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District staff recommend Discovery Education social studies for middle schools; board asked to review $92,280 six-year subscription
Summary
Curriculum staff recommended Discovery Education Social Studies as the middle-school standards-aligned resource after a shortened pilot; staff presented pilot feedback from teachers, students and families and outlined a six-year purchase and professional-development plan totaling $92,280.
Tawanda Lawrence, the district—s senior director of teaching and learning (presenting on behalf of the curriculum team), and Veena Rajashekhar, the middle school curriculum coordinator, recommended that the board adopt Discovery Education—s social studies program for grades 6— as their comprehensive middle school social science resource.
The recommendation followed an expedited pilot in which teachers tested two programs in sequence (HMH and Discovery Education) in March through mid-May. Staff said teachers, students and families gave higher ratings, on balance, to Discovery Education when asked to express a preference.
"When they had an opinion, there was a trend toward preferring Discovery over HMH," Lawrence told the board. Presenters also said the program provides two Lexile levels for core content, Spanish translations, differentiation supports for students with special needs and English learners, and integrated primary sources and media.
Student pilots were part of the presentation: seventh-grade student Gabe Galinari said the program "put me in the shoes of a lot of these people" and praised embedded links to biographies and primary sources. Sixth- and seventh-grade student Ellie Wright said the resource "helped me stay interested in social science" because it offered guided readings, images and videos and an option for summaries when needed.
Budget and next steps: presenters said the district negotiated a six-year subscription with professional development; the total cited in the presentation was $92,280 for the district for the six-year bundle plus initial training. Staff outlined a timeline that would purchase teacher and student access, finalize a scope-and-sequence over the summer, and phase professional development into the school year if the board approves the adoption.
Board process: trustees asked for raw survey counts and for more family outreach; a board member requested that staff expand family engagement and clarify how the resource will be used to teach inquiry and current-events connections. Presenters said appendix data and response counts are available and that a fuller family engagement plan would be part of the implementation.
No adoption vote was recorded at this meeting. Staff presented the recommendation and budget and asked the board to consider the adoption at a forthcoming action meeting.
