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Skills available for South Dakota high school social studies standards

Standards are in black and IXL social studies skills are in dark green. Hold your mouse over the name of a skill to view a sample question. Click on the name of a skill to practice that skill.

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United States Government/American Civics

  • 9-12.C.1 Building upon skills learned in previous grades, the student learns the skills to complete the following tasks, completing each task with relative ease by the end of high school.

    • 9-12.C.1.A The student can identify the current officeholders for each of the following: President of the United States; Vice President of the United States; Governor of the State of South Dakota; Lieutenant Governor of the State of South Dakota; South Dakota's two U.S. Senators; the U.S. Senate Majority Leader; the student's representative in the U.S. House of Representatives; the U.S. Speaker of the House; the members of the U.S. Supreme Court; the student's senator in the South Dakota State Senate; the student's representative in the South Dakota State House of Representatives; the mayor, councilmembers, or county commissioner in the student's local community; the student's county sheriff; the student's school board members; local tribal leaders, especially of the nine federally recognized tribes of South Dakota.

    • 9-12.C.1.B The student can write an informative essay of 500–750 words on a historical topic in American government based on class notes.

    • 9-12.C.1.C The student can write a persuasive essay of 500–750 words on a historical topic in American government based on class notes, including a main argument (thesis), topic sentences, supporting evidence from history and class, and clear attempts to explain how the evidence proves the topic sentences and overall thesis.

  • 9-12.C.2 The student demonstrates understanding of the modern way of life by comparing the following in history to prior eras: a political body based on natural rights and their equal protection; being presumed innocent when accused of a crime; being tried for crimes quickly and publicly; believing and acting on one's beliefs without fear of arrest or worse; criticizing or protesting against those in power without fear of arrest or worse; voting for those who determine by law what one may or may not do; having control of one's ideas and inventions unless willingly shared with another; having one's own land for food and shelter; being able to possess the tools necessary to protect one's food, shelter, family, and life; literacy and numeracy; living daily life without fear of being injured, killed, or having property taken; printing one's thoughts without fear of arrest or worse; receiving an education paid in part by one's neighbors; slavery; speaking one's mind without fear of arrest or worse; the rule of law; trial by a jury of one's neighbors.

  • 9-12.C.3 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the principles and examples from world history that influenced the American founding.

    • 9-12.C.3.A The student explains the influence of ancient Greek ideas about philosophy and logical reasoning on the colonists, especially within their colleges and leading families.

    • 9-12.C.3.B The student explains Aristotle's six different forms of government: monarchy, tyranny, aristocracy, oligarchy, polity, and democracy.

    • 9-12.C.3.C The student explains how democratic ideas and practices from ancient Greece served as initial attempts at self-government from which the American founders learned what does and does not work in democratic government.

    • 9-12.C.3.D The student explains the influence of ancient Roman political ideas and institutions on the colonists, especially within their colleges and leading families.

    • 9-12.C.3.E The student explains the influence of Jewish and Christian views of a deity and of human beings on the colonists.

    • 9-12.C.3.F The student reads and discusses the meaning of selections from the Magna Carta.

    • 9-12.C.3.G The student explains the rule of law as opposed to the rule of man, the rule by force ("might makes right"), and the failure to enforce duly legislated laws.

    • 9-12.C.3.H The student reads and discusses the meaning of the Mayflower Compact in its entirety.

    • 9-12.C.3.I The student explains the status and effects of each of the following in colonial society, and the extents to which these were the exception in history: private property, free enterprise, education, local self-government, religious freedom.

    • 9-12.C.3.J The student explains how England's relationship toward the colonists amounted to a "salutary neglect" and the ways this relationship benefitted the colonists.

    • 9-12.C.3.K The student explains the parliamentary model of representative government, particularly as found in English history.

    • 9-12.C.3.L The student explains the effects of the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution on the colonists' views on government.

    • 9-12.C.3.M The student uses primary sources, such as John Locke's Second Treatise on Government, to investigate how it influenced the American founders, specifically ideas on: equality, natural rights, property, religious toleration, consent, right to revolution.

    • 9-12.C.3.N The student explains the founders' views on private property and its protection, and the extent to which ordinary people could own their own land in the colonies.

  • 9-12.C.4 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the Declaration of Independence and the principles on which America was founded.

    • 9-12.C.4.A The student explains the purpose of taxes and how taxation works.

    • 9-12.C.4.B The student explains why the colonists contested as violations of their rights and freedom of representation Great Britain's new claims to control in the colonies following the French and Indian War.

    • 9-12.C.4.C The student reads and discusses the meaning of the Declaration of Independence in its entirety, including the first draft's sections on slavery.

    • 9-12.C.4.D The student explains the meaning of "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God," including the founders' argument that there is a standard of justice in nature that does not change and is true of all peoples in all times, and that an eternal God is responsible for this unchanging truth.

    • 9-12.C.4.E The student explains the meaning of "created equal," including the founders' argument that each person is equally human and as such has the same dignity and natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that each is endowed with these rights by the God that created them, and that the existence of human slavery was understood by most, but not all, of the founders to be a contradiction of the principle of human equality.

    • 9-12.C.4.F The student explains the meaning of "natural rights" and "unalienable," including the founders' argument that fundamental rights arise out of man's nature as a human person, that these rights do not come from other people or any government, and that these rights cannot be denied or taken away unless the person has used them to violate the rights of another.

    • 9-12.C.4.G The student explains the meaning of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," in particular the founders' argument that each human being has the right by nature to their own life, to their liberty and the general freedom of thought and action, and to seek the happiness appropriate to human liberty as long as it does not violate the rights of others.

    • 9-12.C.4.H The student explains the meaning of "the consent of the governed," including the founders' argument that legitimate government derives its just powers from the consent of those that are governed, who in turn have delegated limited powers to government in order to secure their rights.

    • 9-12.C.4.I The student explains that the purpose of government as outlined in the Declaration of Independence is to "secure these rights," meaning those fundamental rights derived from "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God."

    • 9-12.C.4.J The student explains the argument of the Declaration of Independence that when government "becomes destructive" of its purpose of securing rights, a people may change or abolish their government and institute new government to best effect their safety and happiness.

    • 9-12.C.4.K The student explains the reasons why the delegates to the Second Continental Congress voted to declare independence from Great Britain, including the list of grievances and other historical events since 1763.

    • 9-12.C.4.L The student explains how America's founding based on these words of the Declaration of Independence was unprecedented in human history: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

    • 9-12.C.4.M The student explains that patriotism is the love of country, meaning that one holds his or her country up to an objective standard of moral right and wrong, preserving the ways in which the country does good and correcting the ways it sometimes does wrong.

    • 9-12.C.4.N The student reads and discusses the meaning of selections from the Northwest Ordinance.

    • 9-12.C.4.O The student explains what the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 accomplished for public education, private land ownership, and the abolition of slavery.

  • 9-12.C.5 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the principles of the U.S. Constitution.

  • 9-12.C.6 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the structure and function of government under the U.S. Constitution.

  • 9-12.C.7 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the Bill of Rights.

  • 9-12.C.8 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the relationship between America's principles and the institution of slavery.

    • 9-12.C.8.A The student explains the history of slavery from ancient times through the 15th century slave trade among Africans, Arabs, and Europeans, and compares it to the practices of feudalism and indentured servitude.

    • 9-12.C.8.B The student explains the history of slavery in the British colonies of North America, including: the arrival of Africans at Jamestown from a Dutch slave ship captured by the English, the gradual codification of slavery in the southern colonies beginning in 1655, the passage of manumission laws, the ways slavery was restricted in the states during the American founding years of 1763–1789.

    • 9-12.C.8.C The student explains the different positions on slavery among the founders and their generation, including those who did not hold slaves and worked for its abolition, those who held slaves but wished for its abolition, and those who were in favor of slavery and its continuation.

    • 9-12.C.8.D The student reads and discusses the meaning of selections from various founders on the practice of slavery, including George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson.

    • 9-12.C.8.E The student reads and discusses the meaning of Frederick Douglass's "The Constitution of the United States: Is It Pro-Slavery or Anti-Slavery?"

    • 9-12.C.8.F The student explains how the Three-Fifths Clause weakened though did not eliminate the southern slaveholders' demands to count a slave as a whole person only for purposes of representation.

    • 9-12.C.8.G The student explains how the Constitution limited the duration for which the slave trade could be protected, compared to the limitless duration it enjoyed previously.

    • 9-12.C.8.H The student explains how the invention of the cotton gin revived the profitability of slavery, in contradiction to the expectations held by much of the founding generation.

    • 9-12.C.8.I The student explains the electoral relationship between the number of slave states and the perpetuation of slavery.

    • 9-12.C.8.J The student explains the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850.

  • 9-12.C.9 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the relationship between America's principles, slavery, and the Civil War.

    • 9-12.C.9.A The student reads and discusses the meaning of selections from Abraham Lincoln's speech at Peoria.

    • 9-12.C.9.B The student explains Abraham Lincoln's argument that the Kansas-Nebraska Act and popular sovereignty marked a moral break with the founding because they implied that moral right and wrong were relative to a democratic majority.

    • 9-12.C.9.C The student explains Abraham Lincoln's argument that the Dred Scott decision turned the Constitution into a pro-slavery document that would allow slavery to spread anywhere in America, contrary to the original intentions of the founders.

    • 9-12.C.9.D The student explains the main arguments in the Lincoln-Douglas debates, especially in debate number seven.

    • 9-12.C.9.E The student reads and discusses the meaning of Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address.

    • 9-12.C.9.F The student explains how only individual people—and not groups or states—have rights, while states may have prerogatives which it is the people's right to grant them to the exclusion of their being exercised by some other level of government.

    • 9-12.C.9.G The student explains the major and minor causes of the Civil War, especially the political tension surrounding the spread of slavery.

    • 9-12.C.9.H The student explains how Abraham Lincoln issued and justified the Emancipation Proclamation, including what the order did and did not do, and why.

    • 9-12.C.9.I The student reads and discusses the meaning of the Emancipation Proclamation.

    • 9-12.C.9.J The student explains Abraham Lincoln's view of the war as an effort both to prove the truth that "all men are created equal," and to preserve the Union that was founded on this truth.

    • 9-12.C.9.K The student reads and discusses the meaning of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address.

    • 9-12.C.9.L The student explains laws that sought to end discrimination and violence against African Americans during Reconstruction, including: Civil Rights Act of 1866, 13th Amendment, 14th Amendment, 15th Amendment, Ku Klux Klan Acts.

  • 9-12.C.10 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the relationship between America's principles and civil rights.

    • 9-12.C.10.A The student tells of the various kinds of relationships between the U.S. government and Native Americans in the 19th century, including the use of diplomacy, honest and dishonest treaties, treaty violations, and military force.

    • 9-12.C.10.B The student tells the story of women's suffrage efforts in the mid-19th century.

    • 9-12.C.10.C The student reads and discusses the meaning of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Declaration of Sentiments.

    • 9-12.C.10.D The student explains the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.

    • 9-12.C.10.E The student explains the Snyder Act of 1924 (Indian Citizenship Act) which granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States.

    • 9-12.C.10.F The student explains the ways in which certain local and state laws, federal policies, and court decisions explicitly discriminated against people on the basis of skin color from Reconstruction through World War II, including: black codes; Jim Crow laws; literacy tests and poll taxes; segregation of the armed forces and government offices; Chinese Exclusion Act; Plessy v. Ferguson; Woodrow Wilson's re-segregating of federal offices; Korematsu v. United States.

    • 9-12.C.10.G The student reads and discusses the meaning of Niagara's Declaration of Principles.

    • 9-12.C.10.H The student explains differences and changes in party platforms concerning civil rights for African Americans and new citizens in the period between the Civil War and World War II.

    • 9-12.C.10.I The student explains laws that sought to end discrimination against African Americans since World War II, including: Harry Truman's desegregation of the armed forces; Brown v. Board of Education; Civil Rights Act of 1964; Voting Rights Act; Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.

    • 9-12.C.10.J The student reads and discusses the meaning of selections from Brown v. Board of Education.

    • 9-12.C.10.K The student reads and discusses the meaning of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech in its entirety.

    • 9-12.C.10.L The student explains the connections Martin Luther King, Jr. makes to the principles of the American founding in his "I Have a Dream" speech.

  • 9-12.C.11 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of 20th Century Progressivism.

    • 9-12.C.11.A The student reads and discusses the meaning of Woodrow Wilson's "What Is Progress?" in its entirety.

    • 9-12.C.11.B The student reads and discusses the meaning of selections from Franklin Roosevelt's Commonwealth Club Address.

    • 9-12.C.11.C The student reads and discusses the meaning of selections from Franklin Roosevelt's 1944 State of the Union Address.

    • 9-12.C.11.D The student reads and discusses the meaning of selections from Lyndon Johnson's Commencement Address at the University of Michigan.

    • 9-12.C.11.E The student explains the main ideas of Progressives in the 20th century, including: the origin of rights; the living constitution; the purpose of government; the role of the president; the role of the people; the delegation of lawmaking power to experts in bureaucratic agencies; the perfection of the intellectual and moral abilities of human beings; the role of America in foreign policy.

    • 9-12.C.11.F The student explains the ways in which the main Progressive ideas differed from the ideas found in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, especially Progressive's views of human nature, tyranny, and the concentration of legislative, executive, and judicial powers within singular agencies unelected by the people.

    • 9-12.C.11.G The student explains the various changes Progressives made to government in the 20th century, including: regulation of private businesses; trust busting; initiative, referendum, and recall; welfare, both indirect and direct; economic regulation through the Federal Reserve Act; 16th and 17th amendments to the Constitution; expansion of the purpose, size, and power of government through bureaucratic agencies.

    • 9-12.C.11.H The student reads and discusses the meaning of selections from Calvin Coolidge's "The Inspiration of the Declaration of Independence."

    • 9-12.C.11.I The student reads and discusses the meaning of Ronald Reagan's "A Time for Choosing."

  • 9-12.C.12 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of governing institutions in the United States.

    • 9-12.C.12.A The student explains how Congress conducts legislative business through committees and traditional rules, how and why Congress delegates regulatory power to the federal bureaucracy, and how it exercises oversight authority.

    • 9-12.C.12.B The student explains the role and scope of the president's cabinet and federal employees—i.e., to help the president enforce laws passed by Congress, as originally established by George Washington—compared to the role and power of bureaucratic agencies today.

    • 9-12.C.12.C The student explains Presidential succession.

    • 9-12.C.12.D The student explains the structure, purposes, and functions of various federal courts in the judicial branch as established in Article III in the Constitution and the Judiciary Act.

    • 9-12.C.12.E The student explains how criminal cases are prosecuted in the United States and the roles of judges and juries.

    • 9-12.C.12.F The student explains changes in the relationship between the federal government and the states, including those made through: McCulloch v. Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, Nullification Crisis, Civil War and Reconstruction, 14th Amendment, New Deal, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Roe v. Wade, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

  • 9-12.C.13 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of domestic policy in the United States.

    • 9-12.C.13.A The student explains the basic concepts of supply and demand and their effects on price.

    • 9-12.C.13.B The student explains how the American economy has historically been characterized as free market or capitalist, meaning that the laws allow individuals to possess more goods or currency than they need to survive; and to invest, produce, distribute, and buy and sell goods and services by making their own agreements with one another.

    • 9-12.C.13.C The student explains the economic principles and practices that corresponded with America's industrial and economic growth, especially after the Civil War, including: the free market, patent law, economies of scale, mass production, division of labor.

    • 9-12.C.13.D The student explains the economic ideas of John Maynard Keynes and contrasts them with those of Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Milton Friedman.

    • 9-12.C.13.E The student explains the meaning of the maxim that we must consider the "unintended consequences of good intentions" by looking at the unintended negative consequences of specific well-intentioned policies.

    • 9-12.C.13.F The student explains the major components of domestic policy decisions as well as the institutions and offices responsible for making and implementing such decisions.

    • 9-12.C.13.G The student explains the major domestic policy shifts in American history in respect to the ideas of the founders, including in the following policy areas: education, energy, health care, immigration, regulation of businesses, taxation, trade, welfare.

    • 9-12.C.13.H The student explains why the founders believed civil rights and liberties have natural limits by differentiating between liberty and license.

    • 9-12.C.13.I The student explains the outcomes and effects of recent Supreme Court cases, including: Gideon v. Wainwright, Miranda v. Arizona, Roe v. Wade, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, Citizens United v. FEC, District of Columbia v. Heller, Obergefell v. Hodges, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

  • 9-12.C.14 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of foreign policy in the United States.

    • 9-12.C.14.A The student explains the major components of foreign policy decisions as well as the institutions and offices responsible for making such decisions, including the organization of the United States military.

    • 9-12.C.14.B The student reads and discusses the meaning of George Washington's Farewell Address.

    • 9-12.C.14.C The student reads and discusses the meaning of Woodrow Wilson's "War Message."

    • 9-12.C.14.D The student explains the major foreign policy shifts in American history in respect to the ideas of the founders, including: U.S. policy of neutrality during the Washington, Adams, and Jefferson administrations; George Washington's Farewell Address; Monroe Doctrine; American overseas acquisitions during the late 19th century; Roosevelt Corollary; Progressive views on foreign policy, especially concerning World War I; isolationism; membership in the United Nations; Truman Doctrine; containment; Domino Theory; War Powers Act; détente; "peace through strength"; nation-building; War on Terror; the expansion of federal surveillance agencies.

    • 9-12.C.14.E The student explains the relationship between the U.S. Constitution, America's national sovereignty, and international governing agencies and non-governmental organizations.

  • 9-12.C.15 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of citizenship in America.

    • 9-12.C.15.A The student explains the significance of the transfer of power following the election of 1800.

    • 9-12.C.15.B The student explains the legal meaning of "citizen' in the United States, birthright citizenship as enacted through the Fourteenth Amendment, the legal process for becoming a citizen, and the responsibilities, rights, and privileges of citizenship at the different levels of government.

    • 9-12.C.15.C The student names the responsibilities citizens have at the local, state, and federal levels of government.

    • 9-12.C.15.D The student explains why the founders believed each of the following was necessary for the success of representative self-government in the United States: the family, education, virtue, religion, respect for the rule of law, individual hard work.

    • 9-12.C.15.E The student identifies and explains Alexis de Tocqueville's major observations about life in the American democracy.

    • 9-12.C.15.F The student explains the distinction between natural rights of all human beings (life, liberty, speech, religion, etc.) as outlined in the Declaration of Independence and civil rights of only U.S. citizens (voting, running for office, access to certain government benefits, etc.).

    • 9-12.C.15.G The student explains how the scope of voting rights at the American founding was unprecedented in history.

    • 9-12.C.15.H The student explains the ways in which the right to vote has been expanded to all adult citizens over the course of American history.

    • 9-12.C.15.I The student explains the role of charity, volunteerism, and support for the poor in a well ordered constitutional republic, as expressed by the founders.

  • 9-12.C.16 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of politics in America.

    • 9-12.C.16.A The student explains why the Constitution gives state legislatures the power to determine election procedures in each state.

    • 9-12.C.16.B The student explains the election process at the federal level for president, the House of Representatives, and the Senate, based on South Dakota law.

    • 9-12.C.16.C The student explains the process of campaigning for elected office, including fundraising from large donors, small dollar donors, political action committees (PACs), and political parties.

    • 9-12.C.16.D The student explains how search engines, traditional media, and social media companies and users can influence public opinion in an election.

    • 9-12.C.16.E The student identifies the ways in which citizens engage in politics beyond voting, including through political parties, interest groups, meeting with elected officials, petitions, attending public meetings and hearings, writing, speaking, and assembling.

    • 9-12.C.16.F The student explains the warnings from the farewell addresses of George Washington and Dwight D. Eisenhower regarding political parties and interest groups.

    • 9-12.C.16.G The student identifies the three different party systems in American history and their general positions based on historical documentation and official party platforms.

    • 9-12.C.16.H The student explains the origins and roles of political parties in shaping public policy and controlling access to political office.

    • 9-12.C.16.I The student explains how political parties fundraise, including the connection between a member of Congress's fundraising for his or her party and the member's access to holding leadership positions.

    • 9-12.C.16.J The student explains the role seniority and leadership positions play in Congressional operations.

    • 9-12.C.16.K The student explains the origins and roles of interest groups and the way in which they lobby elected officials.

    • 9-12.C.16.L The student explains the concept of the "iron triangle" used to describe the relationship among elected officials and their staff, bureaucrats, and lobbyists for interest groups and businesses, as well as how a single individual can build a career switching jobs among these three groups.

  • 9-12.C.17 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of South Dakota and Native American government and politics.

  • 9-12.C.18 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the American experiment in self government compared to other historical and present-day regimes.

    • 9-12.C.18.A The student compares the American system of government—a self-governing representative democracy limited by a written Constitution—to other forms of government in the world, both past and present.

    • 9-12.C.18.B The student explains the similarities and differences between the American and French revolutions and the reasons for their divergent outcomes.

    • 9-12.C.18.C The student explains the tensions of each of the following with America's founding principles: monarchy, aristocracy, direct democracy, Progressivism, totalitarianism, communism, socialism, racism, imperialism, fascism, oligarchy.

    • 9-12.C.18.D The student compares America's founding principles of equality, self-government, limited government, and responsible citizenship to the political order of other countries prior to the American founding.

    • 9-12.C.18.E The student explains laws that sought to end discrimination against African Americans since World War II, including: Harry Truman's desegregation of the armed forces; Brown v. Board of Education; Civil Rights Act of 1964; Voting Rights Act; Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.

    • 9-12.C.18.F The student identifies examples of people and countries throughout the world citing the principles of the American founding in their efforts for freedom and self-government in their own countries.

    • 9-12.C.18.G The student explains the extent to which the enduring things in American history are its founding claims for the inherent dignity of each person, limited self-government, and the rule of law; and the extent to which these principles have been responsible for ending moral wrongs, both in America and throughout the world.

    • 9-12.C.18.H The student explains the roles played by the principles of the Declaration of Independence, the self-governing republic established by the Constitution, and the sacrifices of millions of Americans in creating the opportunity for all Americans to enjoy degrees of freedom, security, and prosperity unmatched in human history.

    • 9-12.C.18.I The student explains how patriotism is the love of country, meaning that one holds his or her country up to an objective standard of moral right and wrong, preserving the ways in which the country does good and correcting the ways it sometimes does wrong.

    • 9-12.C.18.J The student explains the responsibilities each American citizen has towards past Americans, fellow Americans, and the principles of America in order to preserve American freedom, equality, and self-government.