Shakopee board approves National Geographic materials for grades 7–8, keeps Northern Lights for 6th grade

The Shakopee Public School District board on April 27 approved a recommendation from a teacher articulation team to adopt National Geographic materials for seventh- and eighth-grade social studies while continuing Northern Lights for sixth grade.

District director Sarah Weinberg presented the process and recommendation. Weinberg said an articulation team of six middle-school social studies teachers piloted four vendors, scored offerings with a rubric and concluded "that was a pretty easy decision for us, and that was National Geographic." She told the board the National Geographic program is written from an inquiry-based lens and includes multimedia and project ideas teachers can curate rather than follow as a script.

The recommendation was framed as aligning curriculum resources to Minnesota's recently revised standards. Weinberg said the team selected National Geographic for seventh and eighth grades because it "creates students curious, asking questions, wanting to wonder more about the world and about relationships between different concepts." The district will continue using Northern Lights for sixth grade because it is a familiar, standards-aligned product.

Board members asked about how the new resources differ from legacy textbook approaches and how the district will support teachers. Weinberg and team members described planned curriculum-writing sessions in June and a continued cycle of teacher professional development and local curriculum mapping to ensure a guaranteed, viable curriculum tied to the updated standards.

The adoption was presented as an action item, a motion to approve was made and seconded, and the board voted to adopt the recommendation.

Next steps: staff will proceed with implementation planning, teacher supports and the scheduled curriculum-writing work this summer.