Indiana Social Studies USH.7.3
The Standard
Evaluate the presidential administrations from Reagan to the present, including domestic and foreign policy, programs, and legal rulings.
2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies · Students are expected to trace and analyze chronological periods and examine the significant themes and concepts in U.S. History. Students develop historical thinking and research skills using primary and secondary sources to explore topical issues to understand the cause for changes in the nation over time.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students put administrations from Reagan onward in order. They compare domestic policies, foreign decisions, and federal programs using dated evidence. They explain how court rulings shaped the results.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can compare two administrations on an issue using specific dates and evidence. They can explain a policy's goal, its effects, and a court ruling that upheld or limited it.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may credit presidents with Supreme Court rulings, even though judges decide cases. They may treat a proposal as a law or assume a policy worked exactly as promised. Some mix up the order of administrations.
How to Assess It
- Give students short excerpts about the 2010 health law and the 2012 Supreme Court ruling. Ask: What did the ruling uphold, and what did it limit?
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Place cards for Reagan's tax cuts, Bush's Iraq invasion, Obama's health law, the 2023 loan ruling, and Trump's tariffs on a taped floor timeline.
Prompt students to write how the 2012 ruling upheld Obama's health law but limited Medicaid expansion, citing both parts of the decision.
Play policy match: pair the 2003 Iraq invasion, 2017 tax law, 2021 infrastructure law, and 2023 loan ruling with the right decision-maker.
Compare a sample grocery receipt with a dated tariff news report; identify one price claim and what evidence would test it.
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Printable USH.7.3 Worksheet
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Related Standards
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Examine the actions and policies of U.S. presidents, representatives, and senators from Indiana.
- IS.2.6
Analyze the service of people from Indiana to national offices such as the presidency, vice-presidency, judiciary, and legislature including their ideas about t...
- USH.6.7
Evaluate the presidential administrations from Truman to Carter, including domestic and foreign policy, programs, and legal rulings.
- USH.7.8
Evaluate and compare various social and political movements from 1980 to the present.
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