Virginia SOL S.USII.g
The Standard
using an economic decision-making model to analyze the costs and benefits and explain the incentives and consequences of a specific choice made in U.S. history
Virginia Standards of Learning for History and Social Science
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students examine a specific choice made by a person, group, or government in U.S. history. They identify the available options, weigh costs and benefits, and explain the incentives and consequences. They use historical evidence to judge the choice.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students distinguish an incentive from a result and recognize costs beyond money. They compare options using accurate evidence. They explain both intended and unintended consequences without relying only on hindsight.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may treat costs as only financial or assume every benefit helped everyone. They often confuse reasons for making a choice with what happened afterward. They may judge decisions using information people did not have at the time.
How to Assess It
- Give students a short source card about the Louisiana Purchase. Ask them to name one incentive, one cost, one benefit, and one consequence, then defend the decision.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Pairs place Louisiana Purchase evidence cards on a mat labeled options, incentives, costs, benefits, and consequences, then explain their placement.
Ask students to write: Should President Jefferson have approved the Louisiana Purchase, based only on information available in 1803?
Run a card sort where teams classify historical examples as incentives, costs, benefits, intended consequences, or unintended consequences.
Students apply the same decision chart to choosing between repairing or replacing a broken school laptop, then compare it with a historical choice.
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Related Standards
- S.WG.g
using economic decision-making models to analyze and explain the incentives for and consequences of a specific choice;
- S.VS.g
using economic decision-making models to make informed economic decisions and to explain the incentives and consequences of a specific choice
- S.CE.g
analyzing the costs and benefits and incentives and consequences of a specific choice using various economic decision-making models;
- S.USI.g
using economic decision-making models to make a decision and explain the incentives and consequences of a specific choice
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