Grade 12: United States Government

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT

Define government; contrast limited government and unlimited government; recognize documents and individuals who helped shape the government of the United States. 

Recognize the importance of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

Identify the major purposes of the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.

Define federalism; describe how powers are divided between the federal and state governments.

Identify the responsibilities of state and local governments.

Understand the importance of voting and the expansion of voting rights; identify ways in which voting rights have expanded to be more inclusive and increase participation in the political system.

Understand that public officials are elected to office; recognize that elections are held at the local, state, and national level.

Understand that candidates for public office are often supported by groups of people called “special-interest groups” and “political action committees.” 

Identify ways candidates can get their message out to voters and ways voters can learn about candidates.

Define political party and describe its job; identify and contrast the major political parties in the United States--Republican, Democratic, and/or nonaffiliated parties (Independent).

Define legislative branch of government; identify the major roles and/or responsibilities of the legislative branch of government, recognize the legislative branch is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate and identify the differences between them.

Define executive branch of government; identify the major roles and responsibilities of the executive branch of government; recognize that the executive branch is headed by the president of the United States.

Define judicial branch of government; identify the major roles and responsibilities of the judicial branch of government; recognize that the judicial branch is a court system with the Supreme Court serving as the highest court in the land.

Understand that citizens have rights and responsibilities; recognize rights that citizens are guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.

Define and contrast domestic policy and foreign policy and recognize examples of each.

Identify key philosophers, including Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Charles de Montesquieu, and Jean Jacques Rousseau.

Identify key documents, including Magna Carta, Petition of Rights, English Bill of Rights, Mayflower Compact, and the Virginia Declaration of Rights.

Identify the Great Awakening.

Place into chronological order key political events of the American Revolution.

Outline the possible paths taken to ratify an amendment to the Constitution.

Identify key constitutional amendments and laws that have allowed for the expansion of the right to vote.

Identify key obstacles imposed during the Jim Crow era to limit suffrage rights.

Identify key events in the Civil Rights Movement that led to the expansion of suffrage rights.

List in chronological order the steps by which a bill becomes a law.

Classify presidential powers as either constitutional, informal, or symbolic.

Identify the effect by which landmark decisions change the interpretation of constitutional provisions and rights.