CALIFORNIA SOCIAL SCIENCES STANDARDS
Historical and Social
Sciences Analysis Skills
The intellectual skills noted
below are to be learned through, and applied to, the content standards for
grades nine through twelve. They are to be assessed only in conjunction with
the content standards in grades nine through twelve.
In addition to the standards
for grades nine through twelve, students demonstrate the following
intellectual, reasoning, reflection, and research skills.
Chronological and Spatial
Thinking 1. Students compare the
present with the past, evaluating the consequences of past events and decisions
and determining the lessons that were learned. 2. Students analyze how change
happens at different rates at different times; understand that some aspects can
change while others remain the same; and understand that change is complicated
and affects not only technology and politics but also values and beliefs. 3.
Students use a variety of maps and documents to interpret human movement,
including major patterns of domestic and international migration, changing
environmental preferences and settlement patterns, the frictions that develop
between population groups, and the diffusion of ideas, technological
innovations, and goods. 4. Students relate current events to the physical and
human characteristics of places and regions.
Historical Research,
Evidence, and Point of View 1.
Students distinguish valid arguments from fallacious arguments in historical
interpretations. 2. Students identify bias and prejudice in historical
interpretations. 3. Students evaluate major debates among historians concerning
alternative interpretations of the past, including an analysis of authorsÕ use
of evidence and the distinctions between sound generalizations and misleading oversimplifications.
4. Students construct and test hypotheses; collect, evaluate, and employ
information from multiple primary and secondary sources; and apply it in oral
and written presentations.
Historical Interpretation 1.
Students show the connections, causal and otherwise, between particular
historical events and larger social, economic, and political trends and
developments. 2. Students recognize the complexity of historical causes and
effects, including the limitations on determining cause and effect. 3. Students
interpret past events and issues within the context in which an event unfolded
rather than solely in terms of present-day norms and values. 4. Students
understand the meaning, implication, and impact of historical events and
recognize that events could have taken other directions. 5. Students analyze
human modifications of landscapes and examine the resulting environmental
policy issues. 6. Students conduct cost-benefit analyses and apply basic
economic indicators to analyze the aggregate economic behavior of the U.S.
economy.
Grade 10: World History, Culture, and Geography:
The Modern World
| 10.1 |
|---|
Students in grade ten study
major turning points that shaped the modern world, from the late eighteenth
century through the present, including the cause and course of the two world
wars. They trace the rise of democratic ideas and develop an understanding of
the historical roots of current world issues, especially as they pertain to
international relations. They extrapolate from the American experience that
democratic ideals are often achieved at a high price, remain vulnerable, and
are not practiced everywhere in the world. Students develop an understanding of
current world issues and relate them to their historical, geographic,
political, economic, and cultural contexts. Students consider multiple accounts
of events in order to understand international relations from a variety of
perspectives.
10.1 Students
relate the moral and ethical principles in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy,
in Judaism, and in Christianity to the development of Western political
thought.
1. Analyze the similarities and differences in
Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman views of law, reason and faith, and duties of
the individual.
2. Trace the development of the Western political ideas
of the rule of law and illegitimacy of tyranny, using selections from PlatoÕs
Republic and AristotleÕs Politics.
3. Consider the influence of the U.S. Constitution on
political systems in the contemporary world.
10.2 Students
compare and contrast the Glorious Revolution of England, the American
Revolution, and the French Revolution and their enduring effects worldwide on
the political expectations for self-government and individual liberty.
1. Compare the major ideas of philosophers and their
effects on the democratic revolutions in England, the United States, France,
and Latin America (e.g., John Locke, Charles-Louis Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, Sim—n Bol’var, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison).
2. List the principles of the Magna Carta, the English
Bill of Rights (1689), the American Declaration of Independence (1776), the
French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789), and the U.S.
Bill of Rights (1791).
3. Understand the unique character of the American
Revolution, its spread to other parts of the world, and its continuing
significance to other nations.
4. Explain how the ideology of the French Revolution led
France to develop from constitutional monarchy to democratic despotism to the
Napoleonic empire.
5. Discuss how nationalism spread across Europe with Napoleon but was repressed for a generation under the Congress of Vienna and Concert of Europe until the Revolutions of 1848.
10.3 Students
analyze the effects of the Industrial Revolution in England, France, Germany,
Japan, and the United States.
1. Analyze why England was the first country to
industrialize.
2. Examine how scientific and technological changes and
new forms of energy brought about massive social, economic, and cultural change
(e.g., the inventions and discoveries of James Watt, Eli Whitney, Henry
Bessemer, Louis Pasteur, Thomas Edison).
3. Describe the growth of population, rural to urban
migration, and growth of cities associated with the Industrial Revolution.
4. Trace the evolution of work and labor, including the
demise of the slave trade and the effects of immigration, mining and
manufacturing, division of labor, and the union movement.
5. Understand the connections among natural resources,
entrepreneurship, labor, and capital in an industrial economy.
6. Analyze the emergence of capitalism as a dominant
economic pattern and the responses to it, including Utopianism, Social
Democracy, Socialism, and Communism.
7. Describe the emergence of Romanticism in art and
literature (e.g., the poetry of William Blake and William Wordsworth), social
criticism (e.g., the novels of Charles Dickens), and the move away from
Classicism in Europe.
10.4 Students
analyze patterns of global change in the era of New Imperialism in at least two
of the following regions or countries: Africa, Southeast Asia, China, India,
Latin America, and the Philippines.
1. Describe the rise of industrial economies and their
link to imperialism and colonialism (e.g., the role played by national security
and strategic advantage; moral issues raised by the search for national
hegemony, Social Darwinism, and the missionary impulse; material issues such as
land, resources, and technology).
2. Discuss the locations of the colonial rule of such
nations as England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia,
Spain, Portugal, and the United States.
3. Explain imperialism from the perspective of the
colonizers and the colonized and the varied immediate and long-term responses
by the people under colonial rule.
4. Describe the independence struggles of the colonized
regions of the world, including the roles of leaders, such as Sun Yat-sen in
China, and the roles of ideology and religion.
10.5 Students analyze the causes and course of the First
World War.
1. Analyze the arguments for entering into war presented
by leaders from all sides of the Great War and the role of political and
economic rivalries, ethnic and ideological conflicts, domestic discontent and
disorder, and propaganda and nationalism in mobilizing the civilian population
in support of Òtotal war.Ó
2. Examine the principal theaters of battle, major
turning points, and the importance of geographic factors in military decisions
and outcomes (e.g., topography, waterways, distance, climate).
3. Explain how the Russian Revolution and the entry of
the United States affected the course and outcome of the war.
4. Understand the nature of the war and its human costs
(military and civilian) on all sides of the conflict, including how colonial
peoples contributed to the war effort.
5. Discuss human rights violations and genocide,
including the Ottoman governmentÕs actions against Armenian citizens.
10.6 Students analyze the effects of the First World War.
1. Analyze the aims and negotiating roles of world
leaders, the terms and influence of the Treaty of Versailles and Woodrow
WilsonÕs Fourteen Points, and the causes and effects of the United StatesÕs
rejection of the League of Nations on world politics.
2. Describe the effects of the war and resulting peace
treaties on population movement, the international economy, and shifts in the
geographic and political borders of Europe and the Middle East.
3. Understand the widespread disillusionment with prewar
institutions, authorities, and values that resulted in a void that was later
filled by totalitarians.
4. Discuss the influence of World War I on literature, art, and intellectual life in the West (e.g., Pablo Picasso, the Òlost generationÓ of Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway).
10.7 Students
analyze the rise of totalitarian governments after World War I.
1. Understand the causes and consequences of the Russian
Revolution, including LeninÕs use of totalitarian means to seize and maintain
control (e.g., the Gulag).
2. Trace StalinÕs rise to power in the Soviet Union and
the connection between economic policies, political policies, the absence of a
free press, and systematic violations of human rights (e.g., the Terror Famine
in Ukraine).
3. Analyze the rise, aggression, and human costs of
totalitarian regimes (Fascist and Communist) in Germany, Italy, and the Soviet
Union, noting especially their common and dissimilar traits.
10.8 Students
analyze the causes and consequences of World War II.
1. Compare the German, Italian, and Japanese drives for
empire in the 1930s, including the 1937 Rape of Nanking, other atrocities in
China, and the Stalin-Hitler Pact of 1939.
2. Understand the role of appeasement, nonintervention
(isolationism), and the domestic distractions in Europe and the United States
prior to the outbreak of World War II.
3. Identify and locate the Allied and Axis powers on a
map and discuss the major turning points of the war, the principal theaters of
conflict, key strategic decisions, and the resulting war conferences and
political resolutions, with emphasis on the importance of geographic factors.
4. Describe the political, diplomatic, and military
leaders during the war (e.g., Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
Emperor Hirohito, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Douglas
MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower).
5. Analyze the Nazi policy of pursuing racial purity,
especially against the European Jews; its transformation into the Final
Solution; and the Holocaust that resulted in the murder of six million Jewish
civilians.
6. Discuss the human costs of the war, with particular attention to the civilian and military losses in Russia, Germany, Britain, the United States, China, and Japan.
10.9 Students
analyze the international developments in the post–World War II world.
1. Compare the economic and military power shifts caused
by the war, including the Yalta Pact, the development of nuclear weapons,
Soviet control over Eastern European nations, and the economic recoveries of
Germany and Japan.
2. Analyze the causes of the Cold War, with the free
world on one side and Soviet client states on the other, including competition
for influence in such places as Egypt, the Congo, Vietnam, and Chile.
3. Understand the importance of the Truman Doctrine and
the Marshall Plan, which established the pattern for AmericaÕs postwar policy
of supplying economic and military aid to prevent the spread of Communism and
the resulting economic and political competition in arenas such as Southeast
Asia (i.e., the Korean War, Vietnam War), Cuba, and Africa.
4. Analyze the Chinese Civil War, the rise of Mao
Tse-tung, and the subsequent political and economic upheavals in China (e.g.,
the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the Tiananmen Square
uprising).
5. Describe the uprisings in Poland (1956), Hungary
(1956), and Czechoslovakia (1968) and those countriesÕ resurgence in the 1970s
and 1980s as people in Soviet satellites sought freedom from Soviet control.
6. Understand how the forces of nationalism developed in
the Middle East, how the Holocaust affected world opinion regarding the need
for a Jewish state, and the significance and effects of the location and
establishment of Israel on world affairs.
7. Analyze the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet
Union, including the weakness of the command economy, burdens of military
commitments, and growing resistance to Soviet rule by dissidents in satellite
states and the non-Russian Soviet republics.
8. Discuss the establishment and work of the United
Nations and the purposes and functions of the Warsaw Pact, SEATO, NATO, and the
Organization of American States.
10.10 Students analyze
instances of nation-building in the contemporary world in at least two of the
following regions or countries: the Middle East, Africa, Mexico and other parts
of Latin America, and China.
1. Understand the challenges in the regions, including
their geopolitical, cultural, military, and economic significance and the
international relationships in which they are involved.
2. Describe the recent history of the regions, including
political divisions and systems, key leaders, religious issues, natural
features, resources, and population patterns.
3. Discuss the important trends in the regions today and whether they appear to serve the cause of individual freedom and democracy.
10.11 Students analyze the integration of countries into the world economy
and the information, technological, and communications revolutions (e.g.,
television, satellites, computers).
Grade 11: United States History and Geography: Continuity and Change in the Twentieth Century
Students in grade eleven study the major turning points in American history in the twentieth century. Following a review of the nationÕs beginnings and the impact of the Enlightenment on U.S. democratic ideals, students build upon the tenth grade study of global industrialization to understand the emergence and impact of new technology and a corporate economy, including the social and cultural effects. They trace the change in the ethnic composition of American society; the movement toward equal rights for racial minorities and women; and the role of the United States as a major world power. An emphasis is placed on the expanding role of the federal government and federal courts as well as the continuing tension between the individual and the state. Students consider the major social problems of our time and trace their causes in historical events. They learn that the United States has served as a model for other nations and that the rights and freedoms we enjoy are not accidents, but the results of a defined set of political principles that are not always basic to citizens of other countries. Students understand that our rights under the U.S. Constitution are a precious inheritance that depends on an educated citizenry for their preservation and protection.
11.1 Students
analyze the significant events in the founding of the nation and its attempts
to realize the philosophy of government described in the Declaration of
Independence.
1. Describe the Enlightenment and the rise of democratic
ideas as the context in which the nation was founded.
2. Analyze the ideological origins of the American
Revolution, the Founding FathersÕ philosophy of divinely bestowed unalienable
natural rights, the debates on the drafting and ratification of the
Constitution, and the addition of the Bill of Rights.
3. Understand the history of the Constitution after 1787
with emphasis on federal versus state authority and growing democratization.
4. Examine the effects of the Civil War and
Reconstruction and of the industrial revolution, including demographic shifts
and the emergence in the late nineteenth century of the United States as a
world power.
11.2 Students
analyze the relationship among the rise of industrialization, large-scale
rural-to-urban migration, and massive immigration from Southern and Eastern
Europe.
1. Know the effects of industrialization on living and
working conditions, including the portrayal of working conditions and food
safety in Upton SinclairÕs The Jungle.
2. Describe the changing landscape, including the growth
of cities linked by industry and trade, and the development of cities divided
according to race, ethnicity, and class.
3. Trace the effect of the Americanization movement.
4. Analyze the effect of urban political machines and
responses to them by immigrants and middle-class reformers.
5. Discuss corporate mergers that produced trusts and
cartels and the economic and political policies of industrial leaders.
6. Trace the economic development of the United States
and its emergence as a major industrial power, including its gains from trade
and the advantages of its physical geography.
7. Analyze the similarities and differences between the
ideologies of Social Darwinism and Social Gospel (e.g., using biographies of
William Graham Sumner, Billy Sunday, Dwight L. Moody).
8. Examine the effect of political programs and
activities of Populists.
9. Understand the effect of political programs and
activities of the Progressives (e.g., federal regulation of railroad transport,
ChildrenÕs Bureau, the Sixteenth Amendment, Theodore Roosevelt, Hiram Johnson).
11.3 Students
analyze the role religion played in the founding of America, its lasting moral,
social, and political impacts, and issues regarding religious liberty.
1. Describe the contributions of various religious groups
to American civic principles and social reform movements (e.g., civil and human
rights, individual responsibility and the work ethic, antimonarchy and
self-rule, worker protection, family-centered communities).
2. Analyze the great religious revivals and the leaders
involved in them, including the First Great Awakening, the Second Great
Awakening, the Civil War revivals, the Social Gospel Movement, the rise of
Christian liberal theology in the nineteenth century, the impact of the Second
Vatican Council, and the rise of Christian fundamentalism in current times.
3. Cite incidences of religious intolerance in the United
States (e.g., persecution of Mormons, anti-Catholic sentiment, anti-Semitism).
4. Discuss the expanding religious pluralism in the
United States and California that resulted from large-scale immigration in the
twentieth century.
5. Describe the principles of religious liberty found in
the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment, including
the debate on the issue of separation of church and state.
11.4 Students
trace the rise of the United States to its role as a world power in the
twentieth century.
1. List the purpose and the effects of the Open Door
policy.
2. Describe the Spanish-American War and U.S. expansion
in the South Pacific.
3. Discuss AmericaÕs role in the Panama Revolution and the
building of the Panama Canal.
4. Explain Theodore RooseveltÕs Big Stick diplomacy,
William TaftÕs Dollar Diplomacy, and Woodrow WilsonÕs Moral Diplomacy, drawing
on relevant speeches.
5. Analyze the political, economic, and social
ramifications of World War I on the home front.
6. Trace the declining role of Great Britain and the
expanding role of the United States in world affairs after World War II.
11.5 Students
analyze the major political, social, economic, technological, and cultural
developments of the 1920s.
1. Discuss the policies of Presidents Warren Harding,
Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover.
2. Analyze the international and domestic events,
interests, and philosophies that prompted attacks on civil liberties, including
the Palmer Raids, Marcus GarveyÕs Òback-to-AfricaÓ movement, the Ku Klux Klan,
and immigration quotas and the responses of organizations such as the American
Civil Liberties Union, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People, and the Anti-Defamation League to those attacks.
3. Examine the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the
Constitution and the Volstead Act (Prohibition).
4. Analyze the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment and
the changing role of women in society.
5. Describe the Harlem Renaissance and new trends in
literature, music, and art, with special attention to the work of writers
(e.g., Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes).
6. Trace the growth and effects of radio and movies and
their role in the worldwide diffusion of popular culture.
7. Discuss the rise of mass production techniques, the
growth of cities, the impact of new technologies (e.g., the automobile,
electricity), and the resulting prosperity and effect on the American
landscape.
11.6 Students
analyze the different explanations for the Great Depression and how the New
Deal fundamentally changed the role of the federal government.
1. Describe the monetary issues of the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries that gave rise to the establishment of the
Federal Reserve and the weaknesses in key sectors of the economy in the late
1920s.
2. Understand the explanations of the principal causes of
the Great Depression and the steps taken by the Federal Reserve, Congress, and
Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt to combat the economic
crisis.
3. Discuss the human toll of the Depression, natural
disasters, and unwise agricultural practices and their effects on the
depopulation of rural regions and on political movements of the left and right,
with particular attention to the Dust Bowl refugees and their social and
economic impacts in California.
4. Analyze the effects of and the controversies arising
from New Deal economic policies and the expanded role of the federal government
in society and the economy since the 1930s (e.g., Works Progress
Administration, Social Security, National Labor Relations Board, farm programs,
regional development policies, and energy development projects such as the
Tennessee Valley Authority, California Central Valley Project, and Bonneville
Dam).
5. Trace the advances and retreats of organized labor,
from the creation of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of
Industrial Organizations to current issues of a postindustrial, multinational
economy, including the United Farm Workers in California.
11.7 Students
analyze AmericaÕs participation in World War II.
1. Examine the origins of American involvement in the
war, with an emphasis on the events that precipitated the attack on Pearl
Harbor.
2. Explain U.S. and Allied wartime strategy, including
the major battles of Midway, Normandy, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the Battle of the
Bulge.
3. Identify the roles and sacrifices of individual
American soldiers, as well as the unique contributions of the special fighting
forces (e.g., the Tuskegee Airmen, the 442nd Regimental Combat team, the Navajo
Code Talkers).
4. Analyze RooseveltÕs foreign policy during World War II
(e.g., Four Freedoms speech).
5. Discuss the constitutional issues and impact of events
on the U.S. home front, including the internment of Japanese Americans (e.g.,
Fred Korematsu v. United States of America) and the restrictions on German and
Italian resident aliens; the response of the administration to HitlerÕs
atrocities against Jews and other groups; the roles of women in military
production; and the roles and growing political demands of African Americans.
6. Describe major developments in aviation, weaponry,
communication, and medicine and the warÕs impact on the location of American
industry and use of resources.
7. Discuss the decision to drop atomic bombs and the
consequences of the decision (Hiroshima and Nagasaki).
8. Analyze the effect of massive aid given to Western
Europe under the Marshall Plan to rebuild itself after the war and the
importance of a rebuilt Europe to the U.S. economy.
11.8 Students
analyze the economic boom and social transformation of post–World War II
America.
1. Trace the growth of service sector, white collar, and
professional sector jobs in business and government.
2. Describe the significance of Mexican immigration and its
relationship to the agricultural economy, especially in California.
3. Examine TrumanÕs labor policy and congressional
reaction to it.
4. Analyze new federal government spending on defense,
welfare, interest on the national debt, and federal and state spending on
education, including the California Master Plan.
5. Describe the increased powers of the presidency in
response to the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War.
6. Discuss the diverse environmental regions of North
America, their relationship to local economies, and the origins and prospects
of environmental problems in those regions.
7. Describe the effects on society and the economy of
technological developments since 1945, including the computer revolution,
changes in communication, advances in medicine, and improvements in
agricultural technology.
8. Discuss forms of popular culture, with emphasis on
their origins and geographic diffusion (e.g., jazz and other forms of popular
music, professional sports, architectural and artistic styles).
11.9 Students
analyze U.S. foreign policy since World War II.
1. Discuss the establishment of the United Nations and
International Declaration of Human Rights, International Monetary Fund, World
Bank, and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and their importance in
shaping modern Europe and maintaining peace and international order.
2. Understand the role of military alliances, including
NATO and SEATO, in deterring communist aggression and maintaining security
during the Cold War.
3. Trace the origins and geopolitical consequences
(foreign and domestic) of the Cold War and containment policy, including the
following:
The era of McCarthyism, instances of domestic Communism (e.g., Alger Hiss) and blacklisting
The Truman Doctrine, The Berlin Blockade, The Korean War, The Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis
Atomic testing in the American West, the Òmutual assured destructionÓ doctrine, and disarmament policies
The Vietnam War, Latin American policy
4. List the effects of foreign policy on domestic
policies and vice versa (e.g., protests during the war in Vietnam, the Ònuclear
freezeÓ movement).
5. Analyze the role of the Reagan administration and
other factors in the victory of the West in the Cold War.
6. Describe U.S. Middle East policy and its strategic,
political, and economic interests, including those related to the Gulf War.
7. Examine relations between the United States and Mexico
in the twentieth century, including key economic, political, immigration, and
environmental issues.
11.10 Students analyze the development of federal civil
rights and voting rights.
1. Explain how demands of African Americans helped
produce a stimulus for civil rights, including President RooseveltÕs ban on
racial discrimination in defense industries in 1941, and how African AmericansÕ
service in World War II produced a stimulus for President TrumanÕs decision to
end segregation in the armed forces in 1948.
2. Examine and analyze the key events, policies, and
court cases in the evolution of civil rights, including Dred Scott v. Sandford,
Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Regents of the University of
California v. Bakke, and California Proposition 209.
3. Describe the collaboration on legal strategy between
African American and white civil rights lawyers to end racial segregation in
higher education.
4. Examine the roles of civil rights advocates (e.g., A.
Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcom X, Thurgood Marshall, James
Farmer, Rosa Parks), including the significance of Martin Luther King, Jr.Õs
ÒLetter from Birmingham JailÓ and ÒI Have a DreamÓ speech.
5. Discuss the diffusion of the civil rights movement of
African Americans from the churches of the rural South and the urban North,
including the resistance to racial desegregation in Little Rock and Birmingham,
and how the advances influenced the agendas, strategies, and effectiveness of
the quests of American Indians, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans for
civil rights and equal opportunities.
6. Analyze the passage and effects of civil rights and
voting rights legislation (e.g., 1964 Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act of
1965) and the Twenty-Fourth Amendment, with an emphasis on equality of access
to education and to the political process.
7. Analyze the womenÕs rights movement from the era of Elizabeth Stanton and Susan Anthony and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the movement launched in the 1960s, including differing perspectives on the roles of women.
11.11 Students analyze
the major social problems and domestic policy issues in contemporary American
society.
1. Discuss the reasons for the nationÕs changing
immigration policy, with emphasis on how the Immigration Act of 1965 and
successor acts have transformed American society.
2. Discuss the significant domestic policy speeches of
Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton
(e.g., with regard to education, civil rights, economic policy, environmental
policy).
3. Describe the changing roles of women in society as
reflected in the entry of more women into the labor force and the changing
family structure.
4. Explain the constitutional crisis originating from the
Watergate scandal.
5. Trace the impact of, need for, and controversies
associated with environmental conservation, expansion of the national park
system, and the development of environmental protection laws, with particular
attention to the interaction between environmental protection advocates and
property rights advocates.
6. Analyze the persistence of poverty and how different
analyses of this issue influence welfare reform, health insurance reform, and
other social policies.
7. Explain how the federal, state, and local governments
have responded to demographic and social changes such as population shifts to
the suburbs, racial concentrations in the cities, Frostbelt-to-Sunbelt
migration, international migration, decline of family farms, increases in
out-of-wedlock births, and drug abuse.
Grade 12: Principles of American Democracy and
Economics
Students in grade twelve
pursue a deeper understanding of the institutions of American government. They
compare systems of government in the world today and analyze the history and
changing interpretations of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the
current state of the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches of
government. An emphasis is placed on analyzing the relationship among federal,
state, and local governments, with particular attention paid to important
historical documents such as the Federalist Papers. These standards represent
the culmination of civic literacy as students prepare to vote, participate in
community activities, and assume the responsibilities of citizenship.
In addition to studying
government in grade twelve, students will also master fundamental economic
concepts, applying the tools (graphs, statistics, equations) from other subject
areas to the understanding of operations and institutions of economic systems.
Studied in a historic context are the basic economic principles of micro- and
macroeconomics, international economics, comparative economic systems,
measurement, and methods.
Principles of American Democracy
12.1 Students
explain the fundamental principles and moral values of American democracy as
expressed in the U.S. Constitution and other essential documents of American
democracy.
1. Analyze the influence of ancient Greek, Roman,
English, and leading European political thinkers such as John Locke,
Charles-Louis Montesquieu, Niccol˜ Machiavelli, and William Blackstone on the
development of American government.
2. Discuss the character of American democracy and its
promise and perils as articulated by Alexis de Tocqueville.
3. Explain how the U.S. Constitution reflects a balance
between the classical republican concern with promotion of the public good and the
classical liberal concern with protecting individual rights; and discuss how
the basic premises of liberal constitutionalism and democracy are joined in the
Declaration of Independence as Òself-evident truths.Ó
4. Explain how the Founding FathersÕ realistic view of
human nature led directly to the establishment of a constitutional system that
limited the power of the governors and the governed as articulated in the
Federalist Papers.
5. Describe the systems of separated and shared powers,
the role of organized interests (Federalist Paper Number 10), checks and
balances (Federalist Paper Number 51), the importance of an independent
judiciary (Federalist Paper Number 78), enumerated powers, rule of law,
federalism, and civilian control of the military.
6. Understand that the Bill of Rights limits the powers
of the federal government and state governments.
12.2 Students
evaluate and take and defend positions on the scope and limits of rights and
obligations as democratic citizens, the relationships among them, and how they
are secured.
1. Discuss the meaning and importance of each of the
rights guaranteed under the Bill of Rights and how each is secured (e.g.,
freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, petition, privacy).
2. Explain how economic rights are secured and their
importance to the individual and to society (e.g., the right to acquire, use,
transfer, and dispose of property; right to choose oneÕs work; right to join or
not join labor unions; copyright and patent).
3. Discuss the individualÕs legal obligations to obey the
law, serve as a juror, and pay taxes.
4. Understand the obligations of civic-mindedness,
including voting, being informed on civic issues, volunteering and performing
public service, and serving in the military or alternative service.
5. Describe the reciprocity between rights and
obligations; that is, why enjoyment of oneÕs rights entails respect for the
rights of others.
6. Explain how one becomes a citizen of the United States, including the process of naturalization (e.g., literacy, language, and other requirements).
12.3 Students
evaluate and take and defend positions on what the fundamental values and
principles of civil society are (i.e., the autonomous sphere of voluntary
personal, social, and economic relations that are not part of government),
their interdependence, and the meaning and importance of those values and
principles for a free society.
1. Explain how civil society provides opportunities for
individuals to associate for social, cultural, religious, economic, and
political purposes.
2. Explain how civil society makes it possible for
people, individually or in association with others, to bring their influence to
bear on government in ways other than voting and elections.
3. Discuss the historical role of religion and religious
diversity.
4. Compare the relationship of government and civil
society in constitutional democracies to the relationship of government and
civil society in authoritarian and totalitarian regimes.
12.4 Students
analyze the unique roles and responsibilities of the three branches of
government as established by the U.S. Constitution.
1. Discuss Article I of the Constitution as it relates to
the legislative branch, including eligibility for office and lengths of terms
of representatives and senators; election to office; the roles of the House and
Senate in impeachment proceedings; the role of the vice president; the
enumerated legislative powers; and the process by which a bill becomes a law.
2. Explain the process through which the Constitution can
be amended.
3. Identify their current representatives in the
legislative branch of the national government.
4. Discuss Article II of the Constitution as it relates
to the executive branch, including eligibility for office and length of term,
election to and removal from office, the oath of office, and the enumerated
executive powers.
5. Discuss Article III of the Constitution as it relates
to judicial power, including the length of terms of judges and the jurisdiction
of the Supreme Court.
6. Explain the processes of selection and confirmation of Supreme Court justices.
12.5 Students
summarize landmark U.S. Supreme Court interpretations of the Constitution and
its amendments.
1. Understand the changing interpretations of the Bill of
Rights over time, including interpretations of the basic freedoms (religion,
speech, press, petition, and assembly) articulated in the First Amendment and
the due process and equal-protection-of-the-law clauses of the Fourteenth
Amendment.
2. Analyze judicial activism and judicial restraint and the
effects of each policy over the decades (e.g., the Warren and Rehnquist
courts).
3. Evaluate the effects of the CourtÕs interpretations of
the Constitution in Marbury v. Madison, McCulloch v. Maryland, and United
States v. Nixon, with emphasis on the arguments espoused by each side in these
cases.
4. Explain the controversies that have resulted over
changing interpretations of civil rights, including those in Plessy v.
Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Miranda v. Arizona, Regents of the
University of California v. Bakke, Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena, and
United States v. Virginia (VMI).
12.6 Students
evaluate issues regarding campaigns for national, state, and local elective
offices.
1. Analyze the origin, development, and role of political
parties, noting those occasional periods in which there was only one major
party or were more than two major parties.
2. Discuss the history of the nomination process for
presidential candidates and the increasing importance of primaries in general
elections.
3. Evaluate the roles of polls, campaign advertising, and
the controversies over campaign funding.
4. Describe the means that citizens use to participate in
the political process (e.g., voting, campaigning, lobbying, filing a legal
challenge, demonstrating, petitioning, picketing, running for political
office).
5. Discuss the features of direct democracy in numerous
states (e.g., the process of referendums, recall elections).
6. Analyze trends in voter turnout; the causes and effects of reapportionment and redistricting, with special attention to spatial districting and the rights of minorities; and the function of the Electoral College.
12.7 Students
analyze and compare the powers and procedures of the national, state, tribal,
and local governments.
1. Explain how conflicts between levels of government and
branches of government are resolved.
2. Identify the major responsibilities and sources of
revenue for state and local governments.
3. Discuss reserved powers and concurrent powers of state
governments.
4. Discuss the Ninth and Tenth Amendments and
interpretations of the extent of the federal governmentÕs power.
5. Explain how public policy is formed, including the
setting of the public agenda and implementation of it through regulations and
executive orders.
6. Compare the processes of lawmaking at each of the
three levels of government, including the role of lobbying and the media.
7. Identify the organization and jurisdiction of federal,
state, and local (e.g., California) courts and the interrelationships among them.
8. Understand the scope of presidential power and
decision making through examination of case studies such as the Cuban Missile
Crisis, passage of Great Society legislation, War Powers Act, Gulf War, and
Bosnia.
12.8 Students evaluate and take and defend positions on the
influence of the media on American political life.
1. Discuss the meaning and importance of a free and
responsible press.
2. Describe the roles of broadcast, print, and electronic
media, including the Internet, as means of communication in American politics.
3. Explain how public officials use the media to
communicate with the citizenry and to shape public opinion.
12.9 Students analyze the origins, characteristics, and
development of different political systems across time, with emphasis on the
quest for political democracy, its advances, and its obstacles.
1. Explain how the different philosophies and structures
of feudalism, mercantilism, socialism, fascism, communism, monarchies,
parliamentary systems, and constitutional liberal democracies influence
economic policies, social welfare policies, and human rights practices.
2. Compare the various ways in which power is
distributed, shared, and limited in systems of shared powers and in
parliamentary systems, including the influence and role of parliamentary
leaders (e.g., William Gladstone, Margaret Thatcher).
3. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of federal,
confederal, and unitary systems of government.
4. Describe for at least two countries the consequences
of conditions that gave rise to tyrannies during certain periods (e.g., Italy,
Japan, Haiti, Nigeria, Cambodia).
5. Identify the forms of illegitimate power that
twentieth-century African, Asian, and Latin American dictators used to gain and
hold office and the conditions and interests that supported them.
6. Identify the ideologies, causes, stages, and outcomes
of major Mexican, Central American, and South American revolutions in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
7. Describe the ideologies that give rise to Communism,
methods of maintaining control, and the movements to overthrow such governments
in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland, including the roles of individuals
(e.g., Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Pope John Paul II, Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel).
8. Identify the successes of relatively new democracies
in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the ideas, leaders, and general societal
conditions that have launched and sustained, or failed to sustain, them.
12.10 Students
formulate questions about and defend their analyses of tensions within our
constitutional democracy and the importance of maintaining a balance between
the following concepts: majority rule and individual rights; liberty and
equality; state and national authority in a federal system; civil disobedience
and the rule of law; freedom of the press and the right to a fair trial; the
relationship of religion and government.
| 12.1 |
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1. Examine the causal relationship between scarcity and
the need for choices.
2. Explain opportunity cost and marginal benefit and
marginal cost.
3. Identify the difference between monetary and
nonmonetary incentives and how changes in incentives cause changes in behavior.
4. Evaluate the role of private property as an incentive
in conserving and improving scarce resources, including renewable and
nonrenewable natural resources.
5. Analyze the role of a market economy in establishing
and preserving political and personal liberty (e.g., through the works of Adam
Smith).
12.2 Students
analyze the elements of AmericaÕs market economy in a global setting.
1. Understand the relationship of the concept of
incentives to the law of supply and the relationship of the concept of
incentives and substitutes to the law of demand.
2. Discuss the effects of changes in supply and/or demand
on the relative scarcity, price, and quantity of particular products.
3. Explain the roles of property rights, competition, and
profit in a market economy.
4. Explain how prices reflect the relative scarcity of
goods and services and perform the allocative function in a market economy.
5. Understand the process by which competition among
buyers and sellers determines a market price.
6. Describe the effect of price controls on buyers and
sellers.
7. Analyze how domestic and international competition in
a market economy affects goods and services produced and the quality, quantity,
and price of those products.
8. Explain the role of profit as the incentive to
entrepreneurs in a market economy.
9. Describe the functions of the financial markets.
10.Discuss the economic principles that guide the location of agricultural production and industry and the spatial distribution of transportation and retail facilities.
12.3 Students
analyze the influence of the federal government on the American economy.
1. Understand how the role of government in a market
economy often includes providing for national defense, addressing environmental
concerns, defining and enforcing property rights, attempting to make markets
more competitive, and protecting consumersÕ rights.
2. Identify the factors that may cause the costs of
government actions to outweigh the benefits.
3. Describe the aims of government fiscal policies
(taxation, borrowing, spending) and their influence on production, employment,
and price levels.
4. Understand the aims and tools of monetary policy and
their influence on economic activity (e.g., the Federal Reserve).
12.4 Students
analyze the elements of the U.S. labor market in a global setting.
1. Understand the operations of the labor market,
including the circumstances surrounding the establishment of principal American
labor unions, procedures that unions use to gain benefits for their members,
the effects of unionization, the minimum wage, and unemployment insurance.
2. Describe the current economy and labor market,
including the types of goods and services produced, the types of skills workers
need, the effects of rapid technological change, and the impact of
international competition.
3. Discuss wage differences among jobs and professions,
using the laws of demand and supply and the concept of productivity.
4. Explain the effects of international mobility of
capital and labor on the U.S. economy.
12.5 Students
analyze the aggregate economic behavior of the U.S. economy.
1. Distinguish between nominal and real data.
2. Define, calculate, and explain the significance of an
unemployment rate, the number of new jobs created monthly, an inflation or
deflation rate, and a rate of economic growth.
3. Distinguish between short-term and long-term interest
rates and explain their relative significance.
12.6 Students
analyze issues of international trade and explain how the U.S. economy affects,
and is affected by, economic forces beyond the United StatesÕ borders.
1. Identify the gains in consumption and production
efficiency from trade, with emphasis on the main products and changing
geographic patterns of twentieth-century trade among countries in the Western
Hemisphere.
2. Compare the reasons for and the effects of trade
restrictions during the Great Depression compared with present-day arguments
among labor, business, and political leaders over the effects of free trade on
the economic and social interests of various groups of Americans.
3. Understand the changing role of international
political borders and territorial sovereignty in a global economy.
4. Explain foreign exchange, the manner in which exchange rates are determined, and the effects of the dollarÕs gaining (or losing) value relative to other currencies.