Social Studies Honors Designation Standards… Beginning with the 2015-2016 academic calendar year SHS will offer an embedded Honors program in both, Civics Foundations and US History. All students enrolled in these courses will have the opportunity to achieve Honors recognition by demonstrating an advanced mastery of the skills, standards, and content expectations assessed and evaluated on all formative and summative assessments. These advanced skills, standards and content expectation that each student is required to meet to achieve honors status will be clearly defined on the evaluation rubrics used for each assessment throughout the year.
For a student to earn Honors Designation he/she must:
Achieve a final grade of 90 or higher.
Achieve proficiency on all diploma portfolio summatives.
Maintain the highest standard of academic honesty throughout the year. Any violation of the SHS academic honesty policy (SHS Handbook p.17) by a student on a formative or summative assessment in either Civics Foundation or US History will disqualify the student from achieving Honors Recognition for that particular course.
Student Summative Revision Expectations as related to Honors Designation:
Students are encouraged to revise all summative assessments regardless of grade.
Due to the increased demands on teachers at the end of marking periods, student summative revisions may not be accepted during the last week of a marking period.
Starting from the day a summative assessment is returned a student will have two weeks to meet with the teacher to design a success plan and submit planned revisions.
Student Right to Appeal Summative Assessments Evaluation as related to Honors Designation
A student has the right to appeal the evaluation grade of an individual summative assessment in either Civics Foundation and US History.
Prior to a student requesting an appeal, a student must meet with his/her teacher to design a success plan laying out how the piece should be revised to improve its grade and the student must act upon the teacher’s recommendations and submit a revised piece. Multiple revisions may be required.
A student has two weeks from the completion of the revision process to request an appeal of the teacher’s evaluation of a specific summative assessment.
The appeal process will consist of other social studies teachers evaluating the appealed piece based off of the associated rubrics and assigning a grade that will be final. A student will be informed of the final decision no later than two weeks from when the appeal was made.
The appeal must be made to the student’s teacher of record and recorded in the “notes” section of Infinite Campus.
Social Studies Advanced Placement... The SHS Social Studies Department is excited to challenge students to reach their highest potential in social studies by offering three Advanced Placement courses. These AP courses are:
AP US Government & Politics: This course is offered annually and is a college level seminar in the study of American politics. This course will cover various topics related to political science in the United States for the duration of the first semester of the school year. Due to the advanced student expectations of skills and knowledge, the department believes that the social studies and historical thinking skills learned in 9th grade Civics Foundations are essential for student success in AP-Gov. Therefore successful completion of Civics Foundations is required for enrollment in AP-Gov. This prerequisite may be waived with department and/or administrator approval.
AP US History: Beginning in the 2015-2016 academic calendar year and alternating every other year thereafter SHS Social Studies will offer an AP US History course. Due to the advanced student expectations of skills and knowledge, the department believes that the social studies and historical thinking skills learned in 9th grade Civics Foundations and 10th grade US History are essential for student success in APUSH. Therefore successful completion of both of those course are required for enrollment in AP US History. These prerequisites may be waived with department and/or administrator approval. This course will run again in 2017-2018.
AP European History: Beginning in the 2016-2017 academic calendar year and alternating every other year thereafter SHS Social Studies will offer an AP European History course. Due to the advanced student expectations of skills and knowledge, the department recommends that students who wish to enroll in this course will have already successfully completed Civics Foundation and US History.
AP Human Geography: Beginning in 2022-2023 and alternating every year thereafter, students will be able to explore how the Advanced Placement Human Geography (APHG) course introduces students to the systematic study of patterns and processes that have shaped human understanding, use, and alteration of Earth's surface. ... It is an excellent course for preparing students to become geo-literate youth and adults.
AP Psychology: Beginning in 2023-2024 and alternating every year thereafter, students will be able to explore the ideas, theories, and methods of the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. You’ll examine the concepts of psychology through reading and discussion and you’ll analyze data from psychological research studies.
AP World History Modern: Beginning in the 2024-2025 academic calendar year and alternating every year thereafter, investigate significant events, individuals, developments, and processes from 1200 to the present. Students develop and use the same skills, practices, and methods employed by historians: analyzing primary and secondary sources; developing historical arguments; making historical connections; and utilizing reasoning about comparison, causation, and continuity and change over time.
Social Studies Advanced, Early Enrollment Program (EEP) and Dual Enrollment Opportunities... The SHS Social Studies Department offers students the opportunity to earn college credits while at SHS! The Early Enrollment Program (EEP) is a co-enrollment program where students are actually enrolled at both Smithfield High School and Rhode Island College. Our EEP courses are:
Introduction to Psychology EEP: Students have the opportunity to earn credits through Rhode Island College at a reduced tuition fee. Introduction to Psychology is a Junior-Senior elective whereby students may receive college credit from Rhode Island College. This course examines the field of Psychology by describing issues of interest and concern to contemporary psychologists and the research methods they use to explore those issues.
Political Ideologies EEP: Students have the opportunity to earn credits through Rhode Island College at a reduced tuition fee. This course will allow students to intensively and extensively research, analyze, interpret and discuss major political ideologies which have shaped 2Oth century politics. Topics to be pursued include nationalism, fascism, communism, socialism, and capitalism.
Intro. to Criminal Justice Honors : This course introduces students to the historical foundations of the legal system and criminal justice process in America. “Introduction to Criminal Justice” connects the government, the American legal system, and the society in which the student lives. Students will study and analyze the important issues and events of past and present criminal cases, as well as hypothetical criminal scenarios.