Indiana Social Studies IS.1.30
The Standard
Explain the significance of social, economic, and political issues during the period 1980 to the present and the ways in which these issues affected individuals and organizations.
2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies · Contemporary Indiana: 1980 to 2000
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain how social debates, economic changes, and government decisions have shaped life in Indiana since 1980. They identify people and organizations affected and use evidence to explain why an issue mattered.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given an Indiana news article, a student can identify the issue and trace its effects. They can explain how it affected a person and an organization in different ways.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may assume every Indiana community experienced an economic change in the same way. They may treat a law's passage as proof of its effects or assume workers and employers responded alike.
How to Assess It
- Give students a short Indiana news excerpt about a factory closing. Ask them to explain why it mattered and cite one detail showing an effect on a worker and one on a business.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Place 1980s factory closures, the 2012 right-to-work law, and the 2015 religious freedom law on a string timeline; add affected-group sticky notes.
Ask: How could the 2015 religious freedom law affect a shop owner and a civil rights group differently? Write two evidence-backed sentences.
Play an evidence match: pair three Indiana news excerpts with claims about affected workers, unions, or businesses, then explain each pairing.
Find a recent local school funding story; mark who made the decision and how it affected one family and one organization.
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Printable IS.1.30 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- USH.7.6
Explain the origins and the impacts of the American Conservative Revolution in the 1980s on the economic, political, cultural, and social lives of Americans.
- USH.6.5
Explain the efforts of minority groups and women to assert their social, economic, and civic rights during this period.
- USH.7.8
Evaluate and compare various social and political movements from 1980 to the present.
- USH.7.1
Explain the significance of social, economic, and political issues during the period 1980 to the present and how these issues affected individuals and organizat...
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