West Virginia standards alignment

• SS.C.20

  Covered

  Examine how decisions and policies of state and local government impact the lives of citizens—such as local issues and problems, structure of local government (e.g., differences in incorporation, providing public services and mayoral styles), zoning and annexation, land use and urban sprawl, and ordinances and jurisdiction.

  Covered by

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

  • · West Virginia Civics, Lesson 1 · The only state born by breaking away from another
  • · West Virginia Civics, Lesson 2 · The executive and the Legislature
  • · West Virginia Civics, Lesson 4 · How a bill becomes law, local government, and getting involved
  • · 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
  • · US, State & Local Government, Lesson 8 · Where to show up and be heard, at every level

  Note: The flagship's primary home: this is the one Civics standard about how STATE and LOCAL government works and touches citizens' lives, and West Virginia's own government is taught in full — the Constitution of 1872 and the state's singular Civil-War origin, the plural executive with no Lieutenant Governor, the 100-Delegate/34-Senator part-time Legislature and how a West Virginia bill becomes law, and the 55 counties with their elected commissions. The standard's enumerated local-policy examples (zoning, annexation, land use) are illustrative and not each worked as their own case; the structure and impact the standard's stem names are taught end to end.

• SS.C.13

  Covered

  Compare and contrast the original and appellate jurisdictions of local, state and national judicial systems to show how America’s court system addresses criminal and civil cases.

  Covered by

  • The Supreme Court & the Judicial Branch
  • West Virginia Civics: How Your State Government Works
  • Jury Duty & the Courts (the citizen's side)

  • · 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
  • · West Virginia Civics, Lesson 3 · How West Virginia picks its judges (a recent switch to nonpartisan)
  • · Jury Duty & the Courts · the whole course (the citizen's side of the court system)

  Note: Both the state and national judicial systems the standard names are taught: the federal judiciary's structure and the citizen's side of it (jury service, criminal vs. civil cases), and West Virginia's own courts — the original/appellate split made concrete by West Virginia's 2022 creation of an Intermediate Court of Appeals below the Supreme Court of Appeals, and the 2015 switch to nonpartisan judicial elections.

• SS.C.1

  Covered

  Strive to become vigilant, informed citizens who actively participate in the preservation and improvement of American government through community service and service-learning (e.g., individual service projects, patriotic events, mock trials, group initiatives, community volunteerism).

  Covered by

  • West Virginia Civics: How Your State Government Works
  • US, State & Local Government: Who Does What
  • Citizenship & Naturalization Basics
  • How to Help a Campaign: A Practical, Non-Partisan Guide

  • · West Virginia Civics, Lesson 4 · How a bill becomes law, local government, and getting involved
  • · US, State & Local Government, Lesson 8 · Where to show up and be heard, at every level
  • · Citizenship & Naturalization Basics, Lesson 7 · Rights and responsibilities of citizenship
  • · How to Help a Campaign · the whole course (volunteering, donating, canvassing, with the legal guardrails)

  Note: Participatory citizenship is taught as practice, West Virginia edition: registering and voting (early and absentee, with ID, via county clerks — confirm at sos.wv.gov), showing up at county commissions, city and town councils, and county boards of education, contacting legislators during the short 60-day session, and helping a campaign lawfully.

• SS.C.2

  Covered

  Explore social contracts and the establishment of the rule of law, and evaluate how limited government and the rule of law protect individual rights.

  Covered by

  • US Constitution 101: The Document That Builds the Government
  • The Bill of Rights: Know Your Rights

  • · US Constitution 101, Lesson 2 · The Preamble: who, and why
  • · US Constitution 101, Lesson 6 · Separation of powers and checks & balances
  • · US Constitution 101, Lesson 7 · Federalism: state and federal power
  • · The Bill of Rights: Know Your Rights, Lesson 1 · What is the Bill of Rights?

  Note: The rule of law, limited government, and how they protect individual rights are the constitution course's spine: the Preamble's purposes, separation of powers and checks and balances as the structure that limits government, and the Bill of Rights as the protection of the individual.

• SS.C.3

  Covered

  Demonstrate that the purpose of American government is the protection of personal, political and economic rights of citizens as evidenced by the Declaration of Independence, the U. S. Constitution, Constitutional Amendments and the ideas of those involved in the establishment of American government.

  Covered by

  • US Constitution 101: The Document That Builds the Government

  • · US Constitution 101, Lesson 2 · The Preamble: who, and why
  • · US Constitution 101, Lessons 2-9 · the Constitution analyzed article by article
  • · US Constitution 101, Lesson 8 · The Bill of Rights (Amendments I to X)

  Note: That the purpose of American government is the protection of rights is taught squarely — the Preamble worked clause by clause, the Constitution analyzed article by article, and the Bill of Rights as the document that secures those rights. The Declaration of Independence itself is background context rather than its own lesson.

• SS.C.7

  Covered

  Evaluate the elements in the U.S. Constitution that make it a living document with democratic principles that are modified and expanded to meet the changing needs of society.

  Covered by

  • US Constitution 101: The Document That Builds the Government
  • The Supreme Court & the Judicial Branch
  • The Bill of Rights: Know Your Rights

  • · US Constitution 101, Lesson 9 · Changing the Constitution: Article V and key later amendments
  • · The Supreme Court & the Judicial Branch, Lesson 5 · Writing the opinion: majority, concurrence, dissent, and precedent
  • · Know Your Rights, Lessons 2-5 · speech, religion, press, assembly, including at school and online
  • · Know Your Rights, Lessons 6-8 · the 4th Amendment: searches, stops, and your digital life

  Note: The Constitution as a living document is taught through the mechanisms that change it: the Article V amendment process and how Supreme Court precedent expands rights over time through the landmark cases.

• SS.C.8

  Covered

  Investigate the system of government created by the Preamble, Seven Articles, the Bill of Rights and other Amendments of the U.S. Constitution to evaluate how the framework for American society is provided.

  Covered by

  • US Constitution 101: The Document That Builds the Government

  • · US Constitution 101, Lesson 2 · The Preamble: who, and why
  • · US Constitution 101, Lessons 2-9 · the Constitution analyzed article by article
  • · US Constitution 101, Lessons 3-6 · Articles I-III and checks & balances
  • · US Constitution 101, Lesson 8 · The Bill of Rights (Amendments I to X)

  Note: This is the constitution course's whole arc: the Preamble, the seven Articles (I-III and the branch relationships they create), and the Bill of Rights and later amendments, analyzed as the framework for American society.

• SS.C.9

  Covered

  Analyze how the U.S. Constitution defines federalism and outlines a structure for the United States government.

  Covered by

  • US Constitution 101: The Document That Builds the Government
  • State vs Federal Power: How American Government Is Divided
  • US Civics 101: How American 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?
  • · US Civics 101, Lesson 1 · Purpose of government and the three branches
  • · US Constitution 101, Lessons 3-6 · Articles I-III and checks & balances

  Note: Federalism and the structure of the federal government are taught directly — why power is split between state and nation, and the three branches the Articles create.

• SS.C.10

  Covered

  Analyze the protection of liberties in the Bill of Rights and their expansion through judicial review and the gradual incorporation of those rights by the Fourteenth Amendment.

  Covered by

  • The Bill of Rights: Know Your Rights
  • The Supreme Court & the Judicial Branch
  • US Civics 101: How American Government Works
  • Citizenship & Naturalization Basics

  • · The Bill of Rights: Know Your Rights, Lesson 1 · What is the Bill of Rights?
  • · Know Your Rights, Lessons 2-5 · speech, religion, press, assembly, including at school and online
  • · Know Your Rights, Lessons 6-8 · the 4th Amendment: searches, stops, and your digital life
  • · The Supreme Court & the Judicial Branch, Lesson 5 · Writing the opinion: majority, concurrence, dissent, and precedent
  • · US Civics 101, Lesson 4 · The courts and judicial review (Marbury v. Madison)
  • · Citizenship & Naturalization Basics, Lesson 1 · Who is a U.S. citizen? Birthright and the 14th Amendment
  • · Citizenship & Naturalization Basics, Lesson 3 · Becoming a citizen: naturalization eligibility

  Note: Every element the standard names is taught: the Bill of Rights' protections, judicial review (Marbury v. Madison), the landmark cases that expand rights over time, and the Fourteenth Amendment (whose citizenship and incorporation role is taught in the citizenship course).

• SS.C.11

  Covered

  Analyze how the freedoms of speech and press in a democratic society enable citizens to develop informed opinions, express their views, shape public policy and monitor government actions.

  Covered by

  • The Bill of Rights: Know Your Rights

  • · Know Your Rights, Lessons 2-5 · speech, religion, press, assembly, including at school and online
  • · Know Your Rights, Lessons 6-8 · the 4th Amendment: searches, stops, and your digital life
  • · Know Your Rights, Lesson 2 · Freedom of speech: what's protected, and what isn't
  • · Know Your Rights, Lesson 5 · Speech and religion at school, and online
  • · Know Your Rights, Lesson 7 · Police stops, reasonable suspicion, and your privacy

  Note: The freedoms of speech and press are taught as usable rules through the landmark speech and press cases (Tinker, Brandenburg) and where the line falls — exactly the standard's 'develop informed opinions, express their views, monitor government' purpose.

• SS.C.12

  Covered

  Determine how conflicts between the rights of citizens and society’s need for order can be resolved while preserving both liberty and safety.

  Covered by

  • The Bill of Rights: Know Your Rights

  • · Know Your Rights, Lesson 2 · Freedom of speech: what's protected, and what isn't
  • · Know Your Rights, Lesson 5 · Speech and religion at school, and online
  • · Know Your Rights, Lesson 7 · Police stops, reasonable suspicion, and your privacy

  Note: When government may constitutionally limit rights, and why — time-place-manner, incitement, school speech, reasonable suspicion — is precisely the standard's conflict between liberty and the need for order.

• SS.C.14

  Covered

  Apply the concepts of legal precedent through past and present landmark Supreme Court cases, interpretations of the U.S. Constitution by the Supreme Court and the impact of these decisions on American society.

  Covered by

  • The Bill of Rights: Know Your Rights
  • The Supreme Court & the Judicial Branch
  • US Civics 101: How American Government Works

  • · Know Your Rights, Lessons 2-5 · speech, religion, press, assembly, including at school and online
  • · Know Your Rights, Lessons 6-8 · the 4th Amendment: searches, stops, and your digital life
  • · The Supreme Court & the Judicial Branch, Lesson 5 · Writing the opinion: majority, concurrence, dissent, and precedent
  • · US Civics 101, Lesson 4 · The courts and judicial review (Marbury v. Madison)

  Note: Legal precedent is taught as a rule the student can apply — the landmark Supreme Court cases, how precedent works and expands, and judicial review as the Court's power to interpret the Constitution.

• SS.C.17

  Covered

  Assess the influence of the media on public opinion and on the decisions of elected officials and the bureaucracy: • bias in reporting and editorials • push-pull polls and selective reporting of citizen opinions • advertising and campaign ads • reporting news out of context

  Covered by

  • BVC: Coffee — The Daily Global Connection
  • BVC: Tea — The Way of Tea
  • BVC: Chocolate — Food of the Gods
  • BVC: Sugar — The Sweet Revolution

  • · Ep 1 · Reading a Coffee Ad
  • · Ep 2 · Reading a Tea Ad
  • · Ep 3 · Reading a Chocolate Ad
  • · Ep 4 · Whose Voice Tells the Story (reading a text for what it leaves out)
  • · Ep 11 · Tiki and the Tropical Paradise
  • · Ep 15 · The Language of Doubt
  • · Ep 8 · Reading a Craft Beer Label
  • · Ep 15 · Torches of Freedom
  • · Ep 16 · Reefer Madness and the Language of Fear
  • · Ep 18 · Just Say No
  • · Ep 19 · Peer Review Versus Press Release
  • · Every course's Sources bibliography, with per-claim verification

  Note: Media influence on public opinion is a spine of the catalog's media-literacy strand — reading advertising for what it omits, the recurring media fallacies, the language of fear in Reefer Madness, and source evaluation modelled step by step, covering the standard's bias, advertising, and out-of-context bullets squarely.

• SS.C.5

  Partially covered

  Examine and analyze the contributing factors to the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution: • leaders and philosophers (e.g., John Locke, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams) • events (e.g., Glorious Revolution, Reformation and Enlightenment) • documents (e.g., English Bill of Rights, Petition of Right and Magna Carta) • classical periods (e.g., eras of Greece and Rome) • principles (e.g., popular sovereignty, federalism, limited government, separation of powers, checks and balances, civil liberties, and rule of law

  Covered by

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

  • · US Constitution 101, Lesson 1 · Why a constitution? From the Articles of Confederation
  • · 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?

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: the principles bullet — popular sovereignty, federalism, limited government, separation of powers, checks and balances, and the rule of law — is taught in full through why the Articles of Confederation failed and the structure the 1787 Constitution built. The genealogy of philosophers, events, and documents (Locke, the Glorious Revolution, Magna Carta) is named but not each worked as its own case. (The source omits the closing parenthesis on the final bullet; transcribed as printed.)

• SS.C.6

  Partially covered

  Examine the compromises of the Constitutional Convention and how those decisions were characterized in the Federalist and the Anti-Federalist papers.

  Covered by

  • US Constitution 101: The Document That Builds the Government

  • · US Constitution 101, Lesson 1 · Why a constitution? From the Articles of Confederation

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: the road from the failed Articles of Confederation to the 1787 Constitution is taught, but the specific Convention compromises (the Great Compromise, the three-fifths clause) and the Federalist / Anti-Federalist debate are not worked individually.

• SS.C.15

  Partially covered

  Develop an understanding of the American legal system through examining existing ordinances, statutes and Federal Acts, exploring the differences between criminal and civil law and determining the legal obligations and liabilities of American citizenship.

  Covered by

  • Jury Duty & the Courts (the citizen's side)
  • Citizenship & Naturalization Basics

  • · Jury Duty & the Courts · the whole course (the citizen's side of the court system)
  • · Citizenship & Naturalization Basics, Lesson 7 · Rights and responsibilities of citizenship

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: the criminal-versus-civil distinction and a citizen's legal obligations are taught through jury service (the citizen's side of the court system) and the responsibilities of citizenship. The systematic survey of ordinances, statutes, and Federal Acts is not the course's focus.

• SS.C.19

  Partially covered

  Assess how factors such as campaign finance, participation of the electorate, and demographic factors influence the outcome of elections.

  Covered by

  • How to Help a Campaign: A Practical, Non-Partisan Guide
  • Voting & Elections 101

  • · How to Help a Campaign · the whole course (volunteering, donating, canvassing, with the legal guardrails)
  • · 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

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: campaign participation and its legal guardrails (including the money rules) and how elections are run and won are taught through How to Help a Campaign and Voting & Elections 101. The demographic-factors analysis the standard also names is not the focus.

• SS.C.22

  Partially covered

  Compare and contrast the values, ideals and principles that are the foundation of a democratic republic and the role citizens play in a constitutional democracy, to the theories and practices of non-democratic governments (e.g. socialism found in communism and nationalism found in fascism).

  Covered by

  • US Constitution 101: The Document That Builds the Government
  • Citizenship & Naturalization Basics

  • · US Constitution 101, Lesson 2 · The Preamble: who, and why
  • · Citizenship & Naturalization Basics, Lesson 7 · Rights and responsibilities of citizenship

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: the values and principles of a democratic republic and the citizen's role in it are taught in depth. The systematic comparison to non-democratic systems (communism, fascism) that the standard also requires is not part of this catalog.

• SS.C.25

  Partially covered

  Explain how supply and demand affects prices, profits, and availability of goods and services.

  Covered by

  • BVC: Coffee — The Daily Global Connection
  • BVC: Sugar — The Sweet Revolution

  • · Ep 1 · Price Shocks and Why You Keep Buying
  • · Ep 4 · From Luxury to the Cheapest Calorie

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: how demand affects price is taught through a worked commodity case — a Brazilian frost moving world coffee prices, and why inelastic demand absorbs the spike. The formal supply-and-demand treatment (schedules, equilibrium) is not the method.

• SS.C.26

  Partially covered

  Debate the role of government in a free-market economy.

  Covered by

  • BVC: Sugar — The Sweet Revolution
  • BVC: Guayusa & Kola Nut — Forest Wisdom
  • BVC: Kava — The Root of Peace
  • BVC: My Daily Altar — Season Synthesis

  • · Ep 4 · The Hidden Costs of Cheap Sugar
  • · Ep 5 · The Reciprocity Economy
  • · Ep 6 · Ceremony Meets the Market
  • · Ep 7 · Two Ways of Doing Economics

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: the role of government in a market economy is taught through a concrete case — the U.S. sugar program's quotas, price supports, and tariffs — set against the contrast between traditional (reciprocity) and free-market economies. The course does not stage the standard's open debate as an assessed exercise.

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 West Virginia College- and Career-Readiness mathematics standard.
• Science — considered, deferred, not claimed this pass. West Virginia's science standards (WVBE Policy 2520.3C, adopted 2021) are NGSS-derived, so the catalog's one honest science idea — resource availability and climate shaping human activity (the substance of NGSS HS-ESS3-1) — would in principle map to a West Virginia science code. But the West Virginia-hosted and regulatory copies we could retrieve are image-only scans with no extractable, byte-faithful text, and our rule is verbatim-or-nothing. We will not alias the shared NGSS file to a West Virginia code we could not confirm against West Virginia's own printed wording, nor transcribe from a scan we cannot read exactly. Science is deferred until that verbatim text is in hand.
• West Virginia's own state structure is taught more fully than any one Civics standard names. West Virginia Civics teaches the state's singular origin (the only state formed by breaking away from another, its pro-Union western counties splitting from Virginia in 1863) and its Constitution of 1872, the plural executive with no Lieutenant Governor (the Senate President succeeds the Governor) and its weak veto, the 100-Delegate/34-Senator part-time Legislature and its 60-day session, the 2015 switch to nonpartisan judicial elections and the 2022 Intermediate Court of Appeals, the absence of any statewide citizen initiative, and the 55 counties — all from West Virginia's own sources. SS.C.20 (state and local government) and SS.C.13 (state judicial systems) host most of it, but the WVCCRS Civics standards are U.S.-system concept statements, not a West-Virginia-government checklist, so West Virginia's origin story, its plural executive, and its recent court changes have no code of their own.
• The Civics standards on parties, interest groups, and world affairs. Standards the catalog's civics does not genuinely teach are not claimed: SS.C.4 (collaboratively build a model to defend the American Republic — a classroom performance task), SS.C.16 (the evolution and function of the two-party system), SS.C.18 (the impact of special interest groups on public policy), and SS.C.21 (cooperation, competition, and conflict among nations — the United Nations, international treaties, terrorism). The catalog's civics is domestic structure, rights, and participation, so these are left unclaimed.
• Personal Finance (SS.C.30-39) — nothing. West Virginia's Civics course carries a full Personal Finance strand (postsecondary cost, income and budgeting, workforce preparedness, bankruptcy, taxes, consumer debt, banking, and investing/insurance). This catalog teaches none of it, so it meets none of these standards.
• Geography (SS.C.40-43) — checked, thin overlap, not claimed. The Civics course's Geography strand (census and demographic analysis, geopolitical research, sustainable development, and geographic information systems) is human-environment and spatial geography. The catalog's growing-belts, resource-map, and climate content is geographic in flavor, but its overlap with these specific standards is adjacency-level at best; where that content maps squarely — how trade and commodities distribute wealth and shape economies — it is claimed under the Economics standards instead, not padded into Geography.
• The remaining Economics standards (SS.C.23, 24, 27, 28, 29). Beyond SS.C.25 (supply and demand affecting price) and SS.C.26 (the role of government in a free market), the Economics strand's other standards — opportunity cost and scarcity, allocating the factors of production, the household/business/government circular flow, local-to-global business climate, and the historical evolution of currency — are not the substance of this catalog's commodity history, so they are left unclaimed rather than stretched.
• The ELA grades 9, 10, and 12 standards, and the grade-11 standards outside the reading/writing/research claims above. West Virginia's ELA standards run across four grade bands (ELA.9, ELA.10, ELA.11, ELA.12). We claim only the grade-11 informational-reading, argument-writing, and research standards the catalog's media-literacy and source-evaluation teaching genuinely meets. The literature strands, the language and speaking/listening strands, and the near-identical standards in the other grade bands are not separately claimed, to avoid mapping the same teaching against four grades' worth of duplicate codes.
• The AI-literacy ladder, the language courses, and Learning How to Learn — deferred, not denied. West Virginia's closest frameworks for these (its Technology and Computer Science standards, WVBE Policy 2520.14, and its world-languages standards) have not been fetched and verified yet. Our rule is fetch-or-don't-cite, so these courses carry no West Virginia claims this pass.