WASHINGTON, DC—Yesterday, the House unanimously passed a joint resolution calling on all Americans to restore their historical memory. The resolution passed unanimously in the Senate on June 30.
Introduced by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT), Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA), Rep. Thomas E. Petri (R-WI) and Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the Concurrent Resolution expresses the “sense of Congress regarding the importance and value of United States history” and calls on boards of trustees, college administrators and state officials to strengthen American history requirements.
On June 27 members of the Senate and House—flanked by eminent historians from across the country—unveiled the resolution. Citing a recent survey by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), Losing America’s Memory: Historical Illiteracy in the 21st Century, which found that 81% of seniors at top-rated colleges received a D or an F on high school level American history questions, Lieberman stated that the historical illiteracy of America’s college graduates is a serious national problem that should be addressed by the country’s higher education community.
ACTA’s report received national coverage from the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Sacramento Bee to CNN and ABC.
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni is a national nonprofit organization of alumni and trustees dedicated to academic excellence, freedom and accountability. It has members from more than 200 institutions of higher education from across the country.
The Founders admonished that informed, engaged citizens would be the indispensable guardian of our liberty. ACTA’s surveys, however, administered over the past two decades, reveal that our schools—and especially our colleges and universities—have done a poor job of ensuring the civic literacy on which our nation depends. Too many institutions fail to require courses that […]
A new survey commissioned by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni sheds a bright light on our nation’s civic knowledge crisis. Colleges and universities significantly contribute to the problem by chipping away at their core requirements in essential areas of knowledge; students graduate unprepared for informed citizenship and the workforce. U.S. history is often […]
Why do we teach U.S. history and government to students? The answer is simple: to prepare students for engaged and informed citizenry, the essential ingredient for preserving the American republic. Unfortunately, ACTA’s most recent What Will They Learn?® survey of the core curricula at over 1,100 colleges and universities found that only 18% of institutions require students […]
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