Maine State Standards for Social Studies: Grade 12

ME.A. Civics and Government: Rights, Responsibilities, and Participation: Students will understand the rights and responsibilities of civic life and will employ the skills of effective civic participation.

A.1. Develop and defend a position on a public policy issue within our democracy.

A.2. Assess the reasons why participation of an attentive, knowledgeable, and competent citizenry is important to constitutional democracy, using examples from personal or historical experience.

A.3. Describe the circumstances under which civil disobedience might be justified.

A.4. Demonstrate an understanding of the processes of voter registration and voter participation.

ME.B. Civics and Government: Purpose and Types of Government: Students will understand the types and purposes of governments, their evolution, and their relationships with the governed.

B.1. Compare and contrast the purpose and the structure of the United States government with other governments (parliamentary, dictatorship, monarchy) with respect to ideology, values, and histories.

B.2. Assess the different jurisdictions and roles of local, state, and federal governments in relation to an important public policy issue.

B.3. Analyze the major arguments for and against representative government as distinguished from direct democracy.

B.4. Assess the tension between the public's need for government services and the varying availability of revenue through taxes at the local, state, and federal levels.

B.5. Evaluate the role of the media and public opinion in United States politics, including ways the government and media influence public opinion.

ME.C. Civics and Government: Fundamental Principles of Government and Constitutions: Students will understand the constitutional principles and the democratic foundations of the political institutions of the United States.

C.1. Explain the historical foundations of constitutional government in the United States (e.g., Magna Carta, Roman Republic, colonial experience, Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constitution of the United States).

C.2. Evaluate the Federalist and anti-Federalist positions on the ratification of the Constitution in light of historical developments.

C.3. Evaluate the effectiveness of the Constitution as a vehicle for change.

C.4. Demonstrate an understanding of the meaning and importance of traditional democratic assumptions such as individual rights, the common good, self-government, justice, equality, and patriotism.

C.5. Demonstrate how the United States Constitution uses checks and balances in order to prevent the abuse of power (e.g., Marbury vs. Madison, Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Watergate).

C.6. Evaluate, take, and defend positions on current issues regarding judicial protection and individual rights.

C.7. Examine civil rights issues related to well-known Supreme Court decisions.

ME.D. Civics and Government: International Relations: Students will understand the political relationships among the United States and other nations.

D.1. Analyze the processes used to develop foreign policy.

D.2. Trace the development of a current major world event and predict the possible outcomes (e.g., population, global warming).

D.3. Demonstrate how domestic policy may impose constraints or obligations on United States actions in the world, using current examples.

D.4. Evaluate the benefits and difficulties of international cooperation, using specific examples.

ME.A. History: Chronology: Students will use the chronology of history and major eras to demonstrate the relationships of events and people.

A.1. Identify and analyze major events and people that characterize each of the significant eras in the United States and world history:

A.1.1. Eras in United States History: The Americas to 1600; The Colonial Era, 1500-1754; The Revolutionary Era, 1754-1783; Nation Building, 1783-1815; The Expanding Nation, 1815-1850; Civil War and Reconstruction, 1850-1877; Development of the Industrial United States, 1865-1914; The Progressive Era, 1890-1914; Emergence of the United States as a World Power, 1890-1920; The '20's: Prosperity and Problems; Depression and The New Deal, 1929-1941; World War II and Post War United States, 1939-1961; Contemporary United States, 1961-Present.

A.1.2. Eras in World History: Emergence of Civilization to 1000 BC; The Classical Civilizations of the Mediterranean Basin, India, and China, 1000 BC-600 AD; The Expansion and Interaction of Civilizations, 600 AD-1450 AD; The Early Modern World, 1450-1800; The World in the Nineteenth Century; The World in the Contemporary Era.

ME.B. History: Historical Knowledge, Concepts, and Patterns: Students will develop historical knowledge of major events, people, and enduring themes in the United States, in Maine, and throughout world history.

B.1. Demonstrate an understanding of the causes and effects of major events in United States history and their connection to both Maine and world history with emphasis on events after 1877, including, but not limited to: Industrialization The Great Depression; The Cold War (and its ending) WWI and WWII; The Vietnam Era Civil Rights Movement; Watergate.

B.2. Demonstrate an understanding of selected major events in ancient and modern world history and their connection to United States history.

B.3. Demonstrate an understanding of the lives of selected individuals who have had a major influence on history.

B.4. Demonstrate an understanding of enduring themes in history (e.g., conflict and cooperation, technology and innovation, freedom and justice).

B.5. Explain how different ways of knowing and believing have influenced human history and culture.

B.6. Describe how the basic ideas of various schools of philosophy have affected societies (e.g., rationalism, liberalism, idealism, conservationism).

B.7. Explain the benefits and conflicts resulting from encounters among cultures.

ME.C. History: Historical Inquiry, Analysis, and Interpretation: Students will learn to evaluate resource material such as documents, artifacts, maps, artworks, and literature, and to make judgments about the perspectives of the authors and their credibility when interpreting current historical events.

C.1. Evaluate and use historical materials to formulate historical hypotheses regarding a specific issue (e.g., space travel), and to make predictions about the future of the issue.

C.2. Examine and analyze primary and secondary sources in order to differentiate between historical facts and historical interpretations, and to support or reject historical hypotheses.

C.3. Compare competing historical narratives by contrasting different historians' choice of questions, use and choice of sources, perspectives, beliefs, and points of view in order to demonstrate how these factors contribute to different interpretations.

C.4. Compare and contrast the reliability of information received from multiple sources (e.g., newspapers, radio or TV, biography, historical narrative) to assess an historical issue.

ME.A. Geography: Skills and Tools: Students will know how to construct and interpret maps and use globes and other geographic tools to locate and derive information about people, places, regions, and environments.

A.1. Use mapping to answer complex geographic and environmental problems.

A.2. Appraise the ways in which maps reflect economic, social, and political policy decision making.

A.3. Understand how cultural and technological features can link or divide regions.

ME.B. Geography: Human Interaction with Environments: Students will understand and analyze the relationships among people and their physical environment.

B.1. Explain factors which shape places and regions over time (e.g., physical and cultural factors).

B.2. Analyze the cultural characteristics that make specific regions of the world distinctive.

B.3. Analyze how technologies contribute to cultural sharing and separation, and identify examples of the spread of cultural traits.

B.4. Explain how conflict and cooperation among peoples contribute to the division of the earth's surface into distinctive cultural and political regions.

ME.A. Economics: Personal and Consumer Economics: Students will understand that economic decisions are based on the availability of resources and the costs and benefits of choices.

A.1. Conduct a cost benefit analysis of a personal or business decision.

A.2. Evaluate different forms of savings and investments for short and long term returns (e.g., stocks, bonds, money market funds).

A.3. Demonstrate an understanding of credit history and the positive and negative impacts that credit can have on an individual's financial life.

ME.B. Economics: Economic Systems of the United States: Students will understand the economic system of the United States, including its principles, development, and institutions.

B.1. Describe the factors (i.e., physical, capital, technology, monetary resources) that impact the development and the distribution of a product.

B.2. Identify and analyze the role of government in the United States economic system (e.g., taxing, spending, setting interest rates, regulatory policy).

B.3. Explain the positive and the negative impacts of advertising techniques on consumer behavior.

B.4. Describe the full costs (including externalities) associated with the use of natural and human resources to produce economic goods and services (e.g., solar power versus nuclear power to provide electricity).

ME.C. Economics: Comparative Systems: Students will analyze how different economic systems function and change over time.

C.1. Explain the impact of cultural values on economic decisions, using at least two examples.

C.2. Compare strengths and weaknesses of the market economy with other economic models, using broad societal goals such as freedom, equity, security, employment, stability, and economic growth.

ME.D. Economics: International Trade and Global Interdependence: Students will understand the patterns and results of international trade.

D.1. Demonstrate an understanding that a nation has a competitive advantage when it can produce a product at a lower cost than its trading partner.

D.2. Evaluate the effect on international trade of domestic policies which either encourage or discourage exchange of goods and services (e.g., quotas, tariffs, skilled labor, stable government).