This article concerns the results of an online survey that interpreted understandings of United States history, up to 1877, among early childhood, elementary, and middle level preservice teachers from three institutions in the United States. In literature, the authors observe associations between teaching methods and teacher conceptions of curricular content and that these relationships hold particular relevance to social studies (history) teaching. They conducted an online survey to interpret respondents' abilities to remember, speak about, and explain content for which they are responsible. The study found that respondents correctly answered less than one half of 25 multiplechoice questions. It also determined a modest percentage of responses to open-response items, with short comments provided.Teacher preparation programs are expected to graduate and certify teaching candidates embodied with the knowledge, skills and dispositions necessary to successfully assist children as they acquire critical content understandings and develop the ability and willingness to analyze and interpret this information. As conveyed by Standard 1 of the Conceptual Framework of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, knowledge of content represents a critical attribute of a wellprepared teacher, one for which teacher preparation programs are responsible. Diminished content mastery and instructional awareness creates candidates who lack the resources to correct misunderstandings of content among their students and to critically analyze prospective curricular resources. This is especially important when the content area is US history because the chosen stories of a national past may differ by social group, by the storyteller's message, and by the observer's point of view. The development of candidates who possess knowledge of US history necessitates that teacher preparers be accountable for their efforts (1) to interpret teachers' understandings of history and related themes; (2) to clarify and remedy these understandings where necessary; and (3) to facilitate their awareness of methods that enable their candidates' learning. In doing so, they work towards the development of future citizens who have both common knowledge of historical events and the ability to engage in dialogue about interpretations of these conflicting accounts.Understanding of content represents a critical teaching tenet for all education levels, but particularly for early childhood, elementary and middle-level settings, because children not only develop the behavioral and emotional imprints that will guide them for life, but also gain the rudimentary knowledge that provides the foundations for future learning during these years. Thus,