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Skills available for District of Columbia high school social studies standards

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Reconstruction

  • US2.1 Analyze the principal rights and ideals established in the United States Constitution and Declaration of Independence, and evaluate the extent to which early American history fulfilled those ideals.

  • US2.2 Analyze key events, as well as actions taken by everyday people and notable historical figures, to evaluate how the fight for abolition and civil or human rights preceded the post-Civil War era.

  • US2.3 Use primary sources from freedpeople to analyze the perspectives, everyday actions, and aspirations of Black Americans after the Civil War.

  • US2.4 Evaluate the impact of the Civil War, identify the challenges and opportunities for reuniting the country and compare the perspectives of people in the North, West and South and Indigenous Nations, across gender, socio-economic and racial lines.

  • US2.5 Analyze the federal and grassroots aims of different individuals for Reconstruction, including Abraham Lincoln's Plan, Andrew Johnson's Plan and the Radical Republican Plan for Reconstruction.

  • US2.6 Analyze the reasons for the adoption of "Black Codes" immediately following the Civil War and the response of the federal government and freedpeople to restrictions on freedom.

  • US2.7 Analyze the role of the Freedmen's Bureau in meeting the needs and desires of freedpeople at the end of the Civil War, and evaluate its successes and failures, including why it was dismantled.

  • US2.8 Assess the extent to which the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments and federal policies of Reconstruction presented transformational opportunities to American social, political and economic institutions, as well as their limitations.

  • US2.9 Analyze the political, social and economic goals and actions taken by freedpeople during the era of Reconstruction — including organized efforts to gain access to land, fair labor, public education and political office using primary and secondary sources.

  • US2.10 Analyze the systematized tactics and impact of widespread terror and violence implemented by mostly White Americans throughout, but not limited to, the Southern states to cease Reconstruction gains, naming and identifying this as a form of white supremacy (e.g., the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, violence at voting booths, fraud) and the impact it continues to have on US society today.

  • US2.11 Analyze legislative actions intended to spur westward settlement between 1860 and 1880, including but not limited to the Homestead Act and the Transcontinental Railroad Act, and the impact they had on the land and people of the Western region of the United States, with a particular focus on the lives and acts of resistance of Native Americans and Chinese immigrants or Chinese Americans.

  • US2.12 Evaluate the forces that led to the end of Reconstruction — including the "Compromise of 1877" — and assess the impact of Reconstruction's successes and failures on American political, social and economic life.

  • US2.13 Evaluate laws and policies of the Jim Crow era, including the immediate and longer-term impact of racialized segregation and unequal access to legal and economic institutions, rights and opportunities.

Rise of Industrial and Progressive America

  • US2.14 Analyze the transformation of the American economy during the Industrial Revolution to explain the changing social and political conditions in the United States and its impact on the environment.

  • US2.15 Evaluate arguments about the causes of rising inequality in industrial America related to wealth, health, economic opportunity and social class.

  • US2.16 Evaluate the reasons for and consequences of the rise in Asian, European and Latin American immigration to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century, including the varied experiences of different individuals.

  • US2.17 Analyze the reasons for and consequence of rising nativism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Immigration Act of 1924, and the role violence, discrimination and resistance had on the experiences of Asian, Italian, Jewish and other ethnic communities.

  • US2.18 Analyze the ways different immigrant communities resisted economic, social, and political oppression, including through labor activism and the establishment of community organizations.

  • US2.19 Analyze the reasons for racial and ethnic inequality in industrial America, and evaluate the different reasons for and efficacy of different tactics used by movements for racial and ethnic equality.

  • US2.20 Analyze the reasons for the rise of organized labor, evaluate the effectiveness of at least one labor tactic, and analyze at least one reaction to the labor movement, including the interactions between the federal government and labor groups.

  • US2.21 Use primary and secondary sources to analyze a case study, such as the Homestead strike, to evaluate the extent to which labor movements were able to create change.

  • US2.22 Analyze the ideological and strategic debates of the feminist movement of the early 20th century, and connect the debates to other reform movements of the time.

  • US2.23 Use context to evaluate different ideas and tactics for achieving racial equality and opportunity, including those of Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells and W.E.B. Du Bois.

  • US2.24 Analyze the political response to industrialization, progressivism and the labor movement, and evaluate the efficacy of federal policies under Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft in furthering the aims of different groups.

  • US2.25 Evaluate the reasons for and consequences of the Great Migration, including its impact on the cultures of different cities, including Washington, DC.

  • US2.26 Evaluate the impact of progressive and populist movements on economic, social and political inequality in America.

Empire, Expansion and Consequences

  • US2.27 Evaluate federal policies and actions toward westward invasion, and evaluate their impact on the national economy, environment, Indigenous populations and the American public.

  • US2.28 Analyze the impact on and implications of Native American boarding schools for Indigenous Nations and individuals.

  • US2.29 Analyze and explain efforts by Indigenous Nations to resist American conquest and expansion between 1860 and 1920.

  • US2.30 Analyze the history, culture and government structure of at least two countries prior to American intervention (e.g., Hawaii, the Philippines, Puerto Rico).

  • US2.31 Analyze the domestic debates and decisions regarding foreign intervention and the United States' emergence as an imperial power (e.g., the Spanish-American War, Philippine-American War, intervention in Latin America, the annexation of Hawaii).

  • US2.32 Analyze reasons for and efforts of different nations to maintain or regain economic and political freedoms following American intervention using primary sources from the perspective of native communities (e.g., Hawaiians, Filipinos).

  • US2.33 Evaluate the role of mass media, sensationalism, white supremacy and propaganda in promoting American imperialism.

  • US2.34 Assess the modern political, social and economic impacts of American imperialism on different territories and governments (e.g., the Philippines, Marshall Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa).

  • US2.35 Assess the reasons for and consequence of United States involvement in World War I, and analyze its effects on post-war international relations.

  • US2.36 Analyze the social, political and economic ramifications of World War I on American society, including the labor movement, women, Black Americans, ethnic and religious groups, and efforts by different groups to advance civil rights.

"Prosperity and Progress" to Depression

  • US2.37 Analyze the impact of the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Renaissance in Washington, DC on American culture, including analysis of literature, music, dance, theater, queer culture and scholarship from the period.

  • US2.38 Evaluate the portrayal of the "Roaring '20s," including an assessment of the changing societal roles and rights of women and Black Americans, along with the cultural backlash to these changes.

  • US2.39 Analyze the reasons for the Great Depression, including the impact of underlying economic and social conditions of the 1920s, and evaluate its impact on different groups of people in the United States, with special attention to race, ethnicity, religion, gender and class.

  • US2.40 Analyze the causes and consequences of the Dust Bowl, comparing it to other natural disasters and its impact on Americans across race, ethnicity, gender and class groups.

  • US2.41 Analyze the rise of nativism and violence as a result of the Great Depression, including efforts of the American government to "repatriate" American citizens of Mexican descent to Mexico.

  • US2.42 Evaluate the domestic response to the Great Depression, including the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, assessing the impact of and resistance to New Deal programming, including its impact on the economy and different groups of Americans.

Emerging as a World Power: Conflict at Home and Abroad

  • US2.43 Analyze the events that led to the United States' participation in World War II, including the impact of the bombing of Pearl Harbor on the course and outcome of the war.

  • US2.44 Evaluate the reasons for the rise of fascism and Nazism in Europe and the scapegoating and genocide of historically marginalized peoples (including Jewish, Romani, Slavic, disabled and LGBTQ+ peoples) by Hitler, Mussolini and Franco.

  • US2.45 Analyze the social, political and economic impact of World War II on American society, including the contributions of and discrimination faced by different Americans, including women, Black Americans, Indigenous Nations, Asian Americans and Latinx Americans.

  • US2.46 Assess the United States' global commitment to universal human rights before, during and after World War II, including but not limited to its role during the Holocaust.

  • US2.47 Critique the reasons for the incarceration of Japanese Americans while drafting Japanese men to serve in the army during World War II, and evaluate the consequence of the decision, including ways in which Japanese Americans resisted internment.

  • US2.48 Evaluate the reasons for and the consequences of the United States' decision to drop the atomic bombs including the human and environmental impact of these decisions.

  • US2.49 Analyze reasons for and the consequences of the post-war foreign policy goals of the United States.

  • US2.50 Analyze the different experiences of American servicemen in World War II and upon returning to the United States, including access to postwar economic opportunities for White, Black, Latinx, Indigenous and Asian-American servicemen.

  • US2.51 Analyze the development of American culture during the 1930s and 1940s, including music, art, literature and goods.

Ideological Global Conflict

  • US2.52 Evaluate how political and ideological differences between the United States and the Soviet Union led to the US policy of containment and the period known as the Cold War.

  • US2.53 Analyze the legacy of the development of atomic weapons and the nuclear age in American society, and explain how it altered the balance of global power.

  • US2.54 Analyze the reasons for and the consequences of efforts to limit civil liberties in the United States during the Cold War, including an analysis of McCarthyism and the "Lavender Scare."

  • US2.55 Evaluate the reasons for and efficacy of containment policies enacted by the United States, including conflicts and proxy wars in Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

  • US2.56 Analyze the policies that led to United States military involvement in Vietnam, and evaluate the social, political and economic impacts of US involvement in Vietnam on Vietnam, Cambodia and the United States.

  • US2.57 Evaluate the reasons for and impact of opposition to US intervention in foreign countries during the Cold War, including the anti-Vietnam War movement.

  • US2.58 Assess the extent to which US actions contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and evaluate the impact of the USSR's collapse on US foreign policy and the post-Cold War international order.

Movements for Justice and Equality

  • US2.59 Evaluate the impact of Jim Crow and other discriminatory laws in the North and South on the lived experiences of different individuals, including but not limited to Black, Latinx and Asian Americans across different gender and socioeconomic contexts.

  • US2.60 Evaluate the impact of federal and local policies in housing, infrastructure and economic development, such as redlining and housing covenants on the distribution of economic opportunity in the early 20th century.

  • US2.61 Evaluate the reasons for and consequences of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, with specific attention to the experiences of Asian, African and Latinx immigrants.

  • US2.62 Assess when the Civil Rights Movement began and ended, evaluating grassroots and advocacy movements from the 1890s through the 1960s and into the 21st century.

  • US2.63 Evaluate the different goals and tactics of African American movements for racial equality during and following World War II, including Charles Hamilton Houston's plan for fighting segregation through the courts.

  • US2.64 Analyze grassroots efforts by African Americans to participate in political, economic, and legal systems and to access public education.

  • US2.65 Analyze the systematized tactics and impact of widespread terror, white supremacy and violence to undermine the gains of the Long Civil Rights Movement (e.g., the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan, lynchings, massacres, assassinations, violence at voting booths).

  • US2.66 Analyze the tactics used by different Civil Rights organizations and leaders to achieve racial and economic equality in the South, including key events organized by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Black Panthers, Brown Berets, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

  • US2.67 Assess reasons for the successes and unfinished work of the Civil Rights Movement, including the impact and legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Shelby County v. Holder.

  • US2.68 Assess the reasons for and the impact of institutional racism and segregation in the Northern United States, and analyze local movements and uprisings in the North.

  • US2.69 Analyze the contributions of different groups to the Civil Rights Movement and how it inspired and intersected with various other civil rights movements and events including but not limited to the gay rights movement, the Stonewall Uprising, the American Indian Movement (AIM), the United Farm Workers, the Women's Liberation Movement, the Asian American Movement, disability rights movement, Chicano Movement, Latinx resistance and the anti-war movements.

  • US2.70 Use historical context to analyze the reaction to movements for political, social and economic equality.

  • US2.71 Analyze the reasons for and impact of the occupation of Alcatraz and the American Indian Movement.

  • US2.72 Analyze the writings of different perspectives of the Women's Liberation Movement from women from diverse backgrounds such as but not limited to Gloria Steinem, Elaine Brown, Phyllis Schlafly and Gloria Anzaldúa.

  • US2.73 Analyze media coverage of two key events in a movement for equality, comparing multiple perspectives and the use of framing and focus in the coverage of key events.

Access to Democracy and Power from the 1980s-Present Day

  • US2.74 Evaluate the tension over the role of the federal government in regulating the economy and providing a social safety net during the late 20th and early 21st century.

  • US2.75 Evaluate the legacy of American foreign policy after the collapse of the Soviet Union, including conflicts in Latin America and the Middle East.

  • US2.76 Analyze the reasons for and the impact of political polarization from the 1980s through contemporary America.

  • US2.77 Evaluate the federal response to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and the strategies of activists and patient advocates to respond to the crisis.

  • US2.78 Analyze the consequences of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, on global and domestic policy, including foreign and domestic surveillance, the rise of anti-Muslim hate and violence and discrimination against communities such as but not limited to Sikh and Arab Americans.

  • US2.79 Evaluate the effort of American foreign policy to meet humanitarian goals, further economic interests, and increase domestic security, including the War on Drugs and the invasion of Afghanistan during the Global War on Terror.

  • US2.80 Analyze the claims that led to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, and evaluate the social, political, and economic impacts of the invasion on Iraq and the United States.

  • US2.81 Evaluate the legacy of the election and presidency of Barack Obama.

  • US2.82 Evaluate the tactics and efficacy of modern social, labor, political, and environmental activist movements in America.

  • US2.83 Evaluate the impact of the internet and modern technological advancements on the American economy and social landscape, specifically continued inequality, the shift from factory-based to a knowledge-based economy and the increase in regional inequality (e.g., between major urban centers like Washington, DC and rural areas like West Virginia).

  • US2.84 Analyze the successes and challenges to the environmental movement after 2000.

  • US2.85 Evaluate the extent to which advances in technology and investments in capital goods increased standards of living throughout the United States.

  • US2.86 Using a case study approach, analyze ways Indigenous Nations have continued and updated cultural traditions, including music, art and games (e.g., lacrosse).