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Michigan standards alignment

Designed for high school. Below is every Michiganstandard these courses cover: the exact code, the standard's own words, and the lesson that covers it. Where we only cover part of a standard, it says so, and says which part.

27
standards mapped
19
fully covered
8
partially covered
3
frameworks

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Read this before you rely on it

  • We mapped this ourselves. This alignment was done by Learn.WitUS against the published standards. It has not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by Michigan's education authority or by anyone else.
  • Every code was fetched, then transcribed word for word. Each framework below shows the date its codes and text were retrieved from the publisher.
  • Standards get revised.A code can be renumbered or its wording changed without notice, and some states publish more than one live edition of the same document. Confirm anything you file against your own jurisdiction's current requirements, using the source links below.
  • We would rather claim less. Where the courses only partly cover a standard, this page says partially covered and explains the gap. Standards we considered and could not honestly claim are listed at the bottom, with the reasons.

Michigan · Social Studies

Michigan K-12 Standards for Social Studies — High School Civics (C)

Michigan K-12 Social Studies Standards, 2019 · High School Civics · Michigan Department of Education (MDE) / State Board of Education · retrieved 2026-07-18

Michigan's High School Civics course is the anchor for the Michigan Civics flagship. Its C3.2 cluster (Structure and Functions of State, Local, and Tribal Governments) is a genuine home for a state's own structure — C3.2.3 and C3.2.6 are near-1:1 with the flagship — and the federal C3.1 and citizenship C6 clusters carry the general U.S. civics ladder. Transcribed verbatim from the MDE 2019 Social Studies Standards (see the file header for the decode/provenance note).

Read the source document →

  • C3.2.6

    Covered
    Describe and evaluate referendums, initiatives, and recall as mechanisms used to influence state and local government. Use a case study to examine the impact of one such listed mechanism.

    Covered by

    • · Michigan Civics, Lesson 1 · Michigan's Constitution of 1963 and its direct democracy
    • · Michigan Civics, Lesson 4 · How a bill becomes a Michigan law
    • · Michigan Civics, Lesson 8 · How to take part where you live
    • · Michigan Civics, Lesson 5 · Redistricting: Michigan's Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission
    • · How to Help a Campaign, Lesson 10 · Helping ballot measures and local causes

    Note: Near-1:1 with the flagship's headline: Michigan's initiative, referendum, and recall are each taught, and the standard's “case study” is delivered by the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission — a constitutional initiative (Proposal 2 of 2018) that reshaped how Michigan governs itself.

  • C3.2.1

    Covered
    Describe limits the U.S. Constitution places on powers of the states and on the federal government’s power over the states.

    Covered by

    • · 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
    • · State vs Federal Power, Lesson 1 · What is federalism, and why split power at all?

    Note: The Tenth Amendment's reserved powers and the limits on each level are taught directly in the powers-taxonomy and federalism courses.

  • C3.2.2

    Covered
    Explain interactions and tensions among federal, state, and local governments using the necessary and proper clause, the Commerce Clause, and the Tenth Amendment.

    Covered by

    • · 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 Necessary and Proper Clause, the Commerce Clause's reach, and the Tenth Amendment are taught by name through McCulloch v. Maryland and the enumerated/implied/reserved powers taxonomy.

  • C3.1.1

    Covered
    Identify and describe the purposes, organization, powers, processes, and election of the legislative branch as enumerated in Article I of the Constitution.

    Covered by

    • · US Constitution 101, Lessons 3-6 · Articles I-III and checks & balances
    • · How a Bill Becomes Law (Federal) · the whole course, introduction to public law
    • · US Civics 101, Lesson 3 · How a bill becomes a law

    Note: Article I's structure, the enumerated powers, and how a bill becomes law are taught end to end.

  • C3.1.2

    Covered
    Identify and describe the purposes, organization, powers, processes, and election of the executive branch as enumerated in Article II of the Constitution.

    Covered by

    • · US Constitution 101, Lessons 3-6 · Articles I-III and checks & balances
    • · US Civics 101, Lesson 1 · Purpose of government and the three branches
    • · Voting & Elections 101, Lesson 4 · The Electoral College: how it works
    • · Voting & Elections 101, Lesson 5 · Why the Electoral College exists

    Note: Article II's executive powers and the election to office — including the Electoral College's mechanics and original purpose — are taught directly.

  • C3.1.3

    Covered
    Identify and describe the purposes, organization, powers, processes, and appointment or election of the judicial branch as enumerated in Article III of the Constitution and as established in Marbury v. Madison.

    Covered by

    • · 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)
    • · The Supreme Court & the Judicial Branch, Lesson 2 · How a judge gets there: nomination and confirmation

    Note: Article III's judiciary, the nomination-and-confirmation process, and judicial review through Marbury v. Madison are each taught by name.

  • C3.1.4

    Covered
    Examine and evaluate the effectiveness the role of separation of powers and checks and balances in regard to the distribution of power and authority between the three branches of government.

    Covered by

    • · US Constitution 101, Lesson 6 · Separation of powers and checks & balances
    • · US Constitution 101, Lesson 7 · Federalism: state and federal power

  • C3.1.5

    Covered
    Analyze the various levels and responsibilities in the federal and state judicial systems and explain the relationships among them.

    Covered by

    • · 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
    • · Michigan Civics, Lesson 3 · How Michigan chooses its judges (the nonpartisan-ballot quirk)

    Note: Both systems the standard names are taught: the federal judiciary's three tiers, and Michigan's own courts — the nonpartisan-ballot-but-party-nominated Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, and the trial courts.

  • C3.1.7

    Covered
    Identify and explain how Supreme Court decisions and provisions in the U.S. Constitution have impacted the power of the federal government.

    Covered by

    • · 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
    • · US Civics 101, Lesson 4 · The courts and judicial review (Marbury v. Madison)

    Note: Taught through the standard's own example — McCulloch v. Maryland, implied powers, and the enumerated/implied/reserved taxonomy that defines federal power.

  • C3.3.7

    Covered
    Analyze the credibility and validity of various forms of political communication.

    Covered by

    • · Ep 19 · Peer Review Versus Press Release
    • · Every course's Sources bibliography, with per-claim verification
    • · 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 15 · Doubt Is Our Product
    • · Ep 20 · The Ban Against the Evidence (the UK banning khat against its own scientific advice)
    • · Spotting Misleading Marketing, Lesson 8 · Misleading statistics and charts
    • · Spotting Misleading Marketing, Lesson 4 · Fake urgency, fake scarcity, and fake discounts

    Note: Reading a message for credibility, bias, omission, and logical fallacy — the standard's exact skill — is the media-literacy method run in every episode: ads, labels, and campaign language read for what they leave out.

  • C6.1.1

    Covered
    Describe and evaluate the requirements and process for becoming a citizen of the United States.

    Covered by

    • · 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: The 14th Amendment, citizenship through birth and through parents, and naturalization eligibility step by step are taught directly.

  • C6.2.1

    Covered
    Using examples, explain the rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizens as well all people living in the United States.

    Covered by

    • · 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
    • · Michigan Civics, Lesson 6 · Elections and voting in Michigan

    Note: The standard's own examples — voting, serving as a juror — are taught as practice: jury service is an entire course, and voting is taught both generally (registration walkthroughs) and as Michigan's own voter-access rules (no-reason absentee, automatic and same-day registration, early voting).

  • C6.4.4

    Covered
    Equip students with the skills and knowledge to explore multiple pathways for knowledgeable, civic engagement through simulations and/or real-world opportunities for involvement.

    Covered by

    • · Michigan Civics, Lesson 8 · How to take part where you live
    • · How to Run for Office · the whole course (eligibility, ballot access, money rules, and after Election Day)
    • · 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

    Note: Multiple real-world pathways are taught end to end: registering and voting with Michigan's options, helping a campaign lawfully, showing up at local boards, and running for office yourself.

  • C3.2.3

    Partially covered
    Describe how state, local, and tribal governments are organized, their major responsibilities, and how they affect the lives of people residing in their jurisdictions.

    Covered by

    • · Michigan Civics, Lesson 1 · Michigan's Constitution of 1963 and its direct democracy
    • · Michigan Civics, Lesson 2 · The three branches of Michigan government
    • · Michigan Civics, Lesson 4 · How a bill becomes a Michigan law
    • · Michigan Civics, Lesson 7 · Local government: counties, cities, villages, and townships
    • · 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

    What we do and don't cover: This is the flagship's primary home: Michigan's own state structure (the 1963 Constitution, the Legislature, the executive, the nonpartisan-ballot judiciary) and Michigan local government (83 counties, strong townships, home-rule cities under the 1909 Act) are taught in depth. The standard also names TRIBAL governments, which the course does not cover — hence partial.

  • C6.4.3

    Partially covered
    Identify and describe a local, state, national, or international public policy issue; research and evaluate multiple solutions; analyze the consequences of each solution and propose, defend, and take relevant action to address or resolve the issue.

    Covered by

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

    What we do and don't cover: Civic action is taught as practice — tracking a live bill, showing up at the level where an issue is decided, and Michigan's own levers (petitions, public comment). The standard's full research-propose-defend-take-action project is prompted, not run as a graded assignment.

Michigan · English/Language Arts

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy

Grades 11-12 · Common Core State Standards Initiative · retrieved 2026-07-13

Michigan adopted the Common Core State Standards for English language arts as the Michigan K-12 Standards for English Language Arts, approved by the State Board of Education in 2010. Michigan's document reproduces the CCSS text VERBATIM but prints the strands under the bare CCSS codes (RH.11-12.6, WHST.11-12.7, …) without the “CCSS.ELA-Literacy” web namespace, so the codes here are aliased to Michigan's printed form. We compared the RH/RI/WHST grade 11-12 standards against Michigan's own document (Wayback snapshot 20250430151740, 2025-04-30) and the wording is identical. We claim no mathematics standards.

Read the source document →

Michigan · Science

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

HS-ESS1 Earth's Place in the Universe; HS-ESS2 Earth's Systems; HS-ESS3 Earth and Human Activity · NGSS Lead States / nextgenscience.org · retrieved 2026-08-10

Michigan was an NGSS lead state. The State Board of Education adopted the Michigan Science Standards on November 10, 2015 — the NGSS performance expectations, using the NGSS codes verbatim. This is not a science course, so we claim exactly one NGSS performance expectation, partially — see the note on it.

Read the source document →

  • HS-ESS1-3

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

    Covered by

    • · 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

    • · 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

    • · 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

    • · 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

    • · 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

    • · 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 Michigan Common Core (Michigan K-12) mathematics standard.
  • Science — one partial claim, via the shared NGSS file. Michigan adopted the NGSS verbatim as the Michigan Science Standards (November 10, 2015), so our one honest science claim — HS-ESS3-1, partial — comes through the shared NGSS mapping with the limit stated on the entry. There is no laboratory work, investigation, or modelling in this catalog, and we will not claim more.
  • Michigan's World History, U.S. History, Economics, and Geography strands — deferred, not denied. The catalog's commodity, colonial, labor, civil-rights, and Cold-War history and its commodity economics WOULD map to Michigan's high-school World History (WHG), U.S. History (USHG), Economics (E), and Geography (G) strands, as they do in other states. But those strands sit in the 2019 document's multi-column, era-based layout, and the PDF's subset-font encoding makes clean verbatim transcription of that layout unreliable. Our rule is verbatim-or-nothing, so we mapped the High School Civics strand (which decoded cleanly and was verified) this pass and DEFER the other social-studies strands rather than risk citing text we cannot cleanly verify.
  • Tribal governments (C3.2.3, C3.2.4). Michigan's C3.2 cluster names tribal governments and tribal sovereignty (C3.2.4 is entirely about it). Michigan Civics teaches Michigan's state and local structure but not tribal governments, so C3.2.3 is claimed as partial and C3.2.4 is not claimed. The gap is in the course, not the standards.
  • Michigan's own state structure is taught more fully than any one code captures. Michigan Civics teaches the 1963 Constitution, the nonpartisan-ballot-but-party-nominated Supreme Court, the joint-ticket Lieutenant Governor with a separately elected Secretary of State and Attorney General, term limits (Proposal 1 of 2022), and the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission — from Michigan's own sources. C3.2.3 (how state/local governments are organized) and C3.2.6 (initiative/referendum/recall) host most of it, but the judicial-selection quirk and the redistricting commission's design have no code of their own beyond the direct-democracy mechanism that created it.
  • The federal-heavy and political-science civics standards we checked and rejected. C1.1.1-1.1.4 (political philosophy and systems of government), C2.1.1-2.1.3 (the founding debates and origins as named content), C2.2.1-2.2.3 (the Democratic Values ↔ Constitutional Principles pairing), C3.1.6 (federal revenue and expenditure), C3.3.1-3.3.6 (interest groups, parties, public opinion, campaigns, NGOs, and media types — our media literacy is consumer protection, not political-media analysis), all of C4 (the Bill of Rights and civil-rights case lists — touched only through Know Your Rights, a thin overlap), all of C5 (U.S. foreign policy and international institutions), C6.1.2/6.1.3 (the expansion of citizenship and territorial/tribal representation), C6.3.1 (civic dispositions as a named concept), and C6.4.1/6.4.2 (the pursuit of Democratic Values and a survey of civil disobedience and social movements) — the courses do not genuinely teach these, so we do not claim them.

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