By Corinne Murdock |

Center for American Institutions (CAI), an interdisciplinary research project through Arizona State University (ASU), declared in a new report that higher education’s American history classes focus mostly on social justice revisionism that conclude with a depiction of America as a nation in decline.

In their research, published recently as the first “State of Health” commission report, CAI reviewed 75 introductory history syllabi from dozens of the top 150 national universities ranked by U.S. News and World Report last year. The project members included Scott Walker, former governor of Wisconsin; Mary Fallin, former governor of Oklahoma; and Newt Gingrich, former House Speaker. 

The CAI commission discovered that progressive angles to identity-related terms and topics dominated American history introductory courses: white supremacy, racism, inclusion, exclusion, equity, diversity, masculinity, gender, LGBT, and oppression. Comparatively, the commission claimed that essential founding and other key historical topics were mostly overlooked or heavily criticized, like liberty, federalism, the Constitution, rule of law, Western tradition, the Industrial Revolution, and capitalism.

The commission explained that its first report was focused on civic education because a proper education of the Constitution, federalism, economic expansion, and democratization produce informed voters. They posited that unity in imparting American history leads to a healthier nation, evident through limited polarization and dysfunctionality in politics. They also posited that an improper understanding of the nation’s history results in radicalization, divisiveness, mass disrespect, and antisocial behaviors; the commission cited an overemphasis on identity-related themes as a specific cause of an improper historical education.

On classes that taught American history from the settlement to 1877, the CAI commission found that all syllabi included at least one mention of an identity-related term; 56 percent of classes focused on institutions topics; one-third of courses focused on institutions for less than half of class meetings; 80 percent of courses spent only two class periods or less on the writing, ratification, and contents of the Constitution; 11 percent of classes didn’t cover the drafting of the Constitution in Philadelphia; and 63 percent of syllabi included institutional phrases such as “liberty” and “freedom,” but no syllabi mentioned “the rule of law” or “Western tradition.”

The commission also found that those syllabi that tended to mention institutions more also mentioned identities more, regardless of syllabus length.

On classes that taught history from 1877 to the present, the commission found that over 60 percent of syllabi included one “divisive” identity-focused term; over 40 percent didn’t mention the terms like “freedom,” “prosperity,” or “religion”; over 10 percent of class meetings focused exclusively on the Civil Rights Movement or feminism; and only 10 percent discussed Phyllis Schlafly, a major critic of second wave feminism.

The commission further found that instructors angled their teaching on this period of history with a fixation on the exclusion of minorities, oppression and expression of gender identity and sexual orientation, and voicing anti-market bias. The CAI commission added that coverages of political, legal, military, progressive, and religious histories lacked context and depth.

The research team found that most of the classes conclude with a characterization of America as a nation in decline and an ignorance of positive points in recent American history, such as women gaining voting rights.

“Through lectures, discussions, and required readings, students are directed to see a nation in decline. [The] United States is portrayed as a nation that never fulfilled its ideals of equality, defined as social equality,” stated the report. 

The study was preempted by the discovery that 40 percent of students were below proficient in American history and civics, according to last year’s report by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. CAI Director Donald Critchlow stated in the report introduction that higher education offered the poorest quality of education on American history and civics: social justice ideology over truth.

“American colleges and universities are being forced to become centers of remedial learning, but they are failing to provide basic facts of American history and civics to their students,” said Critchlow. “[M]any teachers of introductory American history courses simply are not conveying foundational knowledge to their students. Instead, a heavy emphasis rests on racial, ethnic, and gender identity, usually to the detriment of a comprehensive and necessary knowledge of our nation’s past.”

In order to counter these alleged issues with higher education American history and civics courses, the CAI commission recommended the establishment of new interdisciplinary degree programs with more expansive civic education opportunities. 

Additionally, the commission recommended greater educational transparency: public postings of syllabi, approximate student enrollments and majors, student enrollments per faculty or affiliated faculty, publication of faculty meeting minutes, faculty and upper administration announcements, and a two-year report of occupational outcomes for majors.

The commission also recommended teachers to be evaluated based on teaching and research outcomes, and for higher education institutions to cease requiring diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statements from faculty hires.

CAI will issue a second State of the Health commission report on Civic Education in the Military next spring. 

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.