We compared two approaches to teaching United States history to students with learning disabilities (LD). We randomly assigned students in seventh through ninth grades (n = 44) to separate treatment groups (strategy-based instruction or traditional instruction). In both approaches, students were taught identical content on two units of the Civil War. Teachers conducted 50-minute lessons each day for 4 weeks. We compared the groups' scores on (a) two unit tests measuring vocabulary and factual recall, (b) two thematic measures, (c) a relevant portion of the "National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)", and (d) a student attitude-satisfaction scale. Results showed students who received the strategy-based instruction had significantly better scores on all dependent measures except for the student attitude measure. (Contains 8 tables.)