Kentucky standards alignment

• HS.C.KGO.1

  Covered

  Explain how the Kentucky Constitution embodies the principles of rule of law, popular sovereignty, separation of powers and checks and balances.

  Covered by

  • Kentucky Civics: How Your State Government Works

  • · Kentucky Civics, Lesson 1 · A Commonwealth of odd-year elections and 120 counties
  • · Kentucky Civics, Lesson 2 · The executive and the General Assembly
  • · Kentucky Civics, Lesson 3 · How Kentucky picks its judges, and how a bill becomes law

  Note: This is the flagship's primary home: Kentucky's own government under its Constitution of 1891 — the large plural executive of separately elected officials, the General Assembly (100-member House, 38-member Senate) with a weak simple-majority-override veto, the nonpartisan elected judiciary, and lawmaking with no citizen initiative — is taught in depth from Kentucky's own sources.

• HS.C.KGO.2

  Covered

  Compare Kentucky's government to other states and to the federal government.

  Covered by

  • Kentucky Civics: How Your State Government Works
  • State vs Federal Power: How American Government Is Divided

  • · Kentucky Civics, Lesson 1 · A Commonwealth of odd-year elections and 120 counties
  • · Kentucky Civics, Lesson 2 · The executive and the General Assembly
  • · Kentucky Civics, Lesson 3 · How Kentucky picks its judges, and how a bill becomes law
  • · State vs Federal Power, Lesson 1 · What is federalism, and why split power at all?
  • · State vs Federal Power, Lesson 2 · Three kinds of power: enumerated, implied, reserved
  • · State vs Federal Power, Lesson 3 · The enumerated powers: Article I, § 8 (the Necessary and Proper Clause)
  • · State vs Federal Power, Lesson 6 · Concurrent powers: what both levels share
  • · State vs Federal Power, Lesson 7 · McCulloch v. Maryland (1819): implied powers and supremacy

  Note: The course compares Kentucky to other states and the federal level throughout: odd-year statewide elections (like Virginia and New Jersey), the weak simple-majority veto override (like Tennessee, Alabama, and West Virginia), nonpartisan judicial elections (versus Alabama's partisan ones), 120 counties (third-most, versus Texas and Georgia), and no citizen initiative — set inside the federal enumerated/reserved-powers frame.

• HS.C.KGO.3

  Covered

  Describe how active citizens can affect change in their communities and Kentucky.

  Covered by

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

  • · Kentucky Civics, Lesson 4 · Local government and how to take part
  • · US, State & Local Government, Lesson 8 · Where to show up and be heard, at every level
  • · 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: Taught end to end and in Kentucky's own terms: registering and voting (photo ID with alternatives, expanded early voting, odd-year statewide races), showing up at the fiscal court, county judge/executive, city council, and school board, contacting the two Frankfort legislators during the short session, and running for local office.

• HS.C.CP.1

  Covered

  Explain how the Constitution of the United States embodies the principles of rule of law, popular sovereignty, republicanism, federalism, separation of powers and checks and balances to promote general welfare.

  Covered by

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

  • · US Constitution 101, Lessons 2-9 · the Constitution analyzed article by article
  • · 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
  • · State vs Federal Power, Lesson 1 · What is federalism, and why split power at all?

  Note: The Constitution's structural principles — the Preamble's purposes, the article-by-article design, separation of powers and checks and balances, and federalism — are taught directly.

• HS.C.RR.1

  Covered

  Evaluate the civic responsibilities of individuals within a society.

  Covered by

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

  • · 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)

  Note: The responsibilities of citizenship — voting, obeying the law, paying taxes, and serving on a jury (jury service is an entire course) — are taught directly.

• HS.C.PR.1

  Covered

  Analyze the role of the three branches of government in the lawmaking process.

  Covered by

  • How a Bill Becomes Law (Federal): From Idea to Public Law
  • US Civics 101: How American Government Works
  • US Constitution 101: The Document That Builds the Government

  • · How a Bill Becomes Law (Federal) · the whole course, introduction to public law
  • · US Civics 101, Lesson 3 · How a bill becomes a law
  • · US Civics 101, Lesson 1 · Purpose of government and the three branches
  • · US Constitution 101, Lesson 6 · Separation of powers and checks & balances
  • · US Constitution 101, Lesson 7 · Federalism: state and federal power

  Note: How a bill becomes law and each branch's role in it — Congress drafting, the executive's veto and enforcement, and the judiciary's review — are taught end to end.

• HS.C.I.UE.1

  Covered

  Evaluate the credibility of multiple sources representing a variety of perspectives relevant to compelling and/or supporting questions in civics.

  Covered by

  • BVC: Coffee — The Daily Global Connection
  • BVC: Sugar — The Sweet Revolution
  • BVC: Chocolate — Food of the Gods
  • BVC: Guayusa & Kola Nut — Forest Wisdom

  • · Ep 19 · Peer Review Versus Press Release
  • · Every course's Sources bibliography, with per-claim verification
  • · Ep 4 · Whose Voice Tells the Story, Beckford (1790) against Equiano (1789) and Mary Prince (1831) on the same plantation world
  • · Ep 3 · Two Ways of Seeing a Bean
  • · Ep 5 · Two Ways of Knowing
  • · Ep 18 · Whose Voice
  • · Ep 15 · Doubt Is Our Product
  • · Ep 20 · The Ban Against the Evidence (the UK banning khat against its own scientific advice)
  • · Ep 1 · Reading a Coffee Ad
  • · Ep 3 · Reading a Chocolate Ad
  • · 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

  Note: Evaluating sources of differing perspectives for credibility — the standard's exact skill — is the catalog's signature method: differing first-person accounts weighed against each other, claims tested for fallacy, and media read for what it omits.

• HS.C.CP.2

  Partially covered

  Analyze legislative, executive and judicial branch decisions in terms of constitutionality and impact on citizens and states.

  Covered by

  • US Civics 101: How American Government Works
  • The Supreme Court & the Judicial Branch
  • State vs Federal Power: How American Government Is Divided

  • · US Civics 101, Lesson 1 · Purpose of government and the three branches
  • · US Civics 101, Lesson 4 · The courts and judicial review (Marbury v. Madison)
  • · The Supreme Court & the Judicial Branch, Lesson 5 · Writing the opinion: majority, concurrence, dissent, and precedent
  • · State vs Federal Power, Lesson 2 · Three kinds of power: enumerated, implied, reserved
  • · State vs Federal Power, Lesson 3 · The enumerated powers: Article I, § 8 (the Necessary and Proper Clause)
  • · State vs Federal Power, Lesson 6 · Concurrent powers: what both levels share
  • · State vs Federal Power, Lesson 7 · McCulloch v. Maryland (1819): implied powers and supremacy

  What we do and don't cover: The three branches, judicial review through Marbury v. Madison, reliance on precedent, and the federal powers taxonomy are taught. The standard's fuller ask — analyzing a running body of branch decisions (the clarification names Berea College v. Kentucky and Brown v. Board) for constitutionality and impact over time — is broader than the catalog delivers, so this is partial.

• HS.C.CP.4

  Partially covered

  Evaluate how the U.S. judicial system is designed to uphold equality before the law, due process and inalienable rights.

  Covered by

  • The Supreme Court & the Judicial Branch
  • The Bill of Rights: Know Your Rights

  • · 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
  • · 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
  • · The Bill of Rights: Know Your Rights, Lesson 1 · What is the Bill of Rights?

  What we do and don't cover: The judiciary's structure, the Bill of Rights, and landmark cases with their limits (Tinker, Mapp, Terry, T.L.O.) are taught as applicable rules. The single evaluation the standard asks for — how the system as a whole is designed to uphold equality, due process, and inalienable rights — is assembled across courses rather than delivered as one graded analysis, so this is partial.

• HS.C.RR.2

  Partially covered

  Explain how active citizens can affect the lawmaking process locally, nationally and internationally.

  Covered by

  • How a Bill Becomes Law (Federal): From Idea to Public Law
  • US, State & Local Government: Who Does What
  • Kentucky Civics: How Your State Government Works

  • · How a Bill Becomes Law, Lesson 8 · Tracking a bill and making your voice heard
  • · US, State & Local Government, Lesson 8 · Where to show up and be heard, at every level
  • · Kentucky Civics, Lesson 4 · Local government and how to take part

  What we do and don't cover: Affecting lawmaking locally and nationally — tracking a live bill, being heard on it, and showing up at the level where an issue is decided — is taught as practice. The standard's 'internationally' reach is not covered, so this is partial.

• HS.C.CV.3

  Partially covered

  Analyze the impact of the efforts of individuals and reform movements on the expansion of civil rights and liberties locally, nationally and internationally.

  Covered by

  • The History of Unions: America and the World
  • The Great Migration: How Six Million People Remade America

  • · The History of Unions, Lesson 4 · Two ideas about who a union is for: the Knights and the AFL
  • · The History of Unions, Lesson 5 · Haymarket, 1886
  • · The History of Unions, Lesson 6 · Homestead, Pullman, and the weapon that actually broke strikes
  • · The History of Unions, Lesson 16 · The colour bar: unions' own history of exclusion
  • · The History of Unions, Lesson 17 · Randolph to Memphis: the labor half of the civil-rights movement
  • · The Great Migration, Lesson 11 · Politics & civil rights

  What we do and don't cover: The reform movements the standard's clarification names — the labor movement and the civil-rights movement — are taught in depth (the Gilded-Age unions, the labor-and-civil-rights alliance, the Great Migration's civil-rights politics). The standard's 'internationally' scope and its formal civics-inquiry framing are not the courses' focus, so this is partial.

• HS.C.I.UE.2

  Partially covered

  Gather information and evidence from credible sources representing a variety of perspectives relevant to compelling and/or supporting questions in civics.

  Covered by

  • BVC: Coffee — The Daily Global Connection

  • · Ep 1 · Assignment, Option B, climate-vulnerability report, 3+ peer-reviewed sources, APA bibliography
  • · Ep 1 · Assignment, Option D, primary-source research paper with an APA bibliography
  • · Ep 1 · Assignment, Option B, 3+ peer-reviewed sources and an APA bibliography
  • · Ep 1 · Assignment, Option C, interview ethics: informed consent, right to review

  What we do and don't cover: Gathering evidence from credible, varied sources is taught and practiced in the Coffee research project, which is the one episode currently shipping a graded research assignment, so this is partial.

• HS.C.I.UE.3

  Partially covered

  Use appropriate evidence to construct and revise claims and counterclaims relevant to compelling and/or supporting questions in civics.

  Covered by

  • BVC: Coffee — The Daily Global Connection

  • · Ep 1 · Assignment, Option D, a 1,200-1,500 word research paper with a required counterargument section
  • · Ep 15 · Doubt Is Our Product
  • · Ep 19 · Peer Review Versus Press Release
  • · Ep 20 · The Ban Against the Evidence (the UK banning khat against its own scientific advice)

  What we do and don't cover: Constructing and revising claims from evidence is taught, and the Coffee project's argument paper runs it as a graded task, but only that episode currently ships the assignment, so this is partial.

• HS-ESS1-3

  Covered

  Communicate scientific ideas about the way stars, over their life cycle, produce elements.

  Covered by

  • How We Know What's Out There

  • · 7 · Reading a star: the HR diagram
  • · 13 · What stars make

  Note: Lesson 13 is this expectation. It gives the mechanism without equations (hydrogen to helium, heavier elements as the core contracts and heats, the stop at iron because fusion past it no longer releases net energy, and the extreme conditions of stellar death for what comes after), and then sets out the four independent lines of evidence that support it. Communicating the idea IS the lesson, which is why this one is full rather than partial.

• HS-ESS2-2

  Partially covered

  Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth's surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.

  Covered by

  • The River and the Watershed

  • · 2 · Where a river's water comes from
  • · 6 · Sediment, and what a dam does to it
  • · 9 · Why the oxygen runs out
  • · 10 · A thousand miles of nitrogen

  What we do and don't cover: The best NGSS fit in the catalog for a feedback argument. The River and the Watershed is built out of them: paving a watershed raises flood peaks AND lowers baseflow through one mechanism (lesson 2); a dam trapping sediment starves the channel below and stops resupplying the delta a thousand miles away (lesson 6); fertiliser on an Indiana field ends as an oxygen-depleted zone in the Gulf (lessons 9 and 10). PARTIAL because of the first verb: the learner ANALYZES geoscience data only in the capstone, where they read a USGS gauge record and an EPA impairment listing for their own watershed. The lessons supply the analysis; the student repeats it once.

• HS-ESS2-5

  Partially covered

  Plan and conduct an investigation of the properties of water and its effects on Earth materials and surface processes.

  Covered by

  • The River and the Watershed

  • · 5 · The river shapes the land
  • · 6 · Sediment, and what a dam does to it
  • · 9 · Why the oxygen runs out

  What we do and don't cover: PARTIAL, and the gap is the entire first half of the sentence. The CONTENT is taught directly and at length: water's properties drive erosion and deposition, meanders, cut banks and point bars (lesson 5), sediment transport and what a dam does to it (lesson 6), and density stratification, which is why the Gulf hypoxic zone persists through the summer (lesson 9). But the learner never PLANS AND CONDUCTS AN INVESTIGATION. There is no laboratory work in this catalog and no fieldwork is required to finish this course. If your science requirement is assessed on students conducting investigations, this contributes and does not discharge. Course 4 of this track teaches how to design one; running it is still the student's own project.

• HS-ESS1-2

  Partially covered

  Construct an explanation of the Big Bang theory based on astronomical evidence of light spectra, motion of distant galaxies, and composition of matter in the universe.

  Covered by

  • How We Know What's Out There

  • · 5 · Light itself
  • · 11 · Redshift and an expanding universe
  • · 12 · The Hubble tension
  • · 16 · Capstone: trace a number down the ladder

  What we do and don't cover: The strongest CONTENT match in this catalog: the performance expectation names light spectra, the motion of distant galaxies, and the composition of matter, and those are lessons 5, 11 and 13 of How We Know What's Out There. PARTIAL, and the missing piece is the practice rather than the content: the course supplies and examines the evidence, and the student is asked to construct an explanation only in the graded capstone, where they trace a published number down the chain of inference. If your science requirement is assessed on the three-dimensional NGSS performance, this contributes to it and does not discharge it.

• HS-ESS1-1

  Partially covered

  Develop a model based on evidence to illustrate the life span of the sun and the role of nuclear fusion in the sun's core to release energy that eventually reaches Earth in the form of radiation.

  Covered by

  • How We Know What's Out There

  • · 7 · Reading a star: the HR diagram
  • · 13 · What stars make

  What we do and don't cover: PARTIAL, and the gap is the verb. Fusion as the sun's energy source and the arc of a star's life are taught (lessons 7 and 13, via the main sequence and stellar evolution), but the student never DEVELOPS A MODEL, which is the performance the expectation actually requires. Do not round this up.

• HS-ESS3-1

  Partially covered

  Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity.

  Covered by

  • BVC: Coffee — The Daily Global Connection
  • BVC: Chocolate — Food of the Gods
  • BVC: Kava — The Root of Peace

  • · Ep 1 · Climate Change Is Redrawing the Map
  • · Ep 3 · A Two-Degree Threat
  • · Ep 6 · Why Volcanic Soil Only
  • · Ep 10 · Karst Limestone and Bourbon
  • · Ep 1 · Assignment, Option B, assess a producing country's climate viability and defend the assessment

  What we do and don't cover: Read this one carefully before you rely on it. This is NOT a science course, it has no laboratory work, no investigations and no scientific modelling. What it does have is precisely the content of HS-ESS3-1: resource availability and climate change shaping what humans do and where. The lessons supply the evidence; the STUDENT constructs the explanation only in the Coffee project (Option B). If your science requirement is assessed on the three-dimensional NGSS performance, this contributes to it, it does not discharge it.

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 Kentucky Academic Standards for Mathematics standard.
• English/Language Arts — Kentucky's OWN post-Common-Core standards: deferred. Kentucky replaced its earlier Common Core adoption with its own Kentucky Academic Standards for Reading and Writing (2019), a post-Common-Core revision under Kentucky's own organization. The shared Common Core ELA mapping this catalog uses in Common Core states does NOT apply in Kentucky. The catalog's ELA-literacy strengths — evaluating an author's point of view and evidence, analyzing rhetoric, and sustained research with citation — would map to Kentucky's own reading and writing standards, but transcribing and verifying those verbatim is deferred this pass (verbatim-or-nothing) and published here rather than claimed unverified.
• Science — one partial claim, via the shared NGSS file. Kentucky was an NGSS lead state and adopted the NGSS verbatim as the Kentucky Academic Standards for Science, so our one honest science claim — HS-ESS3-1, partial — comes through the shared NGSS mapping with the limit stated on the entry (verified against Kentucky's own Earth Space Science course standards). There is no laboratory work, investigation, or modelling in this catalog, and we will not claim more.
• Kentucky's own state structure is taught more fully than HS.C.KGO.1-3 capture. The Kentucky Government cluster (HS.C.KGO.1-3) is the flagship's home, but Kentucky's most distinctive facts — the odd-numbered-year statewide election cycle, the comparatively WEAK gubernatorial veto (a simple-majority override), the fully nonpartisan elected judiciary with 8-year Supreme Court terms, the 120 counties (third-most of any state) and Louisville Metro consolidation, and the ABSENCE of a citizen initiative (amendments proposed by a three-fifths General Assembly vote and ratified by voters) — are folded into those three indicators rather than each having a code of its own.
• The founding-philosophy and political-science Civics indicators we checked and rejected. HS.C.CP.3 (comparing forms of government and how each maintains order and interacts within the international community), HS.C.CV.1 (how classical republicanism, natural rights philosophy, and English common law influenced the Founders), HS.C.CV.2 (the abstract expansion of civic virtues, democratic principles, and human rights influencing individuals and groups), HS.C.PR.2 (the role of elections, bureaucracy, political parties, interest groups, and media in shaping public policy — our media literacy is consumer/source literacy, not political-media analysis), and HS.C.PR.4 (comparing the domestic and foreign policies of the United States and other countries) — the courses do not genuinely teach these, or teach them too thinly to claim, so we do not claim them.
• The civics inquiry PRACTICES we did not claim (only the 'Using Evidence' strand is claimed). The KAS civics standards weave the C3 inquiry practices through the discipline: HS.C.I.Q.1-2 (generating compelling and supporting questions) and HS.C.I.CC.1-3 (engaging in civil discussion and reaching consensus, constructing arguments and public communications, and proposing a solution or action plan). These are run as classroom inquiry the catalog does not deliver as graded work, so we do not claim them. The one inquiry strand where the catalog genuinely delivers — Using Evidence (HS.C.I.UE.1-3: evaluating source credibility, gathering evidence, and constructing and revising claims) — is claimed above.
• Kentucky's other Social Studies disciplines — Economics, Geography, and History — deferred. The KAS for Social Studies (2019) also carries high-school Economics, Geography, and U.S./World History disciplines. The catalog's commodity, colonial, labor, civil-rights, and Cold-War history and its commodity economics WOULD map to those strands, as they do in other states, but we mapped the High School Civics strand this pass and defer the rest rather than cite text we did not transcribe this pass (verbatim-or-nothing).