is available at the AHA website.