Social Studies
Core Beliefs
All students can learn high levels of social studies.
All students must have access to grade-level content with appropriate scaffolds and support to meet or exceed standards in social studies.
Key to the social studies is literacy. Students must be given daily opportunities to read and write in content-aligned ways.
We believe in creating safe and supportive classroom communities that value student voice, active listening, respectful communication, appreciate diversity, and celebrate risk-taking and mistakes as part of learning.
Tier 1 Curricular Expectations
Consistent implementation of high-quality instructional materials is the first step toward ensuring every student's success. It is expected that schools and classrooms use the following materials as the foundations of classroom instruction:
Grades K-6:
InquirED inquiries: This should be the primary resource used in elementary social studies classrooms.
Antiracist Curriculum Project Units
Identity and Our Community (Constance Mitchell story)
Redlining and Resistance in Rochester (4th Grade)
Enslavement and Resistance in NYS (4th Grade)
Puerto Rican Civil Rights in Rochester (5th Grade)
C3 Inquiry Toolkit
Junior Achievement
Grades 7-8:
Stanford History Education Group
RCSD Black History Curriculum
Locally Developed Social Studies Framework Aligned Exemplars
Mikva Challenge
Antiracist Curriculum Project
Enslavement and Resistance in NYS (7th Grade)
New Deal, Redlining, and Resistance in Rochester (8th Grade)
Grades 9-12:
Global History & Geography I and II
New Visions Social Studies Curriculum
United States History & Government:
New Visions Social Studies Curriculum
Black History 365
Participation in Government & Economics:
Mikva Challenge Issues to Action Curriculum
EverFi Financial Literacy
Antiracist Curriculum Project: Racist Government Policy and Civic Action in Rochester
Core Instructional Actions
The Core Instructional Actions below are high-leverage, research-based strategies that will support student achievement in this discipline. This is not an exhaustive list, but a prioritized one - they are actions and strategies we expect teachers to implement in class with students.
Core Student Practices
The Core Student Practices identified below delineate the most important disciplinary practices in which we believe students should be engaged. They are actions, practices, and types of thinking that we should see evidence of students doing in class on a regular basis.