In June 2024, ACTA surveyed over 3,000 college and university students on basic knowledge of American history and government. We found that significant numbers of college students graduate without even a rudimentary grasp of America’s history and political system. This new survey builds upon ACTA’s decades-long analysis of civic literacy trends, including our groundbreaking original report, Losing America’s Memory: Historical Illiteracy in the 21st Century.
This survey was designed and conducted by College Pulse between May 10, 2024, and June 19, 2024. Surveys were completed by a sample of 3,026 undergraduate students in the United States. The sample was drawn from College Pulse’s American College Student Panel™ that includes over one million verified students representing more than 1,500 different colleges and universities in all 50 states.
This stunning report reveals 81% of seniors from the top 55 U.S. colleges and universities failed a high school level history exam; even worse, that none of the institutions surveyed requires a course in American history, and three-quarters require no history at all. The report inspired Congress to pass a joint resolution calling for a […]
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 […]
ACTA has released the second edition of “No U.S. History? How College History Departments Leave the United States out of the Major.” The report found that 18 of the top 25 public universities did not have a wide-ranging American history requirement for students seeking a B.A. in history in the major or core curriculum. Top universities have […]
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