Resources for Civic Education in California

Students understand the major events preceding the founding of the nation and relate their significance to the development of American constitutional democracy.

Students understand the foundation of the American political system and the ways in which citizens participate in it.

Students analyze the character and lasting consequences of Reconstruction.

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.

Students analyze the causes and course of the First World War.

Students analyze the effects of the First World War.

Students analyze the rise of totalitarian governments after World War I.

Students analyze the causes and consequences of World War II.

Students analyze the international developments in the post–World War II world.

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.

Students analyze the relationship among the rise of industrialization, large scale rural-to-urban migration, and massive immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe.

Students analyze America’s participation in World War II.

Students analyze the economic boom and social transformation of post–World War II America.

Students analyze the development of federal civil rights and voting rights.

Students analyze the major social problems and domestic policy issues in contemporary American society.

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.

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.

Students summarize landmark U.S. Supreme Court interpretations of the Constitution and its amendments.

Students evaluate and take and defend positions on the influence of the media on American political life.

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.