History-Social Science Content Standards for California Public Schools:

UNITED STATES HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY: GROWTH AND CONFLICT

• 8.1 Students understand the major events preceding the founding of the nation and relate their significance to the development of American constitutional democracy.
• 8.2 Students analyze the political principles underlying the U.S. Constitution and compare the enumerated and implied powers of the federal government.
• 8.3 Students understand the foundation of the American political system and the ways in which citizens participate in it.
• 8.4 Students analyze the aspirations and ideals of the people of the new nation.
• 8.5 Students analyze U.S. foreign policy in the early Republic.
• 8.6 Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced, with emphasis on the Northeast.
• 8.7 Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people in the South from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced.
• 8.8 Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people in the West from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced.
• 8.9 Students analyze the early and steady attempts to abolish slavery and to realize the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.
• 8.10 Students analyze the multiple causes, key events and complex consequences of the Civil War.
• 8.11 Students analyze the character and lasting consequences of Reconstruction.
• 8.12 Students analyze the transformation of the American economy and the changing social and political conditions in the United States in response to the Industrial Revolution.

For a more complete PDF version of California history standards, click here.

For a more complete HTML version of 8th grade history standards, click here.