Teachers collaborate to meet new state standards.

Last year, Eugene IHS (International High School) made some significant changes to curriculum in response to new state standards requiring a half-credit of civics education in order for students to graduate high school.

IHS teacher Sheela Hadjivassiliou explained that the changes are mostly concentrated in sophomore year.

“[We] in IHS put [civics] into 10th grade,” Hadjivassiliou said, “so that’s changed the two social studies classes that we have had in the past.” 

All of the sophomore IHS social studies curriculum has been restructured this year, replacing some of last year’s classes with Civics and Engagement and a new history class, Narratives and Perspectives.

“Some of it is brand new,” IHS teacher Julia Von Holt, who was on last year’s committee in charge of designing the new classes with Hadjivassiliou. “But some of it is stuff that we chose because it was really successful and popular and educational in prior social studies classes.” 

While curriculum standards were provided by the state, many of the decisions on what would be included in the classes were made by teachers themselves.

“A self-selected committee of teachers last year met at least once a month to discuss what we hoped students would learn in this course and to review what we were required to teach,” Von Holt explained.

Real world applications of civics is a main focus of the new class.

“It’s about learning how to interact in a community, it’s about learning how to identify problems and then figure out how to fix those problems,” said Von Holt.

Civic’s mirror class, Narratives and Perspectives, is meant to teach history in alignment with the civics curriculum.

“Narratives and Perspectives focuses on the same topics from a regional and time-based perspective, so many people will consider Narratives and Perspectives a history and sociology class. Looking at case studies throughout time, regions and history,” Von Holt explained, “civics intends to build on those case studies and turn it into real life applications.”

Some students who have taken the 10th grade IHS classes in the past have different points of view. IHS Junior Malachi Alrahmani took Values and Beliefs as a sophomore and found the class very valuable.

“The class we took, Values and Beliefs, was replaced with Civics,” Alrahmani said, “I have talked with a lot of the juniors in my class, and we all agree that this is a great loss for both the students and the teachers because they’re missing an experience in a really great class.” 

Some of the old Values and Beliefs curriculum will be preserved and adapted to fit the new standards.

“[We] will incorporate some of the religious studies that were in Values and Beliefs,” Hadjivassiliou explained, “it will affect 11th grade, as well, because we’ll focus on government constitutions in 10th grade and won’t do them as much in 11th  grade history.”

Some sophomores currently taking the classes have their own thoughts.

“I like the new curriculum so far,” IHS sophomore Faizatou Sanou said, “it’s just a bit confusing, since it’s only been two-ish weeks now.”

Since students have only been taking the new classes for a short time, teachers and students still have a lot to figure out about how to move forward and continue with adjusting and bettering the curriculum for the future.

Article by Julian White