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Portsmouth schools highlight social studies push: living-history events, VDOE crosswalks and SOL implementation
Summary
Curriculum leaders presented a year of social studies programming March 27, describing reenactments, museum partnerships, mock elections and new Virginia Department of Education guidance to be implemented in 2025–26.
Portsmouth Public Schools' curriculum leaders told the school board on March 27 that the division has expanded experiential social studies activities this year and is preparing to implement new Virginia standards of learning for history and social sciences in 2025–26.
Carla Jacobowski, the division's elementary social studies coordinator, described partnerships with History Alive, the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, the American Civil War Museum, and the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation to provide hands-on learning opportunities. Jacobowski said the division took students to a living-history event that included a reenactment of the Battle at Scotts Creek and activities tied to Virginia's 250th celebration; she said students also participated in mock elections and voting activities that engaged K-12 students in civic practice.
"These sessions have provided strategies for integrating primary and secondary sources to support historical inquiry," Jacobowski said, describing professional development for teachers aimed at building literacy and historical thinking skills.
Secondary social studies leaders and guest speakers also highlighted field trips and classroom activities: visits by the city registrar to explain voting and to offer voter pre-registration opportunities for students, a courthouse visit by Waters Middle School eighth-graders to examine the local judicial branch, and a mock assembly-line activity to teach industrial-age labor issues.
Jacobowski told the board that the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) has released crosswalk documents and that the division has posted the materials in its curriculum platform, EduPlanet, to help teachers prepare for the new standards. "The new standards of learning for history and social sciences are scheduled to be fully implemented in the school year 2025–26," she said; curriculum staff said they will share additional VDOE instructional guides as they become available.
Students who participated in learning events appeared in a short video played for the board; speakers in the video described the events as more engaging than textbook learning and said they gained historical perspective from the activities.
Board members asked questions after the presentation; Vice Chair Atkinson said she planned to attend a related community event and thanked staff for the work. Jacobowski and colleagues closed by inviting board support for continued classroom and community partnerships as the division transitions to the updated SOL framework.
