Middle School Social Studies Standards

1. (Time, Continuity, and Change) Students will understand patterns of change and continuity, relationships between people and events through time, and various interpretations of these relationships.

By the end of grade 8:
1a. Use key concepts such as chronology, causality, and conflict to identify patterns of historical change.
1b. Identify and use primary and secondary sources in historical research.
1c. Understand how knowledge of the past and its trends can help explain current events.
1d. Explain the causes of significant current and historical political events and issues.
1e. Examine historical resources for a point of view, context, bias (including gender and race), distortion, or propaganda.
1f. Analyze multiple interpretations of an historical or current event.
1g. Differentiate between historical facts and historical interpretations.
1h. Identify gaps in available historical resources.
1i. Use quantitative data to answer questions about history.

2.(Connections and Conflict) Students will understand causes and effects of interaction among societies, including trade, systems of international exchange, war, and diplomacy.

By the end of grade 8:
2a. Explain forces for change that result in increasing world interaction:
Environment, Belief systems (e.g., religion, politics), Economics, Geography/land, Ethnicity/race/gender, Culture, Balance of power
 2b. Explain how historical legacies have facilitated global understanding or caused misunderstanding.
2c. Understand the primary effects of world trade and global patterns of resource distribution and use in terms of connections and conflict.
2d. Explain the relationships and tensions between national sovereignty and global interest.
2e. Identify issues and standards related to human rights.
2f. Explain how events and conditions in one region might affect other regions in the area and across the world.

3.(People, Places, and Environment) Students will understand the concepts of geography and demography and how geography and demography influence and are influenced by human history.

By the end of grade 8:
3a. Use appropriate data sources and geographic tools to generate, manipulate, and interpret information.
3b. Know the relative location of, size of, and distances between places.
3c. Describe social effects of environmental changes and crises resulting from natural phenomena.
3d. Explain and give examples of voluntary and involuntary migration.
3e. Explain how human migration affects the physical and human characteristics of a place.
3f. Evaluate conventional and alternative uses of land and water resources in the community, region, and beyond.
3g. Describe ways that human events have influenced, and been influenced by, physical and human geographic conditions in local, regional, national, and global settings.
3h. Use key demographic concepts (e.g., population density, birth and death rates) to analyze the structure and characteristics of different populations and population patterns over time.
3i. Identify and explain how changes people make in the physical environment in one place can cause changes in other places.
3j. Describe geographic factors that can affect the creation, cohesiveness, and integration of countr

4.(Culture) Students will understand cultural and intellectual developments and interactions among and within societies.

N.B.: In the benchmarks for this standard, the term "belief systems" refers to an ordered, established body of thinking and faith that influence one's perceptions of self and the world. It includes such concepts as religion, philosophies (including political and economic), and science.

By the end of grade 8:
4a. Understand ways that social and environmental factors and culture are related.
4b. Identify how patterns of behavior can reflect cultural values and attitudes.
4c. Know the beliefs, practices, and institutions of the major religions of the world, and some examples of tribal religions.
4d. Understand how certain texts come to be viewed as sacred.
4e. Evaluate ethical questions from points of view of different belief systems.
4f. Understand how taboos and publicly acceptable behavioral norms evolve.
4g. Describe how different understandings of public and private behaviors evolve in their respective cultures.
4h. Evaluate major movements in literature, music, and the visual arts and ways in which they expressed or shaped dominant social values.
4i. Identify patterns of social and cultural continuity in various societies and analyze ways in which people maintained traditions and resisted external challenges.
4j. Draw inferences from archaeological evidence.
4k. Understand the tension between the ideals of diversity and community.

5.(Society and Identity) Students will understand social systems and structures and how these influence individuals.

By the end of grade 8:
5a. Explain how cultural attitudes, values, and beliefs influence personal behavior and the development of personal identity.
5b. Recognize the foundations of one's own and others' viewpoints.
5c. Understand the impact of stereotyping, conformity, and non-conformity on individuals and groups.
5d. Analyze the accuracies and inaccuracies of gender stereotyping.

6.(Governance and Citizenship) Students will understand why societies create and adopt systems of governance and how these systems address human needs, rights, and citizen responsibilities.

By the end of grade 8:
6a. Explain and analyze strengths and weaknesses of various kinds of government systems in terms of the purposes they are designed to serve.
6b. Explain how different types of government acquire, use, and justify power.
6c. Describe major issues involving rights, responsibilities, roles, and status of the individual in relation to the general welfare.
6d. Know functions and responsibilities of government leaders and public servants.
6e. Explain how public agendas are set and shaped.
6f. Explain issues related to basic freedoms (e.g., those contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
6g. Explain how public policy is formed and carried out at various levels of government.
6h. Define citizenship in terms of its legal and political status and criteria used to grant naturalized citizenship.
6i. Explain the significance of important personal, economic, and political rights and identify their major documentary sources.
6j. Analyze effects of participation in civic and political life.
6k. Identify how governments acquire and use revenue.

7. (Production, Distribution, and Consumption) Students will understand fundamental economic principles and ways in which economies are shaped by geographic and human factors.

By the end of grade 8:

7a. Describe economic effects of environmental changes and crises resulting from natural phenomena.
 7b. Explain economic reasons for voluntary migration.
 7c. Evaluate conventional and alternative uses of resources.
 7d. Describe historical and contemporary economic systems.
 7e. Understand primary causes of world trade.
 7f. Understand global patterns of resource distribution and use.
 7g. Describe how governments and institutions allocate limited resources among competing needs.

8.(Science, Technology, and Society) Students will understand how societies have influenced and been influenced by scientific developments and technological developments.

By the end of grade 8:
 8a. Understand that the prerequisites for the adoption of a particular technology are social need, social resources, and cultural attitude.
 8b. Describe the process whereby adoption of scientific knowledge and use of technologies influence cultures, the environment, economies, and balance of power.
 8c. Evaluate the need for laws and policies to govern technological applications.
 8d. Describe how technologies might have effects and uses other than those intended.
 8e. Evaluate the meaning and history of the word "technology".
 8f. Understand the differences among tools, techniques, and systems.
 8g. Understand the concept "pace of change".