Reading Scores Are Awful. Can Teaching History Help?

A new tool aims to help educators find content-rich history materials

Two topics that have gotten a lot of attention over the past year are civics instruction and the role of “high-quality” instructional materials. But how can district leaders and classroom teachers actually identify “high-quality” materials for history and civics? Well, Knowledge Matters has launched an initiative intended to help on that count. As an old civics teacher, I was curious to hear more about it. I recently had the chance to chat with Matthew Levey, who helped launch the History Matters Campaign and is an unabashed champion of content-rich curricula and civic education. Here’s what he had to say.
—Rick

Rick: Matthew, so what is the Knowledge Matters Campaign?

Matthew: The Knowledge Matters Campaign advocates content-rich, high-quality curriculum and instruction based on the sciences of reading and learning. It grew out of years spent visiting classrooms and studying what actually improves reading comprehension and critical thinking. Students understand texts better when they have knowledge about the world—the classic example is that kids get more out of reading a story about baseball if they are familiar with the game. Yet for decades, our schools have steadily reduced time and resources for subjects that build knowledge like history, geography, and civics. The campaign highlights schools and states that are taking a different approach.

Rick: How’d you get involved in this work?

Matthew: It all started at a back-to-school night for my daughter’s public school in New York City. That was when I realized the depth of the challenge with bad history curricula. Her history teacher gave an awful description of the materials they were using and froze in fear when my wife asked whether the class would be discussing the ongoing presidential race between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. I’d long discussed my concerns about the state of history and civics curriculum with my friend Robert Pondiscio, who would joke, “The last thing I’d ever do is start a school, but maybe you should!” It was with that dare in the back of my head that I applied to open the International Charter School in New York, where we used the sort of history curriculum I wished my daughter had experienced. That brought me to Knowledge Matters, which advocates for high-quality history and literacy curricula at every school, for every kid.

Rick: You recently launched a new History Matters Review Tool. Tell me about it.

Matthew: The History Matters Review Tool is a curriculum review rubric designed to help districts, educators, and parents answer a simple question: Does this curriculum actually help students learn history? The tool sets a vision for great history instruction and provides practical evaluation criteria grounded in classroom experience and learning science. It looks at whether a curriculum presents history as a coherent story, whether knowledge builds from grade to grade, and whether teachers are supported with strong guidance and sources. We were inspired by some of the great history lessons we’ve witnessed on the Knowledge Matters School Tour. In Louisiana, I visited a classroom where 3rd graders were debating why the early colonies’ economies developed differently—for instance, why shipbuilding and fishing became important in New England, while the hotter climate meant Southern farms could grow cotton. They had the vocabulary and historical context to do so because their curriculum, called Bayou Bridges, had built that knowledge step by step.

Rick: Who designed the tool?

Matthew: It was created by historians, curriculum experts, classroom teachers, and researchers who study how students learn. Sue Pimentel, a co-founder of StandardsWork, had spent years examining curriculum in schools across the country while working on literacy improvement efforts. That work led us to produce an English/language arts review tool in 2023. It was well received and led us to see the challenges and opportunity with history materials.

Rick: Who’s the intended audience?

Matthew: The tool is designed primarily for state and district leaders choosing curricula, but teachers and parents can use it as well. Parents often ask thoughtful questions about what their children are learning in school but struggle to get specific information. The tool helps everyone look closely at the materials students encounter in class.

Rick: How do you expect teachers or education officials to use it when choosing curricula?

Matthew: State and district leaders often face dozens of curriculum options. The tool can help them focus on what matters most: whether the materials present coherent historical narratives, build knowledge across grades, and support teachers with strong guidance. For teachers, the benefit is slightly different. In many classrooms, teachers spend evenings searching for additional materials because the curriculum feels thin or disconnected. Visiting Louisiana after the state adopted content-rich curriculum, we heard teachers say their biggest relief was not having to invent lessons from scratch. The curriculum provided the historical story and the sources. That allowed teachers to focus on helping students think and discuss.

Rick: Today, how do school or system leaders assess the quality of history materials?

Matthew: In many places, the evaluation process involves leaders looking at sample lessons and relies heavily on publisher presentations. Sometimes, decisions are influenced by how visually appealing the materials appear or how many activities are included. What often receives less attention is the structure of the historical content being taught. The review tool helps leaders focus on the deeper questions and, we hope, demand more of publishers.

Rick: One of the Knowledge Matters Campaign’s guiding principles is that “history is a story and, for young students, should be taught as such.” What’s that mean in practice?

Matthew: Cognitive psychology tells us that humans learn effectively through stories. We remember information more easily when it is tied to a narrative with characters and a beginning, middle, and end. History is naturally suited to this kind of learning. Students need to understand a sequence of events and a cast of characters involved in a historical period. In practice, that means presenting history as a connected narrative rather than a series of isolated topics. A 5th grade teacher in Arizona recounted that when she discusses the impact of the War of 1812, she can remind her kids, “Didn’t you read about that in 2nd grade?” Strong curriculum builds that narrative foundation across grades so that by the time students reach middle and high school they can analyze primary sources and debate historical interpretations with real understanding.

Rick: The National Assessment of Educational Progress has made clear that civics and history performance is abysmal. Any thoughts on why?

Matthew: For decades, schools have steadily reduced the time spent on history and civics instruction, especially in elementary school. I saw this trend firsthand in all three of my kids’ schools going back two decades now. Their “curriculum” was a hodgepodge of materials that rarely connected from one year to the next. The schools offered little to no professional development to help teachers prepare. And in their understandable obsession with test results, the principals saw little reason to emphasize history. Education research tells us that when those subjects disappear in the early grades, students reach middle and high school without the foundation of knowledge needed to understand complex texts or civic ideas. The national assessment results reflect that long buildup.

Rick: History and civics education have been rife with concerns about ideological slant. Where does your tool fit in?

Matthew: As you know, Rick, these disagreements are not new. The debate over what it means to be American is baked into our founding. We will probably never solve that. But by shifting the conversation toward substance, we hope the review tool can identify common ground. It asks whether a curriculum presents accurate narratives, draws on primary sources, and introduces students to the major people and events that shaped the country and the world. Those are questions we can agree on. Polling consistently shows that parents across the political spectrum want students to learn about difficult topics like slavery and civil rights. The disagreement is often about how those topics are framed and taught. The tool gives everyone a shared framework so those conversations can focus on the quality of learning.

Rick: Lots of history and civics initiatives have been launched over time, many with little impact. Why do you think that is, and what makes you hopeful this will be different?

Matthew: Scolding students and teachers for not knowing the names of the nine Supreme Court justices or whether the phrase “checks and balances” appears in the Constitution is not an effective way to teach civics. Moreover, many prior civics initiatives were disparaged as “just politics.” What makes our initiative different is that it is driven by research demonstrating the instrumental impact of history and civics instruction on reading results. The idealistic view of the value of American history that you and I share is beautiful and admirable. I want kids to appreciate the boldness of the American experiment and understand where we have fallen short of our ideals. But I believe that presenting history and civics instruction as a solution to a practical problem—our kids’ declining literacy scores—makes our initiative more likely to succeed.

Rick: Your website posits that “civics is best learned through history.” This is in tension with the many existing civics curricula that emphasize current events. Why do you think history is so central?

Matthew: Civics becomes meaningful when students understand how institutions and ideas developed over time. Concepts such as representative government or constitutional rights did not suddenly appear. They emerged through debates, conflicts, and compromises that unfolded across centuries. When students learn those stories, civics stops feeling abstract. They can see why certain institutions exist and how citizens have shaped them. Teaching civics through current events without historical context can drift into propagandizing, particularly in the youngest grades. History provides the foundation that allows students to understand our present debates in light of the past. Students who grasp that historical development are far better prepared to participate thoughtfully in democratic life.

Rick: For educators, what’s one piece of advice on how to better identify rich, rigorous history curricula?

Matthew: Look closely at what students will read and discuss over the course of a year. Strong curricula present a clear sequence of events and ideas that build from lesson to lesson. Students encounter meaningful narratives and related primary sources that help them understand how the past unfolded. When that structure is present, classrooms feel different. Students begin asking what happened next and how one event led to another. When that structure is missing, history can feel like a random tour through disconnected topics. So, my advice is to focus on whether the curriculum provides a coherent story. Those are the materials that support deep historical learning.

This post originally appeared on the blog Rick Hess Straight Up at Education Week on May 26th.