Content Standards

California History-Social Science Standards

The following is a list from the State of California Content Standards for the Education for Democracy, California Civic Education Scope & Sequence, for grade levels K-12, in which the Los Angeles County Office of Education (2003) states (note: the first numerical number/letter refer to the grade level, the second and third numbers refer to heading and subsections of each standard within each grade level):

  • K.1.3 Know beliefs and related behaviors of characters in stories from times past and understand the consequences of the characters’ actions. (p. 22)
  • K.6.1 Identify the purposes of, and the people and events honored in, commemorative holidays, including the human struggles that were the basis for the events. (p. 26)
  • 1.3.3 Identify American symbols, landmarks, and essential documents, such as the flag, bald eagle, Statue of Liberty, U.S. Constitution, and Declaration of Independence, and know the people and events associated with them. (p. 38)
  • 2.5 Students understand the importance of individual action and character and explain how heroes from long ago and the recent past have made a difference in others’ lives. (p. 54)
  • 3.4.3 Know the histories of important local and national landmarks, symbols, and essential documents that create a sense of community among citizens and exemplify cherished ideals. (p. 70)
  • 3.4.6 Describe the lives of American heroes who took risks to secure our freedoms. (p. 74)
  • 4.5.1 Discuss what the U.S. Constitution is and why it is important. (p. 90)
  • 5.2.2 Explain the aims, obstacles, and accomplishments of the explorers, sponsors, and leaders of key European expeditions and the reasons Europeans chose to explore and colonize the world (e.g., the Spanish Reconquista, the Protestant Reformation, the Counter Reformation). (p. 94)
  • 5.4 Students understand the political, religious, social, and economic institutions that evolved in the colonial era. (p. 98)
  • 5.4.2 Identify the major individuals and groups responsible for the founding of the various colonies and the reasons for the founding. (p. 102)
  • 5.4.3 Describe the religious aspects of the earliest colonies. (p. 102)
  • 5.4.4 Identify the significance and leaders of the First Great Awakening, which marked a shift in religious ideas, practices, and allegiances in the colonial period, the growth of religious toleration, and free exercise of religion. (p. 103)
  • 5.5.1 Understand how political, religious, and economic ideas and interests brought about the Revolution. (p. 106)
  • 5.7.2 Explain the significance of the new constitution of 1787, including the struggles over its ratification and the reasons for the addition of the Bill of Rights. (p. 116)
  • 6.2 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the early civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Kush. (p. 124)
  • 6.3 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the ancient Hebrews. (p. 124)
  • 6.3.1 Describe the origins and significance of Judaism as the first monotheistic religion based on the concept of one God who sets down moral laws for humanity. (p. 124)
  • 6.3.2 Describe how the ideas of Hebrew traditions are reflected in the moral and ethical traditions of Western civilization. 6.3.3, 4, and 5 reference Jewish traditions, history, and its leaders. (p. 128)
  • 6.4 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the early civilizations of Ancient Greece. (p. 129)
  • 6.5 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the early civilizations of India. (p. 130)
  • 6.6 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the early civilizations of China. (p. 130)
  • 6.7 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures during the development of Rome. (p. 132)
  • 6.7.6 Note the origins of Christianity in the Jewish messianic prophecies, and the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the New Testament of the Bible, and the contribution of St. Paul the Apostle to the definition and spread of Christian beliefs (e.g., belief in the Trinity, resurrection, salvation). (p. 133)
  • 7.2 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of Islam in the Middle Ages. (p. 144)
  • 7.3 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of China in the Middle Ages. (p. 144)
  • 7.4 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of the sub-Saharan civilizations of Ghana and Mali in Medieval Africa. (p. 144)
  • 7.5 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of Medieval Japan. (p. 146)
  • 7.6 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of Medieval Europe. (p. 146)
  • 7.6.8 Understand the importance of the Catholic Church as a political, intellectual, and aesthetic institution (e.g., founding of universities, political and spiritual roles of the clergy, creation of monastic and mendicant religious orders, preservation of the Latin language and religious texts, St. Tomas Aquinas’s synthesis of classical philosophy with Christian theology and the concept of “natural law”). (p. 146)
  • 7.9 Students analyze the historical developments of the Reformation. (p. 148)
  • 7.9.2 Describe the theological, political, and economic ideas of the major figures during the Reformation. (p. 148)
  • 7.9.3 Explain Protestants’ new practices of church self-government and the influences of those practices on the development of democratic practices and ideas of federalism. (p. 149)
  • 7.10 Students analyze the historical developments of the Scientific Revolution and its lasting effect on religious, political, and cultural institutions. (p. 150)
  • 7.10.3 Understand the scientific method advance by Bacon and Descartes, and the influence of new scientific rationalism on the growth of democratic ideas, and the coexistence of science with traditional religious beliefs. (p. 150)
  • 8.1 Students understand the major events preceding the founding of the nation and relate their significance to the development of American constitutional democracy. (p. 156)
  • 8.1.2 Analyze the philosophy of government expressed in the Declaration of Independence, with an emphasis on government as a means of securing individual rights (e.g., key phrases such as “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights”). (p. 156)
  • 8.2.5 Understand the significance of Jefferson’s Statute for Religious Freedoms as a forerunner to the First Amendment and the origins, purpose and differing view of the Founding Fathers on the issue of the separation of church and state. (p. 162)
  • 8.4 Students analyze the aspirations and ideals of the people of the new nation. (p. 168)
  • 10.1 Students relate the moral and ethical principles in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, in Judaism, and in Christianity to the development of Western political thought. (p. 184)
  • 10.1.1 Analyze the similarities and differences in Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman views of law, reason and faith, and duties of the individual. (p. 184)
  • 11.1 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. (p. 202)
  • 11.1.2 Analyze the ideological origins of the American Revolution, the Founders’ philosophy of unalienable natural rights, the debates on the drafting and ratification of the Constitution, and the addition of the Bill of Rights. (p. 202)
  • 11.3 Students analyze the role religion played in the founding of America, its lasting moral, social, and political impacts, and issues regarding religious liberty. (p. 204)
  • 11.3.1 Describe the contributions of various religious groups to American civic principles and social reform movements (e.g., civil and human rights, individual responsibility and the work ethic, antimonarchy and self-rule, worker protection, family-centered communities). (p. 204)
  • 11.3.5 Describe the principles of religious liberty found in the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment, including the debate on the issue of separation of church and state. (p. 204)
  • 12.1 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. (p. 226)
  • 12.2.1 Discuss the meaning and importance of each of the rights guaranteed under the Bill of Rights and how each is secured. (p. 228)
  • 12.3 Students evaluate and take and defend positions on what the fundamental values and principles of civil society are, their interdependence, and the meaning and importance of those values and principles for a free society. (p. 230)
  • 12.3.1 Explain how civil society provides opportunities for individuals to associate for social, cultural, religious, economic, and political purposes. (p. 231)
  • 12.5 Students summarize landmark U.S. Supreme Court interpretations of the Constitution and its amendments. (p. 236)
  • 12.5.1 Understanding the changing interpretations of the Bill of Rights over time, including interpretations of the basic freedoms (religion, speech, press, petition, and assembly) articulated in the First Amendment and the due-process and equal-protection-of-the-law clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. (p. 236)
  • 12.5.2 Analyze judicial activism and judicial restraint and the effects of each policy over the decades (e.g., the Warren and Rehnquist courts). (p. 236)
  • 12.10 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. (p. 248)

A teacher in the State of California must have knowledge of and refer to the specific standard before teaching any objective or content material that the lesson is referencing. If a teacher could not identify the standard the lesson is built on, then the content of the lesson would not be pertinent to the scope of the lesson for a particular grade level. A teacher may build upon and address any standard listed in previous grade levels when designing an instructional lesson for a class (B. Andersen, personal communication, September 5, 2004).