High School History Curriculum FAQ

The high school history department's mission calls for students to appreciate the historical and cultural influences that shape their individual identities, our national identity, and the cultures and countries that share our planet. We strive to teach our students to assess and interpret evidence, to understand change over time, to think logically and to express themselves clearly.

Our core values include openness to multiple perspectives and critical thinking.  We strive to teach students to separate fact from opinion, to discern between different points of view, to challenge their own thinking and that of their peers, and to develop evidence-based opinions through study and the testing of ideas. Students are encouraged to understand, respect, and appreciate diverse perspectives and to reach their own conclusions based upon historical facts. We do not teach students that they should agree with every perspective they encounter in our classrooms. Instead, we encourage students to base their interpretations on evidence from the historical record.

Our core values stand firmly in opposition to discrimination and hateful rhetoric in any form, including but not limited to racism, homophobia, sexism, xenophobia, antisemitism, and Islamophobia.

Our curriculum includes learning goals and resources that are chosen by teachers and administrators in keeping with the Massachusetts State Frameworks. 

History and Social Science State Framework

Since 1997, the Newton history departments have aligned the history curriculum with the Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework. Revised in 2003 and again in 2018,  the Framework provides teachers with a list of content topics. It also emphasizes the skills of formulating questions, conducting research, evaluating sources, and synthesizing information. Standards for literacy in history and social science set expectations for analytical reading and logical writing and speaking, skills essential to political equality and civic engagement. At the middle and high school levels, standards for news and media literacy aim to help students become discerning readers of digital news and opinion.  

The following principles guide Newton’s history curriculum development and are excerpted directly from the 2018 Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework:

An effective history and social science education

• teaches students about the legacy of democratic government. 
• incorporates diverse perspectives and acknowledges that perceptions of events are affected by race, ethnicity, culture, religion, education, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, and personal experience.
• teaches students to think historically
• builds students’ capacities for research, reasoning, making logical arguments, and thinking for themselves.
• improves reading comprehension by increasing students’ content knowledge.
• incorporates the study of current events and news/media literacy.
• teaches students about using data analysis and digital tools as research and presentation techniques in the social sciences.
  develops social and emotional skills.

Curriculum development

Working within the goals of the Frameworks, Newton high school history teachers and administrators create course outlines, which include a course overview, specific unit learning goals, a menu of unit questions, and links to useful sources. While our course outlines designate common learning goals, teachers work with administrators to make their own instructional decisions about specific lessons and assignments to meet those learning goals.

Primary sources

History courses in Newton rely on a range of historical primary sources, such as letters, articles, books, and visuals, to promote student understanding of the voices and perspectives of the past. Some primary source material, including historical and contemporary opinion pieces, are used to illustrate different points of view on controversial events and concepts. The Massachusetts State Frameworks mandates that students learn “the importance of context and historical point of view...and that participants in historical events can hold vastly different ideas about how those events unfolded.” The inclusion of these documents is not used to advocate for those perspectives or ideas; rather, the content of each document is used in class to encourage students to understand different points of view and to develop their own perspectives on key historical events.

Reading and video materials

Reading and video materials are other important parts of the curriculum. Course textbooks are chosen after a rigorous selection process involving teachers, students, and administrators. Supplemental reading and video materials are selected by teachers, working in collaboration with their colleagues and supervisors. Teachers use their professional expertise and judgment to select supplemental resources that help students to better understand the issue or topic at hand and to engage them more deeply in the learning.

Professional Development

In addition to rooting the curriculum in the Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Frameworks, Newton history teachers individually engage in professional development opportunities with respected academic institutions. In the past, Newton history teachers have attended professional development opportunities at the Choices program at Brown University, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, Primary Source in Watertown, and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. These professional development opportunities enrich the teachers’ understandings of complex events through lectures and workshops with other teachers. In attending professional development workshops, teachers seek to expose themselves to a wide range of recent historical scholarship; attendance at a particular workshop does not indicate that the teachers agree with the views presented or that they will incorporate those views into their lessons. Curriculum is still developed in accordance with NPS core values and the state curriculum frameworks.

Over the last several years, a few small but vocal groups of Newton residents and non-residents have accused the Newton high school history departments of promoting antisemitic and anti-Israel views in some history lessons and events. In some cases, documents used in lessons to share different points of view on issues have been mischaracterized as the official perspective of the Newton Public Schools. In September 2013, the Massachusetts Department of Education found that claims of an antisemitic and anti-Israel bias in the Newton history curriculum were baseless. Nonetheless, the accusations continued to resurface and, in 2018, critics began to target individual teachers. In doing so, these critics denigrated the hard work and professionalism of both our skilled faculty and dedicated students. The Newton history departments have resisted and will continue to resist attempts to censor and politicize the history curriculum. 

Below, we have provided a list of questions raised by these criticisms. We hope our answers will provide useful information about the high school history curriculum and our approach to teaching controversial topics. As always, we encourage our families to reach out to their student’s teacher, department chair, or building administrator, with any questions or concerns.