For 50 years, American public schools have rejected any 'rote memorization of facts' about US civics & history. This is the (intended) result: two generations unmoored from historical reality, blown in any direction the propaganda-winds want them to sail.
AP US History tends to be quite different from most public school history classes, IIRC. Partly because students are trying to catch up on a colossal amount of factual material they should have been learning the previous 10 years.