The Pennridge school district is considering Hillsdale’s controversial ‘1776 Curriculum.’ What is it?

As it reshapes its social studies curriculum, the Pennridge School District is turning to a small Michigan college whose president led a Donald Trump-directed commission to create a “patriotic education.”

The Bucks County district has been reviewing Hillsdale College’s “1776 Curriculum,” which the college says demonstrates how America’s founding principles make the United States “an exceptionally good country.”

How exactly Pennridge is using the curriculum — which has been criticized by historians as ideologically driven — isn’t clear. A spokesperson said it was being “considered for use” as one among a number of resources, but wouldn’t answer what had prompted the evaluation.

The introduction has angered some Pennridge parents, who view the school board — which abandoned its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative last year — as trying to inject its politics into the curriculum.

“They’re setting this framework where you’re pulling out the reality of our history,” said Laura Foster. “This is going to perpetuate this place of white privilege that lives in Upper Bucks County.”

Even if Pennridge doesn’t adopt the curriculum, interest in Hillsdale is growing locally and across the country. Here’s some background on its controversial take on history and its influence on schools:

A 3,000-page document available to download for free off the college’s website, the 1776 Curriculum traces American history back to its colonization by the British and includes lesson plans with guiding questions, primary sources, and suggested approaches.

It was first released in 2021, following conservative backlash to the 1619 Project — the New York Times initiative that centered slavery in the country’s origin story. Criticizing “one-sided and divisive accounts” that ignored “our country’s valiant and successful effort to shake off the curse of slavery,” Trump created a 1776 Commission to promote “patriotic education.”

That commission was led by Larry Arnn, Hillsdale’s president.

Hillsdale, which receives funding from conservative donors, says its effort isn’t a product of the 1776 Commission or in response to the 1619 Project — though it referred to the latter in announcing the curriculum’s release.

“It comes from years of studying America, its history, and its founding principles, not some slap-dash journalistic scheme to achieve a partisan political end through students,” Dr. Kathleen O’Toole, assistant provost for K-12 education at Hillsdale College, said at the time. “It is a truly American education.”

The 1776 curriculum has been accused of rewriting civil rights history, with statements including that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t favor using the “force of law” to bring about change. (That passage, among others, appears to have since been revised; now, it says King “appealed to the individual conscience and not merely the force of law.”)

An FAQ on Hillsdale’s website includes questions like: “Does the Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum ‘glorify’ the founders or ‘downplay’ America’s role in slavery?” (Hillsdale says it does not.)

Some historians told The Inquirer the curriculum pushes a conservative worldview on students.

“They’re trying to inculcate a certain notion of what it means to be an American,” said James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association. He pointed, for instance, to the curriculum’s treatment of progressives and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal — with “very little on what the programs actually bring to people, other than a sense of entitlement and dependence on the state” — and connections it draws between the founding fathers and modern conservative policies, like securing borders.

“It’s a tell, in terms of what they’re trying to do,” Grossman said in an interview, calling the curriculum a “bunch of nonsense.”

Sean Wilentz, a history professor at Princeton University who has also criticized the 1619 Project, was blunt in his criticism of the Hillsdale curriculum.

“The Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum fundamentally distorts modern American history into a crusade of righteous conservative patriots against heretical big-government liberals,” said Wilentz. “It has no place in any school system that values education over indoctrination.”

Hillsdale said that “about a dozen school districts from several different states have formally inquired” about using the 1776 Curriculum, while “representatives from many more have downloaded the curriculum for free online.”

The materials appeared to influence the development of new social studies standards in South Dakota, one of several states with Republican governors that have embraced the curriculum, the Associated Press reported last year.

The college also has been expanding its reach through charter schools, which are publicly funded. In Tennessee, Gov. Bill Lee invited Hillsdale to start 50 charters; however, the network backing the schools withdrew some of its applications following controversy around remarks by Arnn, Hillsdale’s president, describing teachers as “trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country.”

In Chester County, supporters say they’re hoping to open a K-12 charter with Hillsdale-licensed curriculum for all subjects; local school directors would need to approve the application, which hasn’t yet been submitted.

“I think a lot of parents are looking for alternatives to the traditional public school system,” said Jenifer MacFarland, who plans to apply for the Valley Forge Classical Academy Charter School — promoted on Facebook with the message: “Want an education for your kids without indoctrination?” The page also features comments and posts accusing public schools of teaching critical race theory.

The district declined to answer what prompted its consideration of Hillsdale. But it has been reviewing its high school social studies courses following a contentious December school board vote to reduce the required number of credits in the subject.

During a presentation before the board’s curriculum committee in January about how the district would adapt courses to accommodate the change — and another board request to add civics instruction — board president Megan Banis-Clemens asked administrators to share “what you’re pulling in for the curriculum.”

Administrators told the board they reviewed the Hillsdale lesson plans side by side with their curriculum and found the content matched. Some of the questions in the Hillsdale version “were maybe a little bit more thought-provoking,” said Kathy Scheid, an assistant superintendent, during the Jan. 18 meeting. “We did think it enhanced the content that was being taught.”

Asked specifically what from Hillsdale had been added to Pennridge’s curriculum, district spokesperson Dave Thomas said, “Nothing at this time.” The curriculum hasn’t been finalized, “and no decisions have been made on the additional curriculum resources.” Banis-Clemens didn’t respond to emailed questions.

Social studies isn’t a new battleground for Pennridge. Last January, an administrator instructed social studies teachers that they should not discuss the anniversary of the insurrection with students, but “should simply state that the investigation is ongoing and as historians we must wait until there is some distance from the event for us to accurately interpret it,” WHYY reported.

Board members last year also criticized elements of the district’s history curriculum as not reflecting the “greatness of America” — with one asking whether the district could use Hillsdale’s curriculum.

That the district would consider material from Hillsdale has drawn outrage from parents such as Ed Lawson, who point to statements from the college’s president referring to minority students as “dark ones,” and a professor’s comments decrying “Black privilege.”

“These racist overtones, I cannot tolerate,” Lawson said.