The following standards have been taken from the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McRel) standards.

Students will understand:

• Social and economic factors during and toward the end of Reconstruction (e.g., how economic expansion and development in the North and South were influenced by Reconstruction, the impact of fraud, and violence on the end of Reconstruction).


• Different perspectives of Reconstruction (e.g., Reconstruction as an expression of social democratization and perfectionism, Reconstruction as a revolution).


• The visual arts in relation to history and cultures.


• The fact that social change, or the prospect of it, promotes conflict because social, economic, and political changes usually benefit some groups more than others.


• The fact that conflict between people or groups may arise from competition over ideas, resources, power, and/or status.


• The ways role, status, and social class may affect interactions of individuals and social groups.


• The ways various institutions (e.g., banks, schools, hospitals, the military) influence people, events, and elements of culture and how people interact with different institutions.