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US History Academic Standards

USH.1 The student will analyze the transformation of the United States through its civil rights struggles, immigrant experiences, and settlement of the American West in the PostReconstruction Era, 1865 to the 1920s.

USH.1.1 Explain the constitutional issues that arise in the post-Civil War era including federalism, separation of powers, and the system of checks and balances.
USH.1.2 Analyze the post-Reconstruction civil rights struggles.
  1. Identify the significance of Juneteenth in relation to emancipation and modern-day celebrations.
  2. Examine the purposes and effects of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.
  3. Assess the impact of the Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, and the actions of the Ku Klux Klan.
USH.1.3 Analyze the impact of westward expansion and immigration on migration, settlement patterns in American society, economic growth, and American Indians.
  1. Summarize the reasons for immigration, shifts in settlement patterns, the immigrant experience at immigrant processing centers such as Ellis Island and Angel Island, and the impact of Nativism and Americanization.
  2. Analyze the creation of federal immigration policies including the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Gentlemen’s Agreement, federal court decisions, the Supreme Court’s application of the 14th Amendment and the Immigration Act of 1924.
  3. Examine the rationale behind federal policies toward American Indians including the establishment of reservations, attempts at assimilation, the end of the Indian Wars at Wounded Knee, and the impact of the Dawes Act on tribal sovereignty and land ownership.
  4. Compare viewpoints of American Indian resistance to United States Indian policies as evidenced by Red Cloud in his Cooper Union speech, Quanah Parker, and Chief Joseph as expressed in his I Will Fight No More Forever speech.

USH.2 The student will analyze the social, economic and political changes that occurred during the American Industrial Revolution, the Gilded Age, and significant reform movements from the 1870s to the 1920s.

USH.2.1 Evaluate the transformation of American society, economy and politics during the American Industrial Revolution.
  1. Evaluate the contributions of muckrakers, including Ida Tarbell, Jacob Riis and Upton Sinclair, in changing government policies regarding child labor, working conditions and regulation of big business.
  2. Analyze major social reform movements including the Women’s Suffrage and Temperance Movement and the leadership of Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul, and Jane Addams.
USH.2.2Evaluate the rise and reforms of Populism and the Progressive Movement including:
  1. direct primary, initiative petition, referendum, and recall intended to limit the corrupting influence of political machines

USH.3 The student will analyze the expanding role of the United States in international affairs as America was transformed into a world power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, 1890 to 1920.

USH.3.2 Evaluate the long-term impact of America’s entry into World War I on national politics, the economy, and society.
  1. Analyze the impact of the war on the home front including the use of propaganda, women’s increased role in industry, the marshaling of industrial production, and the Great Migration.

USH.4 The student will analyze the cycles of boom and bust of the 1920s and 1930s on the transformation of American government, the economy and society.

USH.4.1 Examine the economic, political, and social transformations between the World Wars.
  1. Describe the rising racial tensions in American society including the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan, increased lynchings, race riots as typified by the Tulsa Race Riot, the rise of Marcus Garvey and Black nationalism, and the use of poll taxes and literacy tests to disenfranchise Blacks.
  1. Examine growing labor unrest and industry’s reactions, including the use of sit-down strikes and court injunctions, and why socialism and communism appealed to labor.
USH.4.3 Analyze the impact of the New Deal in transforming the federal government’s role in domestic economic policies.
  1. Examine how national policies addressed the economic crisis including John Maynard Keynes’ theory of deficit spending, Roosevelt’s court packing plan, and the new federal agencies of the Social Security Administration, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Works Progress Administration (WPA), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
  2. Summarize the causes and impact of the Dust Bowl including the government’s responses.

USH.5 The student will analyze the United States role in international affairs by examining the major causes, events and effects of the nation’s involvement in World War II, 1933 to 1946.

USH.5.1 Describe the transformations in American society and government policy as the nation mobilized for entry into World War II.

  1. Examine President Franklin Roosevelt’s Day Which Will Live in Infamy speech and America’s conduct of the war, including the role of women and minorities in the war effort, rationing, the internment of Americans of Japanese descent, and the treatment of Americans of German, and Italian descent, including the Korematsu v. United States decision.
USH.5.2 Analyze the series of events affecting the outcome of World War II including major battles, military turning points, and key strategic decisions in both the European and Pacific Theaters of operation including Pearl Harbor, the DDay Invasion, development and use of the atomic bomb, the island-hopping strategy, the Allied conferences at Yalta and Potsdam, and the contributions of Generals MacArthur and Eisenhower.

USH.6 The student will analyze the origins of international alliances and efforts at containment of Communism following World War II.

USH.6.3 Analyze the series of events and long term foreign and domestic consequences of the United States’ military involvement in Vietnam including the Domino Theory, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the Tet Offensive, the presidential election of 1968, university student protests led by the counterculture movement, expanded television coverage of the war, the War Powers Resolution Act, and the 26th Amendment.

USH.7 The student will analyze the cause and effects of significant domestic events and policies from 1945 to 1975.

USH.7.1 Analyze the major events, personalities, tactics and effects of the Civil Rights Movement.
  1. Assess the effects of President Truman’s decision to desegregate the United States armed forces and the legal attacks on segregation by the NAACP and Thurgood Marshall, the United States Supreme Court decisions in the cases of Oklahomans Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher and George McLaurin, and the differences between de jure and de facto segregation.
  2. Evaluate the events arising from separate but equal, policies, such as poll taxes and literacy tests, violent responses such as the Birmingham church bombing and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and conflicts over segregation including:
    1. Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas decision
    2. Montgomery Bus Boycott
    3. desegregation of Little Rock Central High School
    4. Oklahoma City lunch counter sit-ins led by Clara Luper
    5. Freedom Rides
    6. Marches on Washington and Selma to Montgomery
    7. adoption of the 24th Amendment
    8. passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

USH.8 The student will analyze the impact foreign and domestic policies from 1977 to 2001.

USH.8.6 Evaluate the rise of terrorism and its impact on the United States including the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building, the first attack on the World Trade Center Towers in 1993, the attacks on September 11, 2001, the USA PATRIOT Act, and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.