Information on Michigan academic standards and instructional resources.
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There are no required courses for meeting the social studies requirement. Students must earn at least three credits in social studies that are aligned with Michigan K-12 Standards for Social Studies. Students may earn this credit in traditional courses, but they may also earn credit through courses that integrate the social studies standards. For more information, see the Michigan Merit Curriculum: Social Studies Course/Credit Requirements.
The legislation also requires districts to provide students with opportunities to learn all the Social Studies content expectations, including those addressing economics, regardless of course names.
MDE completed a crosswalk of the 100 Citizenship questions and the Social Studies Content Expectations. Seventy-nine of the citizenship questions are already included in the Social Studies Content Expectations. The other 21 questions are either rote memorization, have different answers in different parts of the state, or change over time. Schools and teachers addressing the Social Studies Content Expectations with appropriate detail will address all content on the Citizenship test.
Michigan's current Social Studies Content Expectations already include the Holocaust, "the genocides of Armenians, Roma’s (Gypsies), and Jews, and the mass exterminations of Ukrainians and Chinese," and "-causes of and responses to ethnic cleansing/genocide/mass extermination (e.g., Darfur, Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia)." Schools and teachers addressing the Social Studies Content Expectations with appropriate detail will address content on the genocides, including the Holocaust.
There are multiple ways that the social studies requirement can be modified by a personal curriculum. See Personal Curriculum.
At least three credits in social science that are aligned with subject area content expectations developed by the Department and approved by the state board under section 1278b, including completion of at least one credit in United States history and geography, one credit in world history and geography, .5 credit in economics, and the civics course described in section 1166(2). The .5 credit economics requirement may be satisfied by completion of at least a .5 credit course in personal economics that includes a financial literacy component as described in section 1165 if that course covers the subject area content expectations for economics developed by the Department and approved by the state board under section 1278b.
