If you're a CTE law teacher covering an introductory course on the Principles of Law, Public Safety, Corrections, and Security, it's crucial to find classroom resources that engage your students and prepare them for a life of public service. After all, these students will be making daily decisions that affect the lives of people everywhere.
Thankfully, there are several great curriculum resources you can use to set your students on the right path.
In this article, you'll find three of the best Principles of Law, Public Safety, Corrections, and Security curriculum options for high school:
- Texas CTE
- EdOptions Academy
- TPS Publishing
When you've finished reading, you'll have a better understanding of the types of curriculum available to help you determine what's most appropriate for your CTE law classroom.
1. Texas CTE
Texas CTE is an academic resource website hosted by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). The website focuses on ensuring career and technical educators are prepared to meet academic standards in their instruction, particularly the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).
While these resources are especially valuable for teachers working in Texas, they can be adapted to benefit instructors in most states.
In Texas, Principles of Law, Public Safety, Corrections, and Security is an elective course for grades 9-12. The Texas CTE website provides complimentary instructional materials to help teachers build lesson plans around TEKS standards for the Principles course.
The resources Texas CTE offers include a scope and sequence document along with lesson plans across eleven instructional units:
- Professional Standards and Employer Expectations
- Academic Knowledge and Communication Skills
- Safety, First Aid, and Critical Thinking Skills
- Legal Roles and Responsibilities
- Working Cooperatively within LPSCS Agencies
- Essentials of Criminal Law
- The Public Safety Professional
- The Court System Professional
- The Correction System Professional
- The Private Security Professional
- The Fire Protection Professional
Although the course covers a broad range of professionals across this career cluster, Texas CTE doesn't include the same amount of material for every unit. For example, four lessons are included in Unit 7, while you won't find any instructional materials for teaching Units 1, 4, and 10.
How Much Does This Curriculum Cost, and Who Is It For?
As a free resource, Texas CTE is best used as a starting point for building instructional materials. The site encourages teachers to incorporate these resources as appropriate into their existing curriculum to meet their standards. But since the resources aren't exhaustive or complete, you'll inevitably need to use another curriculum to fill in the missing lesson plans--or build your own from scratch.
If you're a teacher who just needs a few template lesson plans to build your own curriculum for an introductory CTE law course, Texas CTE is one of the best free options out there.
However, if you're looking for a more complete curriculum to meet your standards, you're likely better off purchasing a resource from another curriculum provider.
2. EdOptions Academy
A second curriculum option for a Principles of Law, Public Safety, Corrections, and Security course comes from EdOptions Academy.
EdOptions Academy is a division of online curriculum provider Edmentum. While Edmentum is known for its catalog of standalone online courses and credit recovery options in various subject areas, EdOptions Academy is an online school that students can enroll in to take primary and secondary-level courses, including CTE options.
For Principles of Law, Public Safety, Corrections, and Security, EdOptions Academy offers a two-semester course sequence, dividing the material between Part A and Part B. Students must take both semesters to receive the entire course and meet all academic standards.
Each semester includes 90 instructional days of content, with each class day outlined in the course syllabi.
During the first semester, learners progress through these units focused on the different areas of law and law enforcement:
- Law in the United States
- Law Enforcement and Corrections
- Private Security and Emergency Services
- Rights, Ethics, and Safety
For the second semester, the course covers these units concerning the skills necessary for work in law-related professions:
- Personal Skills
- Professional Skills
- Technological Skills
Through the sequence of two courses, students learn the basics of each branch of law enforcement and emergency services, along with the skills required to work in these fields.
How Much Does This Curriculum Cost, and Who Is It For?
Learners have two options for learning with EdOptions Academy. They can either enroll in the Apex Learning Virtual School as online students attending a private school or take the course in partnership with a public school district. For the latter, schools purchase access to the course through Edmentum to provide to individual students and groups. For both options, you will need to contact EdOptions Academy for specific pricing information.
Regardless of the format, the course is designed to be taken entirely online, without the benefits of traditional classroom instruction. This means EdOptions is a good fit for schools with just a handful of students interested in this career pathway or those who don't want to invest in their own curriculum or a dedicated law and public safety instructor.
However, schools that already have a law, public safety, corrections, and security program may want a curriculum better suited to in-person instruction. You can use a digital curriculum to create a blended learning experience when paired with traditional classroom materials and activities. But with EdOptions Academy, you would need to adapt the materials to in-person instruction and provide most classroom activities yourself.
3. TPS Publishing
TPS Publishing, Inc. is a small curriculum provider whose name stands for "Teachers, Parents, Students." Unlike larger curriculum publishers, TPS Publishing focuses on providing what they term a "teacher's toolbox" of materials for courses in STEAM subject areas.
Among the curriculum resources TPS offers is an entire course on the Principles of Law, Public Safety, Corrections, and Security. The class aligns both with national CTE standards and state standards in California.
These course materials are designed for traditional classroom instruction and introduce students to basic concepts in criminal justice, fire protection, and inter-agency cooperation.
A significant focus of the TPS curriculum is learning critical vocabulary, and the company offers student textbooks built around this terminology-forward format. Emphasizing vocabulary is part of TPS Publishing's effort to make its resources accessible to all students, particularly English Language Learners.
In addition to student textbooks, TPS also offers these coordinating classroom resources:
- Teacher Edition Textbook
- Student Workbook
- Assessment Database
- PowerPoints
- Interactive Assessment Tools
Educators can also choose to purchase the curriculum as a print package or an online edition.
How Much Does This Curriculum Cost, and Who Is It For?
The Principles course from TPS Publishing offers substantially more flexibility than other options on this list. Teachers can choose a traditional, paper-based curriculum or opt for a digital package. They can also purchase individual elements like textbooks, workbooks, and presentation slides piecemeal based on specific classroom needs. This level of flexibility is ideal for the instructor who wants to try different formats and tools to create a blended learning environment for students.
On the other hand, the price of your course can vary wildly depending on which elements you choose. For example, a student textbook costs about $85, and a workbook just $14. But you'll pay another $250 for PowerPoint slides and $2000 for access to the online assessment tool. The full digital package costs schools nearly $5000. Then again, this variability allows TPS to serve schools with very different instructional budgets.
Overall, the TPS Publishing Principles of Law, Public Safety, Corrections, and Security course could be an excellent fit for teachers desiring flexible instruction. But educators may want to look elsewhere for a curriculum they can use in multiple CTE courses.
Teach More Than Just Principles of Law, Public Safety, Corrections, and Security
When teaching an introductory law and public safety course, choosing the best curriculum for your students is critical. If your students don't have the knowledge, skills, and awareness for fields like corrections and security, they won't be prepared to work in these critical areas of public service.
Fortunately, you can use any of the Principles of Law, Public Safety, Corrections, and Security curriculum options in this article to help get your CTE students ready for employment.
However, it'll take more than an introduction to ensure every student is ready to work in the law and public safety career cluster.
If you're looking for a standards-aligned curriculum that will teach your students in-depth knowledge of law enforcement, the court system, and even forensic science, consider iCEV.
With the comprehensive iCEV Law, Public Safety, Corrections, and Security curriculum, you gain access to fully customizable courses throughout this CTE pathway to ensure your students are prepared for their careers.
