Garland Independent School District faced a common challenge in social studies instruction: helping students build the background knowledge they needed to fully engage with complex topics. With diverse learners and varying levels of prior knowledge across classrooms, teachers needed accessible, high-quality content that could support all students without sacrificing rigor.

By implementing Newsela Social Studies, Garland ISD gave teachers a trusted, flexible resource to support inquiry-based lessons, scaffold understanding, and connect historical content to students’ lives through timely, relevant texts.

Outcome Summary

• Improved student understanding through stronger background knowledge development.
• Increased engagement using relevant, real-world social studies content.
• Supported diverse learners with built-in differentiation across reading levels.
• Strengthened instructional consistency across classrooms with standards-aligned resources.

Who Should Use This Resource

This resource is designed for:

• District social studies and curriculum leaders
• Instructional leaders focused on equity and access
• School administrators supporting content-area literacy
• Educators implementing inquiry-based social studies instruction