For more than a decade, the Hudson Public Schools district has been working in parallel pathways:  bringing consistency, student-active instruction, and higher standards to the academic curriculum, while creating a school environment that nurtures children’s sense of social responsibility.

The district’s mission statement reads: Our goal is to promote the intellectual, ethical, civic, and social development of students through a challenging instructional program and a caring classroom and school environment.

To achieve this mission, Hudson has focused on three core values—empathy, ethics and service—and implemented programs that teach social-emotional skills, create caring classroom and school communities, engage students in civic learning and service, and involve students in classroom and school decision-making.

CURRICULUM OVERVIEW
Programmatically, Hudson has put in place an elementary social skills development curriculum using Educators for Social Responsibility’s Adventures in Peacemaking at the preschool level, and the Committee for Children’s Second Step in grades K-5.

Hudson believes the skills students learn must be modeled in our classrooms and schools. Therefore, to supplement the social skills curriculum, elementary teachers use Responsive Classroom strategies developed by the Northeast Foundation for Children to create a sense of classroom community that nurtures positive relationships and enhances learning.

Middle school teachers use Responsive Designs offered by Origins to build on the elementary approaches with a middle school emphasis.

Hudson has also created peer mediation programs and implemented conflict resolution curricula based on the work of Educators for Social Responsibility.

In addition to developing positive social skills and caring toward others, Hudson believes children need direct instruction in civics and experiences in civic engagement.

It defines its vision in terms of teaching young people to make a positive difference in the world around them so they can be effective, participatory citizens who enter the world with an ethic of care and service and an ability for thoughtful questioning and investigation. The curriculum places civics as the core organizing principle for social studies, particularly at the elementary level.

CURRICULUM BY GRADE
Hudson is currently reorganizing its elementary social studies program so primary-age children are introduced to the concept of law through a study of laws and customs in our country and in other cultures.

The third grade program teaches civics on a local and state level while children study local and state history.

At the fourth grade students begin the study of the evolution of our political society through the lens of the development of civil and human rights. The framing question for fourth grade is, “What has enabled the United States to overcome obstacles and past history in order to expand the civil and human rights of people in the U.S.?

The fifth grade continues this study through the essential questions of “How has the Constitution and our democracy changed over time?” and “How can we realize the vision of all people participating in governmental decision-making?”

The focus of fourth and fifth grades is on civic issues and civic development in U.S. history. We believe that children come to understand that the answer to these essential questions is civic activism.

Civics continues as a theme through world history instruction at the middle school and in a special social studies writing course that uses a Hudson-designed curriculum entitled “Writing and Social Responsibility.”

At the high school level, Hudson created a core ninth grade English-Social Studies Civics course whose essential question is: “What is an individual’s responsibility in creating a just society?” In addition to teaching about civics through text and literature, a central part of this course is the Facing History and Ourselves curriculum.

The high school program continues to build on the theme of civics by integrating it into U.S. History and World History, providing such electives as Social Justice and Ethics, and highlighting comparative civics through participation in the Civics Mosaic program and Russian exchange.

Todd Wallingford, Social Studies teacher at Hudson High School and one of the designers of the Civics course explains, “Hudson’s approach to civic education reaches far beyond teaching about the structure of our system of government.  We also ask our students to think deeply about their identity and their place in our society.  Through service-learning experiences, students take action to address issues that concern them.   This way, Hudson students learn that democracy takes work, and they develop the skills and dispositions necessary to carry out that work.”
 
SERVICE-LEARNING AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
In addition to teaching students the content of civics, Hudson believes it is vital to engage them in meaningful civic experiences. It has integrated service-learning into the curriculum preK-12 in a consistent and systemic way. Each grade involves students in one or more service-learning projects deeply tied to the curriculum. Numerous courses at the high school integrate service-learning as a component of course instruction.

Service-learning has been instrumental in helping students develop an ethic of care and service and the knowledge that they make a difference.

In addition, it has helped students’ self-esteem, confidence and leadership skills. Mary McCarthy, Director of Community Relations and Character Education says that "Not only does service-learning engage students' in experiential learning for the common good, in Hudson it provides students with opportunities to serve as contributing citizens."

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The service-learning program has grown through strong administrative and school committee support, yearly professional development experiences, and ongoing curriculum coordination discussions among faculty.  The leadership provided by a strong committee of teachers focusing on supporting service-learning within the curriculum, a curriculum director dedicated to this area and superintendent who is deeply committed to civic learning and engagement has been critical to its success.

In addition, Hudson High participates in the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development’s First Amendment School program.  All five of our other schools are First Amendment Affiliate Schools. 

As a result, our schools have strengthened their work on student voice and civic learning. The program provides opportunities for professional development for students, administrators, school committee members and parents who traveled to Washington, DC, to engage in civic dialogues and sharing of practice with teams from all over the United States.