Museums and American Lesson Plan: Where Teachers Need You, and How You Can Help

About the Talk: The American Historical Association's American Lesson Plan (2024) shares findings and insights from the most comprehensive study of secondary US history education undertaken in the 21st century. Join Whitney E. Barringer, one of the report's authors, for insights into where Pennsylvania sits in the national landscape of US history instruction. Empirical evidence and rigorous analysis provide the clearest picture yet of what history instruction looks like in practice and where teachers most need support.

About the AHA: The American Historical Association promotes historical work and the importance of historical thinking in public life. Incorporated by Congress in 1889, its mission to enhance the work of historians also encompasses professional standards and ethics, innovative scholarship and teaching, academic freedom, and international collaboration. As the largest membership association of professional historians in the world (nearly 11,000 members), the AHA serves historians in a wide variety of professions, and represents every historical era and geographical area.

Speaker Bio: Whit Barringer is a program and data analyst at the American Historical Association. She previously served as a researcher for the AHA’s Mapping the Landscape of Secondary History Education project. She earned her BA from the University of Central Arkansas and her MA and PhD from the University of Mississippi, where she studied nineteenth and twentieth century US history and European Enlightenment and Revolution (1650–1870). She taught at the University of Central Arkansas for five years before coming to the AHA.

More about the Report: 
On September 19, the AHA published American Lesson Plan: Teaching US History in Secondary Schools, with findings from the most comprehensive study of secondary US history education undertaken in the 21st century. AHA researchers appraised standards and legislation in all 50 states, conducted a survey of over 3,000 middle and high school US history educators, interviewed over 200 teachers and administrators, and reviewed thousands of pages of instructional materials from small towns to sprawling suburbs to big cities. The report provides empirical evidence and rigorous analysis to inform current debates over how history is taught in our schools.

PA Museums will be hosting this Lunch and Learn session on Zoom. A link will be sent the morning of January 8, 2025 to the email addresses of all registered attendees.