The Problem

According to the Nation’s Report Card, a staggering 88 percent of students graduate from U.S. high schools without proficiency in U.S. history and thus lack an essential component of informed citizenship. This is partly due to limited instructional time. Grade 8 students receive only 4.2 hours of history instruction per week, as compared to 6.5 hours in English language arts and 5 hours in math.

Testing a Potential Solution

EDC conducted a rigorous three-year study of Mission US, a widely used supplemental curriculum that includes online role-playing games and associated classroom activities. The study examined the impact of the supplemental curriculum on Grade 8-10 students’ historical content knowledge, ability to analyze and interpret historical documents, and motivation to learn history.

Updates

Project summary is now available!