12th Grade History/Social Science Content Standards Framework:Principles of American Democracy and Economics
Constitutional Heritage
Goal of Knowledge and Cultural Understanding
12.6.2 Discuss the history of the nomination process for presidential candidates and the increasing importance of primaries in general elections.
12.4.1 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.
12.3.2 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.
12.1.1 Examine the causal relationship between scarcity and the need for choices.
CC.SS.ELA-Literacy WHST. 11-12.5 Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience
Economic Literacy
CC.SS.ELA-Literacy. RH 11-12.9 Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.
CC.SS.ELA-Literacy. WHST 11-12.2.C Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes. Use varied transitions and sentence structures to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts
12.2.6 Explain how one becomes a citizen of the United States, including the process of naturalization (e.g., literacy, language, and other requirements).
Cultural Literacy
Ethical History
CC.SS.ELA-Literacy. WHST 11-12.2.A Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes. ntroduce a topic and organize complexideas, concepts, and information so that each new element builds on that which precedes it to create a unified whole; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension
12.5.1 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.
12.7.6 Compare the processes of lawmaking at each of the three levels of government, including the role of lobbying and the media.
Critical Thinking Skills
12.2.2 Explain opportunity cost and marginal benefit and marginal cost.
12.9.5 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.
No relevant Standard
CC.SS.ELA-Literacy. WHST 11-12.6 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.
H-SS AS: Students show the connections, causal and otherwise, between particular historical events and larger social, economic, and political trends and developments.
Civic Values, Rights, & Responsibilities
12.5.4 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).
12.5.3 Evaluate the effects of the Court's 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.
CC.SS.ELA-Literacy. RH 11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including analyzing how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10)
12.3.4 Compare the relationship of government and civil society in constitutional democracies to the relationship of government and civil society in authoritarian and totalitarian regimes.
Geographic Literacy
Standard 12.2.4 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.
H-SS AS: Students distinguish valid arguments from fallacious arguments in historical interpretations.
12.10.0 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.
12.2.1 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).
12.6.1 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.
Goal of Democratic Understanding and Civic Values
Sociopolitical Literacy
12.6.6 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.
Participation Skills
National Idendity
12.3.3 Discuss the historical role of religion and religious diversity.
CC.SS.ELA-Literacy.WHST. 11-12.6 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in respo nse to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information
Historical Literacy
12.1.3 Identify the difference between monetary and non monetary incentives and how changes in incentives cause changes in behavior.
12.1.5 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.
CC.SS.ELA-Literacy. RH 11-12.7 Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.
12.6.4 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).
12.9.6 Identify the ideologies, causes, stages, and outcomes of major Mexican, Central American, and South American revolutions in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
12.9.4 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).
12.3.1 Explain how civil society provides opportunities for individuals to associate for social, cultural, religious, economic, and political purposes.
Basic Study Skills
CC.SS.ELA-Literacy. RH 11-12.6 Evaluate authors’ differing points of view on thesame historical event or issue by assessing the authors’ claims, reasoning, and evidence.
H-SS AS: Students evaluate major debates among historians concerning alternative interpretations of the past, including an analysis of authors’ use of evidence and the distinctions between sound generalizations and misleading over- simplifications.
Goals of Skills Attainment and Social Participation
Standard 12.1.1 Analyze the influence of ancient Greek, Roman, English, and leading European political thinkers such as John Locke, Charles-Louis Montesquieu, Niccolò Machiavelli, and William Blackstone on the development of American government.
12.4.1 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.
