New Jersey standards alignment

• RI.PP.11–12.5

  Covered

  Analyze an author’s purpose in a text distinguishing what is directly stated in a text or through rhetoric, analyzing how style and content convey information and advance a point of view.

  Covered by

  • Sugar — The Sweet Revolution

  • · Ep 4 · Blood-Sweetened Luxury
  • · Ep 15 · Torches of Freedom
  • · Ep 17 · Lin Zexu's Letter
  • · Ep 16 · Three Sentences, Three Policies

  Note: New Jersey's revised version of Common Core RI.11-12.6. Determining an author's purpose in a text where the rhetoric is doing the work — how style and content advance a point of view — is taught directly through the reading-the-ads and rhetoric lessons.

• RI.MF.11–12.6

  Covered

  Synthesize complex information across multiple sources and formats to develop ideas, resolve conflicting information, or develop an interpretation that goes beyond explicit text information (e.g., express a personal point of view, new interpretation of the concept).

  Covered by

  • Sugar — The Sweet Revolution

  • · Ep 10 · The Oral History That Survived (recovering Nathan “Nearest” Green's erased role)
  • · Ep 4 · Whose Voice Tells the Story

  Note: New Jersey's version of Common Core RH.11-12.9. “Resolve conflicting information” across sources is the whole point of the Nathan Green lesson: the documentary record and the oral record disagree, and the episode teaches why oral history is a legitimate scholarly method for resolving that.

• RI.CT.11–12.8

  Covered

  Analyze and reflect on (e.g., practical knowledge, historical/cultural context, and background knowledge) documents of historical and scientific significance for their purposes, including primary source documents relevant to U.S. and/or global history and texts proposing scientific or technical advancements.

  Covered by

  • Sugar — The Sweet Revolution
  • Chocolate — Food of the Gods
  • Guayusa & Kola Nut — Forest Wisdom

  • · 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

  Note: Analyzing primary-source documents of historical significance for their purpose is the Whose Voice method: a planter's euphemism and passive voice set against two first-person accounts by formerly enslaved writers.

• 6.1.12.GeoGI.1.a

  Partially covered

  Explain how geographic variations impacted economic development in the New World, and its role in promoting trade with global markets (e.g., climate, soil conditions, other natural resources).

  Covered by

  • Coffee — The Daily Global Connection
  • Tea — The Way of Tea
  • Chocolate — Food of the Gods
  • Sugar — The Sweet Revolution
  • Guayusa & Kola Nut — Forest Wisdom
  • Kava — The Root of Peace

  • · The Commodity Map itself, every episode pinned at its origin
  • · The Growing Belts map, production regions by latitude band and country
  • · Ep 1 · The Coffee Belt: Where Coffee Grows and Why
  • · Ep 3 · The Cacao Tree and the Narrowest Belt
  • · Ep 6 · Why Volcanic Soil Only
  • · Ep 1 · Climate Change Is Redrawing the Map
  • · Ep 3 · A Two-Degree Threat
  • · 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: Partial: how climate, soils, and natural resources decide where commodities grow and how they enter global trade is the Commodity Map's spine. The standard's full New-World economic-development frame is one thread through it, not a survey.

• 6.1.12.EconGE.6.a

  Partially covered

  Determine the role geography played in gaining access to raw materials and finding new global markets to promote trade.

  Covered by

  • Coffee — The Daily Global Connection
  • Tea — The Way of Tea
  • Chocolate — Food of the Gods
  • Sugar — The Sweet Revolution
  • Guayusa & Kola Nut — Forest Wisdom
  • Kava — The Root of Peace

  • · The Commodity Map itself, every episode pinned at its origin
  • · The Growing Belts map, production regions by latitude band and country
  • · Ep 1 · The Coffee Belt: Where Coffee Grows and Why
  • · Ep 3 · The Cacao Tree and the Narrowest Belt
  • · Ep 6 · Why Volcanic Soil Only
  • · Ep 1 · Follow the Money: Bean to Cup
  • · Ep 2 · Who Gets Paid, Tea and Coffee Compared
  • · Ep 3 · The Commodity Trap
  • · Ep 12 · The Jimador's Share
  • · Ep 14 · Pattern 3: Labor Captures the Smallest Share (the smile curve)
  • · Ep 21 · The Smile Curve, Confirmed

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: how geography governs access to raw materials and global markets — and who captures the value along the chain — is taught in depth through the commodities themselves.

• 6.2.12.HistoryCC.3.c

  Covered

  Analyze the impact of the policies of different European colonizers on indigenous societies and explain the responses of these societies to imperialistic rule.

  Covered by

  • Tea — The Way of Tea
  • Guayusa & Kola Nut — Forest Wisdom
  • Kava — The Root of Peace
  • Sugar — The Sweet Revolution

  • · Ep 2 · Who Grows the Tea (colonial and plantation labour)
  • · Ep 5 · Whose Knowledge Is It
  • · Ep 6 · Kava Governs
  • · Ep 17 · The Opium Wars
  • · Ep 20 · The Ban Against the Evidence
  • · Ep 4 · The Triangular Trade and the Middle Passage
  • · Ep 4 · Resistance and Revolution
  • · Ep 11 · The Maroons
  • · Ep 11 · The Haitian Revolution

  Note: Both halves: colonizer policies AND the responses to them — from Maroon communities to revolution and abolition — are taught in depth, through the commodities those systems ran.

• 6.2.12.EconGE.1.a

  Partially covered

  Trace the movement of essential commodities (e.g., sugar, cotton) from Asia to Europe to America, and determine the impact trade on the New World's economy and society.

  Covered by

  • Sugar — The Sweet Revolution
  • Coffee — The Daily Global Connection
  • Tea — The Way of Tea
  • Chocolate — Food of the Gods

  • · Ep 4 · The Sugar Islands
  • · Ep 4 · From New Guinea to the New World
  • · Ep 11 · Waste-Product Economics
  • · Ep 1 · Follow the Money: Bean to Cup
  • · Ep 2 · Who Gets Paid, Tea and Coffee Compared
  • · Ep 3 · The Commodity Trap
  • · Ep 12 · The Jimador's Share
  • · Ep 14 · Pattern 3: Labor Captures the Smallest Share (the smile curve)
  • · Ep 21 · The Smile Curve, Confirmed

  What we do and don't cover: The single closest match in the New Jersey document — it names commodity trade directly. Partial: of the commodities the standard names, the sugar industry is taught thoroughly; cotton is not a Commodity Map episode. ERRATUM: New Jersey's 2020 document prints a second, different performance expectation (on the economic policies of China and Japan) under this same code 6.2.12.EconGE.1.a; the text above is the commodities one.

• 6.2.12.HistoryCC.1.f

  Partially covered

  Assess the political, social, and economic impact of the interactions between indigenous peoples and colonizers over different time periods (e.g., Columbian Exchange, forced labor, slave trade and slavery practices, spread of disease, lingering effects on cultures).

  Covered by

  • Chocolate — Food of the Gods
  • Sugar — The Sweet Revolution

  • · Ep 3 · Conquest and the Great Reversal
  • · Ep 4 · The Triangular Trade and the Middle Passage
  • · Ep 11 · The Triangular Trade
  • · Ep 12 · Burning the Books (the destruction of the Mesoamerican codices)
  • · Ep 15 · From Sacred to Commodity
  • · Ep 3 · Food of the Gods (cacao as Maya/Aztec currency and sacrament)
  • · Ep 12 · The Sacred Plant (Aztec governance of pulque)
  • · Ep 12 · Burning the Books

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: the Columbian exchange, conquest, and the colonization of Mesoamerica (Maya and Aztec) through the plants those societies governed are taught in depth. The standard's full sweep of every named interaction is broader than the courses.

• 6.2.12.HistoryCC.1.b

  Partially covered

  Analyze various motivations for the Atlantic slave trade and the impact on Europeans, Africans, and Americans.

  Covered by

  • Sugar — The Sweet Revolution

  • · Ep 4 · The Triangular Trade and the Middle Passage
  • · Ep 4 · Whose Voice Tells the Story (Equiano, 1789; Mary Prince, 1831)
  • · Ep 4 · Resistance and Revolution
  • · Ep 11 · The Maroons
  • · Ep 11 · The Haitian Revolution

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: the plantation economy and the Middle Passage (through primary-source accounts by formerly enslaved writers) are taught in depth. The standard's economic analysis of the trade's motivations is reached through the commodities, not surveyed on its own.

• 6.2.12.EconGE.1.b

  Partially covered

  Assess the role of mercantilism in stimulating European expansion through trade, conquest, and colonization.

  Covered by

  • Chocolate — Food of the Gods
  • Sugar — The Sweet Revolution

  • · Ep 3 · Conquest and the Great Reversal
  • · Ep 4 · The Triangular Trade and the Middle Passage
  • · Ep 11 · The Triangular Trade
  • · Ep 12 · Burning the Books (the destruction of the Mesoamerican codices)
  • · Ep 15 · From Sacred to Commodity

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: conquest and colonization as engines of European expansion are taught through the commodities and the Columbian exchange. The formal concept of mercantilism, by name, is not a unit.

• 6.2.12.HistoryUP.3.a

  Partially covered

  Analyze the extent to which racism was both a cause and consequence of imperialism and evaluate the impact of imperialism from multiple perspectives.

  Covered by

  • Tea — The Way of Tea
  • Guayusa & Kola Nut — Forest Wisdom
  • Kava — The Root of Peace
  • Sugar — The Sweet Revolution
  • Chocolate — Food of the Gods

  • · Ep 2 · Who Grows the Tea (colonial and plantation labour)
  • · Ep 5 · Whose Knowledge Is It
  • · Ep 6 · Kava Governs
  • · Ep 17 · The Opium Wars
  • · Ep 20 · The Ban Against the Evidence
  • · 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

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: imperialism from multiple perspectives — the colonizers' and the colonized — is exactly the Whose Voice method applied to empire. The standard's specific cause-and-consequence analysis of racism is touched, not systematized.

• 6.2.12.GeoHE.1.a

  Partially covered

  Determine the role of natural resources, climate, and topography in European exploration, colonization, and settlement patterns.

  Covered by

  • Coffee — The Daily Global Connection
  • Chocolate — Food of the Gods
  • Kava — The Root of Peace
  • Tea — The Way of Tea
  • Sugar — The Sweet Revolution
  • Guayusa & Kola Nut — Forest Wisdom

  • · 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
  • · The Commodity Map itself, every episode pinned at its origin
  • · The Growing Belts map, production regions by latitude band and country
  • · Ep 1 · The Coffee Belt: Where Coffee Grows and Why
  • · Ep 3 · The Cacao Tree and the Narrowest Belt

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: how resources and climate shaped where colonizers went and what they grew is taught through the growing belts and the resource maps. A general geographic treatment of settlement is not.

• 6.3.12.CivicsHR.1

  Partially covered

  Compare current case studies involving slavery, child labor, or other unfair labor practices in the United States with those of other nations and evaluate the extent to which these human rights violations are a universal problem.

  Covered by

  • Sugar — The Sweet Revolution

  • · Ep 4 · The Triangular Trade and the Middle Passage
  • · Ep 4 · Resistance and Revolution
  • · Ep 11 · The Maroons
  • · Ep 11 · The Haitian Revolution
  • · 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

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: the plantation-slavery system and the U.S. labor movement's fight against unfair labor practices are taught in depth. The standard's comparative, current-case-study method across nations is not the courses' structure.

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 New Jersey mathematics standard.
• Science — almost nothing. There is no laboratory work, no investigation and no scientific modelling here. New Jersey adopted the NGSS verbatim (as NJSLS-Science, 2014), and we claim a single NGSS performance expectation, partially, explaining exactly why on the entry itself. It is not a science course and we will not sell it as one.
• The flagship's distinctive New Jersey structure has mostly no code to cite. New Jersey Civics teaches the deliberately strong Governor (who appoints the Attorney General, Secretary of State, and Treasurer rather than voters electing them), the Lieutenant Governor created only in 2010, the appointed judiciary that earns tenure to age 70, the 40-district Legislature on its 2-4-4 Senate cycle, the absence of any citizen initiative, and the 21 counties whose boards were renamed from “Chosen Freeholders” to “county commissioners” in 2020-2021. New Jersey's 2020 standards reach the New Jersey Constitution of 1776 and 1947 (6.1.12.CivicsPI.2.a, .13.a), which the flagship backs, but the strong-governor design, the appointed judiciary, the no-initiative rule, and the county renaming have no New Jersey-specific code. The gap is in the standards, not the course.
• The Opium Wars, the sugar-vs-other-commodities split, and the War on Drugs. The catalog teaches the Opium Wars and the War on Drugs in depth, and covers sugar thoroughly. New Jersey's world-history standard names sugar and cotton (6.2.12.EconGE.1.a), so we claim the sugar content there — but it does not name the Opium Wars, and New Jersey's Active Citizenship history standards reach contemporary drug policy only through the broad “current foreign policy issue” framing (6.3.12.HistoryCA.12), which the courses do not squarely meet. We leave those unclaimed rather than stretch.
• The Amistad and climate-change teaching mandates. New Jersey law requires the Amistad curriculum (the history of the African slave trade and of African Americans) and climate-change education across subjects. These are instructional mandates layered onto the standards, not separate coded standards, so there is no distinct code to cite; the catalog's slavery, abolition, and climate content is claimed through the coded 6.1/6.2 standards above.
• The wider catalog — health, PE, AI-literacy, and languages. New Jersey's relevant frameworks for these (Comprehensive Health and Physical Education; Computer Science and Design Thinking; World Languages) have not been fetched and verified yet. Our rule is fetch-or-don't-cite, so these courses carry no New Jersey claims this pass.