We investigate issues affecting academic freedom and the integrity, purpose, and neutrality of the university.

All Reports and Projects by the National Association of Scholars.



October 16, 2024

Shifting Sands: Report IV

David Randall, Warren Kindzierski and Stanley Young

Shifting Sands: Zombie Psychology examines the science underlying implicit bias theory. The report finds that many researchers and legislators believe policies based on this theory are harmful. M......

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September 29, 2024

Shadows of Influence

Neetu Arnold

Foreign funding of American universities remains an open secret. This report details the underreporting of foreign gifts to universities by analyzing a complementary database compiled using public rec......

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July 16, 2024

China and Our Children

Ian Oxnevad

This report examines how the Chinese Communist Party uses language as a tool of asymmetric warfare and its deployed effects in the United States. Confucius Classrooms did not only expand from Confuciu......

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June 22, 2024

DEI and Maryland College Campuses

Maryland Association of Scholars

This report surveys the diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and administrative initiatives at 12 University System of Mayland campuses.

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May 25, 2024

The Franklin Standards

These model K-12 state science standards seek to restore informed and disciplined curiosity to American science education, along with the spirit and the rigor of America's first great scientist an......

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April 22, 2024

The Illusion of Institutional Neutrality

Peter W. Wood

College presidents often come under the spotlight for their political pronouncements or lack thereof. Since college presidents must contend with difficult issues of morality, principle, and politics a......

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April 20, 2024

Imbalanced: A Study of Influence at the University of Virginia

Mitchell Langbert

This analysis finds that political donations from the faculty and staff of the University of Virginia go almost exclusively to the Democratic Party. If the faculty and staff are combined, the ratio of......

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March 19, 2024

Curriculum of Liberty

David Randall

In this report, we propose the Curriculum of Liberty, in the spirit of NAS’s principles, which will educate American college students toward freedom, the pursuit of truth, and virtuous citizensh......

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February 25, 2024

DEI, Left to Die

Mason Goad

Is DEI still popular? If so, why have DEI-related scholarly works decreased since 2020?

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February 20, 2024

Disowned Yankees

David Randall

This study explores the history of Americans' birthright of liberty. We teach our children social studies, above all history and civics, so they can know what liberty is, where Amer......

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September 16, 2023

Diversity Statement, Then Dossier

John D. Sailer

In this report, we seek to explain the phenomenon of DEI cluster hiring, demonstrate its widespread practice throughout academia, and highlight the dangers of the practice. Ultimately, DEI cluster hir......

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July 13, 2023

Shifting Sands: Report III

David Randall, Warren Kindzierski and Stanley Young

Shifting Sands: Confounded Errors focuses on failures by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to consider empirical evidence avail......

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April 20, 2023

The Company They Keep

Ian Oxnevad

This report studies the "Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions" movement against Israel on campus. It finds that the movement's success on campus is mixed, while its broader movement is well-......

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January 28, 2023

Taken for a RIDE

David Randall

This study explores the history of Americans' birthright of liberty. We teach our children social studies, above all history and civics, so they can know what liberty is, where America&#......

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January 19, 2023

Comprehensive Restructuring

John D. Sailer

This study of the University of Texas at Austin surveys the most influential policies enacted on campus in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion.  

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December 29, 2022

Should Virginians Pay for University “Diversity” Leftism?

Teresa R. Manning, Eric Hammer and William M. Knorpp

Virginians have at least two pressing concerns about their public colleges and universities. The first concern is skyrocketing costs that burden Virginia taxpayers and threaten to put higher education......

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November 28, 2022

Ideological Intensification

Mason Goad and Bruce R. Chartwell

This report documents and quantifies the growing prevalence of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) associated language in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields in the Unit......

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September 27, 2022

Hijacked

Neetu Arnold

America’s Middle East Studies Centers were originally founded to study the politics, culture, and language of Middle Eastern nations. But our analyses and case studies demonstrate that Middle Ea......

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September 12, 2022

Outsourced to Qatar

Neetu Arnold

This case study reveals how Qatar uses partnerships with American universities to advance its own interests and values. In partnering with Qatar, American universities have invested substantial t......

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August 10, 2022

The Anatomy of a Diversity Equity and Inclusion Takeover

John D. Sailer

This study of the University of Tennessee’s Diversity Action Plans finds that they further entrench the dominance of diversity, equity, and inclusion, espousing an ideology that makes narro......

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July 8, 2022

Shifting Sands: Report II

David Randall, Warren Kindzierski and Stanley Young

Shifting Sands: Flimsy Food Findings examines how irreproducible science affects select areas of government policy and regulation governed by different federal agencies. This second report focuse......

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July 4, 2022

Educating for Citizenship: The Texas Case Study

John D. Sailer

This case study examines how Texas universities train students for citizenship and teach American history, government, and civics. 

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June 21, 2022

Educating for Citizenship: The Utah Case Study

John D. Sailer

This case study examines how Utah universities train students for citizenship and teach American history, government, and civics. 

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June 15, 2022

After Confucius Institutes

Rachelle Peterson, Ian Oxnevad and Flora Yan

Confucius Institutes, once a strategic part of China's overseas influence campaign, have almost disappeared from the United States: 104 of 118 have shut down. But the demise of Confucius Institute......

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May 16, 2022

Educating for Citizenship: The Arizona Case Study

John D. Sailer

This case study examines how Arizona universities train students for citizenship and teach American history, government, and civics. 

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February 15, 2022

Learning for Self-Government

David Randall

Americans strongly disagree about how our K-12 schools should teach our system of self-government. Dozens of organizations offer rival civics education resources and many of them don't work. A new......

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May 13, 2021

Shifting Sands: Report I

David Randall, Warren Kindzierski and Stanley Young

Shifting Sands: Unsound Science and Unsafe Regulation examines how irreproducible science affects select areas of government policy and regulation governed by different federal agencies. This fir......

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April 25, 2021

Skewed History

David Randall, Kevin R. C. Gutzman, Jason Ross, Bruce P. Frohnen, Amity Shlaes and William Pettinger

Skewed History: Textbook Coverage of Early America and the New Deal is a review and critique of five textbooks’ coverage of four historical periods: The European Settlement of North America......

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April 3, 2021

Climbing Down

David Randall, Jennifer Helms and James Nations

America’s most popular science curriculum, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), fails students. This report details how the popular curriculum omits basic tenets of science, including t......

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February 24, 2021

Priced Out

Neetu Arnold

As more Americans attend college, costs rise, and more students fail to graduate, we ask, "why?" Priced Out details the spending habits of 50 universities across America and provides......

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January 8, 2021

Freedom to Learn

National Association of Scholars

Freedom to Learn provides a guideline of 40 detailed suggestions for legislative reforms. These initiatives, if enacted by Congress, would encourage reform of America's costly, politicized, a......

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December 31, 2020

Rebalancing the Narrative

George R. La Noue

Rebalancing the Narrative: Higher Education, Border Security, and Immigration discusses the various dimensions of immigration policy and suggests topics for debate. This report gives students and......

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November 15, 2020

Disfigured History

David Randall

Disfigured History: How the College Board Demolishes the Past details the careless, politicized history in the College Board's revisions of the Advanced Placement (AP) European, United States, and......

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October 27, 2020

Dear Colleague

Teresa R. Manning

Dear Colleague explains how sexual assault came to be a form of sex discrimination and surveys the regulatory path that Title IX administrators took to make this word-play a reality. This report also......

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August 30, 2020

Corrupting the College Board

Rachelle Peterson

In exchange for generous Chinese government funding, the College Board has given China strategic access to American K-12 education. Since at least 2003, the College Board has sponsored Confucius Insti......

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April 18, 2020

Critical Care

National Association of Scholars

The coronavirus pandemic has inflicted enormous financial damage on colleges and universities and the cost is still growing. American higher education will undergo an unprecedented financial crisis in......

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January 11, 2020

The Lost History of Western Civilization

Stanley Kurtz

The Lost History of Western Civilization is a wide-ranging consideration of the academy’s role in producing America’s contemporary political and cultural divisions. The report traces the w......

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November 29, 2019

Social Justice Education in America

David Randall

Social Justice Education in America is a comprehensive examination of the inner workings of social justice advocates at more than 60 universities and how they have insinuated themselves into......

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September 19, 2019

Beach Books 2018-2019

David Randall

Hundreds of American colleges and universities assign a summer reading to entering freshmen—usually one book, which is often un-academic and politically progressive. This year, Beach Books finds......

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April 24, 2019

Separate but Equal, Again

Dion J. Pierre

Spurred by the decision in Brown v. Board of Education and a growing Civil Rights Movement, colleges and universities led a good-faith effort to achieve racial integration. Today, that ideal on campus......

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October 1, 2018

Beach Books 2017-2018

David Randall

Hundreds of American colleges and universities assign a summer reading to entering freshmen—usually one book, which is often un-academic and politically progressive. This year, Beach Books provi......

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April 8, 2018

The Irreproducibility Crisis of Modern Science

David Randall and Christopher Welser

A reproducibility crisis afflicts a wide range of scientific and social-scientific disciplines, from epidemiology to social psychology. Many supposedly scientific results cannot be reproduced, because......

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January 15, 2018

Charting Academic Freedom

David Randall

A resource for anyone interested in the issue of academic freedom on college campuses in America. Charting compares fourteen published statements on academic freedom in twenty-five categorie......

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April 5, 2017

Outsourced to China

Rachelle Peterson

Since 2004, the Chinese government has planted Confucius Institutes that offer Chinese language and culture courses at colleges and universities around the world—including more than 100 in the U......

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January 8, 2017

Making Citizens

David Randall

The “New Civics” redefines civics as progressive political activism. Rooted in the radical program of the 1960s’ New Left, the New Civics presents itself as an up-to-date version of......

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June 12, 2016

The Disappearing Continent

David Randall

Much of the European past goes missing in the new AP European History Course and Exam Description. The College Board tells the story of European history as the triumph of secular progressivism, and sh......

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January 21, 2016

The Architecture of Intellectual Freedom

Peter W. Wood

In 2015, campuses across the country erupted in protests aimed at limiting the freedoms of professors and fellow students. Over time, the National Association of Scholars felt a commitment to restate......

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October 8, 2015

Inside Divestment

Rachelle Peterson and Peter W. Wood

The fossil fuel divestment movement, now on more than 1,000 American college campuses, aims at capturing a generation of college students as lifelong climate activists. This report is the first compre......

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March 19, 2015

Sustainability

Rachelle Peterson and Peter W. Wood

To many, sustainability is just a new name for environmentalism. But the word has come to mean something much larger: an ideology that demands new limits on economic, political, and intellectual freed......

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April 1, 2013

What Does Bowdoin Teach?

Michael Toscano and Peter W. Wood

Bowdoin College has dedicated itself to the achievement of social justice and replicating the image of progressive politics in its students. This study surveys the history of Bowdoin College and......

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December 31, 2012

Recasting History

Peter W. Wood

In 1971, the state of Texas enacted a legislative requirement that students at public institutions complete two courses in American history. With that mandate in mind, the Texas Association of Scholar......

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May 1, 2011

The Vanishing West

Glenn Ricketts, Ashley Thorne, Stephen H. Balch and Peter W. Wood

The Vanishing West traces the decline and near extinction of the Western Civilization history survey course in America’s top colleges and universities from 1964 to 2010.

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March 29, 2011

A Crisis of Competence

John M. Ellis and California Association of Scholars

A report on the consequences of politicization in higher education, focused on the University of California.

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November 2, 2000

Losing the Big Picture

Stephen H. Balch and Gary Crosby Brasor

"Losing the Big Picture" uses data from 1964-1965, 1989-1990, and 1997-1998 academic catalogs of twenty-five selective liberal arts colleges to show that undergraduate English majors no longer......

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November 9, 1996

The Dissolution of General Education

Stephen H. Balch and Rita Zürcher

For the greater part of the twentieth century, America's leading colleges and universities were strongly committed to providing undergraduates with a broad and rigorous exposure to major areas of......

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July 1, 1996

SUNY's Core Curricula

Empire Foundation for Policy Research and New York Association of Scholars

This survey of the core curricula at sixteen State University of New York campuses finds that students can avoid essential academic subjects while still meeting their degree requirements. This has led......

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