Looking Beyond the Battles: A Review of Civil War Standards Across the United States

Virtual presentation to the American Education Research Association (AERA) virtual conference.

This study is a qualitative content analysis of Civil War standards from secondary history courses across the United States. The author investigated the frequency of standards requiring knowledge of specific people and places and what conclusions can be made about the focus of Civil War state curricula. Findings indicate that the majority of state standards do not require students to study specific people and places from the war; however, the absence of non-dominant groups in the standards is concerning. The Civil War remains a central event in U.S. history and is tied to our current national debate about white supremacy and systemic oppression. It is our educational responsibility to critically examine what we teach about this era in history.