The U.S. history standards promote both historical content and historical thinking skills to prepare students with a strong foundation in significant historical content and with the skills necessary to apply historical thinking to any historical context. These are the skills required not only for college and career success, but for effective democratic citizenship.
Examine Factors that Led to Continuity and Change in Human and Group Behavior
SS-US.9-12.13. Analyze how diverse ideologies impacted political and social institutions during eras such as Reconstruction, the Progressive Era, and the Civil Rights movement.
Recognize the Interaction Between Individuals and Various Groups
SS-US.9-12.14. Evaluate the impact of gender roles on economic, political, and social life in the U.S.
Apply Civic Virtues and Democratic Principles
SS-US.9-12.15. Assess the impact of individuals and reform movements on changes to civil rights and liberties. (21st century skills)
Evaluate the National Economy
SS-US.9-12.16. Examine labor and governmental efforts to reform and/or maintain a capitalistic economic system in the Great Depression.
Analyze Human Population Movement and Patterns
SS-US.9-12.17. Explain the patterns of and responses to immigration on the development of American culture and law.
SS-US.9-12.18. Analyze the effects of urbanization, segregation, and voluntary and forced migration within regions of the U.S. on social, political, and economic structures.
Analyze Global Interconnections
SS-US.9-12.19. Examine how imperialism changed the role of the United States on the world stage prior to World War I.
SS-US.9-12.20. Analyze the growth of and challenges to U.S. involvement in the world in the post-World War II era.
Analyze Change, Continuity, and Context
SS-US.9-12.21. Analyze change, continuity and context across eras and places of study from civil war to modern America.
SS-US.9-12.22. Evaluate the impact of inventions and technological innovations on the American society and culture.
Critique Historical Sources and Evidence
SS-US.9-12.23. Analyze the relationship between historical sources and the secondary interpretations made from them.
SS-US.9-12.24. Critique primary and secondary sources of information with attention to the source of the document, its context, accuracy, and usefulness such as the Reconstruction amendments, Emancipation Proclamation, Treaty of Fort Laramie, Chinese Exclusion Act, Roosevelt’s Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, Wilson’s Fourteen Points, New Deal Program Acts, Roosevelt’s Declaration of War, Executive Order 9066, Truman Doctrine, Eisenhower’s Farewell Speech, Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Test Ban Treaty of 1963, Brown vs. Board of Education decision, Letter from a Birmingham Jail, and the Voting Act of 1965.
Compare Perspectives
SS-US.9-12.25. Analyze how regional, racial, ethnic and gender perspectives influenced American history and culture.
Justify Causation and Argumentation
SS-US.9-12.26. Determine multiple and complex causes and effects of historical events in American history including, but not limited to, the Civil War, World War I and II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
Iowa History
SS-US.9-12.27. Evaluate Iowans or groups of Iowans who have influenced U.S. History.