Essential Standards

What is an Essential Standard?

 We have identified the Essential Standards (ES) in our K12 curriculum.  What this means is that in our curriculum there are some really important skills and concepts that all students need to learn.  These skills provide students with a solid foundation to build upon. ES are the essential skills we want to make sure all students learn so that they have the knowledge they need to ensure they can build upon those important skills.  There are specific assessments within our curriculum that measure our Essential Standards that act as checkpoints for teachers to monitor their student's work.

Why should it be important to you?  

When your student participates in the lessons that measure the ES, it will help you to know if they are on track with these important skills that they need to learn. 

Why is it important to us as teachers?  

It helps us as teachers to make sure that our students are learning and mastering these essential skills.  If they aren’t, then we can step in and provide tutoring/interventions to make sure these really important skills are mastered before they move on to other material.

US History II Course Essential Standards

ES #1-- Semester 1 Unit 2 "Going West" Instruction and Quiz: 

Students can define "manifest destiny" and "frontier," and explain the importance of these terms to American culture and identity and the motivations for America to settle further West.

ES #2-- Semester 1 Unit 5 "Expanding Borders" Instruction and Assignment: 

Students can explain the arguments for and against American imperialism as well as evaluate the goals of Roosevelt’s “Big Stick” foreign policy.

ES #3-- Semester 2 Unit 1 "America's Entry Into the War" Instruction and Assignment:

Students can analyze how and why the US moved from isolationism to active involvement in WWII as the war progressed.

ES #4-- Semester 2 Unit 3 "Brinkmanship and the Cold War" Instruction and Assignment: 

Students can Identify and describe causes and effects of the arms race between the United States and the USSR.