How to Make History Come Alive

The field of American history is in crisis. Recently, the Department of Education released troubling data indicating that only 13 percent of eighth-graders met proficiency standards in history. Students are failing to understand the American story and our shared values — and the consequences are severe.

To those of us in the civic-education space, these scores come as no surprise. This unfortunate decline in historical knowledge has been decades in the making, starting with changes in higher education. A recent jobs report from the American Historical Association indicated a decrease in jobs across the field of history and a stark move away from tenure-track positions. Some will blame these trends on the pandemic, which certainly had devastating effects, but the erosion of history education goes back well into the last century.