# data[].attributes.body
Give examples of ways the Constitution limits the powers of the federal government.

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Describe examples of how humans modified the environment in the era studied.

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Describe the human characteristics of the region under study, including languages, religions, economic system, governmental system, and cultural traditions.

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

# data[].attributes.body
Describe examples of how humans have impacted and are continuing to impact the environment in different places as a consequence of population size, resource use, level of consumption, and technology.

# data[].attributes.body
Compare the differences in the lives of free black people (including

those who escaped from slavery) with the lives of free white people and enslaved people.

# data[].attributes.body
Describe the formation and development of the abolitionist movement

by considering the roles of key abolitionist leaders and the response of southerners and northerners to the abolitionist movement.

Examples may include: John Brown and the armed resistance, Harriet Tubman, the Underground Railroad, Sojourner Truth, Maria Stewart, William Lloyd Garrison, and Frederick Douglass.

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Explain the origins of the American education system.

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Describe some of the current movements of goods, people, jobs, or information to, from, or within Michigan and explain reasons for the movements.

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Describe how Michigan attained statehood.

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Lesson Activation: What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Activation: What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

# data[].attributes.headline
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.subject
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.headline
Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard? 

# data[].attributes.subject
Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard? 

# data[].attributes.headline
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.subject
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.body
Describe how the French and Indian War affected British policy toward the colonies and subsequent colonial dissatisfaction with the new policy.

# data[].attributes.headline
Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

# data[].attributes.headline
Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Westward Expansion – analyze the annexation of the west through

the Louisiana Purchase, the removal of Indigenous Peoples from their ancestral homelands, the Mexican-American War, the growth of a system of commercial agriculture, and the idea of Manifest Destiny.

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

# data[].attributes.headline
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.subject
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.headline
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.subject
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.headline
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.subject
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.headline
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.subject
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.body
Describe the causes and effects of events such as the Stamp Act, the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and the Intolerable Acts.

# data[].attributes.headline
Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

# data[].attributes.subject
Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

# data[].attributes.headline
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.subject
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.body
Identify the role that key individuals played in leading the colonists to revolution, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, John Adams and Thomas Paine.

# data[].attributes.headline
Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

# data[].attributes.headline
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.subject
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.body
Give reasons why the Framers wanted to limit the power of government.

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

# data[].attributes.subject
Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

# data[].attributes.headline
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.subject
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.headline
Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

# data[].attributes.subject
Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

# data[].attributes.headline
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.subject
Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

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Listen to the interview with Shane Safir and Jamila Dugan (transcript):
Sponsored by CommonLit and ISTE

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. When you make a purchase through these links,
Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.

We're living in a time in history when awareness of educational inequality has risen to what seems like its highest point ever, and many good resources have emerged to help us attack the problem from multiple angles: anti-bias training, book studies, restorative practices, culturally responsive teaching, improving representation in our classroom materials, the list goes on. Unfortunately, many of these resources only chip away at the problem, and many are only being consumed by individual teachers or served up as one-off trainings whose impact ultimately fades after a period of time. These efforts, while well-intended, often don't make enough of a difference because we're trying to make them work inside a system that's a terrible fit for them.

What's been missing is a whole-school approach, something that completely shifts our focus and creates a path forward that is radically different from what we've done before.

Earlier this year, a book came out that I think fills that void. It's called Street Data: A Next-Generation Model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation. Written by Dr. Shane Safir and Dr. Jamila Dugan, the book outlines an approach to school improvement that focuses on a completely different kind of data analysis. Instead of looking at grades and test scores, attendance and graduation rates, the Street Data method looks at data from the ground up, where educators and school leaders act as ethnographers to gather stories, artifacts, and observations from the margins: the families, students, and educators themselves. It is not a silver bullet. It is not a quick fix. The Street Data approach is messy, it's different for every school, and it is never "done." But in the 20-plus years that I have been teaching or teaching about teaching, I have never seen an approach that I thought was more promising.

On the podcast, I talked with Safir and Dugan about what schools have done historically to address equity gaps, why those efforts have largely failed, and why their approach is far more effective. Below is a summary of our conversation.

Why Most School Improvement Efforts Fall Short...

Since the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act, U.S. schools have tried desperately to improve the test scores of students whose performance fell below proficiency. Many of these efforts haven't succeeded-at least, not to the degree school leaders hoped. They also created a test-obsessed culture in schools that put instructional emphasis on drill-and-kill test prep, then punished teachers when all that prep didn't produce the desired results.

The problem, Safir and Dugan submit in their book, is that schools have been focusing on the wrong data- satellite data -the kinds of numbers we can only see from a distance, like test scores, graduation rates, and so on.

"The achievement gap itself is a mythology," Safir says. "It's a distortion. And it's rooted in a really narrow epistemology or sense of what it means to know."

In other words, we're measuring the wrong things, defining achievement through a lens that's way too limited. "Those measures are pretty disconnected from our day-to-day," Dugan says. "In this model, student work gets skipped over. I can't tell you the amount of times I go in a classroom going like, oh my gosh, you're not even looking at the work. You're just looking at the test."

...and Well-Meaning Equity Efforts Miss the Mark

At the same time schools have attempted to boost academic achievement via testing, they've also been taking action to improve equity through one-and-done professional development, new hires, or abrupt policy changes-a collection Dugan refers to as Equity Traps and Tropes. Unfortunately, these efforts often produce disappointing results, not because they aren't well-intended, but because they are treated as to-do items that ultimately don't change the larger system.

"It's not a destination," Dugan says. "Equity is much more a journey. It's dynamic. You don't just achieve equity at a moment. And if you did, you'd be shifting the next moment because it's a dynamic process. So I can't just say, All right. We know research says we need more staff of color. So I hire staff of color, then I'm done. Or We know we want to have a restorative justice lens. We want to have restorative practice. So we do a PD on that. Good, we're done. We do culturally responsive teaching. We're done. So now we're equitable."

All this hard work-the test prep, the data analysis, the equity trainings-has been done by people who really wanted to see all students achieve, be happy, live good, productive lives, and yet it hasn't made nearly the difference they hoped it would. If we want students to be successful, if we want to truly leave no child behind, we need a new definition of success.

That's where Street Data comes in.

How Street Data Is Different

The Street Data model is built around these key characteristics:

Data Collection is Holistic and Ground-Level

The model works from the ground up, assessing how a school is doing by going directly to the students, teachers, parents, and community members who are directly impacted. Through a process of deep listening, observation, and the study of artifacts (student work, videos, etc.), data is gathered, studied, and explored.

The authors define it this way in the book: "Street data are the qualitative and experiential data that emerges at eye level and on lower frequencies when we train our brains to discern it. These data are asset based, ... helping educators look for what's right in our students, schools, and communities instead of seeking out what's wrong " (p. 57).

With that data in hand, all stakeholders co-design a path forward, building something that meets the unique needs of their learning community with the unique assets of that community. This is what makes the Street Data approach so special: It's not a one-size-fits-all "program" that all schools can follow for improvement; it's a method for study and reflection that will give every school a customized solution, one that will keep evolving over time.

Agency Is the Goal

A thread that runs throughout the Street Data approach is agency, "the idea that people have the capacity to take action, craft and carry out plans, and make informed decisions based on a growing base of knowledge" (p. 229).

This idea plays out first in who is involved in the data collection process. Rather than it being a top-down approach, Street Data is practitioner-driven, giving teachers the role of researchers.

Agency also holds a central place in the pedagogy envisioned by the authors. "At the heart of this book is this guiding principle that equity work is first and foremost pedagogical," Safir explains, "that what it means to work toward equity begins and, in some ways, ends in the classroom."

Specifically, this is a pedagogy that gives students the tools "to become agents of their own learning and ultimately agents in the world." This means an emphasis on student voice, project-based and inquiry-based learning, portfolio development and defense, and assessment practices that value feedback and revision over grades.

Anti-Racism Is the Driver

Both authors are firm on this point: The driving force behind the Street Data approach is anti-racism, a commitment to taking direct and sustained action to uproot systemic racism and reduce racial inequality.

"This model is not neutral," Safir says. "We're not trying to play a game of neutrality or to say that the history of systemic racism isn't relevant here. We have to be explicitly anti-racist as we pursue this path of street data. And we have to be willing to disrupt the narratives and the practices and the biases that are continuing to marginalize students."

Our current system "has long promoted the myth that students of color 'need developing'-translated: Black, Indigenous, and brown students are broken and schooling will fix them. To walk the next-generation path of street data, we have to be vulnerable enough to reject this racist lie and stare down the parts of our own practice that need to be fixed" (p. 52).

This brief summary only scratches the surface of how Street Data works. For schools to adopt this model well, the starting point is to read the book, which goes into much more detail about how to implement it. To get support, professional development is available by contacting either author through their websites, which are listed below.

I can't count how many books have been written over the past few decades about school transformation, and many of them probably have some very good ideas, but I have never once reviewed any of these books here, because none of them had an overall approach that seemed as promising as this one. We all want our schools to do better; I think Street Data could very well be the best way to get there.

Learn More

Find Shane Safir at shanesafir.com or on Twitter at @shanesafir.
Find Jamila Dugan at jamiladugan.com or on Twitter at @jamiladugan.

Street Data is Now a Podcast!
Click here for listening info

The Street Data Video Series

In 2023, we released a video series documenting the work of educators from two schools as they followed the Street Data protocol. Learn more about the series here.

Come back for more.
Join our mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration that will make your teaching more effective and fun. You'll get access to our members-only library of free downloads, including 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half, the e-booklet that has helped thousands of teachers save time on grading. Over 50,000 teachers have already joined-come on in.

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Street Data: A Pathway Toward Equitable, Anti-Racist Schools

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So many equity initiatives fall short because our test-obsessed system doesn't support them. Street Data takes a completely different approach, and it may very well change everything.

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Online Practice for M-STEP ELA, Math, Science and Social Studies

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Answer Keys for Mathematics, ELA, Science, and Social Studies included

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Identify and describe the core beliefs of major world religions and belief systems, including Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Sikhism and Islam.

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

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Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

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Guest speaker - teacher who has migrated

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Guest speaker - teacher who has migrated

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Educators from across Michigan have been working since 2013 to revise the Michigan Social Studies Standards. The result of over five years worth of Michigan based work is before you now.

Grade band PDFs are provided for educators looking to implement the standards across a specific grade band. All materials also contain the full introduction to the standards themselves, as well as each grade band opening.

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Educators from across Michigan have been working since 2013 to revise the Michigan Social Studies Standards. The result of over five years worth of Michigan based work is before you now. Grade band PDFs are provided for educators looking to implement the standards across a specific grade band.

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Fill a trunk with what you'd take to move

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Fill a trunk with what you'd take to move

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

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Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

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Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

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Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

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Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

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Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

# data[].attributes.headline
Lesson Activation: What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Activation: What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

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Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

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Give examples of powers exercised by the federal government, tribal governments and state governments.

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Lesson Activation: What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Activation: What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

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Lesson Closing: What closing question(s) / exit ticket will help you assess your students' understanding of a key concept or key skill from the standard?

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What support would you like from the department? What recommendations would you like to share?

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What support would you like from the department? What recommendations would you like to share?

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Origins and Beginnings of the Cold War –

Analyze the factors that contributed to the Cold War, including:

• differences in the civic, ideological, and political values, and in the economic and governmental institutions, of the United States and the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.).

• diplomatic and political actions by both the United States and the U.S.S.R. in the last years of World War II and the years afterward.

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International Organizations and the World Economy

Evaluate the diverse impact of trade policies of the World Trade Organization, World Bank, or International Monetary Fund on developing economies of Africa, Central America, or Asia, and on the developed economies of the United States and Western Europe.

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Increasing Global Interconnections –

Describe the increasing global interconnections and new global networks that resulted in the spread of major innovations in governance, economic systems, cultural traits, technologies, and commodities.

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?

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Lesson Activation:  What question(s) / activity will help your students find connection and purpose with a key concept in this standard?