Idaho Social Studies 9-12.US2.36
The Standard
Evaluate the causes and impacts on public confidence and trust in the government’s ability to solve economic and social problems, such as: • Deindustrialization • Urban decline • Migration • Stagflation • Deficit spending • Energy crisis • Racial tensions
Idaho Content Standards: K-12 Social Studies · Economic, Political, and Social Reorganization 1974-1992
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students trace how factory closures, rising prices, fuel shortages, and urban decline shaped views of government from the mid-1970s through the early 1990s. They use economic data and public opinion polls to explain why trust changed.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain how a factory closing might reduce city tax revenue and leave residents doubting government promises. They can use a trust poll to support that claim while naming another possible cause of the change.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think stagflation means inflation alone, rather than inflation alongside weak job growth. They may treat migration as the sole cause of urban decline or assume falling trust proves every government policy failed.
How to Assess It
- Ask students to write three sentences explaining how the 1979 energy crisis and rising prices might have affected trust in federal leaders. Have them name one piece of evidence they would check.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs printed charts of manufacturing jobs, inflation, and public trust from 1974 to 1992; have them circle changes and write one cautious claim.
Ask: Why might a Detroit auto worker and a suburban driver in 1979 judge federal leaders differently? Require one reason for each.
Play a three-card match using factory closures, oil shortages, and rising deficits, with possible policy responses and effects on trust.
Show a current gas price photo beside a 1979 gas line photo; have students write what each might lead voters to expect from government.
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