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Grade 11: Civics Content

• Concepts
  • Citizenship
  • Civic values (e.g., honesty, self-discipline, due process, equality, majority rule with respect for minority rights, and respect for self, others and property. Adapted from National Standards for Civics and Government, 1994. Center for Civic Education).
  • Civil and human rights
  • Constitutional Principles
  • Democracy
  • Foreign policy
  • Government
  • Judicial review
  • Justice
  • Leadership
  • Power
  • Presidential Decisions and Actions
  • Public policy
• Content Understandings
  • The Constitution: The Foundation of American Society
    • Historical foundations: 17th and 18th century Enlightenment thought European Intellectuals including Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau
    • Key historical events including the Magna Carta, habeas corpus, English Bill of Rights, and the Glorious Revolution
    • Colonial experience: political rights and mercantile relationships
    • Colonial charters and self-government: Mayflower Compact, town meetings, House of Burgesses, local government, property rights, enforceable contracts, Albany Plan of Union
    • Native American governmental systems
    • Freedom of the press: the Zenger Case
    • Salutary neglect, rights of English citizens in America
    • The Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence
    • Causes of the Revolution and revolutionary ideology including republican principles and natural rights
    • New York State Constitution based on republican principles
    • Articles of Confederation
    • Northwest Ordinance
    • Constitutional Convention
    • The Bill of Rights
    • Basic structure and function of government: three branches and their operation
    • Basic constitutional principles including national power, federalism, the judiciary, civil liberties, criminal procedures, equality, the rights of women under the Constitution, the rights of ethnic and racial groups under the Constitution, Presidential power in wartime and in foreign affairs, the separation of powers and the capacity to govern, avenues of representation, property rights and economic policy, and constitutional change and flexibility
    • Implementing the new constitutional principles
  • The Constitution Tested: Nationalism and Sectionalism
    • Constitutional stress and crisis
    • Equal rights and justice: expansion of franchise; search for minority rights; expansion of slavery; abolitionist movement; the Underground Railroad; denial of Native American Indian rights and land ownership
    • The great constitutional debates: states' rights versus federal supremacy (nullification); efforts to address slavery issues (Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850, fugitive slave law, Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857); preservation of the Union
    • The Constitution in jeopardy: The American Civil War
  • The Progressive Movement: Responses to the Challenges Brought About by Industrialization and Urbanization: Reform in America
    • Pressures for Reform
    • Progress: Social and economic reform and consumer protection (e.g., the Muckrakers, women's rights, the black movement, and temperance)
    • Progressivism and government action
    • Emerging Progressive movement: political reform
    • Municipal and state reform
    • Progressive state reform in Wisconsin, New York, and Massachusetts
  • The Rise of American Power
    • Wartime constitutional issues: war opposition and patriotism, Espionage and Sedition Acts, Schenck v. United States (1919), Red Scare, 1918-1919
  • War and Prosperity: 1917-1929
    • Mass consumption and the clash of cultural values: constitutional and legal issues
    • Threats to civil liberties
  • The Great Depression
    • Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal Relief, recovery, and reform programs
    • Controversial aspects of the New Deal: Constitutional issues including the Supreme Court and the NRA (Schechter Poultry Corp v. United States, 1935); Supreme Court and the AAA
  • Containment and Consensus: 1945-1960
    • Domestic politics and constitutional issues
    • Civil Rights including Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 1954, and the beginnings of the modern civil rights movement
  • Decade of Change: 1960s
    • The Kennedy Years: the New Frontier, dreams and promises
    • Civil rights actions including James Meredith at the University of Mississippi, the public career of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Birmingham protest and "Letter from Birmingham Jail"), the assassination of Medgar Evers, and the March on Washington
    • Movement for the rights of disabled citizens
    • Johnson and the Great Society and continued demands for equality: civil rights movement
    • Legislative impacts including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v.United States, 1964); 24th Amendment; Voting Rights Act of 1965; court decisions since 1948 upholding or modifying preferential treatment in employment, equal access to housing, travel, and accommodations; voting rights; educational equity
    • Fair Housing Act, 1968
    • Demands for equality for women: Kennedy Commission and the Civil Rights Act, 1963-64; NOW (1966); Equal Rights Amendment and failure to ratify; Roe v. Wade, 1973; equality in the workplace including compensation and the glass ceiling; increased focus on domestic abuse
    • Rising consciousness of Hispanic-Americans: "Brown Power" movement, organizing farm labor, immigration issues, and increasing presence in American politics
    • Demands for equality: American Indian Movement (AIM) and other protests including occupation of Alcatraz, the "long march," and Wounded Knee, 1973
    • Rights of the accused: Mapp v. Ohio, 1961; Gideon v. Wainwright, 1963; Miranda v. Arizona, 1966
    • Legislative reapportionment: Baker v. Carr, 1962
  • The Trend Toward Conservatism, 1972-1985
    • Nixon as President, 1969-1974
    • The Presidency in crisis: Watergate Affair and its constitutional implications; United States v. Nixon, 1974; the impeachment process and resignation
    • Reagan and Bush: the "new" federalism and growth of conservatism
    • The Supreme Court and the schools: Engel v. Vitale, 1962; Tinker v. Des Moines School District, 1969; New Jersey v. TLO, 1985; Vernonia School District v. Acton, 1995
  • Approaching the Next Century 1986-1999
    • The Bush Presidency: Case study, the election of 1988 and the effects of demographics, rise of third party candidates, and increasing influence of political action committees
    • The Clinton Presidency: political concerns including the Senate Whitewater investigations, impeachment and acquittal

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