This article provides further details on the Newton Public Schools (NPS) recommendations for the Social Studies curriculum, as presented by Eva Hughes with support from Gina Flanagan at the May 11 School Committee meeting (see Fig City News report).
Embodying the continued consolidation of Central Office staffing at the district level, the primary presenter for the Social Studies curriculum was Eva Hughes. Both she and School Committee Member Jason Bhardwaj referred to her as an “Army of One-Half” because she is the district Director of Humanities, including both History & Social Sciences and Fine & Performing Arts for PK-12 across the district. One of the recommendations she made in the presentation to counteract the effects of this administrator-level consolidation was to add Social Studies Teacher Leader positions at the elementary school and middle school levels.
Grades K-2
The main recommendation of the Social Studies Curriculum Committee for Grades K-2 is to pilot the Children Discovering Justice curriculum in the 2027-28 school year. As Ms. Hughes described, Social Studies is allocated few instructional minutes compared to Literacy and Math. There are no designated instructional minutes in kindergarten, and only 23 minutes in other grades. To the extent teachers have been finding time to work with it, the curriculum that has been in use for Grades K-2 is 25 years old and not aligned with DESE’s 2018 History and Social Science Framework, which covers both content and civic practice.
In this environment, where there are not a lot of instructional minutes allocated and the district is trying to pace new initiatives for teachers, Ms. Hughes said the Curriculum Committee chose to focus on Civic Action as the fundamental instructional priority from the State Frameworks. This led the committee to recommend the Children Discovering Justice curriculum for Grades K-2, because it is particularly strong in that area. Ms. Hughes also called it a “standard bearer in Massachusetts,” with “high quality materials vetted by DESE.”
The non-profit Discovering Justice that created this curriculum has a curriculum roadmap that supports Civic Action as an area of strength while also acknowledging its areas of weakness in relation to the state standards:
Kindergarten
- Covered
- Practice Standards / Civic Action
- Topic 1 Civics: Classroom Citizenship: What does it mean to be responsible?
- Not Covered
- Topic 2 Geography: Connections Among Places: How do maps, globes, and photographs show different things about a place?
- Topic 3 History: Shared Traditions: How do we commemorate our shared history as a nation and community?
- Topic 4 Economics: Work and Commerce: What kinds of work do women, men, and children do?
Grade 1
- Covered
- Practice Standards / Civic Action
- Topic 1 Civics: Communities, Elections, and Leadership: What does it mean to belong to or lead a group?
- Not Covered
- Topic 2 Geography: Places to Explore: How can maps help people locate places and learn about them?
- Topic 3 History: Unity and Diversity in the United States: What does the motto, “Out of Many, One” mean and why is it a good motto of the United States?
- Topic 4 Economics: Resources and Choices: How do the resources of an area affect its industries and jobs?
Grade 2
- Covered
- Practice Standards / Civic Action
- Topic 2: Geography and its Effects on People: How do people adapt to or change their environment?
- Not Covered
- Topic 1: Reading and Making Maps: What do maps show?
- Topic 3 History: Migrations and Cultures: What are the different reasons people choose to settle in a community?
- Topic 4 Civics: Geography, Countries, and Government: Why are continents divided into countries?
- Topic 5 Economics: Resources and Choices : How do the resources of an area affect its industries and jobs?
Via email after the meeting, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Gina Flanagan confirmed that the Discovering Justice Curriculum is “one unit which is 1/4 of the K standards… As for the other K-2 [Social Studies] standards, the committee and the Director will continue to explore appropriate curriculum resources and offer them as pilots as teacher capacity allows. Conversations and planning around how many pilots and curriculum roll-outs happen per grade level each year happen internally within the office of Teaching and Learning.” She added that “The elementary scheduling committee and the Office of Teaching and Learning is working together to create an equitable schedule in which all standards will be covered with High Quality Instructional Materials and rolled out based on the curriculum review process and overall teacher capacity.”
Grades 3-5
For Grades 3-5, the recommendation is for the Investigating History curriculum to be piloted in the 2027-28 school year. This is an open-source curriculum that was created by a team of teachers throughout the state with the support of DESE. Ms. Hughes said that in Newton, it is being used by some 5th Grade teachers in the district and has received “really great” reviews from them. A rollout of this curriculum was in process when Dr. Nolin arrived in Newton, but she said she stopped it “because of the heavy lift of the EL curriculum rollout,” which was happening at the same time for elementary teachers.
The DESE web site currently lists Grades 5-7 materials as ready for use and Grades 3-4 materials as pilot materials with revisions expected this summer. The DESE website describes it as an “inquiry-based curriculum” and also says, “Over 100 districts are using Investigating History across Massachusetts.” DESE stipulates that “It is important to note that DESE does not mandate that schools or districts use any specific curricular materials. Investigating History is intended to provide schools with a vetted, high-quality curriculum and professional development option that is directly aligned to the Massachusetts History and Social Science Framework. Whether to adopt these resources will be a decision made on a local level.” There is also funding available for district-level professional development to adopt this curriculum and a list of vetted providers of professional development.
Grades 6-7
Although the recommendations for Grades 3-7 all involve the Investigating History curriculum, Ms. Hughes acknowledged that the ask of teachers in middle school is different from elementary school teachers because the middle school teachers are not subject to the cognitive load of changing multiple curricula at the same time. The curriculum mapping process indicated that the Investigating History units have been introduced in Grades 6-7 but implemented inconsistently. The recommendation is to create systemwide expectations for implementing this curriculum, which would include essential units, core content, common assessments, pacing guidelines, differentiation materials, and language supports.
Investigating History discussion
Dr. Nolin acknowledged that the implementation of the Investigating History curriculum has been drawn-out. Though it was never officially voted on by the School Committee as the curriculum when the original pilot began, prior to Dr. Nolin’s arrival in Newton, teachers in the district have invested several years in various pilot iterations. Dr. Nolin said, “It will be almost fully rolled out… we don’t want to be jamming teachers around with ‘Just kidding, we’re not doing this thing you just invested seven years in.’ ” It will be before the School Committee for a vote next year.
Committee Member Victor Lee brought up concerns that Asian and Jewish community members have brought to him about the content of Investigating History, and he asked if and how those concerns would be addressed. Dr. Nolin responded that there will be directives from the Committee on Anti-Semitism that will necessitate bringing in supplementary resources, although they have not yet been released. It was unclear whether the state-level Committee on Anti-Semitism and the state-level DESE were working together to address these concerns about the curriculum in general or whether it would be a Newton-specific initiative. The Investigating History website does say that “the final cluster of unit 6.2 on Abrahamic religions will be available in fully published form [for the 26-27 school year]. To accommodate additional revision time, this cluster was not previously released along with the rest of the Grade 6 course in 2025-26.” Dr. Nolin was very clear that while the district values parent feedback on curriculum choices, it is the district, and not individuals or groups of parents, that makes curriculum recommendations to the School Committee.
Grade 8
Grade 8 is specifically designated as a year for Civics Education. The Curriculum Committee’s recommendation for this grade is to create a shared curriculum framework encompassing landmark Supreme Court cases and state and local government. This would also involve refining the required Civic Action Project and making it more comparable across schools. No details were given about the source of lessons that would be in this grade-specific curriculum.
Grades 9-12
At the high school level, the Curriculum Committee identified instructional quality as a core strength, with pacing discrepancies presenting a particular challenge. They recommended creating internally a coherent scope and sequence for Grades 9-11, which would identify essential content, priority standards, and non-negotiable units. Ms. Hughes talked about covering four years of standards in three years, and this seemed related to the prominence of electives in Social Studies for seniors. Electives were described as driven by student interest and teacher expertise, and they include American Studies, Ethnic Heritage courses, and Ethical Theory.
School Committee Member Ben Schlesinger asked about how teachers are thinking about teaching contemporary topics and civic engagement, as it can be challenging to touch on contemporary issues without teaching “what to think” as opposed to “how to think.” Ms. Hughes responded that this is the central challenge for Social Studies teachers: How to create a space for students to practice talking about challenging topics. She added that what teachers are asking for is professional development to help them be able to talk about current issues, and specifically to support working with students from different communities.
Dr. Nolin said, “Common curriculum helps with this, so that we say, ‘These are the curated resources that we are promoting.’ We also have various policies as a School Committee about how materials, speakers, and pieces are brought into the classroom. And projects like the Civic Action Project bring the community into actually being a part of the action.”
Mayor Laredo asked about procedures for evaluating pacing — either to ensure that teachers are meeting a reasonable curriculum pace or to adjust the curricular expectations if they are unreasonable. Ms. Hughes responded that the effort to implement common assessments has helped significantly with the pacing of courses. Dr. Nolin indicated that this is still a work in progress when she said that this is a “dashboard item for Year 5 of the strategic plan for every grade level and subject area.” Mayor Laredo said he would like to see reasonable efforts to meet common benchmarks between now and Year 5. Committee Member Tamika Olszewski added that her twins in high school had highly varied experiences and that consistency would be appreciated by many people. She applauded the Social Studies department’s initiative to collaborate on common standards even before the curriculum review started.
Committee Member Jason Bhardwaj asked for clarification on whether there is any plan to pilot or use an outside curriculum or textbooks for Social Studies at the high school level. Ms. Hughes responded that there is no single curriculum that meets all the unit needs. However, she said there are numerous resources teachers adapt for their use and that the Office of Teaching and Learning is supporting the work of bringing the “best of” from NNHS and NSHS to the common scope and sequence. The DBQ Project was mentioned as one of these resources, as was DESE’s web site of curated resources.
Public comment
During the public comment period, a 10th grader from Newton North spoke to the social benefits of the representation the Understanding Our Differences program offered students with disabilities. She said that while she was glad updates were being done to the curriculum, she deeply valued the representation of the adults living with disability who came in as speakers and hoped that the district would bring back that program.