History lessons are being wiped from the internet, California is retreating from ethnic studies, as education swings away from curriculums that are seen as too progressive. School curriculum had been restricted before, notably during the Red Scares
Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle // New York Times,
In the Trump era, history and civics education are under a microscope.
Several major curriculum publishers have withdrawn products from the market, while others have found that teachers are shying away from lessons that were once uncontroversial, on topics as basic as constitutional limits on executive power.
California, the nation’s largest Democratic-led state, has passed a law restricting what teachers can say in the classroom, and has walked back an effort to require high school students to take classes in ethnic studies.
To supporters of these changes, they are a necessary corrective to what they see as a leftward tilt in the education establishment. But these developments have also set off alarms among free speech advocates, as the Trump administration pushes to punish speech it dislikes and to impose its patriotic vision of American history on schools.
Adam Laats, a historian of education at Binghamton University, noted that school curriculum had been restricted before, notably during the Red Scares of the last century. But the current political pressure is unique, he said: “Never before has this kind of fervor from the right owned the Oval Office.”
As recently as last year, many social studies teachers reported success in withstanding political pressure. Now, there is growing evidence that the landscape is shifting. In a September poll, more than half of the teachers who responded said that political pressure had caused them to modify their curriculums or classroom discussions, a sharp increase from March.
Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who has led the push for changes in education, said President Trump’s return to office accelerated a cultural shift that was already underway. Over the last five years, more than 20 states have passed laws restricting classroom discussions on race, gender and American history.
“Even center-left Democrats are starting to pull away from left-wing ideologies they had endorsed a few years before,” he said. “The reason for this is quite simple. America has a center-right culture and the gap between the public and these elite ideologies became a political liability.”
Lesson Plans Are Disappearing
This spring, as Brown University was under intense pressure from the Trump administration, it shuttered Choices, the university’s 30-year-old high school social studies curriculum, overseen by its history department.
Choices reached one million students annually, and was especially popular in advanced courses and at independent private schools. The program was known for bringing college-level concepts into high schools and for lesson plans that were rich in primary sources, on topics from the American Revolution to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
After the start of the Israel-Hamas War in 2023 and the rise of the pro-Palestinian campus protest movement — which was heavily active at Brown — Choices was scrutinized by advocacy groups supportive of Israel. Critics argued that a unit on the Middle East fed antisemitism by focusing on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and downplaying Palestinian terrorism against Israelis.
Now Choices materials have largely been wiped from the internet.
When Choices units were withdrawn from the market, teachers and students lost access to a broad range of lessons. (Photo credit: Choices Program // New York Times)
Brown had been reconsidering Choices since the summer of 2024 for budgetary reasons. The final decision to shutter the program was made this past spring, as Brown faced a potential federal funding freeze. The White House eventually moved to withhold $510 million in grants, accusing Brown of allowing antisemitism to fester during campus protests. (The university has since made a deal with the government to restore its funding.)
Brian Clark, a Brown spokesman, said the closure of Choices was based “exclusively” on the program’s financial outlook, and had nothing to do with debates over its content or pressure from the White House. He acknowledged in an email, however, that the market for Choices materials had weakened, in part because of “recent pressures to eliminate curricula that consider race, gender, colonialism, etc.”
Brown decided not to allow other publishers to acquire Choices lesson plans, according to internal communications reviewed by The New York Times. It also declined to maintain the Choices archives on the university’s website, and refused to allow the program’s staff to distribute over $200,000 worth of lesson plans that had already been printed.
Doing so would have created “legal and financial exposure,” Mr. Clark said.
High school teachers, worried about losing access to materials that they relied on for years, have used social media to circulate some Choices units.
Another group that has withdrawn curriculum is the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit that historically focused on antisemitism and a broad range of other civil rights issues, while also strongly supporting Israel. The A.D.L.’s educational resources reach more than 1.6 million students annually, according to Todd Gutnick, a spokesman for the group.
Many of the dozens of lesson plans that the Anti-Defamation League withdrew from its website dealt with race, sex and gender. (Credit: ADL // New York Times)
Over the past two years, the A.D.L. has removed dozens of lesson plans from its website, according to a review of archived web content. Some were about transgender identity, sexism against women who have run for president and sexist tropes in video games.
The deleted lessons also included several that dealt with police violence against Black men, one on microaggressions, and a lesson on Frederick Douglass and voting rights.
In a written statement, Mr. Gutnick said that some of the lessons had been retired and others were “temporarily removed” for revisions.
A statement on the A.D.L.’s website says the group is choosing to focus its educational resources on antisemitism, the Holocaust and Jewish identity. “While we are no longer hosting many of our broader anti-bias resources, we remain deeply committed to fostering inclusive school communities,” it states.
Last year, the group phased out a 40-year-old program for schools called A World of Difference Institute, which sought to “actively challenge prejudice, stereotyping and all forms of discrimination.”
The A.D.L. continues to offer No Place for Hate, an anti-bullying curriculum that includes material on identity-based bias.
Teachers Are Avoiding Basic Civics
The organization iCivics was founded by Sandra Day O’Connor, the former Supreme Court justice, to provide free, nonpartisan curriculum materials. The group estimates that its lessons reach about nine million students annually.
This fall, though, staff members noted a significant decline — up to 28 percent — in the number of page views recorded for some popular lessons, including those dealing with separation of powers, consent of the governed and other constitutional principles.
iCivics does not yet have a full picture of why this is happening.
But Emma Humphries, the group’s chief education officer, said that in her travels across the country to train teachers, many have said they were fearful of having classroom discussions veer into politically fraught territory — like questions from students about why Mr. Trump appeared to be violating constitutional norms.
Social studies teachers typically receive much less training from their school districts than teachers of English and math, the subjects covered by state tests. As a result, some teachers may have had little guidance on how to tackle controversial topics.
Further complicating matters, many teachers work in states that have adopted broadly written laws that limit what can be said in the classroom.
Some teachers are shying away from lessons about basic constitutional principles, out of concern that classroom discussions will be overtaken by contemporary politics. (Credit: iCivics.org // New York Times)
iCivics offers training in how to teach students about American government without walking into political minefields, including by using primary sources like the Constitution and Supreme Court rulings. Dr. Humphries said teachers should explain to students that questions like the limits of presidential power have been debated for centuries, and that presidents from all parties have tried to stretch the limits to increase their authority.
“The concern is that teachers will avoid certain topics altogether, or just revert to boring pedagogy, like reading the textbook the district approved,” she said. “That is not a good way to teach. The kids deserve better than that, and our democracy deserves better.”
A Democratic-Led State Shifts Right
California was once a leader in adopting a left-leaning approach to social studies. In 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law requiring all high school students to take a course in ethnic studies, an activist discipline that focuses on the histories and cultures of Latinos, Black Americans, Asian Americans and Native Americans. Ethnic studies lessons often criticize settler colonialism, naming Israel as the prime contemporary example.
Research has shown that ethnic studies classes can raise attendance and grades for students who are at risk of dropping out.
But after some Jewish groups mounted a legal and political fight against ethnic studies — saying its critiques of Israel were fostering antisemitism — the consensus around the state’s mandate unraveled. This spring, Mr. Newsom presented and signed a budget that did not include funding for the classes. Districts are not currently required to offer the course, according to the state board of education.
In some school systems that are continuing to offer ethnic studies, there are new restrictions. San Francisco teachers must use a single textbook that does not discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Supplemental materials must be approved by administrators.
Mr. Newsom signed two bills this month that were intended to prevent antisemitism and other forms of discrimination in schools. The laws establish a state office to handle complaints, and require teachers to abstain from “advocacy, opinion, bias or partisanship” in the classroom.
Teachers’ unions, the American Civil Liberties Union and Muslim groups raised concerns about the potential for chilled speech and increased litigation. But the bills passed unanimously in the heavily Democratic legislature.
Mr. Rufo, the conservative activist, argued that the new laws do not threaten free speech, noting that public-school teachers do not have a legal right to academic freedom in their classrooms.
Kairi Hand, a 15-year-old sophomore at Burton Academic High School in San Francisco, said ethnic studies had been a favorite course. Israel was not a focus in her class, she recalled. What stayed with her, she said, were lessons on the Chinese Exclusion Act and the way in which the Disney movie “Pocahontas” differed from the true history of English encounters with Indigenous Americans.
She also understood why the class was controversial. “There is a lot of controversy going on in the whole world. Especially,” she said, “things taught in schools.”
[Dana Goldstein covers education and families for The Times.]
