Performance Assessments

Students may be required to complete one or more of the following assessments:

Essay test, Research Paper, PowerPoint presentation, multiple-choice test, historical fiction literature review

Grading Procedure

All students must pass with a “C” or better (70%) in their performance grade, or they will be placed in a second history class (CLM) to master the standards for the grading period.

A- Advanced Grade: Student demonstrates a clear understanding of how the Second Industrial Revolution after the Civil War led to a takeoff in economic power for the United States, with a tremendous growth in cities and renewed immigration from southern and eastern Europe. Again, the student is able to discuss issues of rights called for in the Declaration of Independence, with regard to freed slaves, Indians, farmers, immigrants, and workers – including women and children. The student makes few mistakes, and applies social studies skills (mapping, timeline, research, interpretation, etc.) with confidence. The student should be able to discuss the topics listed below.

B- Proficient Grade: Much understanding, some mistakes

C- Basic Grade: Enough understanding to pass, despite mistakes

D- Below Basic Grade: Only sometimes shows understanding, many mistakes

F- Far Below Basic Grade: Rarely shows understanding, many mistakes

Topics to be covered in above assessments:

1) Reconstruction, including the struggle between Andrew Johnson and the Radical Republicans and his impeachment; the occupation and forced equality in the South and the Ku Klux terrorism that rose in response; the Civil Rights 13^th,14^th and 15^th Amendments, and the restoration of second class citizenship to blacks in the south through sharecropping, Jim Crow laws and the Plessy vs. Ferguson segregation case.

2) The Plains Wars, its causes in a clash of cultures and the need for the United States to develop the West, including key events such as the Sioux Uprising, the Battle of Little Big Horn, the extermination of the buffalo, and the massacre at Wounded Knee. Students should form opinions on the government policies of boarding schools and forced settlements of Native Americans in reservations. Students should understand how ending the wars with the Plains Indians led to the development of the West.

3) Mining and irrigation in the West, especially the Silver Boom in Nevada, and how Western water laws for the greater majority lead to dams, irrigation and settlement.

4) The Trans-Continental Railroad, opening up trade with Asia and creating a national mass-market.

5) The end of the Open Range ranching, with the settlement of Homesteaders.

6) The development of steel manufacturing and its use in the construction of the new cities.

7) The development of the oil industry and the transformation of the economy to one dependent on oil fuel instead of coal.

8) The development of the corporation business model, replacing limited ownerships and leading to great businesses funded through investment, as well as monopolies and trusts threatening free trade.

9) The abundance of inventions and inventors that transformed America – Bell’s telephone, Edison’s light bulb, etc.

10) The development of Populism and the farmers’ movement to end misery in rural America.

11) The development of unionism and the labor movement to end child labor in the factories and mines, and achieve a living wage for workers.

12) Renewed immigration and the hardships and discrimination faced by Italians, Jews, Slavs, etc., and the Chinese who built the trans-continental railroad.

Important terms/concepts to review with your child:

Reconstruction	Jim Crow laws	Black codes
14^th Amendment	15^th Amendment	Ku Klux Klan
Segregation	Plessy vs. Ferguson	Sharecropping
13^th Amendment	Battle of Little Bighorn	Ghost Dance
Battle of Wounded Knee	Populism	Progressive Movement
Transcontinental railroad	Homestead Act	Horizontal integration
Vertical integration	Labor unions	Pullman Strike
Immigration	Child labor	Capitalism
Prohibition	Theodore Roosevelt	Sherman Antitrust Act

Having trouble remembering what these topics are? Visit these websites:

The Freedmen's Bureau Act, March 3, 1865
http://www.inform.umd.edu/ARHU/Depts/History/Freedman/fbact.htm

Baltimore & the Fifteenth Amendment, May 19, 1870
http://www.toad.net/~dave/project/

13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865)
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=40

14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868)
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=43

Inside an American Factory at the Turn of the Century
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/papr/west/westhome.html

Labor-Management Conflict in American History - The Homestead Strike
http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/carnegie/strike.html

Andrew Carnegie
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/sfeature/meet_scotland.html

Age of Industry
http://history.evansville.net/industry.html