The people of this country don’t know their American history. The vast majority of Americans couldn’t pass the U.S. citizenship test when asked test questions in a recent 50-state survey. According to a recent WW report, it is not because their teachers failed them or because students are no longer required to study American history. It’s because the American history curriculum has focused on memorization of names, events, and dates, which students find irrelevant, boring, random, and fail to retain beyond their class test.

These poll and research results demonstrate that a waning knowledge of American history may be one of the greatest educational challenges facing the U.S. As a result, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation is launching a major national initiative to transform how American history is learned today, providing high school students with an interactive digital platform intended to make American history more interesting and appreciated by all learners, particularly those who do not see the importance history plays in the now and tomorrow.Read more about WW’s American History Initiative here as well as the research behind it here, and see the full survey results here.