Goldwater & AAT Education Announce New U.S. History Curriculum for High School Students

Too many of America’s schools are failing to educate students about the fundamentals of U.S. history, and parents are yearning for a curriculum that teaches their children our nation’s founding principles. Now, the Goldwater Institute is answering the call.

Today, Goldwater’s Van Sittert Center for Constitutional Advocacy is pleased to announce, in collaboration with AAT Education, the development of a groundbreaking new United States history curriculum for high school students. The curriculum, now underway by AAT Education in partnership with distinguished national scholars, will feature the direction of lead historian Wilfred McClay, author of the acclaimed textbook: Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story.

The Van Sittert Center for Constitutional Advocacy, which was endowed by the generosity of constitutionalists and entrepreneurs Barbara and Logan Van Sittert, has in turn provided the financial resources necessary for the completion of this new curriculum via a major contribution to AAT Education, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

AAT Education, which specializes in development and implementation of high-quality testing, teacher training, and curriculum resources, will develop a full two-semester-long, off-the-shelf-ready suite of lesson plans, curated primary source readings, and supporting materials for public, private, and home-based schools and educators looking for an academically rich curriculum free from revisionism or radical political activism.

Development of this new curriculum, which will be completed in 2025 for use alongside the Land of Hope textbook, will ensure that American high school students have access to the highest quality content in the leadup to the 250^thanniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Land of Hope has not only sold thousands of copies across the nation, but unlike other textbooks, it was written to present, in a historian’s distinctive voice, the engaging story of America’s constitutional republic—its heroes, triumphs, and shortcomings alike. Dr. McClay writes in its opening, “[The book’s] principal objective is very simple. It means to offer to American readers, young and old alike, an accurate, responsible, coherent, persuasive and inspiring narrative account of their own country.”

There is no shortage of high-quality resources available to teachers when it comes to supplementary materials and one-off lesson plans, from the 1776 Unites suite of lessons to the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership’s Civic Literacy Curriculum. But too many educators and schools have found themselves without options when looking to adopt—or adapt—robust, fully fleshed-out curricula outside of a handful of dominant publishers whose materials have contributed to a steady decline in U.S. history and civics proficiency.

As Van Sittert Center Director Matt Beienburg declared, “This new U.S. history curriculum will help revitalize students’ appreciation and understanding of the American republic, equipping teachers and parents to masterfully share our nation’s story with a new generation at a critical time.”

Initial elements of the new curriculum, which will also include historian essays, student assignments, and other supporting resources, will become available beginning in 2024.

“We deeply appreciate the substantial support and even partnership from the Goldwater Institute’s Van Sittert Center, which will allow us to complete this vital curriculum,” AAT Education CEO Ted Rebarber said. “American history is the memory of American civilization, a branch of our broader Western civilization. Effective transmission of its most important elements to the next generation is essential to its preservation and, where needed, its restoration.”

Dr. McClay envisions the new curriculum as addressing the “utter evaporation of civic knowledge in America.”

“A recovery of civic knowledge will necessarily mean a recovery of our history,” he said. “Our institutions arose out of historical experience. How can one cherish freedom without cherishing the memory of those who made it possible? How can one celebrate the separation of powers and the provisions of the First Amendment unless we know why they arose, what evils they were devised to combat, and the difference their existence has made?”

For more information and to follow the development of the curriculum, you can visit: https://www.aateducation.org/history and https://goldwaterinstitute.org.

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