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 the important factors that have helped shape American society.
• Know ways in which Americans have attempted to make the values and principles of the Constitution a reality.
• Understand the significance of fundamental values and principles for the individual and society.
• Know some of the efforts that have been put forth to reduce discrepancies between ideals and the reality of American public life.
• Know how various individual actions, social actions, and political actions help to reduce discrepancies between reality and the ideals of American Constitutional democracy.
• Know about the historical and contemporary efforts to reduce discrepancies between ideals and reality in American public life.
• Understand significant influences on the Civil Rights Movement, such as the:
• social and constitutional issues involved in the Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and Brown v. Board of Education (1954) Court cases;
• connection between legislative acts, Supreme Court decisions, and the Civil Rights Movement;
• role of women in the Civil Rights Movement and in shaping the struggle for civil rights).
• Know different types of primary and secondary sources and recognize the motives, interests, and biases expressed in them.
• Analyze the values held by specific people who influence history and the roles their values played in influencing history.
• Evaluate the validity and credibility of different historical interpretations.
• Use a variety of resource materials and 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.
• Synthesize information form the multiple research studies to draw conclusions that go beyond those found in any of the individual studies.
• Use criteria to evaluate their own and others' effectiveness in group discussions and formal presentations.
• Adjust message wording and delivery to particular audiences for particular purposes.
• Makes formal presentations to the class.
• Use a variety of criteria to evaluate the clarity and accuracy of information.