Standards Correlations

The NCHE believes that historical thinking develops a unique capacity to comprehend human situations, challenges and interactions.  Thinking historically introduces students to the wonders of the past and fosters the ability to make judgments about the present.  History’s Habits of Mind articulates this distinctive approach, one that leads towards engaging with and understanding the contemporary world and serves as a foundation for life-long, productive learning and active citizenship.

The revised standards, National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, were developed by a Task Force of the National Council for the Social Studies, and approved by the NCSS Board of Directors in March 2010. The realities of global interdependence require an understanding of the increasingly important and diverse global connections among world societies. This theme prepares students to study issues arising from globalization. It typically appears in units or courses dealing with geography, culture, economics, history, political science, government, and technology. Global connections have intensified and accelerated the changes faced at the local, national, and international levels. The effects are evident in rapidly changing social, economic, and political institutions and systems. The realities of global interdependence require deeper understanding of the increasing and diverse global connections among world societies and regions. 

Understanding and evaluating change and continuity over time, and making appropriate use of historical evidence in answering questions and developing arguments about the past. It involves going beyond simply asking, “What happened when?” to evaluating why and how events occurred and developments unfolded. It involves locating and assessing historical sources of many different types to understand the contexts of given historical eras and the perspectives of different individuals and groups within geographic units that range from the local to the global. Global-scale issues and problems cannot be resolved without extensive collaboration among the world’s peoples, nations, and economic organizations. Asking and answering questions about global inter-connections and spatial patterns are a necessary part of geographic reasoning. 

The Social Justice Standards are a set of anchor standards and age-appropriate learning outcomes divided into four domains—Identity, Diversity, Justice and Action (IDJA). The standards provide a common language and organizational structure. The four domains promote student learning by expanding their context, challenging narratives, and employing a critical lens.  For example "Students will identify figures, groups, events and a variety of strategies and philosophies relevant to the history of social justice around the world" and "Students will recognize that power and privilege influence relationships on interpersonal, intergroup and institutional levels and consider how they have been affected by those dynamics." 

The course includes 7 themes for students to explore. These themes focus on major historical issues and changes, helping students connect the historical content they study to broad developments and processes that have emerged over centuries in what has become the United States. One theme, "America in the World",  focuses on the interactions between nations that affected North American history in the colonial period, and on the influence of the United States on world affairs. 

The Diploma Program’s history course aims to promote an understanding of history as a discipline, including the nature and diversity of its sources, methods and interpretations. It also helps students to gain a better understanding of the present through critical reflection upon the past…The course provides both structure and flexibility, fostering an understanding of major historical events in a global context. It requires students to make comparisons between similar and dissimilar solutions to common human situations, whether they be political, economic or social. It invites comparisons between, but not judgments of, different cultures, political systems and national traditions. 

To be ready for college, workforce training, and life in a technological society, students need the ability to gather, comprehend, evaluate, synthesize, and report on information and ideas, to conduct original research in order to answer questions or solve problems, and to analyze and create a high volume and extensive range of print and non-print texts in media forms old and new. The need to conduct research and to produce and consume media is embedded into every aspect of today’s curriculum. In like fashion, research and media skills and understandings are embedded throughout the Standards rather than treated in a separate section. Social Studies standards emphasize  skill development. In turn, teachers decide what content and perspectives (global for example) to use.