The following standards have been taken from the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McRel) standards.

The students will:

• Understand the importance of equality of opportunity and equal protection of the law as a characteristic of American society.
• Understand important factors that have helped shape American society.
• Understand the significance of fundamental values and principles for the individual and society.
• Know some of the efforts put forth to reduce discrepancies between ideals and the reality of American public life.
• Know different types of primary and secondary sources and recognize the motives, interests, and biases they express.
• Evaluate the validity and credibility of different historical interpretations.
• Use a variety of primary sources to gather information for research topics.
• Use a variety of criteria to evaluate the validity and reliability of primary and secondary source information and evaluate the clarity and accuracy of information.
• Identify abstract relationships between seemingly unrelated items.
• Identify abstract patterns of similarities and differences between information on the same topic but from different sources.
• Identify abstract relationships that form the bases for analogies.
• Understand how time and place influence the visual, spatial, or temporal characteristics that give meaning or function to a work of art.
• Understand what makes different art media, techniques, and processes effective (or ineffective) in communicating various ideas.
• Know how the qualities and characteristics of art media, techniques, and processes can enhance communication of experiences and ideas.
• Know how characteristics of the arts vary within a particular historical period or style and how these characteristics relate to ideas, issues, or themes in other disciplines.
• Understand the use of stereotypes and biases in visual media.
• Identify the intentions of the creators of artworks.
• Understand some of the implications of intention and purpose in particular works of art.
• Know how specific works are created and how they relate to historical and cultural contexts.
• Know how to perceive past events with historical empathy.