Indiana standards alignment

• USG.3.4

  Covered

  Explain the relationships among branches of the United States government and Indiana government, which involve separation and sharing of powers as a means to limited government. (E)

  Covered by

  • US Civics 101: How American Government Works
  • US Constitution 101: The Document That Builds the Government
  • Indiana Civics: How Your State Government Works

  • · US Civics 101, Lesson 1 · Purpose of government and the three branches
  • · US Constitution 101, Lessons 3-6 · Articles I-III and checks & balances
  • · Indiana Civics, Lesson 2 · The three branches, and Indiana's deliberately weak governor

  Note: Both halves are covered: the federal branches and their checks on each other, and Indiana's own three branches — including how Indiana's constitution deliberately weakens its governor relative to its General Assembly.

• USG.3.5

  Covered

  Explain how a bill becomes law in the legislative process of the United States and the state of Indiana. (E)

  Covered by

  • How a Bill Becomes Law (Federal): From Idea to Public Law
  • US Civics 101: How American Government Works
  • Indiana Civics: How Your State Government Works

  • · How a Bill Becomes Law (Federal) · the whole course, introduction to public law
  • · US Civics 101, Lesson 3 · How a bill becomes a law
  • · Indiana Civics, Lesson 4 · How a bill becomes an Indiana law

  Note: Both legislatures the standard names are covered: the federal process gets an entire course (committees, the Rules Committee, the filibuster, presentment, veto override), and the Indiana General Assembly's process gets its own lesson.

• USG.3.8

  Covered

  Explain the electoral process in terms of election laws and election systems on the national, state, and local level. (E)

  Covered by

  • Voting & Elections 101
  • Indiana Civics: How Your State Government Works

  • · Voting & Elections 101, Lessons 1-3 · registration, primaries and caucuses, how you vote
  • · Voting & Elections 101, Lesson 7 · Counting, canvassing, and certifying the vote
  • · Voting & Elections 101, Lesson 8 · Verify your own registration and rules
  • · Indiana Civics, Lesson 6 · Elections in Indiana: strict photo ID, excuse-required mail voting

  Note: National election law and systems get a full course; Indiana's specifics (photo ID and Crawford v. Marion County, excuse-required absentee voting) get their own lesson. Local variation is handled the honest way — the course teaches students to verify their own county's rules.

• USG.3.12

  Covered

  Explain the organization of state and local governments in Indiana and analyze how they affect the lives of citizens.

  Covered by

  • Indiana Civics: How Your State Government Works
  • US, State & Local Government: Who Does What

  • · Indiana Civics, Lesson 5 · Local government in Indiana: 92 counties and 1,000+ townships
  • · Indiana Civics, Lesson 8 · Get involved where you live in Indiana
  • · US, State & Local Government, Lesson 5 · What LOCAL government handles (and why it VARIES)
  • · US, State & Local Government, Lesson 7 · The governments you forget: special districts & boards

  Note: Indiana's structure is taught as Indiana's — its 1851 constitution, 92 counties, township government — not as a generic template, and both courses connect each layer to what it does to a resident's daily life.

• USG.5.2

  Covered

  Analyze the roles and responsibilities of citizens in Indiana and the United States.

  Covered by

  • Citizenship & Naturalization Basics
  • Jury Duty & the Courts (the citizen's side)
  • Voting & Elections 101
  • Indiana Civics: How Your State Government Works

  • · Citizenship & Naturalization Basics, Lesson 7 · Rights and responsibilities of citizenship
  • · Jury Duty & the Courts · the whole course (the citizen's side of the court system)
  • · Voting & Elections 101, Lesson 1 · Registering to vote
  • · Indiana Civics, Lesson 8 · Get involved where you live in Indiana

  Note: The responsibilities are taught as practices, not a list: voting, jury service (an entire course), and civic participation — with an Indiana-specific lesson on where to show up.

• USG.5.5

  Covered

  Explain and give examples of important citizen actions that can impact local, state, and federal government as individuals and members of interest groups.

  Covered by

  • How to Help a Campaign: A Practical, Non-Partisan Guide
  • US, State & Local Government: Who Does What
  • How a Bill Becomes Law (Federal): From Idea to Public Law
  • Indiana Civics: How Your State Government Works

  • · How to Help a Campaign · the whole course (volunteering, donating, canvassing, with the legal guardrails)
  • · US, State & Local Government, Lesson 8 · Where to show up and be heard, at every level
  • · How a Bill Becomes Law, Lesson 8 · Tracking a bill and making your voice heard
  • · Indiana Civics, Lesson 8 · Get involved where you live in Indiana

• USG.3.2

  Partially covered

  Explain the constitutional principles of federalism, separation of powers, the system of checks and balances, and republican government. Provide examples of these principles in the governments of the United States and Indiana. (E)

  Covered by

  • US Constitution 101: The Document That Builds the Government
  • State vs Federal Power: How American Government Is Divided
  • Indiana Civics: How Your State Government Works

  • · US Constitution 101, Lesson 6 · Separation of powers and checks & balances
  • · US Constitution 101, Lesson 7 · Federalism: state and federal power
  • · State vs Federal Power, Lesson 1 · What is federalism, and why split power at all?
  • · Indiana Civics, Lesson 2 · The three branches, and Indiana's deliberately weak governor

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: three of the four named principles — federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances — are taught thoroughly, with examples in both the United States government and Indiana's. “Republican government” is not taught as a named principle.

• USG.3.6

  Partially covered

  Describe the procedures for amending the United States and Indiana Constitutions, and analyze why it is so difficult to amend these Constitutions.

  Covered by

  • US Constitution 101: The Document That Builds the Government
  • Indiana Civics: How Your State Government Works

  • · US Constitution 101, Lesson 9 · Changing the Constitution: Article V and key later amendments
  • · Indiana Civics, Lesson 1 · Indiana's constitution: the 1851 rulebook
  • · Indiana Civics, Lesson 6 · Elections in Indiana (no statewide citizen initiative)

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: Article V is taught in full, including why the federal bar is so high. On the Indiana side the course teaches who may propose amendments (only the General Assembly — Indiana has no citizen initiative) but not the full two-session-plus-ratification procedure.

• USG.3.7

  Partially covered

  Analyze the functions of the judicial branch of the United States and Indiana governments with emphasis on the principles of due process, judicial review, and an independent judiciary. (E)

  Covered by

  • The Supreme Court & the Judicial Branch
  • US Civics 101: How American Government Works
  • Indiana Civics: How Your State Government Works

  • · The Supreme Court & the Judicial Branch, Lesson 1 · The federal judiciary: from district courts to the Supreme Court
  • · The Supreme Court & the Judicial Branch, Lesson 7 · Checks on the Court
  • · US Civics 101, Lesson 4 · The courts and judicial review (Marbury v. Madison)
  • · Indiana Civics, Lesson 3 · Indiana's courts: merit selection + retention

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: judicial review (Marbury, taught by name) and judicial independence (life tenure federally; Indiana's merit-selection-plus-retention design) are covered well, for both court systems. Due process is named but not taught in depth — a teacher must cover it elsewhere.

What we don't claim

A standards page is only worth reading if the omissions are honest too. We looked at these and left them out:

• Mathematics — nothing. This catalog does no mathematics instruction, so it meets no Indiana mathematics standard.
• Science — almost nothing. There is no laboratory work, no investigation and no scientific modelling here. Indiana is not an NGSS state; we checked and claim no Indiana science standard. (Our one partial NGSS claim is for Washington, D.C., where NGSS applies.)
• Most of the U.S. Government standards we checked. USG.1.4 (types of government: monarchy, oligarchy, totalitarianism, anarchy), USG.1.5 (unitary vs confederate vs federal), USG.1.6 (constitutionalism, rule of law, limited government, popular sovereignty as named principles), USG.2.2 (compromise at the Constitutional Convention), USG.2.4-2.6 (founding ideas, civic identity, and civic values as a set), USG.3.1 (the four-part characterization of U.S. government), USG.3.3 (enumerated/implied/DENIED powers in BOTH constitutions — our course teaches enumerated/implied/reserved/concurrent, U.S. only), USG.3.9 (Benjamin Harrison), USG.3.10 (political parties' progression and ideologies), USG.3.13 (media influence on public opinion — our media-literacy course is consumer protection, not political media analysis), all of USG.4 (foreign affairs), and USG.5.8 — the courses do not genuinely teach these, so we do not claim them.
• Indiana Economics has no standard on unions. We checked the 2026 Economics document (and the 2023 edition) for the labor-history courses: Indiana's Economics standards contain no standard on labor unions or collective bargaining, so we cite none. The absence is in the standards, not the lessons.
• USH.8.6 (deindustrialization) for the unions course. The History of Unions reads union decline honestly (PATCO, automation vs. trade) but does not teach the causes and consequences of deindustrialization as such. Close, but not the standard.
• PE performance standards — all of them. Every indicator that asks a student to DEMONSTRATE motor skill, participate, or exhibit behavior during physical activity (all of Standard 1, the participation indicators of Standard 3, and Standard 4's etiquette-in-play) is out of reach of an online course, however good its knowledge content. We claim knowledge-side indicators only.
• Health standards for the marketing course beyond HS.3.1. HS.2.3 (evaluate the effect of media and social media on health behaviors) was considered: Spotting Misleading Marketing evaluates marketing claims about health products, which is HS.3.1's skill, not an analysis of media's effect on health behavior. We claim the one that fits.
• The AI-literacy ladder, the language courses, and Learning How to Learn — deferred, not denied. Indiana's closest frameworks (K-12 Computer Science, World Languages, Employability Skills) have not been fetched and verified yet. Our rule is fetch-or-don't-cite, so these courses carry no Indiana claims this pass. They are queued for a later mapping pass.
• E.4.1, E.4.2, E.3.2, USH.9.3 — the Commodity Map rejections, still rejected. Public goods are never taught; corrective (Pigouvian) taxation is never taught as a policy tool; the four market structures are named, never taught as a unit; and “media in the democratic process” is too thin to stand up. See the source file for the full reasoning.