Alabama Social Studies SS24.US2.17b
The Standard
- SS24.US2.17
- Analyze the conservative revolution in American politics and how this shaped Ronald Reagan’s domestic and foreign policies.
Analyze how Reaganomics and deregulation affected the American economy and society.
2024 Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain how tax cuts and looser business rules changed the economy during the 1980s. They weigh effects on jobs, prices, federal debt, workers, and consumers.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can distinguish tax cuts from deregulation and use unemployment and deficit figures to explain mixed results. They also recognize that Federal Reserve actions helped bring down inflation.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may credit tax cuts alone for falling inflation, leaving out the Federal Reserve's interest rate increases. They may think airline deregulation began under Reagan or helped every consumer equally.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Unemployment fell between 1980 and 1988, while the federal deficit rose. Name one possible benefit and one cost of Reagan-era policies, then explain why these figures alone cannot prove what caused either change.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs cards with 1980 and 1988 unemployment and deficit figures; have them sort the changes into gains, costs, and uncertain causes.
Ask students to write: Who gained from lower airline fares, and who might have lost when carriers cut routes or wages?
Play policy match: students pair tax cuts, airline deregulation, and savings and loan deregulation cards with outcome cards, then defend one match.
Compare baggage fees on two current airline booking pages; ask how pricing freedom can make a cheap fare cost more at checkout.
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Related Standards
- SS24.5.8
Analyze how the government-funded New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt impacted American society.
- SS24.US2.20
Evaluate how federal policies and legislation have shaped American society since 1988.
- SS24.US2.17
Analyze the conservative revolution in American politics and how this shaped Ronald Reagan’s domestic and foreign policies.
- SS24.E.7b
Assess how government regulation and deregulation affect consumers and producers.
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