Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning

The Compendium of Academic Standards was developed by McREL in the late 1990’s and maintained through the early 2010’s. Funding for the project has since ended, and the site is no longer actively updated. For information on McREL’s current services for developing and analyzing standards, curriculum, instruction, and professional learning, please visit www.mcrel.org.

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List of Benchmarks for United States History

Standard 14.Understands the course and character of the Civil War and its effects on the American people
  Level II (Grade 5-6)
   1. Understands the technological, social, and strategic aspects of the Civil War (e.g., the impact of innovations in military technology; turning points of the war; leaders of the Confederacy and Union; conditions, characteristics, and armies of the Confederacy and Union; major areas of Civil War combat)
   2. Understands the provisions and significance of the Emancipation Proclamation (e.g., reasons Abraham Lincoln issued it, public reactions to it in the North and the South)
   3. Understands the impact of the Civil War on social and gender issues (e.g., the roles of women on the home front and on the battlefield; the human and material costs of the war; the degree to which the war united the nation; how it changed the lives of women, men, and children)
  Level III (Grade 7-8)
   1. Understands the circumstances that shaped the Civil War and its outcome (e.g., differences between the economic, technological, and human resources of both sides; the impact of the Emancipation Proclamation on the outcome of the war)
   2. Understands how different groups of people shaped the Civil War (e.g., the motives and experiences of Confederate and white and African American Union soldiers, different perspectives on conscription, the effects of divided loyalties)
  Level IV (Grade 9-12)
   1. Understands military events that influenced the outcome of the Civil War (e.g., the "hammering campaigns" of Generals Grant and Sherman, the wartime leadership of Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln)
   2. Understands the influence of Abraham Lincoln's ideas on the Civil War (e.g., the Gettysburg Address, how the Emancipation Proclamation transformed the goals of the Civil War)
   3. Understands the impact of the Civil War on Native Americans (e.g., the positions of major Indian nations during the Civil War and the effect of the war on these nations, the internal conflicts among the "Five Civilized Tribes" regarding their support for the Union or Confederacy, the long-term consequences for Native Americans)
   4. Understands how the Civil War influenced Northern and Southern society on the home front (e.g., the New York City draft riots of July 1863, the Union's reasons for curbing civil liberties in wartime, Lincoln's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus during the war)
   5. Understands how the Civil War influenced both military personnel and civilians (e.g., the treatment of African American soldiers in the Union Army and Confederacy, how the war changed gender roles and traditional attitudes toward women in the work force)