Most professional development arrives as a one-size package. We build ours around what your teachers are actually teaching, where your district is in its curriculum, and what your students need. Over the past several years we have partnered with more than 100 Massachusetts districts on curriculum development, professional learning, and implementation support.
How We Work With Districts
Strategic Consultation & System Alignment
Most districts have a social studies curriculum. Fewer have a clear picture of how well it holds together. We conduct a comprehensive audit and planning process for district leaders who want honest answers to questions like:
- Is our curriculum genuinely aligned to the Massachusetts Frameworks?
- Are we teaching through inquiry, or teaching about inquiry?
- Is our instruction culturally responsive in practice, not just in policy?
- Do we have vertical alignment across grades and horizontal alignment across buildings?
- What sources are our teachers actually using, and are they any good?
- Where are the gaps, the redundancies, and the places students lose the thread?
We review curriculum, materials, and instructional practice across grade levels, then deliver findings and a recommended scope and sequence or multi-year roadmap. Districts often focus the work on a particular band or course — elementary social studies and its integration with ELA, high school U.S. or World History, or a specific content area — depending on local priorities.
Curriculum Implementation Support
As the lead author of Investigating History for Grades 5–7, we bring insight into the curriculum that no other provider can offer. We support districts implementing it with professional learning tied directly to specific units, coaching focused on classroom practice, and content depth on the harder histories embedded within it.
We also license and support Cornerstones for Civic Engagement, our DESE-approved elementary civics curriculum for Grades 3–5, with professional development and sequencing recommendations that fit alongside your existing social studies and ELA scope.
In-District Workshops
Half-day or full-day inquiry-based workshops, delivered in your district or online. Educators leave with classroom-ready materials, not just ideas. Frequently requested topics include:
- Supporting meaningful Civic Action Projects through case studies of effective activism
- Foundational civic values and participation in elementary classrooms
- African American history, resistance, and leadership — including voting rights, constitutional action, and women organizing
- Teaching genocide, human rights, and hard histories with care and accuracy
- Indigenous history, Asian American history, and immigration exclusion
- Global citizenship and civic problem-solving beyond U.S. borders
We frequently bring in scholars and subject experts to go deep on the content teachers are hungry for. Working directly with a historian who studies the material changes how confidently a teacher walks into that unit.
Private Courses & Online Access
Any of our online courses can run privately for your district, filled entirely with your own educators and scheduled when it suits you. We also arrange group access to our catalog so teachers across roles and buildings can learn on their own time. Both work well for districts that need equitable access across a large or dispersed staff.
Curriculum & Course Development
For districts reimagining a course rather than adjusting one. We work collaboratively to revise existing high school U.S. and World History units, or to advise on and develop new elective courses. We have supported districts building electives in African American history, Asian American history, genocide and human rights, and global studies, ensuring each is inquiry-based, culturally responsive, and aligned to the Massachusetts Frameworks.
Planning & Funding
Most of our district work is structured as a one- or two-year partnership: the first year focused on audit, alignment, and planning, the second on implementation through professional learning, coaching, and refinement of classroom practice. That sequencing is what makes the work stick after the engagement ends.
Districts fund this in a range of ways, including state and federal grant programs, curriculum budgets, and professional development allocations. We have supported more than 100 districts through this kind of work and are glad to help you think through what is possible within your funding cycle and timeline.
Pricing varies with district size, scope, and duration. We build a customized Scope of Work and budget around your goals. Districts working toward a funding deadline should reach out early, so there is time to develop the scope collaboratively.
Start a conversation
Tell us what your district is working on and we will follow up to talk through goals, options, and next steps. No obligation, and no sales pitch.
Email usinfo@primarysource.org · (617) 923-9933
