Virginia SOL CE.13.b
The Standard
explaining how and why government provides certain public goods and services
Virginia Standards of Learning for History and Social Science · The student will apply history and social science skills to analyze the role of government in the United States economy by
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify goods and services that government provides, such as roads, schools, parks, and national defense. They explain why taxes fund services that benefit many people and may not be provided adequately by individuals or businesses.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students can classify examples as public or private and support each choice with a clear reason. They can explain who benefits, how the service is funded, and why government provides it.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think every government service is free or that only users pay for it. They may also assume businesses cannot provide similar services or that all shared resources are public goods.
How to Assess It
- Give students this exit prompt: “Why does government provide fire protection, and how is it funded?” Require a two-sentence answer using “taxes” and “shared benefit.”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups service cards and 20 tax tokens, then have them build a town budget and defend their spending choices.
Ask students to write: “Which government service would be hardest for families to provide alone, and why?”
Run a card sort where teams classify schools, groceries, highways, streaming services, parks, and clothing as publicly or privately provided.
Use a local government website to find one nearby public service, its funding source, and the people who benefit from it.
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Printable CE.13.b Worksheet
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Related Standards
- 3.9.a
explaining the purpose of governments and understanding that other countries have governments similar to and different from that of the United States;
- CE.13.c
describing how local, state, and federal governments allocate their budgets and collect taxes to pay for goods and services;
- 3.8.c
identifying and explaining the government
- 3.9.d
explaining what governments do at the national, state, and local levels; and
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