Kentwood — Through his website, 2023 National History Teacher of the Year Matt Vriesman is offering curriculum resources created by him to all educators for free.
The East Kentwood High School teacher, who teaches AP U.S. History and AP African American Studies, offers more than 60 lessons on his website, Empowering Histories.
The site, which he started six years ago, recently received nonprofit status, which Vriesman said will allow him to continue to add lessons and resources and strengthen a national network of educators committed to teaching evidence-based history.
Vriesman was named National History Teacher of the Year by The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and was also the 2025 recipient of The Casey Award at the Jay & Betty Van Andel Legacy Awards Gala. He was one of the first teachers in Michigan to teach AP African American U.S. History. He is also a College Board consultant.
‘I didn’t want to charge teachers for it, especially with the nature of this content. I think all students have a right to this knowledge.’
— East Kentwood history teacher Matt Vriesman
Vriesman said his mission is to support teachers in helping students identify and confront policies that have contributed to racial disparities in American society. Lessons cover units in AP African American Studies and AP U.S. History.
“I love this work, and I love strategizing how to make it more engaging. I think it’s incredibly important. I definitely am cognizant of the fact that it is an interesting time to be a history teacher. We are seeing institutions go the opposite way.”
While curriculums such as Brown University’s Choices Program, a long-running high school history curriculum, are no longer available, Vriesman wants to make sure as many students as possible are being taught history based on established scholarship by professional historians and include diverse sources from minority communities.
“Those are the sources that make students sit up and say, ‘Wait, what?’ Those are the engaging sources — when you are taking the standard narrative and questioning it and starting to explore ‘Why is the narrative this?’ when you have other evidence,” he said.
Vriesman said nearly 5,000 teachers have used resources from Empowering Histories, resulting in 65,000 downloads. The majority come from schools that are serving low-income, high-need schools, and 95.7% of teachers report increased student engagement from using the materials.
The Right to Knowledge
As the site has grown with more and more users, Vriesman said the cost of running it has increased as well. Establishing it as a nonprofit is a way to make it sustainable, though he never plans to make money on it.
“I didn’t want to charge teachers for it,” he said, “especially with the nature of this content. I think all students have a right to this knowledge.”
As a nonprofit, all contributions, which can be made through the site, are tax-deductible. Vriesman is also hoping for other funding sources.
“My real goal is (to get support from) larger institutions who want to fund education that sustains democracy, boosts student engagement — especially engagement in social studies because, literally, democracy depends on an educated populace.”
A teacher for 18 years, Vriesman said the idea to create open-source curriculum materials with history lessons based on primary-source documents came to him during his graduate studies.
‘For our students to be well versed in the history of our country and to be able to see that history from multiple sides is something they need, so they can be better citizens and people.’
— Explorer Elementary Principal Jason Bannister
He started the site, originally called Antiracist APUSH, during his graduate research. Vriesman was struck by the prevalence of racist myths still found in modern AP U.S. History textbooks.
“What I saw over and over was that historians and the public are not having the same conversation,” said Vriesman in a press release about the site. “Within the academic field, certain truths about the past are not up for debate. But in many communities, those same truths are framed as controversial. That disconnect has real consequences in classrooms. It leaves teachers without support, and students without the tools they need to analyze evidence, evaluate claims and make informed contributions to our democracy.”
There’s a gap in the reality behind settled scholarship concerning the role of slavery, race and racism in shaping American institutions and what’s being presented to students, he said. Many states have passed laws restricting classroom discussions of race or history, and over half the teachers in a nationwide poll report modifying lessons due to political pressure, he said.
Explorer Elementary Principal Jason Bannister is serving on Vriesman’s board for the website.
“I believe Matt’s work is valuable because as we strive to understand the truth of who we are as a nation, it is essential to have an honest representation of our history,” he said. “With what his website provides, teachers are able to have access to materials that will help them to provide depth to the American story and perspectives that they may otherwise not have had.”
‘Empowering Histories is more than a set of lessons — it’s a public good. Teachers deserve access to materials that reflect the best of historical scholarship without political distortion.’
— board member Luke Wilcox, former East Kentwood teacher and 2017-18 Michigan Teacher of the Year
Bannister said it’s vital that students learn important facets of history that aren’t necessarily present in textbooks.
“For our students to be well versed in the history of our country and to be able to see that history from multiple sides is something they need, so they can be better citizens and people,” he said. “Our strength as a nation is in our complex story and how we work through those complexities to be a better nation and better individuals. Our students need an opportunity to be able to do that, and Matt’s website provides an avenue for teachers to be able to facilitate it.”
Nonprofit board member Luke Wilcox, former East Kentwood teacher and 2017-18 Michigan Teacher of the Year, said all students can benefit from the lessons.
“Empowering Histories is more than a set of lessons — it’s a public good. Teachers deserve access to materials that reflect the best of historical scholarship without political distortion. When these resources are free, every student, in every community, has the chance to learn honest, research-based history and develop the analytical skills that strengthen our democracy.”
Along with teaching, Vriesman worked with the Grand Rapids Public Museum and East Kentwood art teacher Le Tran to create the exhibit “GR Stories: This is our home now, 50 years of building community after Saigon.” For the project, 20 Vietnamese East Kentwood students contributed narratives about their families.
Read more from Kentwood:
• Cookie decorating? LEGOs? Chess? There’s a club for you!
• Local districts mirror statewide growth, student success in AP courses
