About Us

The Massachusetts Council for the Social Studies (MCSS) is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit educational organization. It is a network of social studies educators who work with related professional associations, government, and private agencies in support of history and social studies education.

Learn More

Professional Development

Massachusetts Council for the Social Studies is committed to promote professional growth and provide high quality professional development workshops for all Social Studies educators across the Commonwealth.

Learn More

Teacher Resources

Massachusetts Council for the Social Studies provides high-quality, freely-available history resources to improve instruction and assessment for educators. These resources include collections of primary and secondary sources, bell-ringer activities, full lesson plans with teacher-walkthroughs, videos, and more.

Learn More

Advocating for & supporting social studies education

The Massachusetts Council for the Social Studies (MCSS) is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit educational organization. It is a network of social studies educators who work with related professional associations, government, and private agencies in support of history and social studies education.

Featured News

New 2026 MCSS Teacher Awards!

by Nate Everett | February 18, 2026 | Current News Slider | 0 Comments

The Massachusetts Council for Social Studies is proud to announce the recipients of the 2026 Awards for Excellence in Teaching. The Council presents these awards each year to exceptional educators in a variety of social studies disciplines from across the...

Join MCSS. Join the Board. What’s in it for You?

by Todd Wallingford | January 6, 2025 | Current News Slider | 0 Comments

For over fifty years, the MCSS has been the professional home for social studies teachers and leaders across the state. We work in collaboration with districts, non-profits and the MA Department of Education to: deliver meaningful, quality professional development -...

Building Access to DBQ for Multilingual Learners

by Todd Wallingford | November 10, 2024 | Current News Slider, Uncategorized | 0 Comments

For multilingual learners, DBQs can be prohibitively complex. Learn how to build accessibility into your DBQs for MLs with resources designed by a team of history teachers and EL specialists. These are open-source and can be supplemented with in-person or...