Build Student Mastery.
Support Teacher Success.
Impactful social studies lessons designed for Texas middle schools.
The Right Program for Students, Teachers, and Leaders
We asked educators across Texas to dream big. What does the ideal middle school program look like? You asked for a program that engages students, empowers teachers, and provides leaders with a solid instructional framework. The result is Navigate Texas, a complete solution that covers 100% of TEKS, ensures consistency, reduces prep time, and builds social studies capacity school- and district-wide.
It’s All About the Lesson
Every lesson follows a clear, consistent format: Engage & Connect > Deliver New Content > Assess Student Mastery > Close the Lesson. And teachers are provided with everything they need to deliver initial instruction, review and reteach after assessing student mastery, and extend the learning.
Tier 1
Navigate Texas includes 72 Tier 1 Lessons for initial, research-based instruction, covering 100% of Social Studies TEKS for each grade.
Review & Reteach
36 Review and Reteach Lessons help students revisit key content and skills, making them ideal for small groups, tutorials, or review sessions.
Active Learning
36 Active Learning Lessons extend learning using critical thinking, discussion, investigation, and creation to build 21st-century skills.
Ownership & Mastery
Students Own Their Learning
Students wrestle with a decision-making question throughout each unit, weighing evidence, making connections, and applying knowledge. They also:
Become active participants in history, geography, government, and economics lessons.
Practice reading, writing, listening, and speaking like historians in every lesson.
Build critical thinking skills and background knowledge that last beyond middle school.
Students Show What They Know
Every lesson gives students the opportunity to connect what they’ve learned to the real world using authentic assessments.
Authentic, formal, and informal writing and authentic product activities
Improved engagement, retention, and higher-order thinking
Answer keys to guide teachers in assessing student mastery
Everyone Succeeds
Assess for Student Success
Build your own formative and summative assessments using Navigate’s assessment system. And get eighth graders ready for STAAR.
500+ TEKS-aligned items per grade, including technology-enhanced formats
Time-saving auto-scoring of do-now activities, exit tickets, and semester and practice tests
10-Day STAAR Review Course in Grade 8 focused on the most essential content and skills
Build Capacity Across Your District
Navigate Texas was built to do more than cover content; it is designed to support teachers and leaders across campuses.
Teachers save time with fully-developed lessons.
The framework builds teacher capacity and confidence.
Leaders see consistency and alignment across grades 6–8.
- Professional learning and consultative support ensure successful implementation.
Navigate Texas FAQs
An essential part of the program is a consumable Student Resource Book, which gives students interactive ways to engage with lessons. Activities are tied directly to the structured lesson format. By writing directly in the book, students take greater ownership of their learning and actively participate in lessons. Research consistently shows that handwriting increases memory retention and deepens learning compared to typing. Studies using high-density EEG scans demonstrate that handwriting engages more widespread and interconnected brain networks, particularly those tied to memory and sensory processing. Large-scale meta-analyses confirm that handwritten note-takers consistently outperform typists across both immediate and delayed assessments. In short, writing by hand supports deeper processing, strengthens literacy skills, and makes learning “stick” in ways typing does not.
Yes—teacher support is at the core of Navigate Texas. The program’s design ensures that Tier I, Review and Reteach, and Active Learning lessons are fully developed with all necessary resources, allowing teachers to focus on lesson internalization and classroom delivery rather than extensive prep work. Teacher-facing content videos provide quick access to background knowledge and refreshers on key topics, strengthening teacher confidence and expertise. Additionally, the Partnerships and Instruction Team offers professional learning opportunities tailored for both teachers and school leaders, ensuring that educators feel supported every step of the way.
Navigate Texas is aligned to 100% of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), with lessons written to meet the depth and complexity of the standards. Each course includes an assessment bank with over 500 TEKS-aligned items ranging from traditional multiple-choice questions to technology-enhanced formats that mirror STAAR. To reinforce content mastery, every course features 36 Review and Reteach lessons that revisit key vocabulary, skills, and content. In addition, the program provides Skill Builders that strengthen critical skills like text and image analysis, geographic literacy, and argumentative writing. For eighth grade, a 10-day STAAR review course helps students revisit and master the most essential content and skills in preparation for the exam.
Implementation support is provided by the Social Studies School Service Curriculum Specialists, who offer a one-hour product orientation to get educators started with confidence. Beyond that, the Partnerships and Instruction Team collaborates directly with district stakeholders to customize ongoing implementation support, ensuring the program is successfully integrated and sustainable across schools.
Each grade comes with a Student Resource Book (consumable), a Teacher License (digital), and a class set of 30 desk maps.
Grade 6: Contemporary World Cultures
Students examine the people, places, and societies of today’s world. They explore the geographic, economic, social, and political characteristics of global regions while building literacy and critical thinking skills.
Units cover Physical & Human Geography, Government and Economic Systems, the United States & Canada, Latin America, Europe, Russia & Eurasia, Southwest Asia & North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, East & Southeast Asia, and Australia & Oceania.
Grade 7: Texas History
Students dive into Texas history from the natural environment to contemporary times, learning how geography, economics, politics, and culture shaped the state.
Units include Natural Texas, Exploration & Colonization, the Mexican National Era, the Texas Revolution, The Republic & Early Statehood, Civil War & Reconstruction, Texas Government, Cotton & Cattle, the Age of Oil, the Great Depression & WWII, Civil Rights & Conservatism, and Contemporary Texas.
Grade 8: U.S. History to 1877
Students study the foundations of the United States from the Colonial Era through Reconstruction, developing historical thinking skills and connecting past events to present-day issues.
Units span The Meeting of Cultures, The Colonies, The Revolutionary Era, Establishing a New Government, The Constitution & Bill of Rights, The Early Republic, the Age of Jackson, Westward Expansion & Industrialization, A Changing Society, The Road to War, The Civil War, and Reconstruction.
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