Standards - Social Studies

Identifying the influence of White House staff on the President of the United States

Ranking powers held by the President’s Cabinet, including roles of Cabinet secretaries, appropriations by Congress, appointment and confirmation, and operation of organization

Comparing diverse backgrounds, socioeconomic status, and levels of education of United States’ presidents

Evaluate constitutional provisions of the judicial branch of government of the United States, including checks by the judicial branch on other branches of government, limits on judicial power, and the process by which cases are argued before the United States Supreme Court.

Explaining the structure and jurisdiction of court systems of the United States, including lower courts and appellate courts

Identifying the impact of landmark United States Supreme Court cases on constitutional interpretation

Describing the shifting political balance of the court system, including the appointment process, the ideology of justices, influences on court decisions regarding executive and legislative opinion, public opinion, and the desire for impartiality

Contrasting strict and loose constructionist views of the Constitution of the United States

Describe the role of citizens in American democracy, including the meaning, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship; due process and other rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States; and participation in the election process.

Explaining how the balance between individual versus majority rule and state versus national authority is essential to the functioning of the American democratic society (Alabama)

Explain the role and consequences of domestic and foreign policy decisions, including scientific and technological advancements and humanitarian, cultural, economic, and political changes.

Evaluating financial, political, and social costs of national security

Explain why productive resources are limited and why individuals, businesses, and governments have to make choices in order to meet needs and wants.

Explaining scarcity as a basic condition that exists when unlimited wants exceed limited productive resources

Explaining land (an example of a natural resource), labor (an example of a human resource), capital (an example of a physical or human resource), and entrepreneurship to be the factors of production

Explaining opportunity cost as the next best alternative to relinquish when individuals, businesses, and governments confront scarcity by making choices

Explain how rational decision making entails comparing additional costs of alternatives to additional benefits.

Illustrating on a production-possibilities curve how rational decision making involves trade-offs between two options

Explaining rational decision making as the comparison between marginal benefits and marginal costs of an action

Describe different economic systems used to allocate scarce goods and services.

Defining command, market, and mixed economic systems

Describing how different economic systems answer the three basic economic questions of what to produce, how to produce, and for whom to produce

Evaluating how each type of system addresses private ownership, profit motive, consumer sovereignty, competition, and government regulation

Describe the role of government in a market economy, including promoting and securing competition, protecting private property rights, promoting equity, providing public goods and services, resolving externalities and other market failures, and stabilizing growth in the economy.

Explaining how government regulation and deregulation policies affect consumers and producers

Explain that a country’s standard of living depends upon its ability to produce goods and services.

Explaining productivity as the amount of outputs, or goods and services, produced from inputs, or factors of production

Describing how investments in factories, equipment, education, new technology, training, and health improve economic growth and living standards

Describe how specialization and voluntary exchange between buyers and sellers lead to mutually beneficial outcomes.

Illustrating on a circular-flow diagram the product market; the factor market; the real flow of goods and services between and among businesses, households, and government; and the flow of money

Constructing examples of specialization and exchange

Illustrating on a table and graph the law of supply and demand

Describing the role of buyers and sellers in determining market clearing price

Illustrating on a table and graph how supply and demand determine equilibrium price and quantity

Illustrating on a graph of supply and demand how price movements eliminate shortages and surpluses