Idaho Social Studies 9-12.US2.38
The Standard
Analyze the rise of the New Right and the Reagan Revolution including the social, cultural, and economic policies it advocated for.
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 explain how inflation, distrust of government, and disputes over abortion and school prayer helped the New Right gain support. They analyze how Reagan's tax cuts, deregulation, and defense buildup fit its goals.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student links a campaign promise about taxes or school prayer to the group that backed it. They separate proposals from laws and explain why defense spending grew alongside calls for smaller government.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may see the New Right as only a tax-cut movement, missing religious conservatives and anticommunists. Some assume Reagan cut all federal spending, despite higher defense budgets. Others mistake his push for a school prayer amendment for a law that passed.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Why did tax-cut supporters and religious conservatives both support Reagan? Name one goal for each group, then explain how defense spending complicates his smaller-government message.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a 1980 Republican platform excerpt and a 1981 tax-cut summary; have them mark promises and actions in two colors.
Ask, 'How could someone want less federal regulation but more defense spending?' Require one example from Reagan's policies.
Use matching cards: pair tax cuts, school prayer, and defense buildup with economic, social, or foreign policy goals; explain each match.
Have students find a current campaign claim about taxes, then compare its stated goal with a Reagan 1980 tax-cut pledge.
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