Preparation Manual

Section 3: Overview and Exam Framework
TX PACT: Social Studies: Grades 7–12 (732)

Exam Overview

Table outlining the test format, number of questions, time, and passing score.

Exam Name	TX PACT: Social Studies: Grades 7–12
Exam Code	732
Time	3 hours and 15 minutes total appointment time 15 minutes for CAT tutorial and compliance agreement 3 hours testing time
Number of Questions	125 selected-response questions
Format	Computer-administered test (CAT)

The TX PACT: Social Studies: Grades 7–12 (732) exam is designed to assess whether a test taker has demonstrated the requisite knowledge and skills for admission to an educator preparation program. The 125 selected-response questions are based on the Social Studies: Grades 7–12 exam framework. Questions on this exam range from grades 7–12. Your final scaled score will be based only on scored questions.

Domains and Competencies

Table outlining test content and subject weighting by sub area and objective.

Domain	Domain Title	Approx. Percentage of Exam
I	Historiography and World History	25%
II	U.S. History	25%
III	Geography and Culture	19%
IV	Government	19%
V	Economics	12%

The content covered by this exam is organized into broad areas of content called domains. Each domain covers one or more of the standards for this field. Within each domain, the content is further defined by a set of competencies. Each competency is composed of two major parts:

• The competency statement, which broadly defines what an individual should know and be able to do in order to perform effectively in a Texas-approved educator preparation program.
• The descriptive statements, which describe in greater detail the knowledge and skills eligible for testing.

Domain I—Historiography and World History

Competency 001—Understand historical concepts, terms, sources, perspectives, and research skills.

For example:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of basic historical terms and concepts, such as nation-state, theocracy, dynastic cycle, collectivization, globalization, modernization, chronology, and periodization.
2. Apply knowledge of basic reference sources used in historical research, including almanacs, information technology, bibliographies, periodical guides, encyclopedias, and biographical dictionaries.
3. Distinguish between primary and secondary sources of historical information, and evaluate their credibility and reliability.
4. Evaluate the uses and limitations of various historical source materials, including oral histories, newspapers, diaries, artifacts, probate data, tax lists, personal correspondence, census data, videos, and materials accessed through information technologies.
5. Analyze important historical interpretations, such as Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis, Charles Beard's interpretation of the creation of the U.S. Constitution, and Karl Marx's interpretation of European industrialization.
6. Analyze cause-and-effect relationships between historical events and developments.
7. Recognize central theses, main ideas, and supporting evidence in various sources of historical information.
8. Distinguish between fact and opinion in historical narratives and interpretations.
9. Draw inferences and conclusions from historical texts and interpretations.
10. Analyze the purpose and perspective of diverse sources of historical information, including potential bias and the assumptions on which historical arguments are based.
11. Interpret historical issues represented in graphic formats, including charts, diagrams, maps, political cartoons, and graphs.

Competency 002—Understand major developments in world history from the beginnings of human society to 1350 CE.

For example:

1. Examine the Neolithic Revolution and the birth of human civilization, including the growth of agriculture, the domestication of animals, social differentiation, economic specialization, political organization, and the emergence of towns.
2. Demonstrate knowledge of major geographic, social, political, economic, and cultural features of early civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Near East.
3. Examine the major political, social, economic, and cultural developments of ancient Greece and Rome, and their contributions to Western civilization.
4. Examine major political, social, economic, and cultural developments in India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, including the Mauryan and Gupta empires, Han government and expansion, the influence of Confucianism and Taoism in China, Japanese feudalism and the rise of the samurai, the Indianization of Southeast Asia, and the effect of the Mongol invasions.
5. Demonstrate knowledge of the principal beliefs, sacred texts, and historical development of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
6. Examine major geographic, social, political, economic, and cultural characteristics of civilizations in Africa and the Americas during the period, including the Bantu migrations, the spread of Islam south of the Sahara, the rise and decline of major African empires, the emergence of Swahili culture and commerce, Mayan science and religion, Aztec religion and society, and Inca government and expansion.
7. Examine major geographic, social, political, economic, and cultural characteristics of the Islamic and Byzantine civilizations, the expansion of Islamic civilization, divisions within the Muslim caliphate, the growth of Muslim commerce, the work of Islamic and Byzantine scholars, Justinian's conquests and legal reforms, and the influence and decline of Byzantine civilization.
8. Analyze major social, political, and economic developments in Europe following the decline of the Roman Empire, including the emergence of feudalism, the role of the Catholic Church in medieval civilization, the creation of the Holy Roman Empire, the rise of Russian civilization, the Crusades, and the Black Death.
9. Recognize chronological relationships between major global events and developments of the period.
10. Analyze major social, economic, and cultural developments and trends in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas from 4000 BCE to 1350 CE.

Competency 003—Understand major developments in world history from 1350 to 1871.

For example:

1. Examine the origins, major developments, significant individuals, and lasting consequences of the European Renaissance.
2. Analyze the causes and consequences of the Protestant Reformation, including the role of leading reformers, the response of the Catholic Church, and the religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
3. Analyze European expansion between 1450 and 1650, including the factors that encouraged European exploration and conquest and the impact of European colonization on Europeans and the indigenous societies they encountered.
4. Analyze the central ideas of major thinkers of the Scientific Revolution and the European Enlightenment and the influence of those ideas on events and developments in Europe and the Americas.
5. Analyze causes, similarities, differences, and consequences of the English, American, and French revolutions, and the wars for independence in Latin America.
6. Evaluate economic, social, and political factors related to the emergence and spread of industrialization in Europe, including the role of Great Britain in the industrializing process; the growth of urban centers; the transformation of family and social relations; and major technological innovations, economic theories, political responses, and social reforms of the industrial era.
7. Examine major political developments during the period, including the rise of the Ottoman Empire; dynastic change in China; the consolidation of nation-states; the growth of absolutism, liberalism, and nationalism in Europe; the Meiji Restoration; and German and Italian unification.
8. Demonstrate knowledge of major literary, artistic, intellectual, and scientific developments in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas from 1350 to 1871.
9. Recognize chronological relationships between major global events and developments from 1350 to 1871.
10. Analyze major social, economic, and cultural developments and trends in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas from 1350 to 1871.

Competency 004—Understand major developments in world history from 1871 to the present.

For example:

1. Analyze major causes, events, developments, and consequences of European imperialism, including motives and justifications for the pursuit of colonial empires; rivalries and conflicts between colonial powers; and interactions between imperialist powers and the peoples of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
2. Demonstrate knowledge of the causes, major events, and consequences of World War I1, including nationalist tensions in the Balkans, the strategy of the main combatants, major battles of the war, the Russian Revolution, and the Treaty of Versailles.
3. Analyze the causes, major events, and consequences of World War II2, including the rise of totalitarian and authoritarian governments in Europe and Asia, Nazi and Japanese aggression, the Munich Conference, the Nazi-Soviet pact, major battles of the war, the Holocaust, the use of the atomic bomb, and the formation of the United Nations.
4. Analyze the causes, major events, and consequences of the Cold War, including U.S.-Soviet differences concerning Eastern Europe, ideological confrontation, the Berlin Blockade, the creation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, the nuclear arms race, détente, resistance to Soviet domination and communist rule, and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
5. Examine major political, social, and economic developments in East Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East since 1945, including decolonization in postwar Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; the Chinese Cultural Revolution; revolutions in Cuba and Nicaragua; the overthrow of apartheid in South Africa; and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
6. Analyze political, economic, social, and demographic changes in Europe since World War II2, including postwar reconstruction; socialism and the social welfare state; the Common Market; changing patterns of work, leisure, and gender relations; immigration; and the emergence of the European Union.
7. Demonstrate knowledge of major literary, artistic, intellectual, and scientific developments in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas from 1871 to the present.
8. Analyze major global challenges of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, including environmental degradation, terrorism, human rights abuses, limited natural resource supplies, and economic imbalances and social inequalities among the world's peoples.
9. Recognize chronological relationships between major global events and developments from 1871 to the present.
10. Analyze major social, economic, and cultural developments and trends in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas from 1871 to the present.

 

Domain II—U.S. History

Competency 005—Understand major developments in early U.S. history from the precontact period to 1789.

For example:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of important social, economic, and political features of major Native American cultures of the precontact period.
2. Examine major events and developments related to the European exploration of North America, including the objectives of various explorers, the consequences of key expeditions and settlements, and competition and conflict between European nations.
3. Analyze coexistence and conflict between Europeans and Native Americans, including the different cultural perspectives of the two groups.
4. Compare similarities and differences between the New England, mid-Atlantic, and southern colonies, including reasons for migration to North America, ethnic diversity, and patterns of social and economic development.
5. Analyze major economic, social, political, and cultural developments in the colonies, including the influence of the triangular trade on colonial economic development, the growth of slavery, the role of colonial assemblies and the emergence of representative government, the Great Awakening and the evolution of religious freedom, and economic and political relations with Great Britain.
6. Examine major causes, events, developments, and consequences of the Revolutionary War, including the influence of Enlightenment thought on Americans, changes in British imperial policy following the French and Indian War, arguments over the rights of English people, the Stamp Act crisis and the Townshend Acts, efforts to achieve colonial unity, the roles and perspectives of various groups during the war, major battles of the conflict, economic issues arising out of the Revolution, and the effects of the Revolution on various social groups.
7. Analyze the evolution of national and state governments during and after the Revolution, including arguments over the Articles of Confederation, the creation of state constitutions, differences between Federalists and Anti-Federalists, major debates and compromises at the Constitutional Convention, and the struggle for ratification of the Constitution.
8. Demonstrate knowledge of major figures of the period, such as John Smith, Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, William Penn, James Oglethorpe, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Chief Pontiac, Daniel Boone, Benjamin Banneker, Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine, James Madison, and Abigail Adams.
9. Recognize chronological relationships between major events and developments of the period.
10. Analyze major social, economic, political, and cultural trends in the colonies and the new nation from the beginnings of settlement to 1789.

Competency 006—Understand major developments in U.S. history from 1789 to 1877.

For example:

1. Examine major political and constitutional developments of the period, including the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, Jeffersonian Republicanism, John Marshall and the Supreme Court, the decline of the Federalist Party, the emergence of Jacksonian democracy, debates over the tariff and the national bank, the Nullification Crisis, and differences between the Democratic and Whig parties.
2. Analyze events and developments related to westward expansion, including major territorial acquisitions, government-sponsored exploration of the West, factors encouraging migration, economic motives and ideological and religious justifications, the challenges faced by settlers, and the impact of westward settlement and growth on Native American peoples.
3. Analyze the causes and consequences of economic growth during the period, including improvements in transportation, technological innovations, the spread of factory production, immigration and urbanization, the panics of 1819 and 1837, and the effects of industrialization on different regions and social groups.
4. Examine major events and developments in U.S. foreign relations, including the War of 1812, the Monroe Doctrine, and the Mexican War.
5. Examine the origins and objectives of major antebellum reform movements and the activities and achievements of key reformers, such as William Lloyd Garrison, the Grimké sisters, Frederick Douglass, Frances Wright, Robert Owen, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Horace Mann, and Dorothea Dix.
6. Analyze the impact of slavery in the United States, including the role of slavery in southern society, forces promoting the expansion of slavery, the emergence of a distinctive African American culture, slave resistance, the development of pro-slavery arguments, and the influence of slavery on national politics.
7. Examine major political developments of the 1850s that contributed to the sectional polarization that resulted in the Civil War, including the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the disruption of the second American party system, the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry, and the presidential election of 1860.
8. Analyze major events and developments of the Civil War, including the strategies adopted by Union and Confederate military leaders, major battles and diplomatic initiatives, wartime draft riots, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the election of 1864.
9. Analyze key events and developments of the Reconstruction period, including alternative programs for Reconstruction; conflict between President Johnson and Congress; the ratification of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments; the programs of Radical state governments in the South; Southern White resistance to Reconstruction; the role of the U.S. Supreme Court; and the Compromise of 1877.
10. Demonstrate knowledge of major literary, artistic, intellectual, scientific, and technological developments from 1789 to 1877.
11. Recognize chronological relationships between major events and developments in U.S. history during this period.

Competency 007—Understand major developments in U.S. history from 1877 to 1929.

For example:

1. Examine the settlement of the trans-Mississippi West, including the mining, ranching, and farming frontiers; the impact of technological developments (e.g., the telegraph, the railroad, barbed wire); and the effects of expanding settlement on Native American peoples.
2. Analyze the growth of the industrial economy, including the rise and consolidation of industrial and financial empires, the results of technological and managerial innovations, and the conflict between industrial capitalism and organized labor.
3. Examine changing patterns of immigration to the United States during the period and the impact of immigration and urbanization on U.S. society.
4. Analyze the rise of the New South; the disfranchisement and segregation of African Americans; and the efforts of African Americans such as Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Ida B. Wells to overcome the social, economic, and political obstacles that confronted them.
5. Examine the emergence of the United States as a world power, including the Spanish-American War, U.S. intervention in Asia and Latin America, and key issues in the debate over U.S. expansionism.
6. Examine the origins, goals, strategies, and influence of the Progressive movement, including opposition to political and corporate abuses of power, the Progressive emphasis on science and efficiency, and major governmental and legislative reforms.
7. Analyze the causes and consequences of U.S. participation in World War I1, including reasons for U.S. entry into the conflict, the impact of U.S. intervention on the war's outcome, and the effect of the war on U.S. society.
8. Examine major events and developments of the 1920s, including the growth of a consumer economy; the Red Scare; Prohibition; the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan; immigration restriction legislation; passage of the Nineteenth Amendment; nonconformity and dissent; the Harlem Renaissance; the presidential administrations of Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover; and the causes of the Great Depression.
9. Demonstrate knowledge of major literary, artistic, intellectual, scientific, and technological developments from 1877 to 1929.
10. Recognize chronological relationships between major events and developments in U.S. history during this period.

Competency 008—Understand major developments in U.S. history from 1929 to the present.

For example:

1. Analyze the causes of the Great Depression, the responses of the Hoover administration and Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal to economic collapse and social dislocation, the ascendancy of the Democratic Party, and the effects of the Depression on the American people.
2. Examine major events and developments related to U.S. participation in World War II2, including prewar isolationism and neutrality, war mobilization, the internment of Japanese Americans, U.S. military and diplomatic strategy, major battles involving U.S. forces, the impact of the war on the U.S. economy and society, and the decision to drop the atomic bomb.
3. Analyze major developments in U.S. foreign policy since World War II2, including the doctrine of containment and the domino theory, atomic diplomacy, the Korean and Vietnam wars, U.S. intervention in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, the Cuban missile crisis, the policy of détente, the Camp David Accords, the Iran hostage crisis, the Persian Gulf War, the struggle against international terrorism, and the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
4. Analyze major political events and developments in the United States since 1945, including Harry S. Truman's Fair Deal, Dwight D. Eisenhower's Modern Republicanism, John F. Kennedy's New Frontier, Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society, Watergate, the decline of liberalism and the rise of the conservative movement, the Iran-Contra scandal, the Clinton impeachment, significant Supreme Court decisions, and important electoral contests of the period.
5. Demonstrate knowledge of major economic developments in the United States since 1945, including the postwar economic boom, the construction of the Interstate Highway System, the rise of the Sunbelt, deindustrialization and the shift toward a service economy, the decline of organized labor, Reaganomics, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and economic globalization.
6. Analyze major social developments in the United States since 1945, including suburbanization, the baby boom, the expansion of higher education, the emergence of a youth culture, demographic and population shifts, and changing patterns of immigration.
7. Examine the aims, activities, strategies, prominent figures, and achievements of the struggle for African American equality, including Brown v. Board of Education, the Montgomery bus boycott, civil disobedience, the sit-in movement, the Birmingham and Selma campaigns, the enactments of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Black Power movement.
8. Demonstrate knowledge of major social and political movements of the postwar period, including the women's rights movement, the American Indian Movement, the Hispanic rights movement, the Asian American movement, the New Left, the counterculture, the Free Speech movement, the gay liberation movement, and the environmental movement.
9. Demonstrate knowledge of major developments in literature, the arts, popular culture, science, and technology in the United States from 1929 to the present.
10. Recognize chronological relationships between major events and developments in U.S. history during this period.

 

Domain III—Geography and Culture

Competency 009—Understand geographic terms, concepts, sources, and research skills.

For example:

1. Apply the five fundamental geographic themes of location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, and region.
2. Demonstrate knowledge of the six essential elements of geography, including the world in spatial terms, places and regions, physical systems, human systems, environment and society, and the uses of geography.
3. Apply basic geographic terms and concepts such as habitat, ecology, interdependence, assimilation, demographic cycle, complementarity, cultural convergence, and cultural diffusion.
4. Recognize basic characteristics of maps and globes, including keys and legends; scale; latitude and longitude; and the advantages and disadvantages of maps, globes, and standard map projections.
5. Demonstrate knowledge of the characteristics and uses of various geographic reference sources, tools, and technologies, including atlases, almanacs, gazetteers, encyclopedias, satellite images, geographic information systems, global positioning systems, and computer databases.
6. Interpret geographic information presented in various visual formats, including maps, charts, tables, population pyramids, and images.
7. Apply skills and procedures used in geographic research, including formulating appropriate research questions, collecting and presenting information, identifying main ideas, analyzing cause-and-effect relationships, distinguishing between fact and opinion, determining the adequacy and relevance of information, and drawing conclusions.

Competency 010—Understand physical features, physical systems, and the interaction between the environment and human societies.

For example:

1. Locate major landmasses, significant landforms, and important bodies of water in various parts of the world on maps of different types and scales.
2. Recognize various types of physical features such as gulfs, deltas, capes, isthmuses, peninsulas, and archipelagoes.
3. Demonstrate knowledge of national boundaries and the geopolitical factors that influence them.
4. Recognize the principal elements of climate, global and regional climatic patterns, and the processes that influence weather.
5. Demonstrate knowledge of the ways in which internal and external processes (e.g., tectonic movement, volcanism, glaciation, erosion, deposition) shape the physical features of the earth.
6. Recognize the location, distribution, and uses of natural resources in the United States and the world and the influence of natural resources and ecosystems on human populations.
7. Analyze the effects of physical factors such as climate, topography, ecology, and location on population distribution, livelihood, industry, agriculture, and transportation.
8. Analyze ways in which human societies modify the physical environment and adapt to environmental change, including agricultural activities, industrialization, urbanization, armed conflicts, conservation initiatives, and programs for resource use and management.
9. Examine the causes and effects of current environmental problems, including global warming, tropical deforestation, decline of fish stocks, desertification, acid rain, waste disposal, and reduced quality and availability of water; and the role of technological innovation and development in the creation and solution of environmental problems.
10. Demonstrate knowledge of how geographic factors have influenced historical events and developments.

Competency 011—Understand human systems.

For example:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the characteristics of major cultural groups associated with particular world regions, including language, clothing, habitation, ethnic homogeneity or diversity, government, food, patterns of livelihood, art and literature, and how places serve as cultural symbols.
2. Examine the establishment of human settlements and how their organization and functions have changed over time.
3. Examine world population patterns and trends, including world and regional population distribution; the demographic structure of particular places and regions; and the economic, environmental, and cultural reasons for demographic change.
4. Analyze the causes and effects of historical and contemporary migrations of human populations, including push and pull factors and the diffusion of ideas, beliefs, and cultural traits from one culture to another.
5. Examine categories, patterns, and networks of economic activity in human societies.
6. Demonstrate knowledge of the roles and functions of social institutions such as the family, education, religion, and government, including cultural transmission, social integration, personal development, social control, and the promotion of innovation.
7. Analyze how the forces of cooperation and conflict, including political and cultural divisions within and between places, regions, and major international organizations, influence the division and control of the earth and its resources.

 

Domain IV—Government

Competency 012—Understand political science concepts, terms, perspectives, and research skills.

For example:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of basic political science terms and concepts such as federalism, judicial review, loose and strict construction, executive privilege, patronage, injunction, balance of power, sovereignty, gerrymandering, eminent domain, enumerated and implied powers, political culture, political socialization, interest group theory, and social contract theory.
2. Analyze principles and ideas contained in the writings of important political theorists and figures, such as Aristotle, Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, V. I. Lenin, Mohandas Gandhi, George Orwell, and Nelson Mandela.
3. Examine major events and developments related to the emergence and spread of democratic and representative government from ancient Greece to the present.
4. Recognize major characteristics of different systems of government, including monarchy, autocracy, oligarchy, theocracy, representative democracy, direct democracy, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, fascism, and limited and unlimited government.
5. Analyze similarities and differences between the political systems of the United States and other contemporary and historical nations.
6. Demonstrate knowledge of the characteristics and uses of various political science reference sources and research tools, including encyclopedias, almanacs, census data, surveys, interviews, and computer databases.
7. Interpret historical and contemporary political science issues represented in various visual formats, including maps, charts, diagrams, tables, political cartoons, and graphs.
8. Apply skills and procedures used in political science research, including formulating appropriate research questions; collecting and presenting information; identifying main ideas; analyzing cause-and-effect relationships; distinguishing between fact and opinion; recognizing bias; determining the adequacy, relevance, and reliability of information; and drawing conclusions.

Competency 013—Understand the foundations of U.S. government, the U.S. political process, and the rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship.

For example:

1. Analyze major principles and ideas contained in key political documents contributing to the development of government in the United States, such as Magna Carta, the Petition of Rights, the English Bill of Rights, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Federalist Papers, Washington's Farewell Address, the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, and the Seneca Falls Declaration of 1848.
2. Demonstrate knowledge of the fundamental principles, key articles, and significant amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
3. Examine the significance of landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions, such as Marbury v. Madison, McCulloch v. Maryland, Plessy v. Ferguson, Schenck v. United States, Brown v. Board of Education, Gideon v. Wainwright, Miranda v. Arizona, United States v. Nixon, Roe v. Wade, and University of California v. Bakke.
4. Analyze major features of the U.S. electoral system, including reapportionment and redistricting, primary elections, the Electoral College, the role and development of political parties, and factors influencing voter turnout and the outcome of political contests.
5. Examine the ways in which citizens participate in the political process and the skills needed for effective participation in public affairs.
6. Demonstrate knowledge of the rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship, including First Amendment rights, due process rights, equal protection under the laws, voting, paying taxes, and serving on juries.
7. Analyze developments and events in U.S. history that have increased or diminished individual rights and popular participation in the political process.

Competency 014—Understand the structure, organization, and operation of different levels of government in the United States.

For example:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the structure, functions, and powers of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the federal government, including the bicameral structure of Congress, the roles and constitutional powers of the president, the role of the cabinet, and the structure of the federal judicial system.
2. Analyze the separation of powers and operation of the system of checks and balances in the federal government.
3. Examine law-making processes in the United States, including the role of lobbyists and special interest groups in the legislative process and the operation of the initiative, referendum, and recall processes at the state level.
4. Recognize the organization and responsibilities of independent regulatory agencies, government corporations, and executive agencies in the federal government.
5. Demonstrate knowledge of the operation of the U.S. legal system, including the functions of law in U.S. society, major sources of U.S. law (e.g., constitutional, statutory, case, administrative), and steps in the criminal justice process.
6. Examine the process by which U.S. foreign policy is made, including the constitutional powers of the president and Congress, foreign policy tools available to the president, and factors influencing the formulation of U.S. foreign policy.
7. Demonstrate knowledge of the structure, functions, powers, and organization of state and local governments in the United States.
8. Analyze relations between federal, state, and local governments in the United States.

 

Domain V—Economics

Competency 015—Understand basic economic concepts, microeconomics, and consumer economics and personal finance.

For example:

1. Recognize basic economic concepts, including scarcity, opportunity cost, economic incentives, competition, specialization, marginal utility, elasticity, economies of scale, and the law of diminishing returns.
2. Compare basic characteristics of market, traditional, command, and mixed economic systems.
3. Demonstrate knowledge of the factors of production (i.e., land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship) and how they are combined to produce goods and services.
4. Analyze how the laws of supply and demand, prices, and various competitive models (e.g., oligopoly, monopolistic competition) function in a market economy.
5. Interpret economic information presented in various visual formats, including supply and demand charts, price indexes, circular flowcharts, and production possibility curves.
6. Analyze factors affecting the operation of business firms, including basic forms of business organization; decision-making and information-gathering methods; strategies for allocating scarce resources; and production, marketing, and distribution considerations.
7. Recognize basic principles of consumer economics, including purchasing options for goods and services, sources of consumer information, types of consumer marketing and advertising, and consumer protection laws.
8. Demonstrate knowledge of basic principles of personal finance, including principles of budgeting, different forms of credit, and savings and investment options.

Competency 016—Understand macroeconomics and international economics.

For example:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the roles of and relationships between major economic institutions and groups in the U.S. economic system, including banks, financial markets, labor unions, corporations, and consumers.
2. Analyze the causes and effects of unemployment, inflation, and deflation, including different types of unemployment and inflation, the effects of inflation and deflation on different groups, and ways in which unemployment and inflation are calculated.
3. Demonstrate knowledge of the stages of the business cycle (i.e., expansion, peak, contraction, and trough) and factors influencing movement among the four stages.
4. Examine factors influencing fiscal policy, including major areas of government revenues and expenditures, the effects of surpluses and deficits on the economy, demand-side vs. supply-side theories, and the likely response of fiscal policymakers to given economic developments.
5. Analyze factors influencing monetary policy, including the structure and functions of the Federal Reserve System, basic tools of monetary policy, monetarist theory, and the likely response of the Federal Reserve to given economic developments.
6. Demonstrate knowledge of forms of government regulation and their effects on consumers and producers.
7. Examine the basic principles and components of international economics, including the concepts of absolute and comparative advantage, the principles of free trade and protectionism, economic development strategies, and major patterns of economic exchange.
8. Analyze factors influencing the operation of the international economic system, including exchange rates, trade restrictions, the balance of payments, and the policies of international economic agencies such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Trade Organization.

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