The College, Career, And Civic Life (C3) Framework For Social Studies State Standards C3

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COLLEGE, CAREER & CIVIC LIFE

C3
FRAMEWORK
FOR SOCIAL STUDIES STATE STANDARDS
TITLE PAGE

Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History

The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards:
Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History is
the product of a collaboration among the following fifteen professional organizations
committed to the advancement of social studies education:
American Bar Association
American Historical Association
Association of American Geographers
Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools
Center for Civic Education
Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago
Constitutional Rights Foundation USA
Council for Economic Education
National Council for Geographic Education
National Council for History Education
National Council for the Social Studies
National Geographic Society
National History Day
Street Law, Inc.
World History Association

The publisher of the document is National Council for the Social Studies, Silver Spring, MD.
The text of the document, and/or excerpts from it, may be freely reproduced. There is no
need to apply to National Council for the Social Studies for permission to reproduce the
text or excerpts.
The following reference information should be used in the citation of this document:
National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3)
Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12
Civics, Economics, Geography, and History (Silver Spring, MD: NCSS, 2013).

Table of
CONTENTS
I NTRO DUC TI O N
The Process of Developing the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework
for Social Studies State Standards....................................................................................................................... 7
C3 Framework Leadership Team........................................................................................................................ 7
Writing Team......................................................................................................................................................... 8
Project Participants............................................................................................................................................... 9
C3 Framework Task Force of Professional Organizations................................................................................... 9
C3 Framework Teacher Collaborative Council.................................................................................................. 10

H OW TO R E A D THE C 3 FR A ME WO R K
Overall Document Organization........................................................................................................................ 12
Inquiry Arc........................................................................................................................................................... 12
Overview of English Language Arts/Literacy Common Core Connections..................................................... 12
Dimensions and Subsections............................................................................................................................. 12
Unique Structure of Dimension 2....................................................................................................................... 12
C3 Framework Indicators and K-12 Pathways.................................................................................................... 13
Appendices......................................................................................................................................................... 13
What Is Not Covered.......................................................................................................................................... 14

THE I N QU I RY A RC O F THE C 3 FR A ME WO R K
Narrative of the Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework............................................................................................ 16
Overview of the Connections with the English Language Arts/Literacy Common Core Standards............... 20
DIMENSION 1. Developing Questions and Planning Inquiries...................................................................23
English Language Arts/Literacy Common Core Connections............................................................... 26

DIMENSION 2. Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools........................................................................29
CIVICS..................................................................................................................................................... 31
Civic and Political Institutions
Participation and Deliberation: Applying Civic Virtues and Democratic Principles
Processes, Rules, and Laws

C3 Framework • 3

ECONOMICS.........................................................................................................................................35
Economic Decision Making
Exchange and Markets
The National Economy
The Global Economy
GEOGRAPHY........................................................................................................................................40
Geographic Representations: Spatial Views of the World
Human-Environment Interaction: Place, Regions, and Culture
Human Population: Spatial Patterns and Movements
Global Interconnections: Changing Spatial Patterns
HISTORY.................................................................................................................................................45
Change, Continuity, and Context
Perspectives
Historical Sources and Evidence
Causation and Argumentation
English Language Arts/Literacy Common Core Connections...............................................................50

DIMENSION 3. Evaluating Sources and Using Evidence.............................................................................53
Gathering and Evaluating Sources..........................................................................................................54
Developing Claims and Using Evidence.................................................................................................55
English Language Arts/Literacy Common Core Connections...............................................................56

DIMENSION 4. Communicating Conclusions and Taking Informed Action..............................................59
Communicating and Critiquing Conclusions..........................................................................................60
Taking Informed Action...........................................................................................................................62
English Language Arts/Literacy Common Core Connections...............................................................63

A PPE N D I CE S
Appendix A: C3 Framework Disciplinary Inquiry Matrix...................................................................................66
Appendix B: Psychology Companion Document for the C3 Framework......................................................... 69
Appendix C: Sociology Companion Document for the C3 Framework.......................................................... 73
Appendix D: Anthropology Companion Document for the C3 Framework....................................................77
Appendix E: Scholarly Rationale for the C3 Framework...................................................................................82
References....................................................................................................................................................... 92
Glossary of Key Terms in the C3 Framework................................................................................................96
Biographical Sketches of the C3 Framework Writing Team.....................................................................107

4 • C3 Framework

INTRODUCTION
IN THE COLLEGE, CAREER, AND CIVIC LIFE (C3) FRAMEWORK FOR
SOCIAL STUDIES STATE STANDARDS, THE CALL FOR STUDENTS TO
BECOME MORE PREPARED FOR THE CHALLENGES OF COLLEGE
AND CAREER IS UNITED WITH A THIRD CRITICAL ELEMENT:
PREPARATION FOR CIVIC LIFE. ADVOCATES OF CITIZENSHIP
EDUCATION CROSS THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM, BUT THEY ARE
BOUND BY A COMMON BELIEF THAT OUR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
WILL NOT SUSTAIN UNLESS STUDENTS ARE AWARE OF THEIR
CHANGING CULTURAL AND PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENTS; KNOW
THE PAST; READ, WRITE, AND THINK DEEPLY; AND ACT IN WAYS
THAT PROMOTE THE COMMON GOOD. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE
DIFFERING PERSPECTIVES ON THESE OBJECTIVES. THE GOAL
OF KNOWLEDGEABLE, THINKING, AND ACTIVE CITIZENS,
HOWEVER, IS UNIVERSAL.

Introduction • 5

NOW MORE THAN EVER , students need the intellectual power to recognize

societal problems; ask good questions and develop robust investigations into them;
consider possible solutions and consequences; separate evidence-based claims from
parochial opinions; and communicate and act upon what they learn. And most
importantly, they must possess the capability and commitment to repeat that process
as long as is necessary. Young people need strong tools for, and methods of, clear and
disciplined thinking in order to traverse successfully the worlds of college, career,
and civic life.
Representatives from a group of state education
agencies and from the leading organizations in social
studies and its individual disciplines collaborated to
create a Framework to provide states with voluntary
guidance for upgrading existing social studies standards. This Framework does not include all that can
or should be included in a set of robust social studies
standards, and intentionally preserves the critical
choices around the selection of curricular content
taught at each grade level as a decision best made by
each state. The Framework aims to support states in
creating standards that prepare young people for effective and successful participation in college, careers,
and civic life.
The C3 Framework1 is centered on an Inquiry Arc—a
set of interlocking and mutually supportive ideas that
frame the ways students learn social studies content. By
focusing on inquiry, the framework emphasizes the disciplinary concepts and practices that support students
as they develop the capacity to know, analyze, explain,
and argue about interdisciplinary challenges in our
social world. It includes descriptions of the structure
and tools of the disciplines, as well as the habits of mind
common in those disciplines. Taken together, the C3
Fra­mework provides guidance to states on upgrading
state social studies standards to include the application
of knowledge within the disciplines of civics, economics, geography, and history as students develop questions and plan inquiries; apply disciplinary concepts
and tools; evaluate and use evidence; and communicate
conclusions and take informed action.

of curricular content necessary for a rigorous social
studies program. Content is critically important to the
disciplines within social studies, and individual state
leadership will be required to select appropriate and
relevant content. States that decide to incorporate the
Inquiry Arc and concepts of the C3 Framework into
their state standards will then need to engage in a rigorous local process of selecting the appropriate content
to be taught at each grade level to ensure that students
develop the knowledge and skills to be civic-ready
before graduation. The concepts expressed in the C3
Framework illustrate the disciplinary ideas, such as
political structures, economic decision making, spatial
patterns, and chronological sequencing, that help
organize the curriculum and content states select.
As a core area in the K-12 curriculum, social studies
prepares students for their postsecondary futures, including the disciplinary practices and literacies needed
for college-level work in social studies academic courses, and the critical thinking, problem solving, and
collaborative skills needed for the workplace. The C3
Framework encourages the development of state social
studies standards that support students in learning to
be actively engaged in civic life. Engagement in civic
life requires knowledge and experience; children learn
to be citizens by working individually and together as
citizens. An essential element of social studies education, therefore, is experiential—practicing the arts and
habits of civic life.

1

The C3 Framework focuses on inquiry skills and key
concepts, and guides—not prescribes—the choice
6 • C3 Framework

The abbreviation “C3 Framework” will be used regularly in this
document to refer to the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3)
Framework for Social Studies State Standards.

Reflecting the shared responsibility for literacy learning put forward by the Common Core State Standards
for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/
Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects (NGA
and CCSSO, 2010a),2 the C3 Framework fully incorporates and extends the expectations from the grades
K–5 English Language Arts standards and the grades
6–12 standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies,
Science, and Technical Subjects. The C3 Framework
also recognizes the importance of literacy within the
Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (NGA
and CCSSO, 2010b), and acknowledges mathematical
practices as they apply to social studies inquiry.
National Council for the Social Studies, one of fifteen
collaborating organizations, is publishing the C3
Framework to provide this significant resource for all
states to consider in their local processes for upgrading state social studies standards.

The Process of Developing the College,
Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework
for Social Studies State Standards
The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework
for Social Studies State Standards was conceptualized
by individual state leaders in social studies education
and supported by fifteen professional organizations
representing four core social studies content areas:
civics, economics, geography, and history. The C3
Framework was written by experts in the academic
disciplines and social studies education in collaboration with classroom teachers, state social studies
education leaders, and representatives of professional
organizations.
Work on the C3 Framework began in 2010 with the development of an initial conceptual guidance document
written by individuals from the Council of Chief State
School Officers (CCSSO) Social Studies Assessment,
Curriculum, and Instruction state collaborative and by

2

The abbreviations “Common Core Standards for ELA/Literacy” and
“ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards” will be used regularly in this
document to refer to the Common Core State Standards for English
Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and
Technical Subjects. Citations of the Common Core State Standards in
this document identify their publishers and date of publication (NGA
and CCSSO, 2010) . The detailed reference information can be found
in the References section on page 92 below.

representatives from the professional associations. The
framework writers were selected in consultation with
the participating professional associations. Feedback
was solicited throughout the process from stakeholders, including invitational reviews with professional
organizations, teachers, and critical friends.

C3 Framework Leadership Team
The following members of the C3 Framework
Leadership Team worked collaboratively to guide
and manage the C3 Framework project:
Project Director and Lead Writer
Kathy Swan, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor,
Social Studies Education,
University of Kentucky
Chair, C3 Framework Task Force of
Professional Organizations
Susan Griffin,
Executive Director,
National Council for the Social Studies
Senior Advisors and
Contributing Writers
S.G. Grant, Ph.D.,
Founding Dean of the Graduate School of Education,
Binghamton University
John Lee, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor of Social Studies Education,
North Carolina State University
C3 Framework Design Team:
Citizen: Me worked with the Leadership Team to
visualize the Inquiry Arc and to design the C3
Framework. Thank you to designers Becky Colley,
Sarah O’Connor, and especially to Monica Snellings
and DK Holland, for their professionalism, talent and
commitment to the teaching of civics in our schools.
C3 Framework Production Team:
Gene Cowan and Monica Snellings

Introduction • 7

C3 Framework Writing Team
The writing team included experts in K-12 social studies education and the academic disciplines of civics,
economics, geography and history. Individuals were selected based on recommendations from the professional
associations engaged in the process of developing the C3 Framework. The writing team worked in both disciplinary and interdisciplinary teams, and solicited feedback from stakeholders on drafts at regular intervals
throughout the development process. Biographical sketches of the following writing team members are included
at the end of this publication:
Kathy Swan, Ph.D. (Lead Writer),
Associate Professor, Social Studies Education,
University of Kentucky
Keith C. Barton, Ed.D.,
Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and
Adjunct Professor of History, Indiana University
Stephen Buckles, Ph.D.,
Senior Lecturer in Economics, Vanderbilt University
Flannery Burke, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor of History, Saint Louis University

Meira Levinson, D.Phil.,
Associate Professor of Education, Harvard University
Anand Marri, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor of Social Studies Education,
Teachers College, Columbia University
Chauncey Monte-Sano, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor of Educational Studies,
University of Michigan
Robert Morrill, Ph.D.,
Professor Emeritus of Geography, Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University

Jim Charkins, Ph.D.,
Professor Emeritus of Economics at California
State University, San Bernardino; Executive Director
of the California Council on Economic Education

Karen Thomas-Brown, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor of Social Studies Education and
Multiculturalism, University of Michigan-Dearborn

S.G. Grant, Ph.D.,
Founding Dean of the Graduate School of Education,
Binghamton University

Cynthia Tyson, Ph.D.,
Professor of Social Studies Education, The Ohio State
University

Susan W. Hardwick, Ph.D.,
Professor Emeritus of Geography at the University
of Oregon

Bruce VanSledright, Ph.D.,
Professor of History and Social Studies Education,
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

John Lee, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor of Social Studies Education,
North Carolina State University

Merry Wiesner-Hanks, Ph.D.,
Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department
of History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Peter Levine, D.Phil.,
Lincoln Filene Professor of Citizenship and Public
Affairs and Director of the Center for Information
and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement
(CIRCLE), Tufts University’s Jonathan Tisch
College of Citizenship and Public Service

Note: A special thank you to Lauren Colley, Rebecca
Mueller, and Emma Thacker, Graduate Assistants at
the University of Kentucky, who each provided support to the C3 Framework Writers and Team.

8 • C3 Framework

C3 Framework Project Participants
The C3 Framework writing team worked in collaboration with the following project participants to refine the
document. Representatives from the CCSSO Social Studies Assessment, Curriculum, and Instruction (SSACI)
state collaborative, Los Angeles County Office of Education and University of Delaware (which are affiliate members of SSACI), the C3 Framework Task Force of Professional Organizations, and the C3 Framework Teacher
Collaborative Council critiqued early drafts and provided feedback to the writers. In the last year of the project,
additional stakeholders were asked to provide feedback on the C3 Framework.

C 3 F R A M E WO R K TA S K FO R C E O F

C 3 F R A M E WO R K A DV I S O RY WO R K I N G

PR O FE SS I O N A L O R G A N I Z AT I O N S

G R O U P O F B E H AV I O R A L A N D S O C I A L

The Task Force of Professional Organizations was
formed in 2010, and with the state social studies collaborative, initiated and guided the development of the
C3 Framework. Representatives from the Task Force
organizations provided feedback to the writers.
American Bar Association
American Historical Association
Association of American Geographers
Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools
Center for Civic Education
Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago
Constitutional Rights Foundation USA
Council for Economic Education
National Council for Geographic Education
National Council for History Education
National Council for the Social Studies
National Geographic Society
National History Day
Street Law, Inc.
World History Association

S C I E N CE PR O FE SS I O N A L O R G A N I Z AT I O N S

The Advisory Working Group of Behavioral and Social
Science Professional Organizations first met in 2013 to
advise on the role of the behavioral and social sciences
in the C3 Framework and provide feedback on the
document. These organizations worked together to
create Appendices B, C, and D as companion documents to the C3 Framework. Although the organizations have contributed these appendices, their participation does not necessarily imply the endorsement of
the C3 Framework.
American Anthropological Association
American Psychological Association
American Sociological Association
C 3 F R A M E WO R K E D I TO R I A L CO M M I T T E E

The following state collaborative members and teachers provided additional guidance to the writing team
to ensure effective individual state implementation of
the Framework:
Editorial Committee Co-Chair
Fay Gore, North Carolina
Editorial Committee Co-Chair
William Muthig, Ohio
Kim Eggborn, Maryland
Maggie Herrick, Arkansas
Mitzie Higa, Hawaii
Marcie Taylor Thoma, Maryland
Jessica Vehlwald, Missouri

Introduction • 9

C 3 F R A M E WO R K C R I T I C A L VO I C E S

Listed below are the stakeholders contacted for an invitational review prior to publication of the C3 Framework.
American Association of School Administrators

Heritage Education Services-National Park Service

American Association of School Librarians

Library of Congress

American Federation of Teachers

National Archives

American Heritage

National Center for Literacy Education

Bill of Rights Institute

National Constitution Center

C-SPAN

National Council for Accreditation of
Teacher Education

Citizen: Me

Newseum

Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship,
University of Delaware

Partnership for 21st Century Skills

Colonial Williamsburg

Smithsonian Institution

DBQ Project

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Junior Achievement

National Museum of the American Indian

Federal Judicial Center-History Office

Teaching for Change

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis,
Economic Education

What So Proudly We Hail

C 3 F R A M E WO R K T E AC H E R CO LL A B O R AT I V E CO U N C I L

The state social studies collaborative chose highly qualified K-12 educators from 21 states to provide feedback on
early drafts of the C3 Framework. Members of the Teacher Collaborative Council are listed below by state:
Arkansas
Lisa Lacefield
John White
California
Michael A. Long
Rebecca K. Valbuena
Colorado
Charlee Passig Archuleta
Anton Schulzki
Delaware
Wendy Harrington
Georgia
Sally J. Meyer
William S. Rakosnik

10 • C3 Framework

Hawaii
Mitzie Higa
Pamela M.T.
(Takehiro) King
Carrie Sato
Illinois
Beth Levinsky
Jeffrey W. Lightfoot
Indiana
Michael Hutchison
Callie Marksbary
Iowa
Rob Dittmer
Nancy Peterson
Kansas
Amanda Jessee
James K. Robb

Kentucky
Thad Elmore
Barry Leonard

North Carolina
Traci Barger
Mary G. Stevens

Maine
Shane Gower
Barbara Perry

Ohio
Tim Dove
Laura Finney
Gloria Wu

Maryland
Kimberly Eggborn
Donna Phillips

Oklahoma
Pam Merrill

Michigan
David Johnson
Raymond Walker

Washington
Tara Gray
Sabrina Shaw

Missouri
Roxanna Mechem
Debra Williams

Wisconsin
Tina Flood
Lauren Mitterman

Nebraska
Lonnie Moore
Mary Lynn Reiser

HOW TO READ

THE C3 FRAMEWORK

How to Read the C3 Framework • 11

OVER ALL DOCUMENT ORGANIZ ATION The C3 Framework begins with

two narrative explanations: the Inquiry Arc, which provides the organizing structure
for the document; and the Overview of English Language Arts/Literacy Common Core
Connections, which highlights the important relationship between the C3 Framework
and the Common Core State Standards for ELA/Literacy. Next, the C3 Framework
presents the following four Dimensions: 1 Developing questions and planning
inquiries; 2 Applying disciplinary concepts and tools; 3 Evaluating sources and
using evidence; and 4 Communicating conclusions and taking informed action.
The C3 Framework closes with five appendices.
Inquiry Arc. The Inquiry Arc highlights the structure
of and rationale for the organization of the Framework’s four Dimensions. The Arc focuses on the nature
of inquiry in general and the pursuit of knowledge
through questions in particular.
Overview of the Connections with the ELA/
Literacy Common Core Standards. The C3
Framework recognizes the important role that the
Common Core State Standards for ELA/Literacy play
in defining K-12 literacy expectations in most states.
This overview outlines how the C3 Framework connects to and elaborates on the ELA/Literacy Common
Core Standards for social studies inquiry.
In addition to the overview of Common Core connections, each of the four Dimensions includes graphical
and narrative descriptions of how the C3 Framework
connects with the standards to guide states and local

TABLE 1:

jurisdictions in incorporating these expectations as
they upgrade their state social studies standards.
Dimensions and Subsections. The C3 Framework
is organized into the four Dimensions, which support
a robust social studies program rooted in inquiry.
Dimensions 2, 3 and 4 are further broken down into
subsections. For example, Dimension 2, Applying
Disciplinary Concepts and Tools, includes four
subsections—civics, economics, geography, and
history—which include descriptions of the structure
and tools of the disciplines as well as the habits of
mind common in those disciplines. See Table 1 for a
graphical representation of the organization of the C3
Framework.
Unique Structure of Dimension 2. Dimension
2 has an additional layer of three to four categories

C3 Framework Organization

DIMENSION 1:
DEVELOPING QUESTIONS
AND PLANNING INQUIRIES

Developing Questions and
Planning Inquiries

DIMENSION 2:
APPLYING DISCIPLINARY
TOOLS AND CONCEPTS

Civics

DIMENSION 3:
EVALUATING SOURCES
AND USING EVIDENCE

DIMENSION 4:
COMMUNICATING
CONCLUSIONS AND
TAKING INFORMED
ACTION

Gathering and Evaluating
Sources

Communicating and
Critiquing Conclusions

Developing Claims and Using
Evidence

Taking Informed Action

Economics
Geography
History

12 • C3 Framework

within each disciplinary subsection. These categories
provide an organizing mechanism for the foundational content and skills within each discipline. For
example, within the subsection of economics, there
are four categories: (1) Economic Decision Making;
(2) Exchange and Markets; (3) The National Economy;
and (4) The Global Economy. See Table 2 for a graphical representation of the categories within the four
disciplinary subsections in Dimension 2.
C3 Framework Indicators and K-12 Pathways.
Within each subsection or category is a set of College,
Career, and Civic Readiness Indicators for the end of
grade 12. For each C3 Indicator, there is a suggested
K-12 Pathway for how students might develop proficiency for a particular skill or concept. These Pathways
acknowledge students’ developing capacity for understanding more sophisticated ideas and completing
more demanding inquiries across the grade bands of
K–2, 3–5, 6–8, and 9–12. Each Pathway includes three
developmental Indicators and the culminating C3
Indicator. The Indicators suggest student proficiency
by the end of grades 2, 5, 8, and 12 with an understanding that these skills and concepts will be taught
within and throughout the grade band. States will
decide how these suggested Pathways inform their
processes for developing and upgrading state social
studies standards.
Appendices. The C3 Framework concludes with five
appendices:

TABLE 2:

• Appendix A: C3 Framework Disciplinary
Inquiry Matrix. The Disciplinary Inquiry Matrix
articulates how the four Dimensions of the C3
Framework connect to and build upon one another
through the use of a content-specific example.
• Appendix B: Psychology Companion Document
for the C3 Framework. The Psychology
Companion Document was created by the
American Psychological Association and articulates the key disciplinary tools and concepts central
to the discipline of psychology. C3 Indicators
are listed for the 9-12 grade band, a corollary for
Dimension 2. Psychology adds its unique and
important perspective to the content-specific
example presented in Appendix A: C3 Framework
Disciplinary Inquiry Matrix.
• Appendix C: Sociology Companion Document
for the C3 Framework. The Sociology Companion
Document was created by the American
Sociological Association and articulates the key
disciplinary tools and concepts central to the
discipline of sociology. C3 Indicators are listed for
the 9-12 grade band, a corollary for Dimension 2.
Sociology adds its unique and important perspective to the content-specific example in Appendix A:
C3 Framework Disciplinary Inquiry Matrix.
• Appendix D: Anthropology Companion
Document for the C3 Framework. The
Anthropology Companion Document was created

Dimension 2—Applying Disciplinary Tools and Concepts

CIVICS

ECONOMICS

GEOGRAPHY

HISTORY

Civic and Political Institutions

Economic Decision Making

Geographic Representations:
Spatial Views of the World

Change, Continuity, and
Context

Participation and
Deliberation: Applying Civic
Virtues and Democratic
Principles

Exchange and Markets

Human-Environment
Interaction: Place, Regions,
and Culture

Perspectives

Processes, Rules, and Laws

The National Economy

Human Population: Spatial
Patterns and Movements

Historical Sources and
Evidence

The Global Economy

Global Interconnections:
Changing Spatial Patterns

Causation and Argumentation

How to Read the C3 Framework • 13

by the American Anthropological Association
and articulates the key disciplinary tools and
concepts central to the discipline of anthropology.
Anthropology adds its unique and important perspective to the content-specific example in Appendix
A: C3 Framework Disciplinary Inquiry Matrix.
• Appendix E: Scholarly Rationale for the C3
Framework. This appendix articulates the reasoning behind the creation of the C3 Framework and
addresses the research base that supports the ideas
represented. Now more than ever, students need
the intellectual power to recognize societal problems; ask good questions and develop robust investigations into them; consider possible solutions
and consequences; separate evidence-based claims
from parochial opinions; and communicate and
act upon what they learn. And most importantly,
they must possess the capability and commitment
to repeat that process as long as is necessary. Young
people need strong tools for, and methods of,
clear and disciplined thinking in order to traverse
successfully the worlds of college, career, and civic
life. The C3 Framework and its Inquiry Arc mark a
significant departure from past attempts to develop a robust social studies program. The scholarly
argument supports and underpins the fundamental shift in direction and practice that the C3
Framework embodies.
The appendices are followed by references and two
concluding sections.
• Glossary of Key Terms in the C3 Framework.
The glossary defines and provides examples of key
concepts and terms. The examples are illustrative
but are not exhaustive. The definitions and examples are intended to encourage a broad exchange of
ideas about social studies content, and should contribute to a coherent vision of how social studies
might be enlivened and enriched by the use of the
C3 Framework.
• C3 Framework Writing Team Biographical
Sketches. The writing team includes members who
have expertise in K-12 social studies education and
the academic disciplines of civics, economics, geography, and history. The selection of individuals was
based on recommendations from the professional

14 • C3 Framework

associations and state education agencies engaged
in the process of developing the C3 Framework.

What Is Not Covered in the C3 Framework
The C3 Framework is intended to serve as a resource
for states to consider as they upgrade their existing
state social studies standards. The Framework provides guidance on the key concepts and skills students
should develop through a robust social studies program of study, but intentionally does not address all of
the elements states will need to consider in developing
and upgrading standards. There are three main areas
not addressed by the framework:
• Content Necessary for a Rigorous Social Studies
Program. The C3 Framework focuses on the
concepts that underlie a rich program of social
studies education. The foundational concepts in
Dimension 2 outline the scope of the disciplinary
knowledge and tools associated with civics,
economics, geography, and history. References
are made to a range of ideas, such as the U.S.
Constitution, economic scarcity, geographical
modeling, and chronological sequences. However,
the particulars of curriculum and instructional
content—such as how a bill becomes a law or the
difference between a map and a globe—are important decisions each state needs to make in the
development of local social studies standards.
• Other Disciplines Beyond Civics, Economics,
Geography, and History The disciplines represented in the C3 Framework are not the only ones
relevant to a rich social studies curriculum. Other
disciplines, such as anthropology, psychology, and
sociology, while not covered in the main body of
the C3 Framework, are important lenses for understanding the human experience (see Appendices
B, C, and D). Anthropology is the scientific study
of humans, past and present; psychology is the
scientific study of the mind and behavior; and
sociology is the scientific study of the social lives of
people, groups and societies. All have countless applications to everyday life. Indeed, the study of the
behavioral and social sciences enhances student
preparation for college, careers, and civic life by
promoting critical thinking, inquiry, problem-solving, evidence-based reasoning and communication

skills, as well as multi-cultural and global understandings, the ability to work with diverse groups,
and a deep sense of personal and social responsibility (American Anthropological Association,
2013; American Psychological Association, 2011;
American Sociological Association 2009). 3
The behavioral and social sciences align well to
the C3 Framework, which focuses on the four core
social studies disciplines, but some are not included in the body of the framework. These behavioral
and social sciences are most frequently taught at
the high school level, though efforts are underway
to better integrate behavioral and social science
concepts in the K-8 age bands. The C3 Framework
has been constructed as a K-12 Framework offering
specific guidance across the grade bands of K-2,
3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. The tough decision was made
early in the development of this framework to
focus only on the four federally defined core social
studies areas (i.e., civics, economics, geography,
and history) to streamline the development process
and produce a concise document.
The exclusion of some behavioral and social sciences from the main body of this document should
not be seen as minimizing the importance of these
other disciplines in a robust social studies curriculum. To that extent, professional organizations
affiliated with these areas have been consulted
and have created discipline-specific resources to
align to this framework document. For example,

Appendices B and C were created by the American
Psychological Association and American
Sociological Association to align with Dimension
2 as well as other aspects of the C3 Framework.
Appendix D is a parallel companion document created by the American Anthropological Association.
These supporting documents should be seen as an
extension of this framework, as complementary
materials that will further the intention of preparing students for civic life. We encourage all readers
to refer to and use these additional resources.
• The Different Abilities Children Bring to their
Schooling. The C3 Framework is largely silent on
the different abilities children bring to their schooling. The C3 Indicators and K-12 Pathways individually and together describe the concepts and skills
students develop in a rich, ambitious program of
studies. Some students will need far more assistance and support than others in reaching the
aims of each Dimension. All children deserve the
opportunity to learn. To be successful, students
will need varying degrees of scaffolding to support
their learning. Smart, thoughtful, and imaginative
teachers are widely recognized as key to powerful
learning experiences; for English language learners, students with special needs, and struggling
readers and writers, such teachers are invaluable.
3

The detailed reference information for works cited can be found in the
References section on page 92 below.

YOUNG PEOPLE need strong tools for, and
methods of, clear and disciplined thinking in
order to traverse successfully the worlds of
college, career, and civic life.

How to Read the C3 Framework • 15

COLLEGE,
CAREER & CIVIC
LIFE
THE
INQUIRY
ARC

OF
C3 FRAMEWORK
C3THE
FRAMEWORK
FOR SOCIAL STUDIES STATE STANDARDS

Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History

16 • C3 Framework

THE PR IMARY PUR POSE of the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework

for Social Studies State Standards is to provide guidance to states on the concepts,
skills, and disciplinary tools necessary to prepare students for college, career, and
civic life. In doing so, the C3 Framework offers guidance and support for rigorous
student learning. That guidance and support takes form in an Inquiry Arc—a set
of interlocking and mutually reinforcing ideas that feature the four Dimensions of
informed inquiry in social studies: 1 Developing questions and planning inquiries;
2 Applying disciplinary concepts and tools; 3 Evaluating sources and using evidence;
and 4 Communicating conclusions and taking informed action.

Dimension 1 features the development of questions
and the planning of inquiries. With the entire scope
of human experience as its backdrop, the content of
social studies consists of a rich array of facts, concepts,
and generalizations. The way to tie all of this content
together is through the use of compelling and supporting questions.
Questioning is key to student learning. The C3
Framework encourages the use of compelling and
supporting questions, both teacher- and student-generated, as a central element of the teaching and
learning process. For example, a compelling question
like “Was the American Revolution revolutionary?” is
both intriguing to students and intellectually honest.
Such a question can be vigorously explored through
the disciplines of civics, economics, geography, and
history. It is also sensitive to the idea that students are
interested in how and why events are characterized
as they are. Supporting questions assist students in
addressing their compelling questions. For example,
questions like “What were the regulations imposed on
the colonists under the Townshend Acts?” will help
students understand the many dimensions of the war
as they form their conclusions about the magnitude of
change associated with those Acts.
Developing compelling and supporting questions
is challenging, and teachers will need to provide
guidance and support in crafting them, especially
for young learners. The Indicators for Dimension 1
present a developmentally appropriate, scalable, and
assessable set of ideas through which students can
demonstrate their increasingly independent facility

with recognizing, developing, and articulating powerful questions.
Dimension 2, Applying Disciplinary Concepts and
Tools, provides the backbone for the Inquiry Arc.
Working with a robust compelling question and a set
of discrete supporting questions, teachers and students
determine the kind of content they need in order to
develop their inquiries. This process is an artful balancing act because the interplay between Dimensions
1 and 2 is dynamic: students access disciplinary
knowledge both to develop questions and to pursue
those questions using disciplinary concepts and tools.
Children typically begin proposing solutions to compelling questions based on their experiences. Because
social studies content is based in human experience,
students will have hunches about the questions under
study. Rich social studies teaching, however, offers
students opportunities to investigate those questions
more thoroughly through disciplinary (civic, economic, geographical, or historical) and multi-disciplinary
means. Dimension 2 sets forth the conceptual content
that defines the disciplines, such as the historian’s
habit of describing how the perspectives of people in
the present shape their interpretations of the past. This
practice, along with the curricular content and the
distinctive habits of mind from the other social science
disciplines, informs students’ investigations and contributes to an inquiry process for social studies.
In some cases, the compelling questions posed will
draw on content largely from a single discipline.
Teachers and students may pull primarily from
The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 17

economics, for example, to answer the compelling
question, “How will an increase in the minimum
wage affect local job opportunities for teens?”
“Why are there rules?” invites inquiry into key civics
concepts. Many compelling questions, however, can
best be explored through the use of multiple disciplines. Recall the question, “Was the American
Revolution revolutionary?” Students will need to
examine a range of economic, geographic, historical,
and civic concepts in order to craft a full-bodied,
evidence-based response to this question. In similar
fashion, a contemporary environmental question
such as “What path should a new transcontinental
pipeline take?” or “Should the pipeline be built at all?”
demands the use of economic, historical, and civic as
well as spatial concepts and tools.

Sources come in many forms, including historical and
contemporary documents, data from direct observation, graphics, economic statistics, maps, legislative
actions, objects, and court rulings. Access to these
and other digital sources is now more readily available
than ever. The availability of source materials, however, does not translate automatically into their wise
use. Students must be mindful that not all sources
are equal in value and use and that sources do not, by
themselves, constitute evidence. Rather, evidence consists of the material students select to support claims
and counter-claims in order to construct accounts,
explanations, and arguments. Helping students develop a capacity for gathering and evaluating sources and
then using evidence in disciplinary ways is a central
feature of the Inquiry Arc represented by Dimension 3,
Evaluating Sources and Using Evidence.

With compelling and supporting questions in hand
and a sense of the relevant concepts and ideas, the
Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework turns toward the
matter of sources and evidence. Social studies is an
evidence-based field. The disciplinary concepts
represented in Dimension 2 provide a solid base
from which students can begin constructing answers
to their questions. Equally important, however, is
knowing how to fill in the gaps in their knowledge
by learning how to work from sources and evidence in
order to develop claims and counter-claims.

A compelling question such as “Was the Civil Rights
Movement of the 1960s a success?” demands that
students draw evidence from more than one or two
sources. A wide range of perspectives is available in
both primary and secondary form. Having students
gather, evaluate, and use a rich subset of those sources offers them opportunities to identify claims and
counter-claims and to support those claims with
evidence. Making and supporting evidence-based
claims and counter-claims is key to student capacity to
construct explanations and arguments.

HELPING STUDENTS DEVELOP a capacity
for gathering and evaluating sources and
then using evidence in disciplinary ways is
a central feature of the Inquiry Arc represented
by Dimension 3, Evaluating Sources and Using
Evidence.

18 • C3 Framework

Developing explanations and making and supporting
arguments can take form in individual essays, group
projects, and other classroom-based written assessments, both formal and informal. But students need
not be limited to those avenues. Although there is
no substitute for thoughtful and persuasive writing,
the Framework advocates expanding the means by
which students communicate their preliminary and
final conclusions. As the Indicators for Dimension 4
(Communicating Conclusions and Taking Informed
Action) demonstrate, those means include a range of
venues and a variety of forms (e.g., discussions, debates, policy analyses, video productions, and portfolios). Moreover, the manner in which students work to
create their solutions can differ. Students need opportunities to work individually, with partners, in small
groups, and within whole class settings. Readiness
for college, career, and civic life is as much about the
experiences students have as it is about learning any
particular set of concepts or tools. Thus, the learning
environments that teachers create are critical
to student success. Students will flourish to the extent
that their independent and collaborative efforts are
guided, supported, and honored.
Active and responsible citizens identify and analyze
public problems; deliberate with other people about
how to define and address issues; take constructive,

collaborative action; reflect on their actions; create
and sustain groups; and influence institutions both
large and small. They vote, serve on juries, follow the
news and current events, and participate in voluntary
groups and efforts. Teaching students to act in these
ways—as citizens—significantly enhances preparation
for college and career. Many of the same skills that are
needed for active and responsible citizenship—working effectively with other people, deliberating and
reasoning quantitatively about issues, following the
news, and forming and sustaining groups—are also
crucial to success in the 21st century workplace and in
college. Individual mastery of content often no longer
suffices; students should also develop the capacity to
work together to apply knowledge to real problems.
Thus, a rich social studies education is an education
for college, career, and civic life.
In one sense, Dimension 4 closes the Inquiry Arc.
But learning is reflexive and recursive—new disciplinary knowledge can be the source of new questions, communicating ideas in one setting can lead to
new ideas about evidence, and new historical sources
can lead to new disciplinary and interdisciplinary
concepts. The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework
offers states guidance for developing standards with
multiple opportunities for students to develop as
thoughtful, engaged citizens.

ACTIVE AND RESPONSIBLE CITIZENS
identify and analyze public problems; deliberate
with other people about how to define and
address issues; take constructive, collaborative
action; reflect on their actions; create and
sustain groups; and influence institutions
both large and small.

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 19

✪

OVERVIEW OF THE CONNEC TIONS W ITH THE ENGLISH
L ANGUAGE AR T S/LITER AC Y COMM ON CORE S TANDAR DS

The Common Core State Standards for English
Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies,
Science, and the Technical Subjects call on social
studies teachers to share in the responsibilities for
literacy instruction in K-12 education (NGA and
CCSSO, 2010a). The expectations for literacy learning in grades K–5 are established through the four
strands of Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening,
and Language. For grades 6–12, the ELA/Literacy
Common Core Standards provide specific literacy
standards for Reading and Writing in History/Social
Studies. The C3 Framework fully incorporates and
extends the expectations for literacy learning put
forward in the Common Core Standards for ELA/
Literacy on three levels (Table 3).

TABLE 3:

Connections between the C3 Framework and the CCR Anchor Standards in the ELA/Literacy
Common Core Standards

FOUNDATIONAL
SUPPORTIVE

All ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards
Reading 1-10; Writing 1, 7-9; Speaking and Listening 1-6; Language 6
Reading 1; Writing 7; Speaking and Listening 1

VITAL

TABLE 4:

Connections between the C3 Framework
and the College and Career Readiness (CCR)
Anchor Standards. Each strand of the Common
Core State Standards for English Language Arts/
Literacy is headed by a set of College and Career
Readiness (CCR) Anchor Standards that are identical
across all grades and content areas, including social
studies. The authors of the C3 Framework view the
literacy skills detailed in the ELA/Literacy Common
Core College and Career Readiness (CCR) Anchor
Standards as establishing a foundation for inquiry in
social studies, and as such all CCR Anchor Standards
should be an indispensable part of any state’s social studies standards. Many specific CCR Anchor
Standards are directly supportive of the C3 Framework,

Connections between the C3 Framework and the CCR Anchor Standards in the ELA/Literacy
Common Core Standards

DIMENSION
1

ANCHOR
STANDARDS

DIMENSION
2

ANCHOR
STANDARDS

Civics
Developing
Questions
and Planning
Inquiries

R1
W7
SL1

Economics
Geography
History

20 • C3 Framework

R1-10
W7
SL1
L6

DIMENSION
3

Gathering
and
Evaluating
Sources
Developing
Claims
and Using
Evidence

ANCHOR
STANDARDS

R1-10
W1, 2, 7-10
SL1

DIMENSION
4

Communi­
cating and
Critiquing
Conclusions

Taking
Action

ANCHOR
STANDARDS

R1
W 1-8
SL1-6

while three of these CCR Anchor Standards are vital
to social studies inquiry.
The connections between the C3 Framework and the
ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards are comprehensive and consistent. The CCR Anchor Standards
for the ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards, particularly those in the Reading, Writing, and Speaking
and Listening strands, provide a useful context for
illustrating the broader connections across and within
each Dimension. These supportive connections are
detailed for each of the Dimensions in Table 4.4
The CCR Anchor Standards in Table 4 focus on a wide
range of inquiry practices that contribute to the literacy foundations in social studies. Social studies students
should use and attend to the skills described in these
standards to assist them in focusing their inquiries
and research practices. The C3 Framework emphasizes
and elaborates on those skills in the Common Core
Standards that explicitly connect to inquiry, and recognizes the shared responsibility social studies plays in
honing key literacy skills.
Three CCR Anchor Standards (and their corresponding grade-specific standards) are particularly vital
to social studies inquiry. Common Core Anchor
Standard for Reading 1 asks students to read texts
closely to both determine “explicit” information
lodged within the body of the text as well as draw
“logical inferences” based on the text (NGA and
CCSSO, 2010a, p. 10). Students are also expected to
“cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text” (NGA
and CCSSO, 2010a, p. 10). The C3 Framework stresses
the role evidence plays in the four Dimensions: explicitly in Dimension 3, which focuses on developing
claims and using evidence, and inferentially in developing questions answered with evidence in Dimension
1 or communicating conclusions supported by evidence in Dimension 4. The emphasis on evidence also
connects the disciplines in Dimension 2.
Additionally, Common Core Anchor Standard for
Writing 7 is broadly relevant for inquiry in social studies. Writing Standard 7 calls on students to “conduct
short as well as more sustained research projects based
on focused questions, demonstrating understanding

of the subject under investigation” (NGA and CCSSO,
2010a, p. 18). The C3 Framework elevates research
as a process of inquiry that informs the Indicators
in all four Dimensions. Dimension 2 establishes the
tools and concepts from the social studies disciplines
that are relevant for inquiry. Dimensions 1, 3, and 4
describe the general social studies inquiry skills and
processes that support argumentation, explanation,
and taking informed action.
Finally, Common Core Anchor Standard for Speaking
and Listening 1 has broad application across the four
Dimensions. Speaking and Listening Standard 1 calls
on students to “prepare for and participate effectively
in a range of conversations and collaborations with
diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively” (NGA and
CCSSO, 2010a, p. 22). Indicators in the C3 Framework
describe the types of collaboration needed for specific
skills and understandings. For example, a Dimension
1 Indicator states, “By the end of grade 2, individually
and with others, students construct compelling questions….” The C3 Framework acknowledges civil and
democratic discourse within a diverse, collaborative
context as both a purpose and outcome of a strong,
meaningful, and substantive social studies education.
Shared Language. Language and concepts from
the ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards were
deliberately used in specific Indicators across the
C3 Framework Dimensions. For example, the terms
argument and explanation; claim and counterclaim; information and evidence; and point of view and opinion
appear regularly in the ELA/Literacy Common Core
Standards and throughout the Dimensions of the C3
Framework.5

4

As Common Core states upgrade their social studies standards, they
will want to incorporate the grade-specific standards for K-5 and the
grade-band specific standards for literacy in social studies for grades
6-12 that correspond to the CCR anchor standard with the same
number.

5

Although the ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards and the C3
Framework both emphasize the unique skill of constructing evidencebased arguments, different terms are used: opinion in the ELA/
Literacy Common Core Standards for grades K–5 and argument
throughout the C3 Framework.

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 21

22 • C3 Framework

Dimension 1

Developing
Questions
& PLANNING
INQUIRIES
QUES TIONS AND THE DESIRE TO ANS WER THEM give life to inquiry

and thus to the C3 Framework. Questions arise from students’ innate curiosity about
the world and from their efforts to make sense of how that world works.

Central to a rich social studies experience is the
capability for developing questions that can frame
and advance an inquiry. Those questions come in
two forms: compelling and supporting questions.
Compelling questions focus on enduring issues and
concerns. They deal with curiosities about how things
work; interpretations and applications of disciplinary
concepts; and unresolved issues that require students
to construct arguments in response. In contrast, supporting questions focus on descriptions, definitions,
and processes on which there is general agreement
within the social studies disciplines, and require students to construct explanations that advance claims
of understanding in response.

Consider an example relevant to early elementary
students. A compelling question that students might
generate is, “Why do we need rules?” This question
reflects the two primary qualities of a compelling
question: (1) It reflects a social concern that students
find engaging; and (2) It reflects an enduring issue in
the field of civics. A teacher and her students might
take such a question in a number of directions, but
for curricular purposes, it makes sense to define some
parameters that give shape to the inquiry. Supporting
questions help define those curriculum parameters.
Examples of supporting questions include, “What
are some rules that families follow?” “What are some
school rules?” or “What classroom rules have you

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 23

followed in the past?” Supporting questions, then,
help guide the development of an inquiry into a
compelling question.

responsibility for their learning so that by grade 12
they are able to construct questions and plan inquiries
more independently.

The development of compelling and supporting questions is a sophisticated intellectual activity. Students,
particularly before middle school, will need considerable guidance and support from adults to construct
questions that are suitable for inquiry. Beginning in
grade 6, students should be able to take increasing

Questions are just the starting point for an inquiry.
To develop an inquiry, students will also determine
the data sources needed to help answer compelling
and supporting questions. The five indicators in
Dimension 1 describe the questioning and planning
skills needed to initiate inquiry.

CENTRAL to a rich social studies experience
is the capability for developing questions that
CAN FRAME AND ADVANCE AN INQUIRY.
Those questions come in two forms: compelling
and supporting questions.
Constructing Compelling Questions
The construction of compelling questions should
include the following Indicators, which are detailed
TABLE 5:

in the suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career,
and Civic Readiness in Table 5.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 1, Constructing Compelling Questions

BY THE END OF GRADE 2*

BY THE END OF GRADE 5*

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS CONSTRUCT COMPELLING QUESTIONS, AND …

D1.1.K-2. Explain why the
compelling question is important to the student.

D1.1.3-5. Explain why compelling questions are important
to others (e.g., peers, adults).

D1.1.6-8. Explain how a question represents key ideas in
the field.

D1.1.9-12. Explain how a question reflects an enduring issue
in the field.

D1.2.K-2. Identify disciplinary
ideas associated with a compelling question.

D1.2.3-5. Identify disciplinary
concepts and ideas associated with a compelling question
that are open to different
interpretations.

D1.2.6-8. Explain points of
agreement experts have
about interpretations and applications of disciplinary concepts and ideas associated
with a compelling question.

D1.2.9-12. Explain points of
agreement and disagreement
experts have about interpretations and applications
of disciplinary concepts and
ideas associated with a compelling question.

* Students, particularly before middle school, will need considerable guidance and support from adults to construct questions that are suitable for
inquiry.

24 • C3 Framework

Constructing Supporting Questions
The construction of supporting questions includes
the following Indicators, which are detailed in the
TABLE 6:

suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic
Readiness in Table 6.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 1, Constructing Supporting Questions

BY THE END OF GRADE 2*

BY THE END OF GRADE 5*

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS CONSTRUCT SUPPORTING QUESTIONS, AND …

D1.3.K-2. Identify facts and
concepts associated with a
supporting question.

D1.3.3-5. Identify the disciplinary concepts and ideas
associated with a supporting
question that are open to
interpretation.

D1.3.6-8. Explain points of
agreement experts have
about interpretations and applications of disciplinary concepts and ideas associated
with a supporting question.

D1.3.9-12. Explain points of
agreement and disagreement
experts have about interpretations and applications
of disciplinary concepts and
ideas associated with a supporting question.

D1.4.K-2. Make connections between supporting
questions and compelling
questions.

D1.4.3-5. Explain how
supporting questions help
answer compelling questions
in an inquiry.

D1.4.6-8. Explain how the relationship between supporting
questions and compelling questions is mutually
reinforcing.

D1.4.9-12. Explain how
supporting questions contribute to an inquiry and how,
through engaging source
work, new compelling and
supporting questions emerge.

* Students, particularly before middle school, will need considerable guidance and support from adults to construct questions that are suitable for
inquiry.

Determining Helpful Sources
The third set of Indicators for Dimension 1 is detailed
in the suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career,
and Civic Readiness in Table 7: Determine the kinds
of sources that will be helpful in answering compelling
TABLE 7:

and supporting questions, taking into consideration
the multiple points of view represented in an argument, the structure of an explanation, the types of
sources available, and the potential uses of the sources.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 1, Determining Helpful Sources

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS …

D1.5.K-2. Determine the kinds
of sources that will be helpful
in answering compelling and
supporting questions.

D1.5.3-5. Determine the kinds
of sources that will be helpful
in answering compelling
and supporting questions,
taking into consideration the
different opinions people
have about how to answer the
questions.

D1.5.6-8. Determine the kinds
of sources that will be helpful
in answering compelling and
supporting questions, taking
into consideration multiple
points of views represented in
the sources.

D1.5.9-12. Determine the kinds
of sources that will be helpful
in answering compelling and
supporting questions, taking
into consideration multiple
points of view represented
in the sources, the types of
sources available, and the
potential uses of the sources.

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 25

✪

ENGLISH L ANGUAGE AR T S/LITER AC Y COMMON CORE
CONNEC TIONS: DIMENSION 1

Questioning plays an important role in social studies as well as in the ELA/Literacy Common Core
Standards. Expectations for using questions to interrogate texts are consistently communicated in the ELA/
Literacy Common Core Standards. One of the key
design features of the ELA/Literacy Common Core
Standards is to emphasize research skills throughout the standards. Specifically, the Common Core
Standards argue, “to be ready for college, workforce
training, and life in a technological society, students
need the ability to gather, comprehend, evaluate, synthesize, and report on information and ideas, to conduct original research in order to answer questions”
(NGA and CCSSO, 2010a, p. 4). The C3 Framework
elaborates on the emphasis of the ELA/Literacy
Common Core Standards on answering questions
by establishing specific Indicators for students constructing compelling questions to initiate inquiry and
supporting questions to sustain that inquiry.
Table 8 details connections between Dimension 1 and
the College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards
in the ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards. These
connections are further elaborated with examples.
Connections between the C3 Framework and
the College and Career Readiness Anchor
Standards. While the connections between the C3
Framework and the ELA/Literacy Common Core
Standards are comprehensive and consistent, three
CCR Anchor Standards (and their corresponding
grade-specific standards) within the ELA/Literacy

TABLE 8:

Common Core Standards have deeper connections
within Dimension 1.
Common Core Anchor Reading Standard 1 clearly indicates the importance of evidence in framing and answering questions about the texts students are reading
and researching. This crucial standard asks students
to look for “explicit” information lodged within the
body of the text as well as to draw “logical inferences”
based on what they read (NGA and CCSSO, 2010a, p.
10). Reading Standard 1 also expects students to “cite
specific textual evidence when writing or speaking
to support conclusions drawn from the text” (NGA
and CCSSO, 2010a, p. 10). The C3 Framework stresses
this focus on evidence by prioritizing a wide range
of inquiry-based activities that result in information
gathering on the part of students in response to planning and developing lines of inquiry.
Common Core Anchor Writing Standard 7 is particularly relevant for posing questions as an initial activity
in research and inquiry in social studies. Writing
Standard 7 calls on students to base their research on
“focused questions, demonstrating understanding of
the subject under investigation” (NGA and CCSSO,
2010a, p. 18). The C3 Framework elaborates on the process of developing questions by making distinctions
about the types of questions useful for initiating and
sustaining an inquiry, and by having students explain
how the construction of compelling and supporting
questions is connected to the disciplinary process of
inquiry.

Connections between Dimension 1 and the CCR Anchor Standards in the ELA/Literacy
Common Core Standards

ELA/LITERACY CCR ANCHOR
STANDARDS CONNECTIONS

SHARED LANGUAGE

26 • C3 Framework

Anchor Reading Standard 1
Anchor Writing Standard 7
Anchor Speaking and Listening Standard 1
Questioning; Argument; Explanation; Point of View

Common Core Anchor Speaking and Listening
Standard 1 also has broad application for Dimension 1.
Speaking and Listening Standard 1 calls on students to
“prepare for and participate effectively in a range of
conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their
own clearly and persuasively” (NGA and CCSSO,
2010a, p. 22). Dimension 1 asks students to engage in
the sophisticated intellectual activity of constructing
compelling and supporting questions. Students,
particularly before middle school, will need considerable guidance and support from adults and peers to
construct suitable questions for inquiry. Such guidance
and support will play out through conversations and
collaboration. Learning in social studies is an inherently collaborative activity, and Speaking and
Listening Standard 1 is thus especially relevant in
Dimension 1.
A student’s ability to ask and answer questions when
reading, writing, and speaking and listening is an
important part of literacy and represents a foundation for learning in social studies. Throughout the
C3 Framework, students are expected to practice and
improve the questioning skills specified in the ELA/
Literacy Common Core Standards. In Dimension 1 of
the C3 Framework, students turn to questions as a way
to initiate and sustain inquiry, and connect these questioning literacies to those suggested by ELA/Literacy
Common Core Writing Standard 7. In alignment with
the Common Core Standards, the C3 Framework
views the skill of asking questions and the desire to
answer them as being so fundamental to the inquiry
process that inquiry cannot begin until students have
developed questioning skills.
The questioning skills emphasized in the C3
Framework reflect the academic intentions of the

disciplines that make up social studies and the special
purposes of social studies as preparation for civic life.
Social studies teachers have an important role to play
in supporting students as they develop the literacy
questioning skills found in the ELA/Literacy Common
Core Standards, and can do this most effectively
through helping their students learn the habits and
skills needed to conduct inquiry in social studies and
to live productively as democratic citizens.
Shared Language. The ELA/Literacy Common
Core Standards closely align with the Indicators in
Dimension 1. In places, the connections between the
Common Core Standards and the C3 Framework
Indicators are so close that the same language is used.
The concept of questioning is part of this shared
language, but in addition, the terms argument, explanation, and point of view are consistently used in
both the ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards and
Dimension 1.
The ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards emphasize questioning as a mechanism for supporting
reading and as a tool to prompt research. The C3
Framework emphasizes the use of questioning as a
prompt for disciplinary inquiry. A unique distinction
is made in the C3 Framework between compelling and
supporting questions. This distinction is closely tied
to the types of thinking and student-generated products that result from inquiry. In distinguishing these
products, the C3 Framework utilizes the distinction
between argumentation and explanation as described
in ELA/Literacy Common Core Writing Anchor
Standards 1 and 2. Thus, by design, compelling questions lead to arguments, and supporting questions lead
to explanations.

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 27

28 • C3 Framework

Dimension 2

Applying
Disciplinary
Concepts
& TOOLS
THE FOUR CORE DISCIPLINES within social studies provide the intellectual

context for studying how humans have interacted with each other and with the
environment over time. Each of these disciplines—civics, economics, geography, and
history—offers a unique way of thinking and organizing knowledge as well as systems
for verifying knowledge. Dimension 2 focuses on the disciplinary concepts and tools
students need to understand and apply as they study the specific content typically
described in state standards. These disciplinary ideas are the lenses students use in their
inquiries, and the consistent and coherent application of these lenses throughout the
grades should lead to deep and enduring understanding.
A key distinction between a framework and a set of
content standards is the difference between conceptual
and curricular content. Curricular content specifies
the particular ideas to be taught and the grade levels at
which to teach them; conceptual content is the bigger set of ideas that frame the curricular content. For
example, rather than identify every form of governmental power, the C3 Framework expects students in
grades 6–8 to “explain the powers and limits of the
three branches of government, public officials, and bureaucracies at different levels in the United States and
in other countries.” Similarly, rather than delineate
every kind of map, the C3 Framework expects students

in grades 3–5 to “create maps and other graphic representations of both familiar and unfamiliar places.”
The C3 Framework takes this approach of describing
concepts and skills rather than curricular content
because there are significant differences among states
in terms of what is taught and when. If and when the
Irish potato famine might be taught, for example, is
a decision best left to state and local decision makers.
The C3 Framework in general, and Dimension 2 in
particular, is intended to serve as a frame for organizing curricular content, rather than a prescription for
the specific content to be taught.
The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 29

WHAT DOES LIBERTY LOOK LIKE?
COMPELLING QUESTIONS THROUGH DISCIPLINARY LENSES

Civics:
What is the
line between
liberty and
responsibility?

History:
When did
Americans
gain their
liberty?

30 • C3 Framework

Geography:
How does liberty
change from
place to place?

Economics:
Does more
liberty mean
more prosperity?

CIVICS
I N A CO N S T I T U T I O N A L D E M O CR AC Y, productive civic

engagement requires knowledge of the history, principles, and
foundations of our American democracy, and the ability to participate
in civic and democratic processes. People demonstrate civic engagement
when they address public problems individually and collaboratively
and when they maintain, strengthen, and improve communities and
societies. Thus, civics is, in part, the study of how people participate in
governing society.
Because government is a means for addressing common or public
problems, the political system established by the U.S. Constitution is an
important subject of study within civics. Civics requires other knowledge
too; students should also learn about state and local governments;
markets; courts and legal systems; civil society; other nations’ systems
and practices; international institutions; and the techniques available to
citizens for preserving and changing a society.
Civics is not limited to the study of politics and society; it also
encompasses participation in classrooms and schools, neighborhoods,
groups, and organizations. Not all participation is beneficial. This
framework makes frequent reference to civic virtues and principles
that guide participation and to the norm of deliberation (which means
discussing issues and making choices and judgments with information
and evidence, civility and respect, and concern for fair procedures).
What defines civic virtue, which democratic principles apply in given
situations, and when discussions are deliberative are not easy questions,
but they are topics for inquiry and reflection. In civics, students learn
to contribute appropriately to public processes and discussions of real
issues. Their contributions to public discussions may take many forms,
ranging from personal testimony to abstract arguments. They will also
learn civic practices such as voting, volunteering, jury service, and
joining with others to improve society. Civics enables students not only
to study how others participate, but also to practice participating and
taking informed action themselves.

Dimension 2: Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools • 31

Civic and Political Institutions
In order to act responsibly and effectively, citizens
must understand the important institutions of their
society and the principles that these institutions are
intended to reflect. That requires mastery of a body of
knowledge about law, politics, and government.
TABLE 9:

Indicators of Dimension 2—Civic and Political
Institutions—are detailed in the suggested K-12
Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness in
Table 9.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 2, Civic and Political Institutions

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS…

D2.Civ.1.K-2. Describe roles
and responsibilities of people
in authority.

D2.Civ.1.3-5. Distinguish
the responsibilities and powers of government officials at
various levels and branches of
government and in different
times and places.

D2.Civ.1.6-8. Distinguish
the powers and responsibilities of citizens, political
parties, interest groups, and
the media in a variety of
governmental and nongovernmental contexts.

D2.Civ.1.9-12. Distinguish
the powers and responsibilities of local, state, tribal, national, and international civic
and political institutions.

D2.Civ.2.K-2. Explain how
all people, not just official
leaders, play important roles
in a community.

D2.Civ.2.3-5. Explain how a
democracy relies on people’s
responsible participation, and
draw implications for how
individuals should participate.

D2.Civ.2.6-8. Explain specific roles played by citizens
(such as voters, jurors, taxpayers, members of the armed
forces, petitioners, protesters,
and office-holders).

D2.Civ.2.9-12. Analyze the
role of citizens in the U.S. political system, with attention
to various theories of democracy, changes in Americans’
participation over time, and
alternative models from other
countries, past and present.

D2.Civ.3.K-2. Explain the
need for and purposes of
rules in various settings inside
and outside of school.

D2.Civ.3.3-5. Examine the
origins and purposes of rules,
laws, and key U.S. constitutional provisions.

D2.Civ.3.6-8. Examine the
origins, purposes, and impact
of constitutions, laws, treaties,
and international agreements.

D2.Civ.3.9-12. Analyze
the impact of constitutions,
laws, treaties, and international agreements on the
maintenance of national and
international order.

D2.Civ.4.K-2.

D2.Civ.4.3-5. Explain how
groups of people make rules
to create responsibilities and
protect freedoms.

D2.Civ.4.6-8. Explain the
powers and limits of the three
branches of government,
public officials, and bureaucracies at different levels in
the United States and in other
countries.

D2.Civ.4.9-12. Explain how
the U.S. Constitution establishes a system of government
that has powers, responsibilities, and limits that have
changed over time and that
are still contested.

D2.Civ.5.K-2. Explain what
governments are and some of
their functions.

D2.Civ.5.3-5. Explain the
origins, functions, and structure of different systems of
government, including those
created by the U.S. and state
constitutions.

D2.Civ.5.6-8. Explain the origins, functions, and structure
of government with reference
to the U.S. Constitution, state
constitutions, and selected
other systems of government.

D2.Civ.5.9-12. Evaluate citizens’ and institutions’ effectiveness in addressing social
and political problems at the
local, state, tribal, national,
and/or international level.

D2.Civ.6.K-2. Describe
how communities work to
accomplish common tasks,
establish responsibilities, and
fulfill roles of authority.

D2.Civ.6.3-5. Describe
ways in which people benefit
from and are challenged by
working together, including
through government, workplaces, voluntary organizations, and families.

D2.Civ.6.6-8. Describe the
roles of political, civil, and
economic organizations in
shaping people’s lives.

D2.Civ.6.9-12. Critique
relationships among governments, civil societies, and
economic markets.

Begins in grades 3–5

32 • C3 Framework

Participation and Deliberation: Applying Civic Virtues and Democratic Principles
Civics teaches the principles—such as adherence to
the social contract, consent of the governed, limited
government, legitimate authority, federalism, and
separation of powers—that are meant to guide official
institutions such as legislatures, courts, and government agencies. It also teaches the virtues—such as
honesty, mutual respect, cooperation, and attentiveness to multiple perspectives—that citizens should use
when they interact with each other on public matters.
Principles such as equality, freedom, liberty, respect for
individual rights, and deliberation apply to both official
institutions and informal interactions among citizens.
Learning these virtues and principles requires obtaining factual knowledge of written provisions found in

TABLE 10:

important texts such as the founding documents of
the United States. It also means coming to understand
the diverse arguments that have been made about
these documents and their meanings. Finally, students
understand virtues and principles by applying and
reflecting on them through actual civic engagement—
their own and that of other people from the
past and present.
Indicators of Dimension 2—Participation and
Deliberation—are detailed in the suggested K-12
Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness in
Table 10.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 2, Participation and Deliberation

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS…

D2.Civ.7.K-2. Apply civic
virtues when participating in
school settings.

D2.Civ.7.3-5. Apply civic
virtues and democratic principles in school settings.

D2.Civ.7.6-8. Apply civic
virtues and democratic principles in school and community
settings.

D2.Civ.7.9-12. Apply
civic virtues and democratic
principles when working with
others.

D2.Civ.8.K-2. Describe
democratic principles such as
equality, fairness, and respect
for legitimate authority and
rules.

D2.Civ.8.3-5. Identify core
civic virtues and democratic principles that guide
government, society, and
communities.

D2.Civ.8.6-8. Analyze ideas
and principles contained in
the founding documents of
the United States, and explain
how they influence the social
and political system.

D2.Civ.8.9-12. Evaluate
social and political systems
in different contexts, times,
and places, that promote civic
virtues and enact democratic
principles.

D2.Civ.9.K-2. Follow
agreed-upon rules for discussions while responding
attentively to others when
addressing ideas and making
decisions as a group.

D2.Civ.9.3-5. Use deliberative processes when making
decisions or reaching judgments as a group.

D2.Civ.9.6-8. Compare
deliberative processes used
by a wide variety of groups in
various settings.

D2.Civ.9.9-12. Use appropriate deliberative processes in
multiple settings.

D2.Civ.10.K-2. Compare
their own point of view with
others’ perspectives.

D2.Civ.10.3-5. Identify the
beliefs, experiences, perspectives, and values that underlie
their own and others’ points
of view about civic issues.

D2.Civ.10.6-8. Explain
the relevance of personal
interests and perspectives,
civic virtues, and democratic
principles when people address issues and problems in
government and civil society.

D2.Civ.10.9-12. Analyze the
impact and the appropriate
roles of personal interests and
perspectives on the application of civic virtues, democratic principles, constitutional
rights, and human rights.

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 33

Processes, Rules, and Laws
Civics is the discipline of the social studies most
directly concerned with the processes and rules by
which groups of people make decisions, govern themselves, and address public problems. People address
problems at all scales, from a classroom to the agreements among nations. Public policies are among the
tools that governments use to address public problems.
Students must learn how various rules, processes, laws,
and policies actually work, which requires factual

TABLE 11:

understanding of political systems and is the focus
of this section. They must also obtain experience in
defining and addressing public problems, as prompted
in Dimension 4—Taking Informed Action.
Indicators of Dimension 2—Processes, Rules, and
Laws—are detailed in the suggested K-12 Pathway for
College, Career, and Civic Readiness in Table 11.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 2, Processes, Rules, and Laws

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS…

D2.Civ.11.K-2. Explain how
people can work together
to make decisions in the
classroom.

D2.Civ.11.3-5. Compare
procedures for making decisions in a variety of settings,
including classroom, school,
government, and/or society.

D2.Civ.11.6-8. Differentiate
among procedures for making decisions in the classroom, school, civil society,
and local, state, and national
government in terms of how
civic purposes are intended.

D2.Civ.11.9-12. Evaluate
multiple procedures for making governmental decisions at
the local, state, national, and
international levels in terms of
the civic purposes achieved.

D2.Civ.12.K-2. Identify and
explain how rules function in
public (classroom and school)
settings.

D2.Civ.12.3-5. Explain how
rules and laws change society
and how people change rules
and laws.

D2.Civ.12.6-8. Assess
specific rules and laws (both
actual and proposed) as
means of addressing public
problems.

D2.Civ.12.9-12. Analyze how
people use and challenge
local, state, national, and
international laws to address a
variety of public issues.

Begins in grades 3–5

D2.Civ.13.3-5. Explain how
policies are developed to
address public problems.

D2.Civ.13.6-8. Analyze the
purposes, implementation,
and consequences of public
policies in multiple settings.

D2.Civ.13.9-12. Evaluate
public policies in terms of
intended and unintended
outcomes, and related
consequences.

D2.Civ.14.K-2. Describe
how people have tried to
improve their communities
over time.

D2.Civ.14.3-5. Illustrate
historical and contemporary
means of changing society.

D2.Civ.14.6-8. Compare
historical and contemporary
means of changing societies,
and promoting the common
good.

D2.Civ.14.9-12. Analyze
historical, contemporary, and
emerging means of changing societies, promoting the
common good, and protecting rights.

34 • C3 Framework

ECONOMIC S
E FFEC T I V E ECO N O M I C D ECI S I O N ma k i ng requires

that students have a keen understanding of the ways in which
individuals, businesses, governments, and societies make decisions
to allocate human capital, physical capital, and natural resources
among alternative uses. This economic reasoning process involves the
consideration of costs and benefits with the ultimate goal of making
decisions that will enable individuals and societies to be as well off as
possible. The study of economics provides students with the concepts
and tools necessary for an economic way of thinking and helps students
understand the interaction of buyers and sellers in markets, workings of
the national economy, and interactions within the global marketplace.
Economics is grounded in knowledge about how people choose to use
resources. Economic understanding helps individuals, businesses,
governments, and societies choose what resources to devote to work,
to school, and to leisure; how many dollars to spend, and how many to
save; and how to make informed decisions in a wide variety of contexts.
Economic reasoning and skillful use of economic tools draw upon
a strong base of knowledge about human capital, land, investments,
money, income and production, taxes, and government expenditures.

Dimension 2: Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools • 35

Economic Decision Making
People make decisions about how to use scarce
resources to maximize the well-being of individuals and society. Economic decision making involves
setting goals and identifying the resources available
to achieve those goals. Alternative ways to use the
resources are investigated in terms of their advantages
and disadvantages. Since most choices involve a little
more of one thing and a little less of something else,
economic decision making includes weighing the

TABLE 12:

additional benefit of an action against the additional
cost. Investigating the incentives that motivate people
is an essential part of analyzing economic decision
making.
Indicators of Dimension 2—Economic Decision
Making—are detailed in the suggested K-12 Pathway
for College, Career, and Civic Readiness in Table 12.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 2, Economic Decision Making

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS…

D2.Eco.1.K-2. Explain how
scarcity necessitates decision
making.

D2.Eco.1.3-5. Compare the
benefits and costs of individual choices.

D2.Eco.1.6-8. Explain how
economic decisions affect
the well-being of individuals,
businesses, and society.

D2.Eco.1.9-12. Analyze how
incentives influence choices
that may result in policies with
a range of costs and benefits
for different groups.

D2.Eco.2.K-2. Identify the
benefits and costs of making
various personal decisions.

D2.Eco.2.3-5. Identify positive and negative incentives
that influence the decisions
people make.

D2.Eco.2.6-8. Evaluate
alternative approaches or
solutions to current economic
issues in terms of benefits and
costs for different groups and
society as a whole.

D2.Eco.2.9-12. Use marginal benefits and marginal costs
to construct an argument for
or against an approach or
solution to an economic issue.

36 • C3 Framework

Exchange and Markets
People voluntarily exchange goods and services when
both parties expect to gain as a result of the trade.
Markets exist to facilitate the exchange of goods
and services. When buyers and sellers interact in
well-functioning, competitive markets, prices are determined that reflect the relative scarcity of the goods
and services in the market. The principles of markets
apply to markets for goods and services, labor, credit,
TABLE 13:

foreign exchange, and others. Comparison of benefits and costs helps identify the circumstances under
which government action in markets is in the best
interest of society and when it is not.
Indicators of Dimension 2—Exchange and Markets—
are detailed in the suggested K-12 Pathway for College,
Career, and Civic Readiness in Table 13.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 2, Exchange and Markets

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS…

D2.Eco.3.K-2. Describe the
skills and knowledge required
to produce certain goods and
services.

D2.Eco.3.3-5. Identify
examples of the variety of
resources (human capital,
physical capital, and natural
resources) that are used to
produce goods and services.

D2.Eco.3.6-8. Explain the
roles of buyers and sellers in
product, labor, and financial
markets.

D2.Eco.3.9-12. Analyze
the ways in which incentives
influence what is produced
and distributed in a market
system.

D2.Eco.4.K-2. Describe
the goods and services that
people in the local community produce and those
that are produced in other
communities.

D2.Eco.4.3-5. Explain why
individuals and businesses
specialize and trade.

D2.Eco.4.6-8. Describe
the role of competition in the
determination of prices and
wages in a market economy.

D2.Eco.4.9-12. Evaluate the
extent to which competition
among sellers and among
buyers exists in specific
markets.

D2.Eco.5.K-2. Identify
prices of products in a local
market.

D2.Eco.5.3-5. Explain the
role of money in making
exchange easier.

D2.Eco.5.6-8. Explain ways
in which money facilitates
exchange by reducing transactional costs.

D2.Eco.5.9-12. Describe the
consequences of competition
in specific markets.

D2.Eco.6.K-2. Explain how
people earn income.

D2.Eco.6.3-5. Explain
the relationship between
investment in human capital,
productivity, and future
incomes.

D2.Eco.6.6-8. Explain how
changes in supply and demand cause changes in prices
and quantities of goods and
services, labor, credit, and
foreign currencies.

D2.Eco.6.9-12. Generate
possible explanations for a
government role in markets
when market inefficiencies
exist.

D2.Eco.7.K-2. Describe
examples of costs of
production.

D2.Eco.7.3-5. Explain how
profits influence sellers in
markets.

D2.Eco.7.6-8. Analyze
the role of innovation and
entrepreneurship in a market
economy.

D2.Eco.7.9-12. Use benefits
and costs to evaluate the
effectiveness of government
policies to improve market
outcomes.

Begins in grades 3-5

D2.Eco.8.3-5. Identify
examples of external benefits
and costs.

D2.Eco.8.6-8. Explain how
external benefits and costs
influence market outcomes.

D2.Eco.8.9-12. Describe the
possible consequences, both
intended and unintended,
of government policies to
improve market outcomes.

D2.Eco.9.K-2. Describe the
role of banks in an economy.

D2.Eco.9.3-5. Describe the
role of other financial institutions in an economy.

D2.Eco.9.6-8. Describe the
roles of institutions such as
corporations, non-profits,
and labor unions in a market
economy.

D2.Eco.9.9-12. Describe
the roles of institutions such
as clearly defined property
rights and the rule of law in a
market economy.

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 37

The National Economy
Changes in the amounts and qualities of human capital, physical capital, and natural resources influence
current and future economic conditions and standards
of living. All markets working together influence
economic growth and fluctuations in well-being.
Monetary and fiscal policies are often designed and
used in attempts to moderate fluctuations and encourage growth under a wide variety of circumstances.
Policies changing the growth in the money supply and
overall levels of spending in the economy are aimed
TABLE 14:

at reducing inflationary or deflationary pressures;
increasing employment or decreasing unemployment
levels; and increasing economic growth over time.
Policies designed to achieve alternative goals often
have unintended effects on levels of inflation, employment, and growth.
Indicators of Dimension 2—The National Economy—
are detailed in the suggested K-12 Pathway for College,
Career, and Civic Readiness in Table 14.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 2, The National Economy

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS…

D2.Eco.10.K-2. Explain why
people save.

D2.Eco.10.3-5. Explain
what interest rates are.

D2.Eco.10.6-8. Explain
the influence of changes in
interest rates on borrowing
and investing.

D2.Eco.10.9-12. Use current
data to explain the influence
of changes in spending,
production, and the money
supply on various economic
conditions.

Begins in grades 3–5

D2.Eco.11.3-5. Explain the
meaning of inflation, deflation, and unemployment.

D2.Eco.11.6-8. Use appropriate data to evaluate
the state of employment,
unemployment, inflation,
total production, income,
and economic growth in the
economy.

D2.Eco.11.9-12. Use economic indicators to analyze
the current and future state of
the economy.

D2.Eco.12.K-2. Describe
examples of the goods and
services that governments
provide.

D2.Eco.12.3-5. Explain the
ways in which the government pays for the goods and
services it provides.

D2.Eco.12.6-8. Explain how
inflation, deflation, and unemployment affect different
groups.

D2.Eco.12.9-12. Evaluate
the selection of monetary and
fiscal policies in a variety of
economic conditions.

D2.Eco.13.K-2. Describe
examples of capital goods
and human capital.

D2.Eco.13.3-5. Describe
ways people can increase productivity by using improved
capital goods and improving
their human capital.

D2.Eco.13.6-8. Explain why
standards of living increase as
productivity improves.

D2.Eco.13.9-12. Explain why
advancements in technology
and investments in capital
goods and human capital
increase economic growth
and standards of living.

38 • C3 Framework

The Global Economy
Economic globalization occurs with cross-border
movement of goods, services, technology, information, and human, physical, and financial capital.
Understanding why people specialize and trade, and
how that leads to increased economic interdependence, are fundamental steps in understanding how
the world economy functions. While trade provides
significant benefits, it is not without costs. Comparing
TABLE 15:

those benefits and costs is essential in evaluating
policies to influence trade among individuals and
businesses in different countries.
Indicators of Dimension 2—The Global Economy—
are detailed in the suggested K-12 Pathway for College,
Career, and Civic Readiness in Table 15.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 2, The Global Economy

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS…

D2.Eco.14.K-2. Describe
why people in one country
trade goods and services with
people in other countries.

D2.Eco.14.3-5. Explain
how trade leads to increasing
economic interdependence
among nations.

D2.Eco.14.6-8. Explain
barriers to trade and how
those barriers influence trade
among nations.

D2.Eco.14.9-12. Analyze the
role of comparative advantage in international trade of
goods and services.

D2.Eco.15.K-2. Describe
products that are produced
abroad and sold domestically and products that are
produced domestically and
sold abroad.

D2.Eco.15.3-5. Explain
the effects of increasing
economic interdependence
on different groups within
participating nations.

D2.Eco.15.6-8. Explain
the benefits and the costs of
trade policies to individuals,
businesses, and society.

D2.Eco.15.9-12. Explain
how current globalization
trends and policies affect
economic growth, labor
markets, rights of citizens, the
environment, and resource
and income distribution in
different nations.

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 39

GEOGR APH Y
E ACH PL ACE O N E A R T H has a unique set of local conditions and

connections to other places. Some activities are appropriate in a given
place and other activities are not. Events in one place influence events in
other places. Geographic knowledge helps people to make decisions about
“Where can I be safe, successful, and happy in my daily activities?” and
“How can my community create and sustain a healthy environment?”
Such knowledge is critically important to understanding what activities
might be harmful to a place or what hazards might be encountered there.
Geographic inquiry helps people understand and appreciate their own
place in the world, and fosters curiosity about Earth’s wide diversity of
environments and cultures.
Geographic reasoning rests on deep knowledge of Earth’s physical
and human features, including the locations of places and regions, the
distribution of landforms and water bodies, and historic changes in
political boundaries, economic activities, and cultures.
Geographic reasoning requires using spatial and environmental perspectives, skills in asking and answering questions, and being able to apply
geographic representations including maps, imagery, and geospatial technologies. A spatial perspective is about whereness. Where are people and
things located? Why there? What are the consequences? An environmental
perspective views people as living in interdependent relationships within
diverse environments. Thinking geographically requires knowing that
the world is a set of complex ecosystems interacting at multiple scales that
structure the spatial patterns and processes that influence our daily lives.
Geographic reasoning brings societies and nature under the lens of
spatial analysis, and aids in personal and societal decision making and
problem solving.

40 • C3 Framework

Geographic Representations: Spatial Views of the World
Creating maps and using geospatial technologies
requires a process of answering geographic questions
by gathering relevant information; organizing and
analyzing the information; and using effective means
to communicate the findings. Once a map or other representation is created, it prompts new questions concerning the locations, spaces, and patterns
portrayed. Creating maps and other geographical
representations is an essential and enduring part of
TABLE 16:

seeking new geographic knowledge that is personally
and socially useful and that can be applied in making
decisions and solving problems.
Indicators of Dimension 2—Geographic
Representations—are detailed in the suggested K-12
Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness in
Table 16.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 2, Geographic Representations

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS…

D2.Geo.1.K-2. Construct
maps, graphs, and other
representations of familiar
places.

D2.Geo.1.3-5. Construct
maps and other graphic representations of both familiar
and unfamiliar places.

D2.Geo.1.6-8. Construct
maps to represent and
explain the spatial patterns
of cultural and environmental
characteristics.

D2.Geo.1.9-12. Use geospatial and related technologies
to create maps to display and
explain the spatial patterns
of cultural and environmental
characteristics.

D2.Geo.2.K-2. Use maps,
graphs, photographs, and
other representations to
describe places and the relationships and interactions that
shape them.

D2.Geo.2.3-5. Use maps,
satellite images, photographs,
and other representations to
explain relationships between
the locations of places and
regions and their environmental characteristics.

D2.Geo.2.6-8. Use maps,
satellite images, photographs,
and other representations to
explain relationships between
the locations of places and
regions, and changes in their
environmental characteristics.

D2.Geo.2.9-12. Use maps,
satellite images, photographs,
and other representations to
explain relationships between
the locations of places and
regions and their political,
cultural, and economic
dynamics.

D2.Geo.3.K-2. Use maps,
globes, and other simple geographic models to identify
cultural and environmental
characteristics of places.

D2.Geo.3.3-5. Use maps of
different scales to describe
the locations of cultural and
environmental characteristics.

D2.Geo.3.6-8. Use paper
based and electronic mapping and graphing techniques
to represent and analyze
spatial patterns of different
environmental and cultural
characteristics.

D2.Geo.3.9-12. Use geographic data to analyze variations in the spatial patterns
of cultural and environmental
characteristics at multiple
scales.

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 41

Human-Environment Interaction: Place, Regions, and Culture
Human-environment interactions are essential aspects of human life in all societies and they occur at
local-to-global scales. Human-environment interactions happen both in specific places and across broad
regions. Culture influences the locations and the types
of interactions that occur. Earth’s human systems
and physical systems are in constant interaction and
have reciprocal influences flowing among them. These
TABLE 17:

interactions result in a variety of spatial patterns that
require careful observation, investigation, analysis,
and explanation.
Indicators of Dimension 2—Human-Environment
Interaction—are detailed in the suggested K-12
Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness in
Table 17.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 2, Human-Environment Interaction

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS…

D2.Geo.4.K-2. Explain how
weather, climate, and other
environmental characteristics
affect people’s lives in a place
or region.

D2.Geo.4.3-5. Explain how
culture influences the way
people modify and adapt to
their environments.

D2.Geo.4.6-8. Explain
how cultural patterns and
economic decisions influence
environments and the daily
lives of people in both nearby
and distant places.

D2.Geo.4.9-12. Analyze
relationships and interactions
within and between human
and physical systems to
explain reciprocal influences
that occur among them.

D2.Geo.5.K-2. Describe
how human activities affect
the cultural and environmental characteristics of places or
regions.

D2.Geo.5.3-5. Explain how
the cultural and environmental characteristics of places
change over time.

D2.Geo.5.6-8. Analyze the
combinations of cultural and
environmental characteristics
that make places both similar
to and different from other
places.

D2.Geo.5.9-12. Evaluate
how political and economic
decisions throughout time
have influenced cultural and
environmental characteristics
of various places and regions.

D2.Geo.6.K-2. Identify
some cultural and environmental characteristics of
specific places.

D2.Geo.6.3-5. Describe
how environmental and cultural characteristics influence
population distribution in
specific places or regions.

D2.Geo.6.6-8. Explain
how the physical and human
characteristics of places and
regions are connected to human identities and cultures.

D2.Geo.6.9-12. Evaluate the
impact of human settlement
activities on the environmental and cultural characteristics
of specific places and regions.

42 • C3 Framework

Human Population: Spatial Patterns and Movements
The size, composition, distribution, and movement of human populations are fundamental and
active features on Earth’s surface. The expansion
and redistribution of the human population affects
patterns of settlement, environmental changes, and
resource use. The spatial patterns and movements of
population also relate to physical phenomena including climate variability, landforms, and locations of
various natural hazards. Further, political, economic,
and technological changes sometimes have dramatic
TABLE 18:

effects on population size, composition, and distribution. Past, present, and future conditions on Earth’s
surface cannot be fully understood without asking
and answering questions about the spatial patterns of
human population.
Indicators of Dimension 2—Human Population:
Spatial Patterns and Movements—are detailed in the
suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic
Readiness in Table 18.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 2, Human Population: Spatial Patterns and Movements

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS…

D2.Geo.7.K-2. Explain why
and how people, goods, and
ideas move from place to
place.

D2.Geo.7.3-5. Explain how
cultural and environmental
characteristics affect the
distribution and movement of
people, goods, and ideas.

D2.Geo.7.6-8. Explain how
changes in transportation
and communication technology influence the spatial
connections among human
settlements and affect the
diffusion of ideas and cultural
practices.

D2.Geo.7.9-12. Analyze the
reciprocal nature of how historical events and the spatial
diffusion of ideas, technologies, and cultural practices
have influenced migration
patterns and the distribution
of human population.

D2.Geo.8.K-2. Compare
how people in different types
of communities use local and
distant environments to meet
their daily needs.

D2.Geo.8.3-5. Explain
how human settlements and
movements relate to the
locations and use of various
natural resources.

D2.Geo.8.6-8. Analyze
how relationships between
humans and environments
extend or contract spatial
patterns of settlement and
movement.

D2.Geo.8.9-12. Evaluate the
impact of economic activities
and political decisions on
spatial patterns within and
among urban, suburban, and
rural regions.

D2.Geo.9.K-2. Describe
the connections between
the physical environment of
a place and the economic
activities found there.

D2.Geo.9.3-5. Analyze the
effects of catastrophic environmental and technological
events on human settlements
and migration.

D2.Geo.9.6-8. Evaluate the
influences of long-term human-induced environmental
change on spatial patterns of
conflict and cooperation.

D2.Geo.9.9-12. Evaluate the
influence of long-term climate
variability on human migration and settlement patterns,
resource use, and land uses at
local-to-global scales.

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 43

Global Interconnections: Changing Spatial Patterns
Global interconnections occur in both human and
physical systems. Earth is a set of interconnected ecosystems of which humans are an influential
part. Many natural phenomena have no perceptible
boundaries. For example, the oceans are one dynamic
system. The atmosphere covers the entire planet. Land
and water forms shift over geological eons. Many life
forms diffuse from place to place and bring environmental changes with them. Humans have spread
across the planet, along with their cultural practices,
artifacts, languages, diseases, and other attributes.
All of these interconnections create complex spatial
TABLE 19:

patterns at multiple scales that continue to change
over time. Global-scale issues and problems cannot be
resolved without extensive collaboration among the
world’s peoples, nations, and economic organizations.
Asking and answering questions about global interconnections and spatial patterns are a necessary part
of geographic reasoning.
Indicators of Dimension 2—Global Interconnections—
are detailed in the suggested K-12 Pathway for College,
Career, and Civic Readiness in Table 19.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 2, Global Interconnections

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS…

D2.Geo.10.K-2. Describe
changes in the physical and
cultural characteristics of
various world regions.

D2.Geo.10.3-5. Explain why
environmental characteristics
vary among different world
regions.

D2.Geo.10.6-8. Analyze
the ways in which cultural and
environmental characteristics
vary among various regions of
the world.

D2.Geo.10.9-12. Evaluate
how changes in the environmental and cultural characteristics of a place or region
influence spatial patterns of
trade and land use.

D2.Geo.11.K-2. Explain how
the consumption of products
connects people to distant
places.

D2.Geo.11.3-5. Describe
how the spatial patterns of
economic activities in a place
change over time because of
interactions with nearby and
distant places.

D2.Geo.11.6-8. Explain how
the relationship between the
environmental characteristics
of places and production of
goods influences the spatial
patterns of world trade.

D2.Geo.11.9-12. Evaluate
how economic globalization
and the expanding use of
scarce resources contribute
to conflict and cooperation
within and among countries.

D2.Geo.12.K-2. Identify
ways that a catastrophic
disaster may affect people
living in a place.

D2.Geo.12.3-5. Explain
how natural and human-made
catastrophic events in one
place affect people living in
other places.

D2.Geo.12.6-8. Explain how
global changes in population
distribution patterns affect
changes in land use in particular places.

D2.Geo.12.9-12. Evaluate
the consequences of
human-made and natural
catastrophes on global
trade, politics, and human
migration.

44 • C3 Framework

HIS TORY
H I S TO R I C AL TH I NK I N G R EQU I R E S understanding and
evaluating change and continuity over time, and making appropriate use
of historical evidence in answering questions and developing arguments
about the past. It involves going beyond simply asking, “What happened
when?” to evaluating why and how events occurred and developments
unfolded. It involves locating and assessing historical sources of many
different types to understand the contexts of given historical eras and the
perspectives of different individuals and groups within geographic units
that range from the local to the global. Historical thinking is a process of
chronological reasoning, which means wrestling with issues of causality,
connections, significance, and context with the goal of developing
credible explanations of historical events and developments based on
reasoned interpretation of evidence.
Historical inquiry involves acquiring knowledge about significant
events, developments, individuals, groups, documents, places, and ideas
to support investigations about the past. Acquiring relevant knowledge
requires assembling information from a wide variety of sources in an
integrative process. Students might begin with key events or individuals
introduced by the teacher or identified by educational leaders at the state
level, and then investigate them further. Or they might take a source from
a seemingly insignificant individual and make connections between that
person and larger events, or trace the person’s contributions to a major
development. Scholars, teachers, and students form an understanding
of what is and what is not significant from the emergence of new sources,
from current events, from their locale, and from asking questions about
changes that affected large numbers of people in the past or had enduring
consequences. Developing historical knowledge in connection with
historical investigations not only helps students remember the content
better because it has meaning, but also allows students to become
better thinkers.

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 45

Change, Continuity, and Context
At its heart, chronological reasoning requires understanding processes of change and continuity over
time, which means assessing similarities and differences between historical periods and between the past
and present. It also involves coming to understand
how a change in one area of life relates to a change in
other areas, thus bringing together political, economic, intellectual, social, cultural, and other factors.
Understanding the interrelation of patterns of change

Table 20:

requires evaluating the context within which events
unfolded in order not to view events in isolation, and
to be able to assess the significance of specific individuals, groups, and developments.nts.
Indicators of Dimension 2—Change, Continuity and
Context—are detailed in the suggested K-12 Pathway
for College, Career, and Civic Readiness in Table 20.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 2, Change, Continuity, and Context

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS…

D2.His.1.K-2. Create a
chronological sequence of
multiple events.

D2.His.1.3-5. Create and
use a chronological sequence
of related events to compare
developments that happened
at the same time.

D2.His.1.6-8. Analyze
connections among events
and developments in broader
historical contexts.

D2.His.1.9-12. Evaluate how
historical events and developments were shaped by
unique circumstances of time
and place as well as broader
historical contexts.

D2.His.2.K-2. Compare life
in the past to life today.

D2.His.2.3-5. Compare
life in specific historical time
periods to life today.

D2.His.2.6-8. Classify
series of historical events and
developments as examples of
change and/or continuity.

D2.His.2.9-12. Analyze
change and continuity in
historical eras.

D2.His.3.K-2. Generate
questions about individuals
and groups who have shaped
a significant historical change.

D2.His.3.3-5. Generate
questions about individuals
and groups who have shaped
significant historical changes
and continuities.

D2.His.3.6-8. Use questions
generated about individuals
and groups to analyze why
they, and the developments
they shaped, are seen as
historically significant.

D2.His.3.9-12. Use questions generated about individuals and groups to assess
how the significance of their
actions changes over time
and is shaped by the historical
context.

46 • C3 Framework

Perspectives
History is interpretive. Even if they are eyewitnesses, people construct different accounts of the same
event, which are shaped by their perspectives—their
ideas, attitudes, and beliefs. Historical understanding
requires recognizing this multiplicity of points of
view in the past, which makes it important to seek
out a range of sources on any historical question
rather than simply use those that are easiest to find.
It also requires recognizing that perspectives change

TABLE 21:

over time, so that historical understanding requires
developing a sense of empathy with people in the past
whose perspectives might be very different from those
of today.
Indicators of Dimension 2—Perspectives—are detailed
in the suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and
Civic Readiness in Table 21.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 2, Perspectives

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS…

D2.His.4.K-2. Compare
perspectives of people in the
past to those of people in the
present.

D2.His.4.3-5. Explain why
individuals and groups during
the same historical period
differed in their perspectives.

D2.His.4.6-8. Analyze multiple factors that influenced the
perspectives of people during
different historical eras.

D2.His.4.9-12. Analyze
complex and interacting
factors that influenced the
perspectives of people during
different historical eras.

Begins in grades 3–5

D2.His.5.3-5. Explain
connections among historical
contexts and people’s perspectives at the time.

D2.His.5.6-8. Explain how
and why perspectives of people have changed over time.

D2.His.5.9-12. Analyze how
historical contexts shaped
and continue to shape people’s perspectives.

D2.His.6.K-2. Compare different accounts of the same
historical event.

D2.His.6.3-5. Describe how
people’s perspectives shaped
the historical sources they
created.

D2.His.6.6-8. Analyze
how people’s perspectives
influenced what information
is available in the historical
sources they created.

D2.His.6.9-12. Analyze the
ways in which the perspectives of those writing history
shaped the history that they
produced.

Begins in grades 9–12

Begins in grades 9–12

Begins in grades 9–12

D2.His.7.9-12. Explain how
the perspectives of people in
the present shape interpretations of the past.

Begins in grades 9–12

Begins in grades 9–12

Begins in grades 9–12

D2.His.8.9-12. Analyze how
current interpretations of the
past are limited by the extent
to which available historical
sources represent perspectives of people at the time.

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 47

Historical Sources and Evidence
Historical inquiry is based on materials left from the
past that can be studied and analyzed. Such materials,
referred to as historical sources or primary sources,
include written documents, but also objects, artistic
works, oral accounts, landscapes that humans have
modified, or even materials contained within the
human body, such as DNA. These sources become
evidence once they are selected to answer a historical
question, a process that involves taking into account
features of the source itself, such as its maker or date.

TABLE 22:

The selection process also requires paying attention to
the wider historical context in order to choose sources
that are relevant and credible. Examining sources
often leads to further questions as well as answers in a
spiraling process of inquiry.
Indicators of Dimension 2—Historical Sources and
Evidence—are detailed in the suggested K-12 Pathway
for College, Career, and Civic Readiness in Table 22.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 2, Historical Sources and Evidence

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS…

D2.His.9.K-2. Identify different kinds of historical sources.

D2.His.9.3-5. Summarize
how different kinds of historical sources are used to
explain events in the past.

D2.His.9.6-8. Classify the
kinds of historical sources used in a secondary
interpretation.

D2.His.9.9-12. Analyze the
relationship between historical sources and the secondary
interpretations made from
them.

D2.His.10.K-2. Explain how
historical sources can be used
to study the past.

D2.His.10.3-5. Compare
information provided by different historical sources about
the past.

D2.His.10.6-8. Detect possible limitations in the historical record based on evidence
collected from different kinds
of historical sources.

D2.His.10.9-12. Detect
possible limitations in various
kinds of historical evidence
and differing secondary
interpretations.

D2.His.11.K-2. Identify the
maker, date, and place of
origin for a historical source
from information within the
source itself.

D2.His.11.3-5. Infer the
intended audience and
purpose of a historical source
from information within the
source itself.

D2.His.11.6-8. Use other
historical sources to infer a
plausible maker, date, place
of origin, and intended audience for historical sources
where this information is not
easily identified.

D2.His.11.9-12. Critique
the usefulness of historical
sources for a specific historical
inquiry based on their maker,
date, place of origin, intended
audience, and purpose.

D2.His.12.K-2. Generate
questions about a particular
historical source as it relates
to a particular historical event
or development.

D2.His.12.3-5. Generate
questions about multiple
historical sources and their
relationships to particular historical events and
developments.

D2.His.12.6-8. Use
questions generated about
multiple historical sources to
identify further areas of inquiry and additional sources.

D2.His.12.9-12. Use
questions generated about
multiple historical sources to
pursue further inquiry and investigate additional sources.

Begins at grade 3–5

D2.His.13.3-5. Use information about a historical
source, including the maker,
date, place of origin, intended
audience, and purpose to
judge the extent to which the
source is useful for studying a
particular topic.

D2.His.13.6-8. Evaluate
the relevancy and utility of
a historical source based on
information such as maker,
date, place of origin, intended
audience, and purpose.

D2.His.13.9-12. Critique
the appropriateness of the
historical sources used in a
secondary interpretation.

48 • C3 Framework

Causation and Argumentation
No historical event or development occurs in a vacuum; each one has prior conditions and causes, and
each one has consequences. Historical thinking involves using evidence and reasoning to draw conclusions about probable causes and effects, recognizing
that these are multiple and complex. It requires understanding that the outcome of any historical event
may not be what those who engaged in it intended
or predicted, so that chains of cause and effect in the
past are unexpected and contingent, not pre-determined. Along with claims about causes and effects,

TABLE 23:

historical arguments can also address issues of change
over time, the relevance of sources, the perspectives
of those involved, and many other topics, but must be
based on evidence that is used in a critical, coherent,
and logical manner.
Indicators of Dimension 2—Causation and
Argumentation—are detailed in the suggested K-12
Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness in
Table 23.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 2, Causation and Argumentation

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS…

D2.His.14.K-2. Generate
possible reasons for an event
or development in the past.

D2.His.14.3-5. Explain
probable causes and effects
of events and developments.

D2.His.14.6-8. Explain
multiple causes and effects of
events and developments in
the past.

D2.His.14.9-12. Analyze
multiple and complex causes
and effects of events in the
past.

Begins in grades 6–8

Begins in grades 6–8

D2.His.15.6-8. Evaluate the
relative influence of various
causes of events and developments in the past.

D2.His.15.9-12. Distinguish
between long-term causes and triggering events
in developing a historical
argument.

D2.His.16.K-2. Select which
reasons might be more likely
than others to explain a historical event or development.

D2.His.16.3-5. Use evidence to develop a claim
about the past.

D2.His.16.6-8. Organize
applicable evidence into a
coherent argument about the
past.

D2.His.16.9-12. Integrate
evidence from multiple relevant historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned
argument about the past.

Begins in grades 3–5

D2.His.17.3-5. Summarize
the central claim in a secondary work of history.

D2.His.17.6-8. Compare the
central arguments in secondary works of history on related
topics in multiple media.

D2.His.17.9-12. Critique
the central arguments in
secondary works of history on
related topics in multiple media in terms of their historical
accuracy.

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 49

✪

ENGLISH L ANGUAGE AR T S/LITER AC Y COMMON CORE
CONNEC TIONS: DIMENSION 2

The ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards emphasize analysis, argumentation, and the use of evidence
throughout the standards. As noted in the ELA/
Literacy Common Core Standards, students who are
college and career ready can independently “construct
effective arguments and convey intricate or multifaceted information” and “use relevant evidence” when
making arguments (NGA and CCSSO, 2010a, p. 7).
Dimension 2 in the C3 Framework describes the
concepts and tools in civics, economics, geography,
and history that are needed to use evidence to make
disciplinary arguments. The ELA/Literacy Common
Core Standards also describe how students develop
language skills and build vocabulary. College and
career readiness requires the ability to independently
“use a wide-ranging vocabulary” (NGA and CCSSO,
2010a, p. 7). The C3 framework emphasizes disciplinary vocabulary through the introduction of new
concepts and the language of the disciplines.
Table 24 details connections between Dimension
2 and the College and Career Readiness Anchor
Standards in the ELA/Literacy Common Core
Standards. These connections are further elaborated
with examples.
Connections between the C3 Framework and
the College and Career Readiness Anchor
Standards. While the connections between the C3
Framework and the ELA/Literacy Common Core

TABLE 24:

Standards are comprehensive and consistent, thirteen
CCR Anchor Standards within the ELA/Literacy
Common Core Standards have broader connections
within Dimension 2.
Anchor Reading Standards 1–10 are closely aligned
with Dimension 2. As students use the disciplinary
tools and develop knowledge about the disciplinary
concepts highlighted in Dimension 2, they will engage
with a variety of sources requiring a wide range of
reading skills. During these experiences, students will
need to use the full complement of skills highlighted in the reading standards. They will need to read
closely for meaning, while determining main ideas,
details, structure, purpose, source type, and claims
emitting from the sources, and comparing multiple
sources. All of these reading activities are regulated by
the clear expectations of Anchor Reading Standards
1-10: the demand that answers to questions be backed
up by evidence either explicitly drawn from the text
or inferred from it, and the requirement that the text
under study be of the appropriate level of complexity
for the grade band in question.
Anchor Writing Standard 7 is focused on the research
process. All four social studies disciplines represented
in Dimension 2, as well as the behavioral and social
sciences of psychology, sociology, and anthropology,
emphasize research-based analytical skills using disciplinary concepts and tools.

Connections between Dimension 2 and the CCR Anchor Standards in the ELA/Literacy Common
Core Standards
Civics

ELA/LITERACY CCR
ANCHOR STANDARDS
CONNECTIONS

Economics
Geography

Anchor Reading Standards 1–10
Anchor Writing Standard 7
Anchor Speaking and Listening Standard 1
Anchor Language Standard 6

History
SHARED LANGUAGE

50 • C3 Framework

Analysis; Argument; Evidence; Questioning

Anchor Speaking and Listening Standard 1 calls on
students to “prepare for and participate effectively in
a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively” (NGA and
CCSSO, 2010a, p. 22). Dimension 2 asks students to
engage disciplinary tools and concepts in collaborative settings working “individually and with others.”
Anchor Language Standard 6 requires that students
“acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases”
(NGA and CCSSO, 2010a, p. 51). The C3 Framework
supports this language standard by setting forth
expectations that students will develop conceptual
knowledge within the disciplines. The development

and expansion of vocabulary is an important part of
the ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards and the
C3 Framework; Language Standard 6 requires that
students acquire and use academic and domain-specific words and phrases—words such as virtue, fiscal,
spatial, and perspective that are included in the
Indicators of Dimension 2.
Shared Language. The ELA/Literacy Common
Core Standards closely align with Indicators in
Dimension 2. In places, the connections between
the Common Core Standards and C3 Framework
Indicators are so close that the same language is used.
Dimension 2 and the ELA/Literacy Common Core
Standards regularly use terms such as analysis, argument, evidence, and questioning.

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 51

52 • C3 Framework

Dimension 3

Evaluating
Sources &
USING
EVIDENCE
DIMENSION 3 INCLUDES the skills students need to analyze information and

come to conclusions in an inquiry. These skills focus on gathering and evaluating
sources, and then developing claims and using evidence to support those claims.

Students should use various technologies and skills
to find information and to express their responses
to compelling and supporting questions through
well-reasoned explanations and evidence-based
arguments. Through the rigorous analysis of sources
and application of information from those sources,
students should make the evidence-based claims that
will form the basis for their conclusions.
Although Dimension 3 includes a sophisticated set
of skills, even the youngest children understand the

need to give reasons for their ideas. As they progress
through the grades, students learn more advanced
approaches related to these skills. In the subsection Developing Claims and Using Evidence below,
students generate claims and identify evidence to
support those claims.
The specific skills described in Dimension 3 support
the examination of content using concepts and tools
from the social studies disciplines.

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 53

Gathering and Evaluating Sources
Whether students are constructing opinions, explanation, or arguments, they will gather information
from a variety of sources and evaluate the relevance
of that information. In this section, students are
asked to work with the sources that they gather and/
or are provided for them. It is important for students
to use online and print sources, and they need to be
mindful that not all sources are relevant to their task.

TABLE 25:

They also need to understand that there are general
Common Core literacy skills, such as identifying an
author’s purpose, main idea, and point of view, that
will help in evaluating the usefulness of a source.
Indicators of Dimension 3—Gathering and Evaluating
Sources—are detailed in the suggested K-12 Pathway
for College, Career, and Civic Readiness in Table 25.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 3, Gathering and Evaluating Sources

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS…

D3.1.K-2. Gather relevant
information from one or two
sources while using the origin
and structure to guide the
selection.

D3.1.3-5. Gather relevant
information from multiple
sources while using the origin,
structure, and context to
guide the selection.

D3.1.6-8. Gather relevant
information from multiple
sources while using the origin,
authority, structure, context,
and corroborative value of
the sources to guide the
selection.

D3.1.9-12. Gather relevant
information from multiple
sources representing a wide
range of views while using the
origin, authority, structure,
context, and corroborative
value of the sources to guide
the selection.

D3.2.K-2. Evaluate a source
by distinguishing between
fact and opinion.

D3.2.3-5. Use distinctions
among fact and opinion to
determine the credibility of
multiple sources.

D3.2.6-8. Evaluate the
credibility of a source by
determining its relevance and
intended use.

D3.2.9-12. Evaluate the
credibility of a source by
examining how experts value
the source.

54 • C3 Framework

Developing Claims and Using Evidence
This subsection focuses on argumentation. In contrast to opinions and explanations, argumentation
involves the ability to understand the source-to-evidence relationship. That relationship emphasizes the
development of claims and counterclaims and the
purposeful selection of evidence in support of those
claims and counterclaims. Students will learn to
develop claims using evidence, but their initial claims
will often be tentative and probing. As students delve
deeper into the available sources, they construct more

TABLE 26:

sophisticated claims and counterclaims that draw
on evidence from multiple sources. Whether those
claims are implicitly or explicitly stated in student
products, they will reflect the evidence students have
selected from the sources they have consulted.
Indicators of Dimension 3—Developing Claims and
Using Evidence—are detailed in the suggested K-12
Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness in
Table 26.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 3, Developing Claims and Using Evidence

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS…

Begins in grades 3–5

D3.3.3-5. Identify evidence
that draws information from
multiple sources in response
to compelling questions.

D3.3.6-8. Identify evidence
that draws information from
multiple sources to support
claims, noting evidentiary
limitations.

D3.3.9-12. Identify evidence
that draws information directly and substantively from
multiple sources to detect
inconsistencies in evidence in
order to revise or strengthen
claims.

Begins in grades 3–5

D3.4.3-5. Use evidence to
develop claims in response to
compelling questions.

D3.4.6-8. Develop claims
and counterclaims while
pointing out the strengths
and limitations of both.

D3.4.9-12. Refine claims and
counterclaims attending to
precision, significance, and
knowledge conveyed through
the claim while pointing out
the strengths and limitations
of both.

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 55

✪

ENGLISH L ANGUAGE AR T S/LITER AC Y COMMON CORE
CONNEC TIONS: DIMENSION 3

The ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards focus
broadly on evaluating sources and using evidence
as skills that are fundamental to success in college and career. According to the Common Core
Standards,“students need the ability to gather, comprehend, evaluate, synthesize, and report on information and ideas” (NGA and CCSSO, 2010a, p. 4).
Students are expected to “use relevant evidence when
supporting their own points in writing and speaking,
making their reasoning clear to the reader or listener, and they constructively evaluate others’ use of
evidence” (NGA and CCSSO, 2010a, p. 7). The ELA/
Literacy Common Core Standards also make clear
that these skills connect to civic life, arguing that
students must “reflexively demonstrate the cogent
reasoning and use of evidence that is essential to both
private deliberation and responsible citizenship in a
democratic republic” (NGA and CCSSO, 2010a, p. 3).
Through research, students hone their ability to gather and evaluate information and then use that information as evidence in a wide range of endeavors. The
ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards emphasize
these skills as key to an integrated model of literacy.
The C3 Framework and the Indicators in Dimension 3
apply this model to social studies inquiry.
Table 27 details connections between Dimension
3 and the College and Career Readiness Anchor
Standards in the ELA/Literacy Common Core
Standards. These connections are further elaborated
with examples.

Table 27:

Connections between the C3 Framework and
the College and Career Readiness Anchor
Standards. While the connections between the C3
Framework and the ELA/Literacy Common Core
Standards are comprehensive and consistent, seventeen CCR Anchor Standards within the ELA/Literacy
Common Core Standards have broader connections
within Dimension 3.
Anchor Reading Standards 1–10 are closely aligned
with Dimension 3. As students gather and evaluate information, develop claims, and use evidence,
they will engage with a variety of sources requiring
a wide range of reading skills. During these experiences, students will need to use the full complement
of skills highlighted in the Reading Standards by
reading closely for meaning, while determining main
ideas, details, structure, purpose, source type, and
claims emitting from the sources, and comparing
among multiple sources. The ten Anchor Reading
Standards offer a foundation for social studies inquiry. Together, the standards offer a comprehensive
picture of a skilled reader who is prepared to engage
sources during the process of inquiry. For example,
Reading Standard 1 requires students to “cite specific
textual evidence when writing or speaking” (NGA
and CCSSO, 2010a, p. 10).
This skill is an important part of evaluating the credibility of a source, something that the C3 Framework
calls on students to do in Dimension 3. Additionally,
in Reading Standard 8, students are expected to

Connections between Dimension 3 and the CCR Anchor Standards in the ELA/Literacy Common
Core Standards

ELA/LITERACY CCR
ANCHOR STANDARDS
CONNECTIONS

Gathering and Evaluating
Sources
Developing Claims and
Using Evidence

SHARED LANGUAGE

56 • C3 Framework

Reading 1–10
Writing 1, 2, 7–10
Speaking and Listening 1
Argument; Sources; Evidence; Claims, Counterclaims; Gather

evaluate arguments and claims in a text, given the
“relevance and sufficiency of the evidence” (NGA
and CCSSO, 2010a, p. 8). By developing these skills,
students become familiar with how others use evidence and understand the importance of evidence in
arguments. The C3 Framework asks students to apply
these skills in the process of inquiry, so they are able
to construct disciplinary explanations and arguments.
Students evaluate sources and use evidence regularly
when conducting inquiry. Anchor Writing Standard
1 sets an expectation that students will use “valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence”
when writing arguments (NGA and CCSSO, 2010a,
p. 18). Standard 2 for writing requires students to
“write informative/explanatory texts to examine and
convey complex ideas” (NGA and CCSSO, 2010a, p.
18). Writing Standards 7-9 offer a range of specific
activities that undergird student expectations for this
Dimension of the C3 Framework: Writing Standard
7 focuses on “short as well as more sustained research
projects based on focused questions” (NGA and
CCSSO, 2010a, p. 18); Writing Standard 8 calls on
students to “gather relevant information” and “assess
the credibility and accuracy of each source” (NGA
and CCSSO, 2010a, p. 18); and Writing Standard 9
asks students to draw evidence from (in this case) informational texts “to support analysis, reflection, and
research” (NGA and CCSSO, 2010a, p. 18). The C3
Framework extends all of these skills for the purpose
of disciplinary inquiry and civic engagement.
Inquiry in social studies is an inherently collaborative
activity, and thus, Anchor Speaking and Listening
Standard 1 is particularly relevant in Dimension 3.
Speaking and Listening Standard 1 calls on students
to “prepare for and participate effectively in a range of
conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their
own clearly and persuasively” (NGA and CCSSO,
2010a, p. 22). The C3 Framework assumes a collaborative environment as students work through their
inquiries. As students gather and evaluate sources for
relevant information and determine credibility toward building claims with evidence, they should have
multiple opportunities to practice civil, democratic
discourse with diverse partners.

Shared Language. The ELA/Literacy Common
Core Standards closely align with Indicators in
Dimension 3. In places, the connections between
the Common Core Standards and C3 Framework
Indicators are so close that we used the same language. For example, the terms argument, sources,
evidence, claims, counterclaims, and gather are used
consistently in both the ELA/Literacy Common Core
Standards and the C3 Framework.
It is important to note that the ELA/Literacy
Common Core Standards emphasize the unique skill
of argumentation in preparing students for college
and career. The disciplines that make up the social
studies, including the behavioral and social sciences,
stress the importance of arguments, and in particular,
the necessity of constructing them in ways that make
use of sources and data as evidence. While in grades
K–5, the ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards employ the term opinion to refer to a developing form of
argument, the C3 Framework uses the term argument
consistently throughout the K-12 grade bands.
The Common Core Standards use the terms sources
and gather regularly with regard to locating, evaluating, making claims, and using evidence. In places, the
ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards distinguish
sources as print or digital, as visual, quantitative and/or
textual sources, and as primary or secondary sources.
In social studies these distinctions are made manifest in spatial sources such as maps, quantitative
information reflecting economic data and trends,
and even physical sources such as historical artifacts.
Dimension 3 explicitly references the distinction
between primary and secondary sources, based on the
intended use by students.
Lastly, it is important to note that Anchor Writing
Standard 8 of the Common Core Standards calls attention to the issue of plagiarism and proper citation
of sources—a key concern for the C3 Framework and
for social studies teachers.

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 57

58 • C3 Framework

Dimension 4

Communicating
Conclusions &
Taking INFORMED
ACTION
THE C 3 FR AMEWORK PROVIDES GUIDANCE to states on framing social

studies standards that ask students to develop questions, apply disciplinary knowledge
and concepts, gather and evaluate sources, and then develop claims and use evidence
to support those claims. In addition, state social studies standards should consider
including expectations for students to collaborate with others as they communicate
and critique their conclusions in public venues.

These venues may range from the school classroom
to the larger public community. Collaborative efforts
may range from teaming up to work on a group
presentation with classmates to actual work on a local
issue that could involve addressing real-world problems that students analyze through the methods and
concepts informed by their work in the disciplines
that constitute the social studies.
Most inquiries will culminate in a range of activities
and assessments that support the goals of college
and career readiness. They should also support the
third feature of the C3 Framework: readiness for civic

life. Civic engagement in the social studies may take
many forms, from making independent and collaborative decisions within the classroom, to starting
and leading student organizations within schools, to
conducting community-based research and presenting findings to external stakeholders. The subsection
on page 62 below, Taking Informed Action, provides
students opportunities to adapt and apply their work
in the disciplines that constitute the social studies in
order to develop the skills and dispositions necessary
for an active civic life. In this respect, civic engagement is both a means of learning and applying social
studies knowledge.

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 59

Communicating and Critiquing Conclusions
Having worked independently and collaboratively
through the development of questions, the application
of disciplinary knowledge and concepts, and the gathering of sources and use of evidence and information,
students formalize their arguments and explanations.
Products such as essays, reports, and multimedia
presentations offer students opportunities to represent
their ideas in a variety of forms and communicate
their conclusions to a range of audiences. Students’

TABLE 28:

primary audiences will likely be their teachers and
classmates, but even young children benefit from opportunities to share their conclusions with audiences
outside their classroom doors.
Indicators of Dimension 4—Communicating
Conclusions—are detailed in the suggested K-12
Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness in
Table 28.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 4, Communicating Conclusions

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS USE WRITING, VISUALIZING, AND SPEAKING TO…

D4.1.K-2. Construct an argument with reasons.

D4.1.3-5. Construct arguments using claims and evidence from multiple sources.

D4.1.6-8. Construct
arguments using claims and
evidence from multiple sources, while acknowledging the
strengths and limitations of
the arguments.

D4.1.9-12. Construct
arguments using precise
and knowledgeable claims,
with evidence from multiple
sources, while acknowledging
counterclaims and evidentiary
weaknesses.

D4.2.K-2. Construct
explanations using correct
sequence and relevant
information.

D4.2.3-5. Construct explanations using reasoning,
correct sequence, examples,
and details with relevant
information and data.

D4.2.6-8. Construct explanations using reasoning,
correct sequence, examples,
and details with relevant
information and data, while
acknowledging the strengths
and weaknesses of the
explanations.

D4.2.9-12. Construct explanations using sound reasoning, correct sequence (linear
or non-linear), examples, and
details with significant and
pertinent information and
data, while acknowledging
the strengths and weaknesses
of the explanation given its
purpose (e.g., cause and effect, chronological, procedural, technical).

D4.3.K-2. Present a summary of an argument using print,
oral, and digital technologies.

D4.3.3-5. Present a summary of arguments and explanations to others outside the
classroom using print and oral
technologies (e.g., posters,
essays, letters, debates,
speeches, and reports) and
digital technologies (e.g.,
Internet, social media, and
digital documentary).

D4.3.6-8. Present adaptations of arguments and
explanations on topics of
interest to others to reach audiences and venues outside
the classroom using print and
oral technologies (e.g., posters, essays, letters, debates,
speeches, reports, and maps)
and digital technologies (e.g.,
Internet, social media, and
digital documentary).

D4.3.9-12. Present adaptations of arguments and explanations that feature evocative
ideas and perspectives on
issues and topics to reach
a range of audiences and
venues outside the classroom
using print and oral technologies (e.g., posters, essays,
letters, debates, speeches,
reports, and maps) and digital
technologies (e.g., Internet,
social media, and digital
documentary).

60 • C3 Framework

The inquiry process, as described in the C3
Framework, should include regular opportunities
for students to critique their work as well as the work
of others. Critiquing conclusions requires an examination of sources, consideration of how evidence is
being used to support claims, and an appraisal of the
structure and form of arguments and explanations.
The critiquing of arguments and explanations deepens students’ understanding of concepts and tools in
the disciplines, and helps students strengthen their
TABLE 29:

conclusions. While the two indicators for critiquing
conclusions appear in Dimension 4, students should
begin the process of critiquing their emerging conclusions early in the inquiry process, and continue that
process even after communicating conclusions.
Indicators of Dimension 4-Critiquing Conclusions are
detailed in the suggested K-12 Pathway for College,
Career, and Civic Readiness in Table 29.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 4, Critiquing Conclusions

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS…

D4.4.K-2. Ask and answer
questions about arguments.

D4.4.3-5. Critique
arguments.

D4.4.6-8. Critique arguments for credibility.

D4.4.9-12. Critique the use
of claims and evidence in
arguments for credibility.

D4.5.K-2. Ask and answer
questions about explanations.

D4.5.3-5. Critique
explanations.

D4.5.6-8. Critique the structure of explanations.

D4.5.9-12. Critique the use
of the reasoning, sequencing,
and supporting details of
explanations.

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 61

Taking Informed Action
Social studies is the ideal staging ground for taking
informed action because of its unique role in preparing students for civic life. In social studies, students
use disciplinary knowledge, skills, and perspectives
to inquire about problems involved in public issues;
deliberate with other people about how to define
and address issues; take constructive, independent,
and collaborative action; reflect on their actions; and
create and sustain groups. It is important to note that
taking informed action intentionally comes at the end

TABLE 30:

of Dimension 4, as student action should be grounded
in and informed by the inquiries initiated and sustained within and among the disciplines. In that way,
action is then a purposeful, informed, and reflective
experience.
Indicators of Dimension 4—Taking Informed Action—
are detailed in the suggested K-12 Pathway for College,
Career, and Civic Readiness in Table 30.

Suggested K-12 Pathway for College, Career, and Civic Readiness
Dimension 4, Taking Informed Action

BY THE END OF GRADE 2

BY THE END OF GRADE 5

BY THE END OF GRADE 8

BY THE END OF GRADE 12

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHERS, STUDENTS…

D4.6.K-2. Identify and
explain a range of local,
regional, and global problems, and some ways in which
people are trying to address
these problems.

D4.6.3-5. Draw on disciplinary concepts to explain
the challenges people have
faced and opportunities they
have created, in addressing
local, regional, and global
problems at various times and
places.

D4.6.6-8. Draw on multiple
disciplinary lenses to analyze
how a specific problem can
manifest itself at local, regional, and global levels over time,
identifying its characteristics
and causes, and the challenges and opportunities faced
by those trying to address the
problem.

D4.6.9-12. Use disciplinary
and interdisciplinary lenses
to understand the characteristics and causes of local, regional, and global problems;
instances of such problems
in multiple contexts; and
challenges and opportunities faced by those trying to
address these problems over
time and place.

D4.7.K-2. Identify ways to
take action to help address
local, regional, and global
problems.

D4.7.3-5. Explain different
strategies and approaches
students and others could
take in working alone and
together to address local, regional, and global problems,
and predict possible results of
their actions.

D4.7.6-8. Assess their
individual and collective
capacities to take action to
address local, regional, and
global problems, taking into
account a range of possible
levers of power, strategies,
and potential outcomes.

D4.7.9-12. Assess options
for individual and collective
action to address local,
regional, and global problems
by engaging in self-reflection,
strategy identification, and
complex causal reasoning.

D4.8.K-2. Use listening,
consensus-building, and
voting procedures to decide
on and take action in their
classrooms.

D4.8.3-5. Use a range of
deliberative and democratic
procedures to make decisions about and act on civic
problems in their classrooms
and schools.

D4.8.6-8. Apply a range of
deliberative and democratic
procedures to make decisions
and take action in their classrooms and schools, and in
out-of-school civic contexts.

D4.8.9-12. Apply a range of
deliberative and democratic
strategies and procedures
to make decisions and take
action in their classrooms,
schools, and out-of-school
civic contexts.

62 • C3 Framework

✪

ENGLISH L ANGUAGE AR T S/LITER AC Y COMMON CORE
CONNEC TIONS: DIMENSION 4

The ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards emphasize products of learning and communication in a
variety of ways. As noted in the introduction to the
ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards, “the need to
conduct research and to produce and consume media
is embedded into every aspect of today’s curriculum”
(NGA and CCSSO, 2010a, p. 4). The production and
presentation of knowledge is central to the design
of the ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards.
Production and Distribution of Writing is one of four
categories in the Writing strand of the standards,
and Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas is one of
three categories in the Speaking and Listening strand.
Through Communicating Conclusions and Taking
Informed Action, Dimension 4 in the C3 Framework
extends the notion of publishing the products of
students’ inquiry for disciplinary and civic purposes
in social studies.
Table 31 details connections between Dimension
4 and the College and Career Readiness Anchor
Standards in the ELA/Literacy Common Core
Standards. These connections are further elaborated
with examples.
Connections between the C3 Framework and
the College and Career Readiness Anchor
Standards. While the connections between the C3
Framework and the ELA/Literacy Common Core
Standards are comprehensive and consistent, fifteen
CCR Anchor Standards within the ELA/Literacy

TABLE 31:

Common Core Standards have broader connections
within Dimension 4.
Anchor Reading Standard 1 indicates the importance
of employing evidence when communicating conclusions as well as forming a plan of action based on
information and data. Both making decisions and
presenting results stem from students being able to
both identify and use “explicit” information found
within texts, as well as draw and act upon “logical inferences” made from what they read (NGA
and CCSSO, 2010a, p. 10). Reading Standard 1 also
expects students to “cite specific textual evidence
when writing or speaking to support conclusions
drawn from the text” (NGA and CCSSO, 2010a, p.
10). The C3 Framework utilizes this focus on evidence
by emphasizing that conclusions based on evidence
should be framed and communicated using information gathered while students read. The Framework
also views informed decision making and action
stemming from those decisions as driven by data and
information that flows from evidence that has been
collected by students.
Anchor Writing Standards 1–8 describe skills students need to construct arguments, explanations, and
narratives. Writing Standards 4–6 focus on the production and distribution of student writing. Standard
4 describes skills related to the production of “clear
and coherent writing” that is “appropriate to task,
purpose, and audience” (NGA and CCSSO, 2010a, p.

Connections between Dimension 4 and the CCR Anchor Standards in the ELA/Literacy Common
Core Standards

ELA/LITERACY CCR
ANCHOR STANDARDS
CONNECTIONS

Communicating
Conclusions

Reading 1
Writing 1–8
Speaking and Listening 1–6

Taking Informed Action

SHARED LANGUAGE

Argument; Explanation; Sources; Evidence; Claims; Counterclaims;
Visually/Visualize; Credibility.

The Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework • 63

18). Standard 5 explains the process writing skills that
students should develop. Standard 6 establishes that
students should use technology to publish and distribute their writing. Standard 7 focuses on “short as well
as more sustained research projects based on focused
questions” (NGA and CCSSO, 2010a, p. 18). Standard
8 calls on students to “gather relevant information,”
“assess the credibility and accuracy of each source,”
and “integrate the information” into the text while
“avoiding plagiarism” (NGA and CCSSO, 2010a, p.
18). The C3 Framework builds on these anchor standards by setting forth expectations that students will
construct disciplinary arguments and explanations
for a variety of audiences both inside and outside of
school, and then plan how to take informed action
given the products of their inquiry.
Anchor Speaking and Listening Standards 1-6 require
that students engage one another strategically using different forms of media in a variety of contexts
in order to present their knowledge and ideas. For
example:
• Standard 1 requires that students prepare and
participate in a “range of conversations and
collaborations with diverse partners” (NGA and
CCSSO, 2010a, p. 22).
• Standard 2 focuses on student use of diverse types
of media to enhance communication.
• Standard 3 expects that students will evaluate
speakers’ points of view, reasoning, and use of
evidence.
• Standard 4 expects that students will present
“information, findings, and supporting evidence,”
with consideration of “task, purpose, and audience” (NGA and CCSSO, 2010a, p. 22).
• Standard 5 asks students to make strategic use
of “media and visual displays” when presenting
(NGA and CCSSO, 2010a, p. 22).
• Standard 6 requires that students take into consideration the context of their engagement.

64 • C3 Framework

The C3 Framework incorporates these skills through
the expectations of Dimension 4, Communicating
Conclusions, that students will present the products of
their inquiries as well as adaptations of these products
using a variety of technologies. When preparing to
take informed action, students engage with one another in a productive manner using the skills set forth
in the Speaking and Listening Standards.
Shared Language. The ELA/Literacy Common
Core Standards closely align with Indicators in
Dimension 4. In places, the connections between
Common Core Standards and C3 Framework
Indicators are so close that the same language is used.
Dimension 4 and the ELA/Literacy Common Core
Standards regularly use terms such as argument,
explanation, sources, evidence, claims, counterclaims,
visually/visualize, and credibility.
The ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards use the
terms visual and visually to refer to presentation formats. The terms are often used in contrast to quantitative formats and as modifiers for a type of data
display. The C3 Framework uses the terms writing,
visualizing, and speaking in describing expectations
for students for all of the Indicators in Table 28,
Communicating Conclusions, on page 60. The uses of
visual, visually, and visualizing are similar in referring
to ways of presenting information that would otherwise be limited or even impossible using words.
Within the Common Core Standards, important literacy conventions are defined (e.g., citations, spelling,
plagiarism) with regard to the presentation of conclusions, and these literacy conventions are integral to
social studies inquiry.

APPENDICES

Appendices • 65

Appendix

C3 Framework
Disciplinary Inquiry
Matrix

A

THE HE AR T OF THE C 3 FR AMEWORK lies in the Inquiry Arc and the four

Dimensions that define it. But no inquiry is generic; each takes root in a compelling
question that draws from one or more of the disciplines of civics, economics, geography,
and history.

The C3 Framework Disciplinary Inquiry Matrix
articulates how each of the four Dimensions of the C3
Framework builds upon one another through the use
of a content-specific example: how bad was the recent
Great Recession?
The Disciplinary Inquiry Matrix describes what experts
think and do. It is a four-part target example to which

students should aspire. The matrix develops through
the construction of disciplinary compelling and supporting questions (Dimension 1); the data sources, key
concepts, and key strategies specific to each discipline
(Dimension 2); the development of evidence-based
claims (Dimension 3); and the means of expression
(Dimension 4). The examples in the boxes are illustrative rather than exhaustive.

C3 Framework Disciplinary Inquiry Matrix

WAYS OF KNOWING

CIVICS/
GOVERNMENT

ECONOMICS

GEOGRAPHY

HISTORY

POLITICAL
SCIENTISTS SAY…

ECONOMISTS SAY…

GEOGRAPHERS
SAY…

HISTORIANS SAY…

How did the Great
Recession affect
areas of the United
States differently? Did
it cause population
migrations? If so, from
where to where and
why? Are land and resource uses affected.
If so, how?

How bad (and for
whom) compared to
what earlier event?
What related economic, political, and social
events preceded the
Great Recession?
What precedents
in the past help us
understand the Great
Recession?

DIMENSION 1

POSSIBLE DISCIPLINARY
COMPELLING
AND SUPPORTING
QUESTIONS

66 • C3 Framework

What have major
political parties proposed to respond to
the Great Recession?
What disagreements
have political parties
had and why? How
can government institutions and the private
sector respond?

What were some
of the economic
causes of the Great
Recession? What are
the indicators of its
severity and what do
they show? What are
the possible economic
policy solutions? How
can those solutions be
evaluated?

WAYS OF KNOWING

CIVICS/
GOVERNMENT

ECONOMICS

GEOGRAPHY

HISTORY

POLITICAL
SCIENTISTS SAY…

ECONOMISTS SAY…

GEOGRAPHERS
SAY…

HISTORIANS SAY…

DIMENSION 2

DATA SOURCES
NEEDED TO ADDRESS
QUESTIONS

KEY CONCEPTS
AND CONCEPTUAL
UNDERSTANDINGS
NECESSARY TO
ADDRESS QUESTIONS
(non-exclusive examples)

KEY STRATEGIES AND
SKILLS NEEDED TO
ADDRESS QUESTIONS
(non-exclusive examples)

Government policies,
policy pronouncements, political poll
results, statistics,
leadership efforts,
political behavior;
observations of local
conditions, interviews;
news reports

Statistics and lots of
them in as real time as
possible (labor, capital, credit, monetary
flow, supply, demand)

Spatial and environmental data; statistics,
map representations,
GIS data to measure
observable changes to the planet;
indicators of territorial
impact

Accounts from the
recent recession and
from hard economic
times in the past,
both firsthand and
synthetic, as many as
can be found (oral history, diaries, journals,
newspapers, photos,
economic data, artifacts, etc.)

Theories of political
behavior, rationality,
self-interest, political
parties, power flow,
government, fiscal
policy; relationships
between the state and
markets; constitutional limits on government, debates about
those limits; evidence
(to make claims)

Application of
different types of
economic theories to
gauge inflation/deflation, labor shrinkage,
capital contraction,
asset/liability analyses
from banking sector,
changes in supply and
demand; evidence (to
make claims)

Theories of human
land/resource use;
spatial representation, scale, degree
of distortion, map
symbols, specialized
GIS symbolic systems
and representations;
evidence (to make
claims)

Theories of human
behavior, thought,
perspective, agency,
context, historical
significance; historical
imagination; moral
judgment; evidence
(to make claims)

Reading statistics
from polls, conducting
polls and interview
research; reading subtext into policies/pronouncements; reading
power flow and blockage, converting such
data into evidence to
make arguments and
claims that answer
sub-questions

Capability to read
statistics critically, for
assessing agendas
behind statistical representations; conducting survey research;
capability to convert
statistics into meaningful arguments and
claims that answer the
sub-questions

Cartography including
using map symbol systems, critical reading
and thinking, capability of using statistics
to represent spatial
change, capability to
use statistical and spatial (often digitized)
representations to
make arguments and
claims that address
sub-questions

Critical reading and
thinking, analysis and
synthesis, reading
subtext and agency
in older sources;
statistics; converting verbal, written,
photographic, oral,
artifactual accounts
into evidence to
make arguments and
claims that answer the
sub-questions

Appendices • 67

WAYS OF KNOWING

CIVICS/
GOVERNMENT

ECONOMICS

GEOGRAPHY

HISTORY

POLITICAL
SCIENTISTS SAY…

ECONOMISTS SAY…

GEOGRAPHERS
SAY…

HISTORIANS SAY…

Narratives, statistical
and spatial analyses,
and representations
point toward substantiating and justifying
claims; community
of peers evaluates
adequacy of claims

Accounts of human
behavior and thought
coupled with evidence
corroboration and
preponderance point
towards substantiating and justifying
claims; adequacy
judged within the
community of peers

Spatial representations for newspapers, web-based
articulations, digital
and analog geographical services;
community mapping;
other citizen-science
experiences

Books, monographs,
articles, websites,
webinars, television
appearances, blogs

DIMENSION 3

EVIDENCE-BACKED
CLAIMS

Statistical analyses
and theories of
political and institutional behavior
and outcomes point
toward substantiating
and justifying claims;
adequacy judged
within the community
of peers

Statistical analyses
coupled with economic theories show the
way toward substantiating and justifying
claims; adequacy
judged within the
community of peers,
i.e., other economic
investigators
DIMENSION 4

FORMS OF
COMMUNICATION AND
ACTION
(illustrative examples)

68 • C3 Framework

Books, television
appearances, articles,
op-ed pieces, policy
statements, blogs;
supporting a public
assistance non-profit
organization

Op-ed articles, journal
pieces, television
appearances, policy
statements, blogs,
webinars, policy
advisory roles, public
action

Appendix

B

Psychology
Companion Document
for the C3 Framework
Prepared by
American Psychological Association1
750 First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002

Introduction to the Disciplinary Concepts
and Skills of Psychology
As the scientific study of behavior and mental processes,
psychology examines all aspects of the human experience. Many of society’s challenging issues involve
human behavior, such as environmental change and the
problems of violence, bullying, prejudice, and discrimination. Psychology contributes to the understanding
of these issues, and promotes improvement in health
and wellbeing. Psychological literacy is a foundation for
civic engagement and is necessary for citizens to make
informed decisions about their daily lives.
Psychology incorporates a variety of tools and knowledge to further the understanding of behavior and
mental processes. Scientific inquiry and research
methods are at the center of the discipline. Psychology
promotes the measurement and explication of behavior in a variety of levels of study, ranging from genetic
and brain-based influences on behavior to cultural and
social influences. Psychological knowledge enhances
our understanding of human development, emotion
and motivation, cognition, learning processes, perceptual systems and sociocultural interactions. Psychology
prepares students to enter the workforce or college by
promoting skills such as critical thinking, problem
solving, and teamwork. Students benefit from learning and applying psychological perspectives on personal and contemporary issues and learn the rules of

evidence and theoretical frameworks of the discipline.
The National Standards for High School Psychology
Curricula offers learning benchmarks for the high
school psychology course (APA, 2011).2

Psychological Perspectives and Methods
of Inquiry3
Psychological knowledge is based on scientific methodology, the systematic, empirically-based investigation of
phenomena through observations and measurements.
Psychologists use scientific methods to establish knowledge and explain phenomena, and employ a variety
of methods to observe and measure behavior. Broad
psychological perspectives describe ways in which
psychologists classify their ideas, and are employed to
understand behavior and mental processes.

1

The writing team was composed of the following individuals (in
alphabetical order): Jeanne A. Blakeslee, St. Paul’s School for Girls
(MD); Emily Leary Chesnes, American Psychological Association; Amy
C. Fineburg, Oak Mountain High School (AL); Robin J. Hailstorks,
American Psychological Association; Kenneth D. Keith, University of
San Diego; Debra E. Park, Rutgers University, Camden; and Hilary
Rosenthal, Glenbrook South High School (IL).

2

The references for citations in this Appendix are listed on the final
page of the Appendix.

3

Several of the indicators across all four anchor concepts come from
the Guidelines for Preparing High School Psychology Teachers:
Course-Based and Standards-Based Approaches (APA, 2012) and the
National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula (APA, 2011).

Appendices • 69

Psychology offers a unique way of thinking and organizing knowledge and provides students with tools
and concepts that can prepare them for college, career, and civic life. The indicators that follow align
with Dimension 2 of the C3 Framework (Applying
Disciplinary Concepts and Tools), provide a conceptual
set of skills related to psychological knowledge, and
serve as a frame for organizing curricular content in
psychology.
College, Career, and Civic ready students:
•

•

•

•

D2.Psy.1.9-12. Demonstrate a basic understanding of the scientific methods that are at the core of
psychology.
D2.Psy.2.9-12. Investigate human behavior from
biological, cognitive, behavioral, and sociocultural
perspectives.
D2.Psy.3.9-12. Discuss theories, methodologies,
and empirical findings necessary to plan, conduct,
and especially interpret research results.
D2.Psy.4.9-12. Adhere to and consider the impact
of American Psychological Association and federal
guidelines for the ethical treatment of human and
nonhuman research participants.

•

D2.Psy.5.9-12. Explain how the validity and reliability of observations and measurements relate to
data analysis.

•

D2.Psy.6.9-12. Collect and analyze data designed to
answer a psychological question using basic descriptive and inferential statistics.

•

D2.Psy.7.9-12. Explore multicultural and global
perspectives that recognize how diversity is important to explaining human behavior.

Influences on Thought and Behavior
There is no simple answer to the question, “What determines or constrains human behavior?” Psychologists
have long considered the extent to which human
behavior is malleable and the degree to which it varies
between people and populations. Psychologists examine genetic predispositions to behavioral patterns, but
70 • C3 Framework

human behavior is also influenced by the environment.
Research has shown that biological, psychological, and
sociocultural factors play important roles in shaping
the way we see and react to the world around us.
College, Career, and Civic ready students:
•

D2.Psy.8.9-12. Explain the complexities of human
thought and behavior, as well as the factors related
to the individual differences among people.

•

D2.Psy.9.9-12. Describe biological, psychological,
and sociocultural factors that influence individuals’
cognition, perception, and behavior.

•

D2.Psy.10.9-12. Explain the interaction of biology
and experience (i.e., nature and nurture) and its
influence on behavior.

•

D2.Psy.11.9-12. Identify the role psychological science can play in helping us understand differences
in individual cognitive and physical abilities.

•

D2.Psy.12.9-12. Explain how social, cultural, gender, and economic factors influence behavior and
human interactions in societies around the world.

Critical Thinking: Themes, Sources, and
Evidence
Psychological inquiry is based on a variety of sources
and materials that students can read and analyze. The
study of psychology brings together common themes
that include ethics, diversity, scientific attitudes,
and skills (e.g., critical thinking, problem solving).
Informed by these themes and supported by sources,
students can make evidence-based conclusions which
in turn can lead to further questions and answers.
College, Career, and Civic ready students:
•

D2.Psy.13.9-12. Explain common themes across
the field of psychological science, including ethical
issues, diversity, developmental issues, and concerns
about health and wellbeing.

•

D2.Psy.14.9-12. Use information from different
psychological sources to generate research questions.

•

D2.Psy.15.9-12. Use existing evidence and formulate conclusions about psychological phenomena.

•

D2.Psy.16.9-12. Use critical thinking skills to become better consumers of psychological knowledge.

•

D2.Psy.17.9-12. Acknowledge the interconnectedness of knowledge in the discipline of psychology.

Applications of Psychological Knowledge
Psychological knowledge can be useful in addressing
a wide array of issues, from individual to global levels.
In order to understand behavior and mental processes,
students should apply psychological knowledge to the
world around them. Psychological knowledge directly
relates to everyday and civic life, and its application can
benefit society and improve people’s lives.
College, Career, and Civic ready students:
•

D2.Psy.18.9-12. Apply psychological knowledge to
their daily lives.

•

D2.Psy.19.9-12. Apply the major theoretical
approaches in psychology to educational, emotional, political, ethical, motivational, organizational,
personal, and social issues.

•

D2.Psy.20.9-12. Suggest psychologically based ethical solutions to actual problems including, but not
limited to, those encountered in education, business
and industry, and the environment.

•

D2.Psy.21.9-12. Discuss ways in which the applications of psychological science can address domestic
and global issues.

•

D2.Psy.22.9-12. Use psychological knowledge to
promote healthy lifestyle choices.

•

D2.Psy.23.9-12. Apply psychological knowledge to
civic engagement.

Brief Overview of Connections between
Psychology and the English Language
Arts/Literacy Common Core Standards

psychology develop and use a wide range of skills endorsed through the Common Core Anchor Standards.
Students in psychology must develop questions and
plan inquiries as they learn about and apply the various
psychological theories and findings. Students should
be able to propose, plan, and conduct simple research
projects and/or read, discuss, and critique research
findings in ways that apply their acquired content
knowledge and hone the skills discussed in the Anchor
Standards in Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening,
and Language. Students who complete such projects or
assignments successfully demonstrate mastery of the
skills in each dimension, thus fulfilling the goals for
college and career readiness.
More detailed curricular recommendations are found
in the National Standards for High School Psychology
Curricula (APA, 2011). Although psychological science
can be found in science and social studies lessons for
students in grades K-8, the first formal introduction to
psychological science often occurs during grades 9-12.
Learning the theories, methodologies, and practices of
psychological science provides students with knowledge and skills they need to think critically about
research, address issues using the scientific method,
and understand relationships among variables in given
circumstances.

C3 Framework Disciplinary Inquiry
Matrix: Psychology
In Appendix A, the Disciplinary Inquiry Matrix
articulates how each of the four Dimensions of the C3
Framework build upon one another through the use
of a content-specific example: How bad was the Great
Recession? The Disciplinary Inquiry Matrix describes
what experts think and do. It is a four-part target
example to which students should aspire. The matrix
develops through the construction of disciplinary compelling and supporting questions (Dimension 1); the
data sources, key concepts, and key strategies specific
to each discipline (Dimension 2); the development of
evidence-based claims (Dimension 3); and the means of
expression (Dimension 4). In the table on page 72, the
Great Recession is examined through the disciplinary
lens of psychology. The examples in the boxes are illustrative rather than exhaustive.

Connections with the College and Career
Readiness (CCR) Anchor Standards. Students in
Appendices • 71

PSYCHOLOGY
WAYS OF KNOWING

PSYCHOLOGISTS SAY…
DIMENSION 1

POSSIBLE DISCIPLINARY
COMPELLING AND
SUPPORTING QUESTIONS

How did citizens behave during the recession? Did stress levels increase, decrease or stay the
same? Was there adequate mental health support available? How does an individual’s social
status affect his or her perception of the effects a recession has on family, work and other societal institutions? Do individuals have prejudices that affect their perception of “who or what is to
blame” for economic crises? How do attributions of responsibility develop and affect people’s
behaviors during a recession?
DIMENSION 2

DATA SOURCES NEEDED TO
ADDRESS QUESTIONS

KEY CONCEPTS
AND CONCEPTUAL
UNDERSTANDINGS
NECESSARY TO ADDRESS
QUESTIONS
(non-exclusive questions)

KEY STRATEGIES AND SKILLS
NEEDED TO ADDRESS
QUESTIONS
(non-exclusive examples)

Statistics on rates of anxiety, stress, and depression; the number of individuals seeking mental
health counseling. Surveys, focus groups, reports, and interviews on how different populations
and/or ethnic groups were affected by unemployment, and how the economic climate affected
older adults. Experiments testing the effectiveness of treatments for mental illness or causes of
other psychological phenomena.
Biological, cognitive, and psychological mechanisms of behavior and mental processes; theories
of social learning and social cognition; theories of stress management and health promotion;
theories of personality, motivation, emotion, and learning; theories of life span development;
evidence (to make claims).

Ability to read and interpret statistics critically, including the ability to interpret qualitative and
quantitative data; ability to use data to find causal and correlational connections between and
among variables; critical thinking. Ability to apply psychological knowledge to issues faced by
local communities and encourage civic engagement.

DIMENSION 3
EVIDENCE-BASED CLAIMS

Statistical analyses and theories of human behavior point toward justifying claims; these should
be judged within the community of peers.
DIMENSION 4

FORMS OF
COMMUNICATION AND
ACTION (ILLUSTRATIVE
EXAMPLES)

Books and journal articles, newspapers and television, websites, webinars, press releases, professional presentations.

R E FE R E N CE S

American Psychological Association. (2011). National standards for high school psychology curricula. Retrieved from http://
www.apa.org/education/k12/national-standards.aspx
American Psychological Association. (2012). Guidelines for preparing high school psychology teachers: Course-based and
standards-based approaches. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/education/k12/teaching-guidelines.aspx

72 • C3 Framework

Appendix

C

Sociology
Companion Document
for the C3 Framework
Prepared by
American Sociological Association1
1430 K Street NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20005

Introduction to Disciplinary Concepts
and Skills in Sociology
Sociology is the study of social life, social change, and
the social causes and consequences of human behavior.
Sociologists investigate the structure of groups, organizations, and societies and how people interact within
these contexts. Since all human behavior is social, the
subject matter of sociology ranges from the intimate
family to the hostile mob; from organized crime to
religious traditions; and from the divisions of race, gender, and social class to the shared beliefs of a common
culture.2
Sociology is a science that uses research methods to investigate the social world. The scientific process ensures
that the knowledge produced is more representative,
objective, trustworthy, and useful for explaining social
phenomena than personal opinions or individual experiences. Social phenomena are constructed through
human interaction. Thus, sociological inquiry must
examine what meanings people give to the behaviors,
objects, and interactions that are present in each culture
and society. It utilizes the scientific method, is based
on critical thinking, and requires students to examine
how they are influenced by their social positions. In this
way, students learn how to effectively participate in a
diverse and multicultural society, and develop a sense
of personal and social responsibility.

This Appendix outlines four fundamental disciplinary
learning goals for College, Career, and Civic ready
students in sociology. These goals highlight key areas
for student learning and instructional focus in K-12
sociology units and courses. Each of the four learning
goals is accompanied by a set of assessable competencies. These learning goals align with Dimension 2 of the
C3 Framework (Applying Disciplinary Concepts and
Tools).

The Sociological Perspective and
Methods of Inquiry
Sociology provides a unique perspective by focusing on
the groups to which individuals belong rather than only
on the individual. It deeply considers how social contexts influence both individuals and groups. In this way,
it helps students to see the world through others’ eyes,
to increase their understanding of group dynamics,
and to develop tolerance of differences. Sociology uses
objective and data-driven scientific methods to study

1

The writing team was composed of the following individuals (in
alphabetical order): Jeanne H. Ballantine, Wright State University;
Hayley L. Lotspeich, Wheaton North High School (IL); Chris Salituro,
Stevenson High School (IL); Jean H. Shin, American Sociological
Association; Margaret Weigers Vitullo, American Sociological
Association; Lissa Yogan, Valparaiso University.

2

See American Sociological Association (ASA), 21st Century Careers
with an Undergraduate Degree in Sociology (Washington DC: ASA,
2009).

Appendices • 73

social interactions at multiple levels, from families and
peer-groups to nations and global organizations.

•

D2.Soc.8.9-12. Identify important social institutions in society.

College, Career, and Civic ready students:

•

D2.Soc.9.9-12. Explain the role of social institutions in society.

•

D2.Soc.10.9-12. Analyze how social structures and
cultures change.

•

D2.Soc.1.9-12. Explain the sociological perspective
and how it differs from other social sciences.

•

D2.Soc.2.9-12. Define social context in terms of the
external forces that shape human behavior.

•

D2.Soc.3.9-12. Identify how social context influences individuals.

•

D2.Soc.4.9-12. Illustrate how sociological analysis
can provide useful data-based information for decision making.

•

D2.Soc.5.9-12. Give examples of the strengths and
weaknesses of four main methods of sociological
research: surveys, experiments, observations, and
content analysis.

Social Relationships: Self, Groups, and
Socialization
A fundamental insight of sociology is that individual
and group identity is socially constructed through
relationships with significant individuals, groups, and
society as a whole. Socialization is a life-long process of
learning how to function in society. Important socializing agents include family, peers, the media, schools,
and religion. Major social and historical events can be a
force in socializing entire generational groups. Groups
form when individuals share common interests and/
or goals, and often become a point of comparison for
individuals as they evaluate themselves and others.

Social Structure: Culture, Institutions,
and Society

College, Career, and Civic ready students:

Sociology studies the social structure and culture of
societies in order to understand how social patterns are
created and maintained over time; examples of these
might include persistent violence or long-standing disparities in school achievement. Important components
of social structures are institutions such as the economy,
government and politics, the educational system, the
family, religion, and the health care system. Culture
includes the language, norms, values, and material
goods of a society. Social structure and culture work in
tandem to shape societies, but are not completely rigid.
All individuals are impacted by social change, which refers to the transformation of culture, social institutions,
and social structure over time.

•

D2.Soc.11.9-12. Analyze the influence of the
primary agents of socialization and why they are
influential.

•

D2.Soc.12.9-12. Explain the social construction of
self and groups.

•

D2.Soc.13.9-12. Identify characteristics of groups,
as well as the effects groups have on individuals and
society, and the effects of individuals and societies
on groups.

•

D2.Soc.14.9-12. Explain how in-group and outgroup membership influences the life chances of
individuals and shapes societal norms and values.

College, Career, and Civic ready students:
•

D2.Soc.6.9-12. Identify the major components of
culture.

•

D2.Soc.7.9-12. Cite examples of how culture influences the individuals in it.

74 • C3 Framework

Stratification and Inequality
Sociology helps students to understand their own and
others’ social problems. Group memberships and identities provide or deny certain opportunities and power.
They also create and reinforce social stratification. This
can result in conflict between groups for scarce or
valued resources, and in diminished access for some in

•

D2.Soc.15.9-12. Identify common patterns of social
inequality.

•

D2.Soc.16.9-12. Interpret the effects of inequality
on groups and individuals.

•

D2.Soc.17.9-12. Analyze why the distribution of
power and inequalities can result in conflict.

More detailed curricular recommendations for sociology can be found on the website of the American
Sociological Association (www.asanet.org/highschool).
Although concepts from sociology are frequently seen
in science and social studies lessons for students in
grades K-8, more commonly the first formal introduction to sociology occurs in grades 9-12. Learning
the theories, methodologies, and practices of sociology provides students with the knowledge and skills
they need to think critically about sources of evidence,
address issues using a systematic Arc of Inquiry based
on the scientific method, and understand relationships
among variables in complex social contexts. In this way,
sociology supports students’ successful entry into the
world of work or post-secondary education.

•

D2.Soc.18.9-12. Propose and evaluate alternative
responses to inequality.

C3 Framework Disciplinary Inquiry
Matrix: Sociology

society as others control these resources. Disadvantaged
groups experience social problems such as poverty,
unemployment, poor education, lack of access to health
care, and inequality in obtaining rights and privileges.
College, Career, and Civic ready students:

Brief Overview of Connections between
Sociology and the English Language
Arts/Literacy Common Core Standards
Connections with the College and Career
Readiness (CCR) Anchor Standards. Students
in sociology develop and use skills that are central
to the Common Core College and Career Readiness
Anchor Standards. Learning the theories, methodologies, and practices of sociology provides students with
the knowledge and skills they need to think critically
about the world they live in, themselves, and how they
are influenced by their social positions. By studying
sociology, students learn how to effectively participate
in a diverse and multi-cultural society, and develop a
sense of personal and social responsibility. Students
in sociology integrate and evaluate multiple sources of
information presented in diverse formats and media in
order to address questions or solve complex problems.
They are required to integrate data and information
from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, in
order to form a coherent and empirically- based understanding of an idea or social event, noting discrepancies
among sources. Students learn how to propose, plan,
and conduct simple research and action projects as well
as read, discuss, and critique research findings in ways
that apply their acquired content knowledge and hone
the skills discussed in the Anchor Standards in Reading,
Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language.

In Appendix A, the Disciplinary Inquiry Matrix
articulates how each of the four Dimensions of the C3
Framework build upon one another through the use
of a content-specific example: How bad was the Great
Recession? The Disciplinary Inquiry Matrix describes
what experts think and do. It is a four-part target
example to which students should aspire. The matrix
develops through the construction of disciplinary compelling and supporting questions (Dimension 1); the
data sources, key concepts, and key strategies specific
to each discipline (Dimension 2); the development of
evidence-based claims (Dimension 3); and the means of
expression (Dimension 4). In the table on page 76, the
Great Recession is examined through the disciplinary
lens of sociology. The examples in the boxes are illustrative rather than exhaustive.

Appendices • 75

SOCIOLOGY
WAYS OF KNOWING

SOCIOLOGISTS SAY…
DIMENSION 1

POSSIBLE DISCIPLINARY
COMPELLING
AND SUPPORTING
QUESTIONS

What were the social consequences of the Great Recession, and in particular, how was the impact of
the crisis differentially experienced by individuals, families and groups with different characteristics?
What impact has it had on the social cohesion and collective behavior of communities? What were the
possible policy responses to the crisis? Would they be effective across diverse communities?

DIMENSION 2

DATA SOURCES
NEEDED TO ADDRESS
QUESTIONS

KEY CONCEPTS
AND CONCEPTUAL
UNDERSTANDINGS
NEEDED TO ADDRESS
QUESTIONS
(non-exclusive questions)

KEY STRATEGIES AND
SKILLS NEEDED TO
ADDRESS QUESTIONS
(non-exclusive examples)

Statistics on employment, housing, government programs, health, demographics, markers of disruption of social cohesion such as crime and divorce, and other organizational impacts. Interviews with
individuals about their experiences with unemployment, education, family dynamics, and personal
well-being. Observations of individuals and groups in handling financially-related outcomes. Content
analysis of published descriptions of the crisis and reactions to it.
Theories (e.g., symbolic interactionism, functionalism, conflict theory) of social structure and contexts
including the interplay between institutions and culture; of social relationships and the connection between individuals and the groups to which they belong; and of social stratification and inequality and
the reinforcement of current and new inequalities in outcomes. Understanding patterns of reaction to
the crisis based on different resources, opportunities, and power statuses.

Reading and interpreting statistics and graphical representations such as tables, charts, figures, and
political cartoons. Conducting survey research as well as research via experimental, observational, and
content analysis methods. Seeing the social world through the perspective of others and understanding why the crisis impacts people differently.

DIMENSION 3

EVIDENCE-BASED
CLAIMS

Statistical and narrative analyses, as well as interpretations based on theories of social structure, social
relationships, and social stratification and inequality. These analyses and other methods of inquiry
point toward substantiating and justifying claims; these should be judged within the community of
peers including sociologists as well as other social scientists.
DIMENSION 4

FORMS OF
COMMUNICATION AND
ACTION
(illustrative examples)

76 • C3 Framework

Books and scholarly articles; television and radio appearances; op-ed pieces and blog entries; policy
statements and research briefs; webinars; presentations at professional conferences and meetings;
evaluations and reports; websites and anthologies.

Appendix D

Anthropology
Companion Document
for the C3 Framework
Prepared by
American Anthropological Association1
2300 Clarendon Blvd., Suite 1301
Arlington, VA 22201

Introduction to the Disciplinary Concepts
and Skills of Anthropology

and the ways in which language reflects and influences
social life. Each of the subfields teaches distinctive
skills. However, the subfields also have a number of
similarities. For example, each subfield applies theories,
employs systematic research methodologies, formulates
and tests hypotheses, and develops extensive sets of
data.

Anthropology is the study of human beings, past and
present, in societies around the world. To understand
the full sweep and complexity of cultures across all
of human history, anthropology draws and builds
upon knowledge from the social, natural, and physical
sciences as well as the humanities. Anthropology is a
comparative discipline; it assumes basic human conConcept 1. What It Means to be Human:
tinuities over time and place, but also recognizes that
Unity and Diversity
every society is the product of its own particular history, Anthropologists study what people have in common,
and that within every society one finds variation as
and also how we differ with respect to physical and sowell as commonalities. Anthropologists are centrally
ciocultural characteristics. Importantly, they examine
concerned with applying their research findings to the
human physical variability and also the social reality
solution of human problems.
of racial categorization and racism. Variable physical
features like skin color and blood type do not cluster
Anthropology includes four subfields. Physical anthrointo clear-cut biologically defined races. At the same
pologists study human biological origins, evolution
time, categorization into socially defined races is a real
and variation, how humans adapt to diverse environphenomenon with real consequences in societies like
ments, primatology, and how biological and cultural
the United States. Race then is socially “real” even if
processes work together to shape growth, development, biologically it has no grounding.
and behavior. Archaeologists study past peoples and
cultures, from the deepest prehistory to the recent past. 1 This Appendix was prepared by the Ad Hoc K-12 Anthropology C3
Guidelines Committee of the American Anthropological Association
Sociocultural anthropologists observe social patterns
(AAA), in consultation with the AAA Education Task Force. Kathryn
and practices across cultures, with a special interest
Anderson-Levitt, Courtney Dowdall, Catherine Emihovich, Edmund T.
in how people live in particular places and how they
Hamann, David Homa, Edward Liebow, Teresa McCarty, and Marjorie
Faulstich Orellana participated in its preparation. The Appendix was
organize, govern, and create meaning. Linguistic ancommissioned by the American Anthropological Association (AAA)
thropology is the comparative study of language systems
but has not been endorsed by the AAA or its members.

Appendices • 77

Anthropologists emphasize the importance of culture—
patterns and processes of meaning expressed through
language and other symbols. Anthropologists study
all kinds of human groups, from small villages to
transnational corporations, from large U.S. cities to
remote Arctic and desert groups; even schools and
classrooms can be subjects of anthropological inquiry.
Anthropologists examine how societies change; how
a society’s beliefs, institutions, and ways of making a
living are related to one another; and how individuals
are shaped by their cultures and also agents of their
own lives. A central anthropological insight is the
notion of cultural relativism—that no cultural group
is inherently “superior” or “inferior” to any other, and
that all human behaviors are understandable in their
cultural context even if humans may ultimately aspire
to certain universal standards.
College, Career, and Civic ready students:
•

Understand patterns of human physical variability
and the evidence for arguing that humans cannot
be sorted into distinct biological races.

•

Develop through comparison awareness of human
unity and cultural diversity, and of the connections
among peoples from around the world.

•

Understand the reasons for and development of
human and societal endeavors, such as small-scale
societies and civilizations, across time and place.

•

Use anthropological concepts and practice to reflect
on representations of “otherness” and consider critically students’ own cultural assumptions.

•

Apply anthropological concepts and theories to the
study of contemporary social change, conflict, and
other important local, national, and international
problems.

Concept 2. Methods and Ethics of Inquiry
Anthropologists take a scientific approach to collecting
empirical information, seeking to be systematic, transparent, and trustworthy in conducting and reporting
research. For example, archaeologists study past peoples and cultures through the analysis of carefully excavated material remains, while physical anthropologists
78 • C3 Framework

analyze evidence ranging from fossils to the DNA of
living people. Sociocultural and linguistic anthropologists often rely on direct participation in and observation of a group’s daily life, interpreting meanings
constructed by people in the group and sometimes
collaborating with them as active participants in the
research. When analyzing their findings, anthropologists often seek to understand particular local situations
in the context of larger social forces, and in great depth.
At the same time, comparison across places and times is
a hallmark of anthropological study.
Because the study of people, past and present, requires
respect for the diversity of individuals, cultures, societies, and knowledge systems, anthropologists are
expected to adhere to a strong code of professional ethics. In addition, an engaged anthropology is committed
to supporting social change efforts that arise from the
interaction between community goals and anthropological research.
College, Career, and Civic ready students:
•

Identify and critically assess the opportunities to
use anthropological knowledge in a variety of work
settings and in everyday experience, as well as issues
of description and representation in anthropology.

•

Develop an understanding of the methods by which
anthropologists collect data on cultural patterns
and processes, and of ways of interpreting and presenting these data in writing and other media.

•

Identify and critically assess ethical issues that arise
in the practice of anthropological research, including issues of informed consent.

•

Under the guidance of teachers, design, undertake,
and report on personal research on an anthropological topic of interest, such as a limited ethnographic
study of a local culture or a visit to an archaeological site.

Concept 3. Becoming a Person: Processes,
Practices, and Consequences
Anthropologists examine what it means to be human
by observing and recording the processes, practices, and consequences involved in becoming a person.

They explore what it means to be a person in different
cultural contexts and the dynamic nature of identities
on an individual level; on a larger scale, they explore the
nature of boundaries between human groups. They ask,
for example, what it means to be a full-fledged adult in
different societies and through what rites of passage or
other processes people become adults. They ask how
people use symbols or other tools to draw boundaries based upon language, religion, gender, ethnicity,
nationality, territory, or history, and they ask about
the consequences of boundaries within and between
societies, including exclusion and differences of power
or status, racism and ethnic conflict, class conflict, and
religious conflict. Throughout such discussions, they
consider the relative importance of individual autonomy versus structural forces.
College, Career, and Civic ready students:
•

Understand the variety of gendered, racialized, or
other identities individuals take on over the life
course, and identify the social and cultural processes through which those identities are constructed.

•

Apply anthropological concepts of boundaries to
the analysis of current ethnic, racial, or religious
conflicts in the world—or in a local setting.

Concept 4. Global and Local: Societies,
Environments, and Globalization
Because anthropology examines human experience
around the world, it is attuned to global connections as
well as local perspectives. Anthropologists examine the
extent of globalization and its causes and consequences.
For example, they study the movement of people, ideas
and objects, and the causes and consequences of such
movement, from the first human migration “out of
Africa” to current diasporas. They consider the degree
to which the global affects the local and vice versa,
including debates about cultural homogenization and
standardization. They bring together the global and
local to consider perspectives on important world issues, including environmental conflict, global warming,
wars, and nationalism. They consider human rights and
the global justice movement and issues of cultural relativism, such as whether human rights should supersede
local cultural rights.

College, Career, and Civic ready students:
•

Understand and appreciate cultural and social
difference, and how human diversity is produced
and shaped by local, national, regional, and global
patterns.

•

Understand how one’s local actions can have global
consequences, and how global patterns and processes can affect seemingly unrelated local actions.

•

Become critically aware of ethnocentrism, its
manifestations, and consequences in a world that is
progressively interconnected.

•

Apply anthropological concepts to current global
issues such as migrations across national borders or
environmental degradation.

Connections to the College and Career
Readiness (CCR) Anchor Standards. Students in
anthropology develop and use skills that are included
throughout the Common Core Anchor Standards
in Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and
Language. As students learn to describe current and
past cultures and societies, they use vocabulary that is
new or employed in a new way. These descriptions often
require students to compare the point of view of a local
inhabitant with their own perspective, which may be
quite different, or with the perspective of a Western visitor or colonizer. Anthropology students formulate and
test hypotheses by conducting small-scale ethnographic
studies and related observational research in biological
anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and archaeology.
Students learn to write ethnographic field notes modeled on those of professional anthropologists, which
is excellent practice for writing routinely on a daily or
weekly basis. These field notes require disciplining the
memory while learning to distinguish between description and interpretation.
More detailed curricular recommendations are found
on the AAA website (http://www.aaanet.org); see
especially the section “For Teachers” and the Teaching
Materials Exchange (additional resources are listed
on page 80). Anthropological concepts and ideas are
important for social studies students in all grades, but
the first formal introduction to anthropology typically
Appendices • 79

occurs during grades 9-12. In these grades, students
will regularly use Common Core ELA/Literacy skills
as they understand and apply anthropological concepts, theories, and methods. Students who successfully
develop their inquiry skills in anthropology classes will
fulfill goals of the Common Core Standards for College
and Career readiness.
C3 Framework Disciplinary Inquiry Matrix:
Anthropology
In Appendix A, the C3 Framework Disciplinary Inquiry
Matrix articulates how each of the four Dimensions of
the C3 Framework build upon one another through
the use of a content-specific example: How bad was
the recent Great Recession? The Disciplinary Inquiry
Matrix describes what experts think and do. It is a
four-part target example to which students should
aspire. The matrix develops through the construction
of disciplinary supporting questions (Dimension 1); the
data sources, key concepts, and key strategies specific
to each discipline (Dimension 2); the development of
evidence-based claims (Dimension 3); and the means of
expression (Dimension 4). In the table on page 81, the
Great Recession is examined through the disciplinary
lens of anthropology.

B A S I C S O U R CE S

The preparation of this document made use of text from
the following sources:
American Anthropological Association (AAA). (no
date). What Is Anthropology? Available online at http://
www.aaanet.org/about/WhatisAnthropology.cfm
AAA Anthropology Education Committee. (2001).
Why Should Anthropology Be Integrated In Schools?
Statement by the Anthropology Education Committee.
Available online at http://www.aaanet.org/committees/
commissions/aec/why.htm
Homa, David. (2012-13). Anthropology and Introduction
to Cultural Anthropology (syllabi). Los Gatos, CA: Los
Gatos Unified High School.
Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI), U.K., and
Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA). (2013).
Anthropology A-Level. Available online at http://www.
discoveranthropology.org.uk/for-teachers/anthropologya-level.html and http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/
anthropology/a-level/anthropology-2110
A D D I T I O N A L R E FE R E N CE S A N D R E S O U R CE S

AAA. (2011). RACE: Are We So Different? Available online at http://www.understandingrace.org/home.html
AAA. (no date). RACE: Are We So Different? Resources
for Teachers. Available online at http://www.aaanet.org/
resources/teachers/
Goodman, A.H., Moses, Y.T., and Jones, J.L.
(2012). Race: Are We So Different? Malden, MA:
Wiley-Blackwell.
Mukhopadhyay, C. C., Henze, R., & Moses, Y. T. (2007).
How Real Is Race? A Sourcebook on Race, Culture, and
Biology. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.
Schensul, J. J., & LeCompte, M. D. (2013).
Ethnographer’s Toolkit Book 3. Essential Ethnographic
Methods: A Mixed Methods Approach, Second Edition.
Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.

80 • C3 Framework

ANTHROPOLOGY
WAYS OF KNOWING

ANTHROPOLOGISTS SAY…
DIMENSION 1

POSSIBLE DISCIPLINARY
COMPELLING
AND SUPPORTING
QUESTIONS

How have different groups of people in the United States experienced the recession? Remembering
anthropology’s commitment to holism, is the nation the most helpful scale at which to study the Great
Recession? What happens if we study it at the level of a region (e.g., the Southwest, the Rust Belt)? A
metropolitan area (e.g., Orlando)? A neighborhood (e.g., Hyde Park in Chicago)? Something smaller,
like a mobile home court or school attendance area? How can studies at one scale be useful for understanding what is happening at another?
Is the “Great Recession” an event unique to the United States? How do groups of people outside the
U.S. name what is happening and explain it? In the U.S. and elsewhere, has it made individuals and
families more mobile? Less mobile? More attached to “home”? More displaceable?
DIMENSION 2

DATA SOURCES
NEEDED TO ADDRESS
QUESTIONS

KEY CONCEPTS
AND CONCEPTUAL
UNDERSTANDINGS
NECESSARY TO
ADDRESS QUESTIONS
(non-exclusive questions)

KEY STRATEGIES AND
SKILLS NEEDED TO
ADDRESS QUESTIONS
(non-exclusive examples)

Open-ended interviews with individuals about their experiences with unemployment, education,
family dynamics, and personal well-being. Observations over time of individuals and groups handling
financially-related and status-related outcomes. Content analysis of published descriptions of the crisis
and interpretations of it. Statistics on employment, housing, government programs, health, demographics in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Informal as well as formal economy at the level of families, households, neighborhoods. Transnational
flows of remittances. Social construction of status as it varies by ethnicity, class, gender, location in the
global economy. Nutrition levels and their biological effects.

In-depth, open-ended interviews, and fieldwork on everyday behavior. Case studies of neighborhoods, social service institutions, workplaces. Content analysis of news reports, academic studies,
and everyday conversations. Comparison of qualitative and quantitative information across neighborhoods, regions, and countries.

DIMENSION 3

EVIDENCE-BASED
CLAIMS

Ethnographic and narrative analyses, seeking “emic” (insider) understandings and cultural meanings
of the event. These analyses and other methods of inquiry point toward substantiating and justifying
claims that are judged within the community of peers, including anthropologists as well as other social
scientists.
DIMENSION 4

FORMS OF
COMMUNICATION AND
ACTION
(illustrative examples)

Books and scholarly articles; television and radio appearances; op-ed pieces and blog entries; policy
statements and research briefs; webinars; documentaries; presentations at professional conferences
and meetings; evaluations and reports; websites and anthologies.

Appendices • 81

Scholarly
Rationale for the
C3 Framework

Appendix

E

IN THE C 3 FR AMEWORK , the call for students to become more prepared for

the challenges of college and career (Bellanca and Brandt, 2010; Di Giacomo, Linn,
Monthey, Pack, and Wyatt, 2013; Partnership for 21st Century Schools, 2011)1 is united
with a third element: preparation for civic life. Advocates of citizenship education cross
the political spectrum, but they are bound by a common belief that our democratic
republic will not sustain unless students are aware of their changing cultural and
physical environments; know the past; read, write, and think deeply; and act in ways
that promote the common good. There will always be differing perspectives on these
objectives. The goal of knowledgeable, thinking, and active citizens, however, is
universal.
The rationale for social studies as one of the core school
The need for strong preparation in social studies is
subjects is compelling. Unfortunately, that rationale has
as apparent today as it has been in the past. In their
not always translated into the kinds of coherent and
Framework for 21st Century Learning (2011), the
ambitious teaching and learning that enable students to
Partnership for 21st Century Skills identified governachieve the promise of calls like the Framework for 21st
ment and civics, economics, geography, and history
Century Learning.
among the nine core subjects. Moreover, civic literacy,
global awareness, and financial, economic, business,
The C3 Framework and its Inquiry Arc mark a signifiand entrepreneurial literacy are identified among the
cant departure from past attempts to develop a robust
21st century interdisciplinary themes. Finally, seversocial studies program. Some of the most compelling
al of the key life and career skills listed fall firmly if
reasons for this departure are the remarkably flat scores
not exclusively in the social studies: students must be
on the National Assessment of Educational Progress
able to work independently, be self-directed learners,
(NAEP) in Civics/Government, Economics, Geography,
interact effectively with others, and work effectively in
and U.S. History (search “The Nation’s Report Card” by
diverse teams. The push for college and career readithese subjects to study the results). As the gold stanness, so evident in the Common Core State Standards,
dard of national assessment, the NAEP results have
is important, but as the Framework for 21st Century
Learning makes clear, equally important is the need to
help students ready themselves for their roles as citizens. 1 The references in this Appendix are to works cited in the References
section that follows.

82 • C3 Framework

been telling us for close to 20 years that our efforts to
improve learning in key social studies subjects have
not resulted in increased student achievement. Far
too many 12th graders leave school with below-basic
understandings.
A second reason why the C3 Framework represents a
profound change is rooted in the research on teaching
and learning in social studies that has drawn a remarkably consistent picture of what typically happens in
schools. Too many social studies teachers—driven by
content coverage demands, growing accountability requirements, and an all-too-crowded school day—spend
much of their time talking at students (e.g., Brophy
and Alleman, 2008; Cuban, 1991). Instead of building
understandings in a robust learning environment, students too often spend their time simply trying to keep
track of all the ideas flowing at them from their teachers and their textbooks.
This research, like the findings from the NAEP assessments, paints a remarkably consistent portrait of the
consequences of such efforts: students learn too little.
They develop precious few deep understandings of what
they are called upon to learn in social studies.
We also know from other research that what students
do retain from their studies is often wildly distorted
and riddled with all manner of naïve conceptions about
the past and the way the sociocultural world works (e.g.,
Frisch, 1989; Wineburg, Mosberg, Porat, and Duncan,
2007). They are also alienated by the social studies
experience they receive in school, which is particularly
the case among students of color (e.g., Epstein, 2009).
Students are asked to be good consumers of other
people’s knowledge and ideas, but they rarely get a
chance to build their own deeper understandings, to
learn to give up their naïve ideas, and to construct more
powerful forms of knowledge. The outcome shows us
that little change in learning can be wrested from doing
more of the same.
A growing body of research on how students learn
school subjects such as social studies repeatedly teaches
us that students need opportunities to ask questions,
pursue answers to those questions under the tutelage of
expert teachers who can show them how to discipline
their thinking processes, and take part in opportunities

to communicate and act on their understandings
(Torney-Purta, Hahn, and Amadeo, 2001). Much of this
work is cited in this Appendix, as it forms the basis for
the scholarly rationale for the C3 Framework.
The C3 Framework signals a significant departure from
past practices because it seeks to take advantage of this
research and address the messages sent by NAEP tests.
The Framework’s four Dimensions build directly from
the findings laid out in research on how students learn;
they seek to redress the limits on learning repeatedly
noted by NAEP tests. In what follows, we identify how
this research supports and underpins the fundamental shift in direction and practice the C3 Framework
embodies. If we are serious about wanting students who
are civic-minded and adequately prepared for both college and careers, we can no longer ignore the prospect
of making good on this new direction.

The Importance of Questions
Children and adolescents are naturally curious, and
they are especially curious about the complex and multifaceted world they inhabit. Whether they articulate
them to adults or not, they harbor an almost bottomless
well of questions about how to understand that world.
Sometimes children’s and adolescents’ silence around
the questions in their heads leads adults to assume that
they are empty vessels waiting passively for adults to fill
them with their knowledge. This assumption could not
be more mistaken.
Children’s and adolescents’ curiosity is deeply rooted
in an unceasing desire to make sense of what goes on
around them—through their language development; in
their social interactions with parents, siblings, friends,
and community members; and through what they see
on television, in the movie theater, on YouTube, or on
the Internet. Perhaps little signals the intensity of this
socio-cultural curiosity so much as the wild popularity
of social networking sites such as Facebook.
So what should a sound social studies education entail? The C3 Framework provides a plan that is deeply
rooted in recent research on thinking, learning, and
understanding.
For the reasons outlined above, a social studies education must begin with the kinds of compelling questions
Appendices • 83

and investigations described in Dimension 1. Young
students will need help in framing useful questions
and planning their inquiries, but even the youngest
children want to make sense of the social and cultural environments around them (Brophy and Alleman,
2008). For example, students want to know what to
make of the geographical spaces they inhabit whether
their local community lies on the banks of a large river,
on the high plain where the wind blows constantly, or
in the shadows of snow-covered mountains. They are
curious about the “olden days” Grandma always talks
about. They wonder how money works as a means of
purchasing things at stores. And they are fascinated by
questions of who gets to make rules and whether those
rules are fair. As they develop, and with the guidance
of adults and peers, these questions give way to more
sophisticated variants (Hess, 2008; Rogoff, 1994).
For too many years, however, a social studies education
has meant a didactic, unidirectional process. Teachers
have tried to instill ideas directly from adults’ social
worlds into children’s minds on the assumption that, if
there was enough telling, imploring, and demanding
done, children would acquire those discipline-related ideas (Brophy and Alleman, 2008; Cuban, 1991).
Researchers who have studied how children learn
repeatedly confirm that young people learn by framing
their own questions, with or without adult help (Bruner,
1960, 1996; Piaget, 1929/2007; Vosniadou, 2008;
Vygotsky, 1986). Young people also construct their own
problem-solving strategies, again with or without adult
assistance. Those questions and problem-solving strategies, and the conclusions that young people reach, can
remain naïve, ill-structured, undisciplined, and misleading without intervention by adults (Barton, 2008;
Brophy and Alleman, 2006; Hahn and Alviar-Martin,
2008; Hicks, van Hover, Doolittle, and VanFossen, 2012;
Miller and VanFossen, 2008; Segall and Helfenbein,
2008; VanSledright and Limon, 2006).
Challenging those nascent and often ill-formed questions, strategies, and conclusions can be very difficult,
particularly if teachers are unaware of them. Young
children, for example, often persist in the idea that
banks exist only to give people money (Berti, 1995). It is
not an unreasonable conclusion: they watch as parents
get money from a bank’s ATM simply by inserting a
plastic card and punching a key or two. This process
84 • C3 Framework

of “banks giving people money on command” answers
the child’s crucial economic question—where does
money come from? Similarly, some young people insist
on believing that developments in the past add together
in such a way as to indicate a steady, if overgeneralized, march forward; this is reflected in the notion that
things always and only get better (Barton, 1996; Brophy
and VanSledright, 1997). This perspective helps children tell a story about why Grandpa is always talking
about how lucky kids are today, or why Mom tells them
about the childhood diseases she endured that they will
not.
Children and adolescents are not empty vessels into
which we pour our adult ideas and knowledge. Decades
of research on how young people learn have repeatedly reinforced the view of students as active sense
makers, who rely heavily on language to mediate their
worlds and who are deeply enmeshed in investigating
their social worlds in search of better ways to navigate it (Brophy, 1990; Bruner, 1996; Cole, 1995; Piaget,
1929/2007; Vygotsky, 1986).

Questions as Problem-Solving Spaces
The C3 Framework begins at the intersection of student
and discipline-based questions, those that concern the
socio-cultural worlds that human beings have long
desired to understand (Dimension 1). Many of those
questions are discipline-specific, but others transcend
individual disciplinary categories and are multidimensional in nature. For example, consider the question,
how bad was the economic recession that began in
2007?
At first glance, this question seems to fall squarely
within the discipline of economics. It demarcates a
clear economic problem space—the period of recent
economic struggle that saw incomes freeze or decline,
unemployment increase, and capital markets contract.
At the same time, it implies a set of supporting questions around spatial proportion: was the impact of this
recession felt equally across the country? Or were certain geographic regions less severely affected and, if so,
which ones and why? It also suggests additional questions involving history, politics and government. To ask
how bad this recession is, we need to have some sort of
historical reference point, such as the Great Depression,
from which to gauge its impact. And we need to know

what role government and political decision making
played in its inception, duration, and resolution.
A compelling question, then, demands that students
think and reason economically, geographically, historically, and politically (Dimension 2) in order to fully
address the issue. Along with the behavioral and social
sciences, these disciplinary lenses help students think
broadly; separately, these lenses enable students to set
up and pursue their investigations in different ways.

Investigative Practices and ProblemSolving Strategies
To ask questions implies the desire to answer them.
Learning to investigate questions through the
thinking and problem-solving strategies offered by
the disciplines results in deeper understandings of
the socio-cultural phenomena being investigated
(Brophy, 1990; Donovan and Bransford, 2005). Doing
so requires practicing those strategies until students
become skilled and achieve automaticity.2 Researchers
have found that learning new ways of thinking can be
slow because students often are reluctant to give up
intuitive but naïve ideas that seem to work for them
(e.g., Brophy, 1990; Piaget, 1929/2007). Persistence and
repeated opportunities for students to practice different ways of thinking become the pedagogical order of
the day.
So, what does thinking in the different disciplines look
like? What do the experts do and how do school-aged
students learn to accomplish it by comparison? What
sorts of changes in thinking practices do learners need
to undertake in order to become more knowledgeable
about and proficient at understanding the world?
What follows is a brief review of the last five decades of
research on these questions.

2

Automaticity is a term that means exercising a complex, problemsolving, cognitive operation without needing to devote conscious
energy to thinking through its specific requirements and processes. An
example from history might involve being able to read, analyze, and
synthesize a cluster of difficult and conflicting accounts on the way to
arriving at a defensible, evidence-based interpretation/understanding,
all without much apparent effort. Automaticity in some disciplinary
operations can take years to build. It is sometimes characterized as
a hallmark of cognitive, problem-solving expertise. It is certainly a
symbol of competence and proficiency.

Economic Thinking
Economic investigators are interested in the comparison of marginal costs and marginal benefits to allocate
resources in a manner that maximizes well-being.
Although not all economic investigators share the same
assumptions about how markets and economies work,
they typically believe that economic actors—individuals and/or organizations such as corporations—are
rational beings or entities focused on satisfying their
own self-interests. Because economic investigators are
interested in marketplace activity, patterns become
deeply important. Therefore, the language of numbers
plays a decisive role in the ways in which they conduct
their investigations.
To understand the depth of the recent recession, for
example, economic investigators gather data about unemployment patterns; corporate assets, liabilities, and
the changing patterns between them; government monetary and fiscal policy roles; and the like. Investigators
use the patterns they glean from such data to assess
the depths of up-and-down turns in the economy, to
evaluate current states, to predict likely directions, and
to offer recommendations. The ways that economic
investigators employ economic models and gather data
that offer evidence in support of those models provide
justification for their explanations and claims of understanding (Miller and VanFossen, 1994).
Such practices, if engaged in well, require a form of
economic literacy that depends on understanding and
employing key concepts such as supply and demand,
market liquidity, business cycles, labor practices, consumption, trade policies, and economic efficiencies
(Dahl, 1998; Greenspan, 2005; Morton, 2005; Saunders
and Gilliard, 1995; Council for Economic Education,
2010). That literacy also entails the application of theories that describe the interconnections among concepts
and how they play out within economic structures.
These theories or models of economic activity (and they
can vary based on assumptions) allow investigators to
attempt predictive solutions for economic problems
(Miller and VanFossen, 1994).
Children, however, draw from simple everyday experiences to shape their views of how economies work, and
those everyday ideas, while seeming to make intuitive
sense, are decidedly naive (Berti, 1995; Berti and Bombi,
Appendices • 85

1988; Laney, 2001). Children frequently harbor a variety
of ill-structured and incomplete economic ideas, such
as the difference between buying and renting (Brophy
and Alleman, 2006), the size of a price tag determining
how much a good costs, and that pieces of property are
owned by the people who live around them (Laney and
Schug, 1998).
These sorts of ideas held by children (and even some
adolescents) significantly limit their capability to think
economically and solve economic problems (Miller and
VanFossen, 2008). As Alice Rivlin (1999) once observed,
“without a basic understanding of how the economy
works, what the…terms and concepts are, the average
citizen is likely to be left out of any conversation…about
what is happening in the economy and what to do about
it.”
If students are to address a compelling question such
as measuring the impact of the recent recession, they
need opportunities to engage in investigations of such
economic questions (Dimension 1), use economic
reasoning and problem-solving strategies (Dimension
2), gather data that address those questions (Dimension
3), and do all of this collaboratively inside and outside
the classroom context (Dimension 4). By engaging in
this process, students can become more economically
literate—able to use key economic concepts and data-gathering and analytic tools to solve problems. Doing
so requires the educational assistance of knowledgeable
social studies teachers, who know how to construct and
conduct such investigations, and within them, shape
naïve ideas into more sophisticated ones.

Geographic Thinking
Geographic inquiry focuses attention on place and
space and seeks to understand why humans deal with
them in ways that they do and with what consequences.
Whereas to economists the recent recession is about
causes, effects, and solutions to slowing economic activity, to geographic investigators it is about understanding
and representing the spatial expressions of the events.
Maps and other graphics showing changes in spatial
patterns of human and physical environments provide a geographic language that aids in analyzing and
understanding issues while stimulating new questions
to investigate.

86 • C3 Framework

To investigate the causes and consequences of economic
and political events, geographers ask questions about
the changing landscape of human activity—who was
affected, where, and how? For example, did the recent
global recession cause observable population shifts,
changes in landscape uses, or spatial re-patterning
of human activity across the United States and other
countries? To answer such questions requires problem-solving strategies that entail spatial thinking, data
gathering, and spatial analysis using geospatial data,
maps, and other graphics.
Research on geographic thinking suggests that children learn how to navigate spatial relationships early
on. Even very young children develop mental maps
of environments they experience and can manage to
work with simple directional maps (Bednarz, Acheson,
and Bednarz, 2010; Blades and Spencer, 1987) and they
become somewhat adept at using map symbol systems
(Boardman, 1989). However, children may persist in
some naive understandings they initially develop such
as consistently misreading adult mapmakers’ representations of city populations by the use of different sizes of
map dots.
Other map symbols are also misunderstood without
opportunities to investigate how they can be used to
convey spatial ideas (Bednarz et al., 2010; Hickey and
Bein, 1996; Liben and Downs, 1989). These misunderstandings may arise repeatedly because the everyday
understandings children develop early on make good
intuitive sense to them. Geographic investigations that
involve more advanced forms of spatial reasoning help
learners reconstruct their misleading understandings
(Gregg, 1997). Simply telling children to change their
intuitive, but counter-productive spatial ideas does
little good. They need opportunities in the presence of
knowledgeable others to engage in spatial-reasoning
investigations (e.g., drawing and describing their own
mental maps and making map representations based
on data collected or personal field observations) in
which they confront cognitive impasses created by their
naive everyday ideas. This kind of activity gives them
a chance to restructure what they believe and know in
more productive ways.
Changes in geospatial technologies have extended and
amplified the reach and importance of the applications

of geographic knowledge, skills and perspectives.
Learning to employ technologies such as GIS and
Google Earth during their inquiries can serve ably in
providing students with opportunities to restructure
their knowledge, gain new skills, and change their perspectives. Students may engage in this process individually or collectively and collaboratively with the assistance and guidance of the more knowledgeable teacher.
Geographic thinking entails representing complex
ideas about place. In many respects, places are created
through human activity as people adapt to and modify the spaces they occupy. Ways of representing such
activities are nearly always laden with the personal and
cultural perspectives of the representers (Harley, 1994;
Segall and Helfenbein, 2008). Without considerable
prompting, students typically do not think much about
who created the maps (i.e., cartographers), preferring
instead to imagine that maps come ready-made and
are thus always accurate. Yet, the sorts of political and
socio-cultural distortions that may creep into such
representations and into geographic narratives are
crucial for students to understand if they are to achieve
the type of geographic literacy and capable thinking required of citizens in democracies (Bednarz et al., 2010).
How we come to understand and represent our global
and interconnected world has important consequences
for our lives (Segall and Helfenbein, 2008).
If investigating and understanding how people make
economic choices, and with what consequences, helps
us better make sense of who we are and why we do what
we do, then investigating how we come to know and
represent the world through geographic reasoning and
tools helps us understand even more fully who we are
and how we adapt to and modify a changing world. If
taught in the research-based way the C3 Framework
suggests, economic and geographic understandings will
become less parochial and provincial as learners develop into more sophisticated and incisive thinkers.
For a comprehensive review of geography education research studies that examine how geographic knowledge,
skills, and practices develop across diverse individuals,
in a variety of settings, and over time, see Bednarz,
Heffron, and Huynh (2013).

Historical Thinking
In effect, posing historical questions involves asking
what the past means, what people in the past were
thinking and talking about, and how that thinking and
language caused them to behave in the ways they did
(Collingwood, 1946/1993). Expert historical investigators rely on residue from the past—both original
accounts and testimonials and synthetic sources
constructed by previous investigators—to address those
questions. These sources demand extensive reading, defined very broadly to include texts, cartoons, paintings,
maps, charts, photographs, and the like.
In order to address their questions and develop deeper
understandings of how people acted in the past, historians read in particular ways (Lee, 2005; Wineburg, 2001).
This way of reading is a type of thinking that involves
strategies and skills, ones that lead to historical understanding. If we wish our students to ask more profound
questions of the past as well as construct deeper understandings of it, we need to teach them to think and
reason in the ways demonstrated by those with greater
expertise (VanSledright, 2011).
Historical questions, then, demand that students search
out relevant accounts; identify what types of accounts
they are; attribute them to authors; assess the authors’
perspectives, language, motives, and agendas; and judge
the reliability of those texts for addressing the questions
posed (VanSledright and Afflerbach, 2005; Wineburg,
2001). They also do whatever they can to read these
authors slowly, closely, and within the historical context of the period in which they lived (Reisman, 2012;
Wineburg, 2001). Students then convert those accounts
into forms of evidence for making claims about what
occurred and why (Lee, 2005; Lee and Shemilt, 2003).
These claims are justified through a process of evidence
corroboration in which the way the evidence preponderates or comes together supports certain claims over
others. Collectively, the evidence-justified claims serve
as a form of historical understanding.
In history, there is often a dispute over what the past
means. Investigators wrestle over what counts as justified understandings because evidence can sometimes
be applied to make multiple and different claims. It will
come as no surprise, then, that students investigating
the recent recession may arrive at varied conclusions.
Appendices • 87

For better or worse, historical reading and thinking,
and the specific strategies they require, seldom provide a single, definitive answer to the questions posed.
Children and adolescents can come to make sense of
this problem, since most of them have undergone experiences in which differing perspectives (e.g., she said/he
said during a playground spat) prevented closure on a
given issue.
Young people, the research studies suggest, do not necessarily come to these forms of historical reading and
thinking on their own (Donovan and Bransford, 2005;
Levstik and Barton, 1997; VanSledright and Brophy,
1992; Wineburg, 2001). Their naïve, everyday ideas
formed through lived experience tend to interfere with
richer understandings (Lee, 2005).
For example, children learn early on about the difference between telling the truth and telling a lie, since
uttering the latter is often met with punishment. They
quickly develop the idea that people can engage in only
these two dichotomous possibilities, and they bring this
social understanding to the social studies classroom.
When reading accounts about events during the
American Revolution—for example, one by a British
soldier and a contradictory one by a colonial minuteman concerning who was at fault during a bloody
skirmish, children (and even some adolescents) insist
that one or the other must be lying. In a complex world,
this dichotomous thinking can arrest understanding
because it becomes difficult to determine which is
which without corroborating evidence. Moreover, the
notion of differing (and often conflicting) perspectives
offers a more useful idea in that it helps explain why
historical actors may have interpreted what appears to
be the same situation in vastly different ways (Lee, 2005;
VanSledright, 2011; Wineburg, 2001). Helping students
achieve such understandings can take a number of
different forms. Classroom discussions of emerging understandings based on analyses of sources and the evidence they produce can be crucial (Hess, 2009). Writing
is also critical: recent studies have demonstrated that
students who write about their historical understandings and are coached on how to gradually build sound
evidence-based arguments, demonstrate a deeper grasp
of how to address the questions posed (Monte-Sano,
2008; Monte-Sano, 2011).
88 • C3 Framework

This is but one additional example that explains why the
C3 Framework stresses the Inquiry Arc of developing
questions; applying disciplinary concepts; gathering
sources and using evidence; and working collaboratively to develop conclusions and take action. Learning to
think historically (or economically, or geographically,
or politically) helps children and adolescents let go of
some of their less-productive ideas and develop richer
ones that aid in their understandings of the social and
cultural world (Donovan and Bransford, 2005).

Civic-Minded Thinking
If economic investigators primarily explore questions
about how resources move to produce goods and services and how, in turn, those products flow to consumers, investigators who study politics and government
primarily examine questions about how power flows.
They are interested in understanding the political and
civic actions of individuals and organizations and how
they influence one another (Budano, 2012). Returning
to the question about the recent recession, civic-minded
investigators would trace how people’s political behavior (e.g., voting practices, campaign donations) shapes
the policies of elected officials in government and/or the
converse. Those investigations would produce data that
could be used to identify the role different policies (e.g.,
federal and local taxation, fiscal and monetary, discretionary and entitlement spending), or the lack thereof,
play in creating a growth-recession cycle.
Analyzing how bad the recession was might be gauged
by investigators of the civil polity through surveys of
people’s attitudes toward governmental organizations
during this recession compared to other recessions, and
how citizens deliberated about it and responded in the
voting booth. These investigators might also survey the
movement and efficacy of repair policies (e.g., stimulus
packages, bail outs) through governmental organizations. Policy developments, their sources, and consequences as exercises in power shape the vocabulary of
politics and government investigators. Their efforts
are animated by asking questions about how power
flows through cultures, resulting in policies and laws
that regulate how citizens interact to solve dilemmas
and conflicts between and among different interests.
These investigators borrow a number of concepts and
models from economists and historians. Because their
questions focus on different kinds of problems (e.g., the

nature of civic behavior, or the effects of government
policies), they use the concepts and models differently
in order to address those problems.
Young social studies students typically have rather limited understandings of the internal workings of politics
and civic behavior, both among individuals and within
and across governmental bodies. They learn about
voting as a decision-making strategy and can engage
in simple forms of it, but they can have quite naïve
understandings about it and they often overgeneralize
the circumstances in which it can be applied (e.g., that
all decisions should be subjected to a vote). Students of
all ages are very curious about how decisions get made,
and show interest in participating.
Early on, children rely heavily on their families for ideas
about civic participation and how it works (Hess and
Torney, 1967/2009). In order to learn how to participate
effectively within deliberative and policymaking contexts, students need considerable guidance and continual practice in order to modify their naïve political and
civic ideas. Students who are encouraged to ask questions, debate alternative actions, and gather evidence
about the likely consequences of choosing one direction
over others are typically less cynical than peers who do
not have those experiences (Haas, 2004; Torney-Purta,
Hahn, and Amadeo, 2001). Opportunities to engage in
service-learning experiences also help prepare students
for their adult responsibilities in participatory democratic cultures (Hahn and Alviar-Martin, 2008; Hess
and Torney, 1967/2009; Kahne and Sporte, 2008; Metz
and Youniss, 2005; Parker, 2008).

Evidence as Understanding
If one goal of education is to improve students’ decision-making judgment and to prepare them for college,
careers, and civic life, there is no substitute for deep
knowledge and understanding of the socio-cultural
world offered through the four forms of disciplinary
thinking described above. Along with the behavioral
and social sciences, each offers powerful strategies
and tools for exploring and answering compelling and
supporting questions. In their different ways, they provide time-honored means of turning source data into
evidence for the conclusions one reaches (Dimension 3).

One of the central principles in the C3 Framework rests
on the concept of evidence. Anyone can ask a question
about the social world and come to some answer or
another, no matter how wildly speculative or opinionated. Human minds have great capacity for imagination.
A wildly speculative answer or an imaginative conjecture, however, is not the same thing as understanding.
Understanding is achieved by the careful investigation
of questions, data collection, reading, analysis, and
synthesis; in effect, data are transformed into evidence-based claims that separate opinions and conjecture from justifiable understandings.
In a digital world filled with fact and speculation,
that difference is a crucial contribution social studies
teachers who follow the C3 Framework can offer to
their students. This claim is no more evident than in
the research done on teaching and learning in history
education (see reviews by Barton, 2008; Grant, 2006;
Lee, 2005; VanSledright and Limon, 2006; Voss, 1998;
Wineburg, 2001).
In our rapidly-changing world where ideas, information, and opinions are but mouse-clicks away, students
more than ever need to learn how to keep learning in
order to cultivate sound understandings (Lee, 2010). As
a result, they need a deep well of powerful and disciplined strategies for answering their questions and for
gathering data that can be evaluated and transformed
into evidence for justifiable decisions.
The days are long past when it was sufficient to compel
students to memorize other people’s ideas and to hope
that they would act on what they had memorized. If 20
years of National Assessment of Educational Progress
report cards on youth civic, economic, geographical,
and historical understanding mean anything, they repeatedly tell us that the success of that telling-and-compelling effort no longer works in the 21st century, if it
ever did (Smith and Niemi, 2001).

Working Collaboratively to Show
Understanding
The research on how people learn makes clear how
important collaborations are to deeper understanding (Brown and Campione, 2002; Brown, Collins, and
Duguid, 1998; Palinscar, 1998). Businesses in Silicon
Valley, for example, picked up on this idea long ago:
Appendices • 89

collaborative developmental teams designed the means
of bringing the Internet to people in ways reminiscent
of early 20th century efforts toward mass electrification.
Researchers have long stressed the insights John Dewey
(1902) offered about how important our shared language
and vocabularies are to thinking and problem solving
(Bruner, 1960; Rogoff, 1994 Vygotsky, 1986). In short,
much of our best thinking occurs when we build and
express ideas in collaborative settings (Dimension 4).
Teachers work to bridge student experience-based questions with disciplinary ones. Collaborative inquiries designed to address those questions are then launched in
classrooms. Teachers act as guides, facilitators, and disciplinary ambassadors. Students are, however, engaged
in the actual investigative work (for detailed examples
of how this can play out in history classrooms, see Bain
[2000] at the secondary level and VanSledright [2002] at
the elementary level). Working together, students learn
how to think more clearly and powerfully by employing
disciplinary knowledge and methods. In doing so, they
transform data they gather into evidence for the conclusions—explanations and arguments—they reach.

Furthermore, collaborative opportunities to inquire
into and then communicate understandings support
students’ informed civic engagement, a principal goal of
a rich social studies education. Researchers have found
that (a) investigating how governments operate, (b)
engaging in opportunities to discuss and debate current
social problems and issues, (c) being involved in service-learning and related activities, (d) participating in
high-impact decision-making, and (e) participating in
simulations of politically related activities all increase
the likelihood of students attaining higher levels of
political understanding, commitment, and action (Hess,
2002; Torney-Purta, 2005). As the Inquiry Arc of the C3
Framework culminates in Dimension 4, so too does the
preparation for student success in college, career, and
civic life.

Progressions in Socio-Cultural
Understanding

The C3 Framework is organized by grade bands because
researchers have long demonstrated that disciplinary
ideas and understandings show progression in their
development (Piaget, 1929/2007; Vygotsky, 1986). Some
of the early work suggested that progression tended
These explanations and arguments need to be comto form in lock step. That is, children and adolescents
municated, for it is in this communication practice
needed to attain a certain cluster of understandings
that teachers obtain evidence of growth in students’
before they could move to the next stage. This set of
understandings (or the lack thereof). The process can
claims has given way to the idea that progression can be
take many collaborative forms. Students can read, anbumpy and uneven, and that children and adolescents
alyze, and discuss data sources and accounts together;
may move back and forth across developmental levels.
design websites or wikis; create digital documentary
Therefore, students need repeated opportunities to work
presentations; discuss and debate claims orally in the
in investigative contexts with disciplinary concepts,
classroom; and engage in writing collective essays (Hess, strategies, and ideas (Lee and Ashby, 2000; Ashby, Lee,
2002; Klingner, Vaughn, and Schumm, 1998; Soller,
and Shemilt, 2005; VanSledright, 2002).
2001; Monte-Sano, 2008; Swan and Hofer, 2008; Swan
and Hofer, 2013). It is here, in particular, that the C3
Students’ capability to ask rich questions within disciFramework dovetails closely with the types of complinary-based inquiries grows rather slowly. They need
munication practices expected of students within the
considerable guidance from more knowledgeable adults
Common Core State Standards for English Language
and peers in asking the meaty questions that prompt
Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies.
the development of deeper socio-cultural understandings useful to adults in democracies. This is not to say
The aforementioned research speaks compellingly:
that the questions students ask are irrelevant. Rather,
While it is important for students to demonstrate their
teachers will find the task of assisting their students in
individual progress, they make more rapid progress
constructing questions and developing inquiries more
in building their social studies understandings when
challenging than, say, teaching students to consider
working together.
an author’s perspectives when reading a history text
(Reisman, 2012).

90 • C3 Framework

Student progress can also be uneven in using evidence
to draw conclusions (VanSledright, 2002; Wineburg,
2001). Researchers find that even some college students
think that unsupported opinions are sufficient to claim
understanding, and they can struggle to distinguish
them from evidence-backed arguments (Maggioni,
2010; Maggioni, VanSledright, and Reddy, 2009; Seixas,
1993). Helping students make better distinctions and
build criteria for judging the difference takes time and
demands multiple opportunities to practice.
What then can social studies teachers reasonably expect
as students progress through the social studies program? As the foregoing implies, researchers suggest
that they will see relatively slow growth in children’s
and adolescents’ disciplinary thinking and understanding. This finding makes sense. Because children’s early
learning experiences so often result in tightly-held
intuitive, but often naïve understandings, children
find those understandings difficult to give up and/or
reconstruct.
It is just this kind of research finding that undergirds
the importance of helping students develop questions
and inquiries into the world. Merely telling students
how the economy works or what the past means
requires that they accept the teacher’s word on faith.
Researchers make it clear that this approach is insufficient. Students need repeated opportunities to practice asking questions, investigating phenomena, and
gathering the necessary evidence if they are to progress
in building explanations and arguments that illustrate
their knowledge and understandings.
Furthermore, it is important to understand that students are quite capable of thinking in the ways that the
Inquiry Arc indicates. The research base here is pointed:

students are more than able to think deeply and richly
about the world around them. They simply grow at
different rates and need many and varied opportunities
to engage with ideas (Donovan and Bransford, 2005). It
is important to hold high, but reachable expectations
for student learning progressions. Grade banding plus
repetition is a way to suggest how the repeated opportunity to practice evolves across broad grade clusters.

Understanding as Civic Engagement
The C3 Framework and the embedded Inquiry Arc are
underpinned by decades of research on how children
and adolescents learn about and operate in the world.
They begin with those young people’s questions, intersect them with the social studies disciplines, and broach
investigations into the world that are designed to
address those questions. This approach is not willy-nilly.
The research base demonstrates that the contributions
disciplinary thinking can make to deepen young people’s understandings of the world are indeed profound.
These disciplined ways of thinking are also ways of
learning. As such, they are crucial in preparing young
people for lives as engaged and active citizens. Now
more than ever, students need the intellectual power to
recognize societal problems; ask good questions and develop robust investigations into them; consider possible
solutions and consequences; separate evidence-based
claims from parochial opinions; and communicate and
act upon what they learn. And most importantly, they
must possess the capability and commitment to repeat
that process as long as is necessary. Young people need
strong tools for, and methods of, clear and disciplined
thinking in order to traverse successfully the worlds of
college, career, and civic life. The research that underpins the C3 Framework offers much to move our
children precisely in that direction.

Appendices • 91

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GLOSSARY
KEY TERMS IN THE C3 FRAMEWORK
The College, Career and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards sets forth learning
expectations and an inquiry arc that will be useful in guiding the development of state and local social
studies standards and curriculum documents. This glossary defines and provides examples of key
concepts and terms used in the C3 Framework. The examples are illustrative but are not exhaustive.
Adapt to an environment: People adapt to the opportunities and
constraints of their environment, making relevant decisions based on
their state of knowledge and technology.
Example: People settle in regions that provide resources needed for
daily living. Settlement location choices are influenced by various
factors, including climate and changes in technology. One example
is the influence of air conditioning systems on where people choose
to live.
Argument (coherent, reasoned): In the C3 Framework, an argument is a claim or collection of claims supported by relevant evidence,
which can be considered an answer to the question investigated by the
research. In historical research, a coherent argument is one in which
the evidence cited supports the claim; a reasoned argument is one in
which the evidence is used in a logical and critical way.
Example: In Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945, the historian David Kennedy develops the
reasoned argument that U.S. isolation from the principal theaters
of battle and the nation’s superior economic ability allowed it to
emerge successfully from World War II.
Authority (authoritative source): The legitimate power to
influence or compel thoughts and actions. An authoritative source is a
source acknowledged to be an accurate and reliable basis for identifying facts and constructing interpretations.
Example: The United States Constitution is an authoritative source
on the structure of federal government in the United States.
Banks: Businesses that accept deposits and make loans.
Example: Family members or neighbors probably have checking
or saving accounts at banks in the community. They deposit their
money in these accounts to keep it safe. Banks offer ease of use
through ATM cards, debit cards, and checks. Banks often pay interest on the money in these accounts. Banks use the deposits to make
loans to other customers. Students may know friends or family who
have obtained a loan from a bank to buy a house or a car.
Barriers to trade: Laws that limit imports or place taxes on
imported goods and services in order to discourage imports and protect domestic profits and jobs.
Example: A tariff is a tax on imports that results in fewer imports
being purchased. One consequence is that more domestic substitutes will likely be consumed.

96 • C3 Framework

Benefits: The gains from consuming and producing goods and services and making personal, business, and public choices. Benefits may
be financial, or they may consist of other types of satisfaction.
Example: The purchase of a new bicycle results in increased satisfaction and enjoyment.
Borrowing: Taking money with a promise to repay the money in the
future.
Example: Perhaps a brother, sister, or parent has borrowed money
from a student and later repaid the money. Maybe a student has borrowed money from a brother, sister, friend, or parent. In commercial
lending, the promise to repay includes the amount borrowed plus
some interest—a payment for using the borrowed money.
Capital goods: Goods that have been produced and are used over
and over again in the production process to produce other goods and
services. Capital goods can also be called capital resources or physical
capital.
Example: Tools, equipment, factories, office buildings, machines,
desks in schools, interactive whiteboards, computers, and projectors
are all examples of capital goods.
Causes and effects (probable, multiple, complex, unexpected): No historical event or development occurs in a vacuum;
every one has prior conditions, and every one has consequences. Historians cannot test these in laboratories the way scientists can, but they
can use historical evidence and reasoning to determine probable causes
and effects. Events and processes often result from developments in
many realms of life, including the social, political, economic, and
cultural realms, and may have consequences that are broad, interconnected, and far-reaching, so that causes and effects are multiple and
complex. The outcome of any historical event may not be what those
who engaged in it intended or predicted, so that chains of cause and
effect in the past have often been unexpected, not pre-determined.
Example of probable causes: Probable causes of the voyages of
Columbus include Columbus’s desire to reach the riches of Asia by
sailing westward and the aims of the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand
and Isabella to continue the expansion of Christianity, as well as
other reasons listed as multiple causes below.
Example of multiple causes: Multiple causes of the voyages of
Columbus include Columbus’s personal ambition and desire to
reach the riches of Asia by sailing westward; the aims of the Spanish

monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella to compete with Portugal in the
race for direct access to spices and to continue the expansion of
Christianity; the expansion of the Ottoman Empire that disrupted
old trade routes and lessened the direct access of Western Europeans to silk, spices, and other Asian products; improvements in
ship designs, including the adoption of new kinds of sails; and the
development of the printing press, which allowed works by earlier
geographers and travelers to be cheap and accessible to ship captains
and merchants. Other factors also played a role, because no single
cause led to Columbus’s voyages.
Example of complex effects: Complex effects of the voyages of
Columbus include all the developments that resulted from them,
which have influenced nearly every aspect of today’s globalized
world.
Example of unexpected effects: The voyages of Columbus resulted
in the widespread exchange of animals, plants, human populations, and diseases across the Atlantic in both directions, including
corn, wheat, potatoes, tomatoes, coffee, cows, horses, turkeys,
measles, and smallpox. Many results of the Columbian Exchange
were unexpected effects, and some of the exchange was completely
unintentional, such as the movement of invasive plant species that
became pests.
Change and Continuity: The study of the past shows that some elements remained continuous or steady, while others changed. Thinking
about change and continuity requires us to compare different points in
time—either two points in time from the past with each other, or one
from the past with the present. Sometimes the factors that change and
those that stay the same are surprising or hidden. Change may bring
progress, but it can also result in decline.
Example: The advent of electricity and household technology
brought major changes to family life in the United States, but there
were continuities as well. Doing laundry was much easier and less
physically strenuous with washing machines, but laundry remained
a household task that was almost always done by women, and the
amount of clothing most people owned increased, so that the time
taken to do laundry did not decrease significantly.
Choice: A decision made between two or more possibilities or alternatives.
Example: People make choices every day. They choose what to wear,
what to eat, and what to do in their free time.
Chronological sequence: A list of historical events organized
by the time and date of their occurrence. Ordering events in time is
important to identifying relationships between events and historical
context, and to understanding the development of processes across
time in order not to view events in isolation.
Example: A chronological sequence of major events in African
American history is: the 14th Amendment, Reconstruction, Jim
Crow laws, rise of the Ku Klux Klan, World War II, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Civic virtues: Principles and traits of character that enable citizens
to contribute to the common good by engaging in political and civil
society.
Example: Tolerance, adherence to law, opposition to tyranny, standing up for others’ rights, and active participation in the community
are civic virtues.

Civil society: The entire array of nongovernmental groups, associations, and institutions that citizens form and join, along with norms
and values that underlie participation, such as cooperation, trust, and
civility.
Example: The Parent Teachers Association in a school is part of civil
society.
Claims and counterclaims: In the C3 Framework, claims are statements of belief or opinion rooted in factual knowledge and evidence
that result from the analysis of sources in an inquiry. Counterclaims
are statements that challenge or respond to claims, using evidence that
contradicts a claim.
Example: Some economists claim that central government banks
can effectively control economic growth by injecting capital into
financial markets through buying and selling in bond markets. A
counterclaim suggests that such interventions prevent capital markets from functioning properly and thus slow economic growth.
Climate change: Long-term significant variations in average weather
conditions on Earth, particularly in temperatures and precipitation,
that are caused by either natural or human induced processes.
Example: Alterations in the physical dynamics of Earth’s atmosphere that affect the climate may result from natural phenomena,
such as extensive volcanic eruptions, or human practices, such as
burning fossil fuels.
Climate variability: Changes over time in patterns of weather and
climate either globally or in a specific region of the world.
Example: Precipitation and temperature may change for varying
times, resulting in dry and wet periods that influence the timing of
planting and harvesting of food crops in specific regions affected.
Collective action: Activities undertaken by a group of people with a
shared interest in promoting or encouraging change or progress on an
issue about which members of the group agree.
Example: The Tea Party movement began as a collective action
to limit government expenditures and taxes, and to oppose the
expansion of the role of the federal government in areas such as
health care.
Communication network: A pattern of links among points and
pathways along which the movement and exchange of information
takes place.
Example: Cell phone towers are located at sites chosen to facilitate
the movement and reception of signals within areas served by the
system.
Comparative advantage: The ability to produce at a lower opportunity cost than another producer.
Example: A producer with a comparative advantage in the production of wheat may have to give up less corn to produce wheat than
other producers.
Compelling question: Compelling questions address problems and
issues found in and across the academic disciplines that make up social
studies. They require students to apply disciplinary concepts and to
construct arguments and interpretations. Compelling questions often
emerge from the interests of students and their curiosity about how
things work, but they are also grounded in curriculum and content
with which students might have little experience.
Example: Was the American Revolution revolutionary?

Glossary • 97

Competition: The ability of businesses and individuals to enter a
market in an effort to compete to sell or buy a product. Competition
results in attempts by two or more individuals or organizations to
acquire the same goods, services, or productive and financial resources,
or else to sell them. Consumers compete with other consumers for
goods and services. Producers compete with other producers for sales
to consumers.
Example: New cell phones are produced on a regular basis by a wide
variety of firms.
Complex causal reasoning: A type of logical thinking that
explains how multiple events, ideas, or activities contribute to one
another.
Example: An understanding of human migration patterns in
the world today requires complex causal reasoning that takes into
account local politics, economic factors, geographical conditions,
climate, and social and cultural influences.
Context: The ideas, events, or related content that situate a concept,
event, person, or idea in a relevant time, place, or intellectual sphere.
Example: The theory of communism emerged in the context of
rapid industrialization and changing economic conditions in 19th
century Western Europe.
Core principles (in U.S. founding documents): Fundamental
ideas and ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the
Constitution, and other early and influential documents.
Example: Government by the consent of the governed, equality
under law, and freedom of the press are core principles in the founding documents of the United States.
Correct sequence (linear or non-linear): The notion that a text
(written or multimodal) has a recognizable path for readers to follow.
These paths may be linear, as are most written print texts, or non-linear,
as are most web-based texts with hyperlinks
Example: A conventional essay would likely have a linear reading
path. Websites that represent the same essay text on multiple webpages, and can be accessed in a variety of different sequences, would
be non-linear.
Corroborative value: The extent to which information from one
source that is used as evidence to support a claim supports information
from another source.
Example: Economic data offers corroborative value in support of
claims drawn from personal correspondence about the social impact
of the Great Migration of African Americans from Southern cities
and towns to Northern industrial areas in the early 20th century.
Costs: What an individual, business, organization, or government
gives up when a choice is made. Costs may be financial or nonfinancial.
Example: When a person decides to go to a movie, the cost of that
choice is what could have been done with the money spent and how
the time could have otherwise been used.
Credibility: The degree to which a source can be trusted or believed
to represent what it purports to represent. The concept of credibility
does not necessarily correspond to that of truth; a source can be credible and contain factual inaccuracies.
Example: The credibility of personal accounts of the Civil War battles from politicians in Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia,
is limited, in view of the fact that their accounts were second-hand.

98 • C3 Framework

Credit: The granting of money or something else of value in exchange
for a promise of future repayment.
Example: A bank or other financial institution may give people
credit; that is, the bank or financial institution gives people money
to buy cars or houses. The borrowers agree to repay the money
borrowed plus interest over the time of the loan.
Cultural characteristics: The specific ideas, belief systems, or
patterns of behavior that characterize a society or a culturally distinct
social group.
Example: Cultural characteristics are expressed in housing types,
food preferences, spatial patterns of settlements, and beliefs about
appropriate relationships between people and nature.
Cultural pattern: Culture may be manifested in repeated behavior
shown in social conventions, customs, and adherence to rules or habits
that are based on values and beliefs about the attributes of society and
nature.
Example: Cultural patterns may be seen in the tools and artifacts
produced in different societies or in food-growing techniques
shared among members of a group.
Cultural preference: A culturally-based preference for one thing
rather than available alternatives. The choice to engage in some
practices rather than others may be grounded in cultural habits or
may reflect deeply-held cultural beliefs about appropriate behavior in
certain settings or situations.
Example: Choices of favored spectator sports vary from place to
place. Some regions have avid soccer fans, while others favor ice
hockey or baseball. Food preferences also vary widely from place to
place and may be based on religious beliefs, the history of available
foods, or health concerns. Cultural preferences may range from
seemingly trivial topics to issues of life-changing importance.
Culture: Culture is a human institution manifested in the learned
behavior of people, including their specific belief systems, language(s),
social relations, technologies, institutions, organizations, and systems
for using and developing resources.
Example: Various cultures emerged on Earth in dispersed locations
and within different environments. Long periods of isolation and
limited interaction contributed to cultural diversity and distinctive habits and beliefs. Language-based communication is a clear
example of a learned behavior that influences the development and
interactions of human groups.
Deflation: A general sustained downward movement of prices for
goods and services in an economy.
Example: The Japanese economy began to experience deflation
during the 1990s. The United States experienced deflation during
the Great Depression.
Deliberation: Discussing issues and making choices and judgments
in a group, with information and evidence, civility and respect, and
concern for fair procedures.
Example: The class deliberated and decided to conduct a service
project at the senior center.
Deliberative and democratic strategies: A way to accomplish a
goal that includes the input of those involved at all stages of the process.
Example: The United Nations seeks to utilize deliberative and democratic strategies to address global issues.

Demand: The quantity of a good or service that buyers are willing
and able to buy at all possible prices during a certain time period. In
general, people are willing and able to buy more units of a good or
service at a lower price than they are at a higher price.
Example: Ellie opened a lemonade stand. She discovered that her
customers were willing and able to buy more cups of lemonade at
$.50 per cup than they would at $1.00 a cup.
Democratic principle: A principle that should guide the behavior
and values of institutions and citizens in a democracy.
Example: It is a democratic principle that everyone is equal before
the law.
Development: A historical event or set of events that is regarded as
significant.
Example: The invention of the cotton gin was a development that
significantly changed people’s lives.
Disincentive or negative incentive: Perceived costs that discourage certain behaviors.
Example: Detention or suspension are costs imposed on students to
deter behaviors such as skipping school or being disruptive. Fines for
speeding are disincentives designed to discourage reckless driving.
Economic globalization: An international economic system for the
production and exchange of goods and services that creates interdependence among the economies of the world’s nations.
Example: Global trade in wheat and other grains fluctuates according to the predicted future supplies and actual reserves in grain
growing countries. Prices and availability are influenced by climate
events, transportation costs, population size, and changing food
habits in various places.
Economic growth: A sustained rise over time in a nation’s production of goods and services.
Example: The U.S. economy, as measured by real GDP, grew at an
average of slightly more than 3% per year over the 60 years from
1953 to 2012.
Economic Interdependence: The dependence of people who specialize in producing one particular good or service upon other people
or institutions to provide additional goods and services that they desire.
Example: A secondary social studies teacher specializes in producing learning among secondary students and is dependent upon
others to provide clothing and food for her family.
Effects: See Causes and Effects.
Entrepreneurs: Individuals who are willing to take risks in order to
develop new products and start new businesses. They recognize opportunities, enjoy working for themselves, and accept challenges.
Example: A person who opens a new restaurant, dry cleaning store,
or other business in the community is an entrepreneur. People who
have already started businesses, such as Bill Gates, are also entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship: A characteristic of people who assume the risk of
organizing productive resources to produce goods and services.
Example: People who own and operate local businesses in the community (e.g., auto body repair shops, or restaurants) demonstrate
entrepreneurship.

Environmental characteristics: Aspects of a place or area shaped
by Earth’s physical processes or derived from the physical environment.
Example: Across the Earth, there are variations in vegetative cover
related to climate conditions and differences in landforms shaped by
processes of volcanism, glaciations, and erosion and deposition.
Environmental problem: Any threat to nature or to human beings’
dependence on nature.
Example: Acid rain is an environmental problem.
Event: An occasion, occurrence, or incident that takes place in the
past. Events can be of various lengths.
Example: Nat Turner’s rebellion was an event that took place in
1831, and is often seen as one of the many events leading up to the
American Civil War, which is also a historical event.
Evidence: In the C3 Framework, evidence is information taken
during an analysis of a source that is then used to support a claim
made in response to an inquiry question.
Example: Temperature data might be used along with information
about the invention and implementation of air conditioning as evidence to support a claim about urban development in the American
South.
Exchange: The trading of goods, services, and resources with people
for other goods, services, and resources, or for money.
Example: People exchange their human resource (labor) for
payment in the form of income (wages or salaries). In turn they
exchange part of their income with businesses to buy goods and
services. They exchange part of their income in the form of taxes
and government fees for goods and services that the government
provides.
External benefits: The benefits of production or consumption that
are received by persons other than the producer or consumer of the
good or service.
Example: The benefits of the increased quality of secondary education are received by students. Others also benefit from the students’
eventual higher production and taxes. The benefits received by the
others are external benefits.
External costs: Costs of production or consumption that are borne
by persons other than the producer or consumer of the good or service.
Example: A power plant produces electricity that it sells to its customers. The process of production results in polluted air that causes
institutions and individuals other than customers to pay higher
health care costs. Those higher health care costs are external costs.
Fiscal policy: Policies that affect the level of government spending on
goods and services, taxes, and transfer payments.
Example: A government reduction in tax rates may encourage
people to increase spending and the amount of time they are willing
to work.
Freedom: The lack of coercion or limitation of a person’s thoughts or
actions; some definitions include the actual ability of an individual to
do what he or she wishes.
Example: In the United States, Freedom of speech is one of the Five
Freedoms in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. In his Four Freedoms speech, President Franklin Roosevelt

Glossary • 99

proposed that Freedom from Fear and Freedom from Want were
also important freedoms.
Geographic context: The location in which an event occurred.
Example: The Bureau of Reclamation oversaw the building of
Hoover Dam between 1931 and 1936 within the immediate geographic context of the arid and physically taxing Black Canyon and
the broader geographic context of the Colorado River watershed.
Geographic data: Facts and statistics about spatial and environmental phenomena gathered for analysis.
Example: Geographic or geospatial data may be gathered about
physical and human processes on Earth’s surface to analyze a range
of problems, such as air and water pollution, urban sprawl, traffic
congestion, or other problems arising from human-environment
interactions.
Geographic model: An idealized and simplified representation
of reality depicting a spatial concept or a tool for predicting specific
outcomes in geography.
Example: Globes are scale models of Earth that correctly represent
area, relative size and shape, physical features, distance between
points, and true compass direction. A gravity model may be used to
describe and predict flows from one place to another based on the
distances between them and the size of their populations.
Geography: The study of physical and human systems and their
changing spatial relationships across the surface of the Earth. Human
systems and physical systems constantly interact with reciprocal
influences flowing between and among them, creating a wide variety of
spatial patterns.
Example: Humans plant crops in response to soil characteristics
and climate variables that include temperature ranges and amounts
of precipitation. When heat rises and rain fails, farmers may
intervene with irrigation systems to sustain growing until harvest
time. When soils are depleted from constant plantings, farmers may
extend productivity by using no-till methods and adding fertilizers.
Geospatial technologies: Computer hardware and software used
to produce and evaluate geographic data at infinitely varied levels;
these technologies include technologies related to mapping and interpreting physical and human features on Earth’s surface.
Example: Geospatial technologies include global positioning systems
[GPS], geographic information systems [GIS], remote sensing [RS],
and geospatial visualizations that allow the viewing of data associated with specific locations.
Globalization (see also Economic Globalization): The increasing interconnectedness of different parts of the world resulting from
common worldwide cultural, economic, and political activities, and
the impact of technological advances in communication and transportation.
Example: Communications technologies provide nearly instant
transmission of news about widely dispersed events across Earth’s
surface. The increase in the speed of information flows from place
to place influences the timing and nature of reactions to events and
problems by governments, economic organizations, and the general
public. As an example, international responses to natural and technological disasters are faster and more widespread than in the past.

100 • C3 Framework

Goods: Objects that satisfy people’s wants.
Example: People buy and use a variety of goods, such as clothing,
food, cars, houses, household appliances, bicycles, toys, books,
computers, and tablets.
Governmental context: A setting in which citizens exercise rights
and responsibilities through government or in response to government.
Example: Citizens act in a governmental context when they vote,
serve on juries, enlist in the military, or seek to influence the government through protest and activism.
Historical context: The setting, background, or environment in
which a specific historical event or process occurred, which can include
cultural, political, social, intellectual, economic, and other factors.
Example: The Chicago Haymarket affair of 1886 occurred within
the context of rapid industrialization, massive immigration of Eastern and Southern Europeans to the United States, and the formation
of labor organizations.
Historical time period (historical era): A distinct segment of
time whose beginning and end are marked in some way by significant
developments or events. Different historians segment historical events
and processes into periods or eras differently, depending on what
they see as important. This segmentation can also be referred to as
“periodization.”
Example: The Civil War time period is typically studied in U.S. history classes, but the determination of its starting and ending dates
depends on which events seem most significant. The typical starting
date in historical accounts is the bombardment of Fort Sumter on
April 12, 1861, and the typical ending date is April 9, 1865, when
General Robert E. Lee surrendered. On the other hand, Southern
states had already established the Confederacy in February 1861,
and the surrender of other Confederate forces took place later than
the surrender of Lee. In addition to examining these potential
starting and ending points, an inquiry into longer-term causes can
be launched by asking the compelling question, “When did the Civil
War Begin?” (The Missouri Compromise? The 3/5 Compromise in
the writing of the U.S. Constitution?) Another compelling question—“When Did the Civil War End?”—could examine interpretations of the point at which the Civil War can truly be said to have
ended, the determination of which depends on a judgment about the
resolution of its most significant issues.
Human capital: The knowledge and skills that people obtain through
education, experience, and training.
Example: Human capital includes reading, computation, and other
skills acquired through education, as well as physical and intellectual abilities required for work, and on-the-job training.
Human-induced environmental change: Environmental
changes brought about by human activities on scales that can range
from the local to the global.
Example: Human activities involve many actions and processes that
result in environmental changes. These may include urban sprawl,
deforestation, agricultural development, industrialization, water
control structures, energy production, and the extraction of natural
resources.
Human problem: Any serious problem facing human beings.
Example: War is a human problem.

Human rights: Rights or freedoms possessed by all people by virtue
of their being human.
Example: If freedom of speech is a human right, then no human
being should be denied freedom of speech.
Human settlement: A location where people have built structures
to use as permanent or temporary living areas.
Example: A human settlement or populated place may range in size
from a few dwellings located together at a rural crossroads to large
cities with surrounding urbanized areas, such as Mexico City or
Toronto.
Human system: A system for organizing human behavior through
linked and interrelated processes and structures. Demographic, economic, political, social, and cultural structures are examples of major
human systems. Through these systems, humans interact to acquire
and allocate needed resources for sustaining life within and among
various societies in different regions on Earth.
Example: Human population dynamics are influenced by cultural
beliefs about the roles of men, women, and children in society.
Similarly, economic structures allocating resources and the political
rules governing decision making have effects on the population and
the quality of life of a society. Individuals learn from, respond to,
and influence the human systems they inhabit.
Incentive: Perceived benefit that encourages certain behaviors.
Example: Profits are incentives to start business. Wages are incentives to work.
Income distribution: The way in which the nation’s income is
divided among families, individuals, or other designated groups.
Example: In 2009, the share of aggregate income earned by households in the United States ranged from 3.2 percent for the lowest
fifth of households to 50.3 percent for the highest fifth of households.
Inflation: A general, sustained upward movement of prices for goods
and services in an economy.
Example: Prices paid by the typical consumer increased by an average of 2.5% annually from 2003 to 2012.
Institution: A formal structure or organization that is based on a
strong set of norms and interests and governs people’s behavior.
Example: Both the United States Congress and the family are
institutions.
Intended audience (of a historical source): The desired recipient(s) of a historical source. This is sometimes clear, as in a letter written to a particular person or a speech given to a particular audience,
but it is sometimes necessary to infer the desired recipient from the
source and its context.
Example: Because of the ways in which the 1936 film Modern Times
uses characters and techniques from his earlier, successful films, we
can tell that Charlie Chaplin intended a large, movie-going audience
to view it.

Interest: The price of using someone else’s money. When people
place their money in a bank, the bank uses the money to make loans to
others. In return, the bank pays interest to the account holder. Those
who borrow from banks or other organizations pay interest for the use
of the money borrowed.
Example: Banks pay savers interest because banks use savers’ money
to make loans to other customers. Borrowers pay banks interest on
loans because the borrowers are using others’ money.
Investment in human capital: The efforts of people to acquire or
increase human capital. These efforts include education, training, and
practice.
Example: Attending trade school after high school, going to college,
obtaining on-the-job training, and the provision of economics
workshops by a school district for its teachers are all examples of
investment in human capital. Learning to read, write, compute,
and think are investments in human capital. Practicing a sport or
improving the ability to play a musical instrument are investments
in human capital.
Investment in physical capital: An addition or additions to the
stock of equipment and structures that are used to produce goods and
services.
Example: Examples of an investment in physical capital include a
firm building a new manufacturing plant, a grocery store adding a
new wing for its produce department, and an insurance company
purchasing new computers for its offices.
Key constitutional provisions: Fundamental ideas included in a
constitution.
Example: The separation of powers, federalism, and the right to a
speedy trial are all key constitutional provisions of the U.S. Constitution.
Laws: Rules enacted by a legislature.
Example: By law in a number of states, a person cannot hold an
adult driver’s license until the age of 18.
Limitations in the historical record: Gaps or inadequacies in the
evidence available for examining a historical event or development that
result from the loss or destruction of evidence, or from evidence never
having been created in the first place.
Example: Although we know the names of a few Roman gladiators
from mosaics and written accounts, most of them have been lost. No
one thought to record details about them as a group at the time, nor
did anyone interview them to get their opinions. Because of these
limitations in the historical record we will never be able to know
how many of the gladiators were slaves, or what they thought about
fighting.
Limits (of government): Actions a government may not take. The
concept of limits is based on the idea that the government should have
a limited role and is not supposed to interfere in all aspects of life. Students should be aware that reasonable people disagree about what the
government may and may not do in the United States.
Example: The United States government may not establish a religion
because of a limitation contained in the First Amendment.

Glossary • 101

Location: The position of a place, defined in terms of features such as
site characteristics, accessibility, and connectivity.
Example: The position of a point on Earth’s surface may be absolute,
as expressed by means of a grid showing latitude and longitude, or
relative, as shown by its location related to other points or places.
Long-term cause: Long-term causes are the factors, often intertwined, that result in the occurrence of a historical event or process.
Example: The long-term causes of World War I included the growth
of nationalism in Europe, a series of alliances and treaties in which
countries agreed to support one another, disputes over territory, a
build-up of military forces on all sides, and rivalries for colonies and
imperial trade.
Maker (of a historical source): The creator of a historical source.
For written accounts, the maker is also often described as the author,
although it can sometimes be complicated to determine the true maker
of a document.
Example: In 1354, the Berber Muslim explorer Ibn Battuta began to
dictate the story of the extensive travels he had made in Africa, Asia,
and Europe over the previous twenty years to the scholar Ibn Juzaay,
who wrote them down in a book generally called Rihla (the journey).
Both Ibn Battuta and Ibn Juzaay can be seen as the makers of this
historical source.
Map: A map is a representation of an area and is usually depicted on a
flat surface. Maps describe spatial relationships of the specific features
represented.
Example: Maps are made and used for different purposes. Reference maps such as topographic maps, may depict a wide variety of
features on Earth’s surface, including landforms, water bodies, and
buildings. Thematic maps are topical and show the distribution of
features and conditions based on data such as income levels, health,
or incidence of diseases in various locations. Mental maps are the
maps we have in our minds of places we have experienced.
Marginal Principle: Marginal means extra, additional, or incremental. People make decisions by comparing the marginal (extra)
benefits of their options to the marginal (extra) costs of their options.
One example would be comparing the marginal cost of hiring another
worker with the marginal revenue that the worker provides. Alternatively, it might include decisions to work an hour of overtime versus
spending that hour on a home project.
Example: I can spend one more hour studying for a final exam in
English literature. I know that the hour might help me earn a 90%
rather than an 80% grade. I also know that to earn an A, I must
score 100% on the final. On the other hand, I could spend an extra
hour studying for my mathematics final. This will result in a 90%
on my mathematics final, and a 90% on my math final will improve
my overall grade from a B to an A. For me, a marginal hour spent
preparing for my math final affords a higher marginal benefit.
In deciding whether to hire another worker who earns $35 per hour,
I have to know whether or not hiring that worker will result in at
least $35 of additional revenue.
Markets: Buyers and sellers of a particular good, service, or resource.
Example: Markets exist for goods and services, such as hamburgers,
lettuce, auto mechanics, engineers, stocks, and commodities.

102 • C3 Framework

Megacity: As defined by the United Nations, a megacity is an extensive urban area with a large and dense population that exceeds ten
million people and 2,000 persons per square kilometer. The number
of megacities is increasing as the human population expands and
millions of people migrate from rural to urban locations.
Example: Contemporary megacities include Tokyo, New York, São
Paolo, Seoul, Mexico City, Mumbai, Lagos, and Shanghai.
Modify an environment: Human actions that change natural
elements and/or physical systems.
Example: Historically, humans have modified environments by
selecting certain plants and animals to domesticate, clearing land
for agriculture, building dams to impound water for later uses,
erecting small and large settlements, and extracting resources for
energy and the production of goods.
Monetary policy: Federal Reserve System policies that affect the
supply of money and credit in the U.S. economy.
Example: In 2012, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee
announced that the Federal Reserve would continue to purchase
bonds in order to expand the money supply, keep interest rates low,
and encourage spending in the economy.
Money: Anything widely accepted in exchange for goods, services,
and resources.
Example: Historically, food, products, and resources such as silver
and gold have been used as money. Today, countries use fiat money—
money that is useful because it is backed by a country’s government
and because people are willing to accept it in exchange for goods,
services, and resources.
Movement: Over time, physical and human phenomena change
locations on Earth’s surface.
Example: Physical phenomena, including ocean currents and air
masses, continually move across Earth’s surface. Humans move
themselves by traveling from place to place, move ideas by communicating across long distances, and move goods by land, water, and
air transportation. Enduring patterns of movement may be formed
when people in different places interact frequently using the same
methods of transportation or modes of communication.
Multi-tiered timeline: A timeline with multiple layers, each of
which includes a different set of related events. A multi-tiered timeline
allows students to see the complex context and causes of historical
events and to recognize that the different topics they study happen
contemporaneously, and may influence one another or be inextricably
related.
Example: In portraying the causes of World War I, a timeline
might include multiple tiers with each tier representing a different
set of causes. One tier might include events related to nationalism.
Another tier might include events related to industrialization. Yet
another tier might include events related to imperialism.
Natural disaster: An event in the physical environment that is
destructive to human life and property.
Examples: Natural disasters occur in Earth’s environmental hazard
zones as a result of floods, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, droughts, tornados, landslides, and other destructive events
that alter ecosystems and dislocate human populations and their
activities. These events may devastate large regions, causing many
deaths and lasting damage to ecosystems and human communities.

Natural hazard: A risk situation occurring in nature that may cause
harm to humans and ecosystems. Most places are vulnerable to one or
more natural hazards.
Example: Natural hazards occur in many forms. In some instances,
these are geological, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and
massive landslides. They may also be climate-related, such as tornados, hurricanes, droughts, and climate change.
Natural resources (land): Components of the natural environment
that can be used to produce goods to meet the material needs of a
population.
Example: Natural resources include water, trees, coal, minerals, soil,
and natural gas.
Nongovernmental context: A setting in which citizens may act
that is not created, managed, or owned by a government.
Example: Nongovernmental contexts in which citizens exercise
rights and responsibilities include their families, neighborhoods and
communities, religious congregations, associations, and communications media, such as newspapers or the Internet.
Origin: The point of origination of an original social studies source,
which can include its cultural or historical context.
Example:The origin of the Waldseemuller map was early 16th century Europe. Martin Waldseemuller and his associates created the
map in 1507 while Waldseemuller was working in the Gymnasium
Vosagense, located in St. Dié in Lorraine (at that time part of the
Holy Roman Empire).
Personal values: Ethical and moral commitments that guide individuals’ actions and interpersonal relationships.
Example: Personal values include empathy, integrity, self-reliance,
generosity, trustworthiness, and creativity.
Perspective: The ideas, attitudes, and beliefs of people at a given time
in the past or present, also called point of view.
Example: A belief in racial hierarchy was one element of the perspective of European imperialists in the nineteenth century, which
influenced their interactions with indigenous populations around
the world.
Physical system: A collection of entities that are linked and interrelated in a stable structure. In geography, an ecosystem is a physical
system of major interest. An ecosystem is made up of living organisms
and other components, along with their environment, including air,
water and soils.
Example: As physical systems, ecosystems vary in scale but usually
occupy limited spaces. Networks of interactions among organisms
and between organisms and their environment define ecosystems. A
tidal pool is a single ecosystem. Sometimes the entire Earth may be
considered one ecosystem.
Place: A location having distinctive features that give it meaning and
character and distinguish it from other locations.
Example: People who build and inhabit a place give it many layers of
personal and social meaning. Humans develop strong attachments
to their homes and home places, and identify with the people and
environment of those locations.

Political institution: An institution that exercises or seeks to exercise governmental power.
Example: Political parties and school boards are political institutions.
Political problem: Any problem facing a political institution, including an unresolved disagreement or a failure to govern effectively.
Example: The failure of the state legislature to pass a budget this
year is a political problem.
Political system: The form of a government.
Example: A democratic republic, a monarchy, and a dictatorship are
different political systems.
Population: A group of individuals that may change over time in its
numerical size, age structure, gender structure, ethnic composition,
and spatial distribution.
Example: Each country has a population distributed over its
territory. Human populations vary in their settlement history and
methods of interacting with the environment. Changes in the
composition and structure of population may affect political and
economic relationships within a country and beyond.
Powers (exercised by governments): Actions a government may
legally take to compel citizens, organizations, or others to comply with
government instructions and orders.
Example: The powers of government generally include taxing, regulating industry, prosecuting crimes, and declaring war, although
there can be considerable disagreement over how far these powers
should extend.
Price: The amount a seller receives and a buyer pays for a good or
service.
Example: Stores place price tags on products or place signs near
products indicating their price. Restaurants list prices in menus.
Wages and salaries are also prices; businesses tell people what their
hourly wage will be or what their annual salary will be.
Procedural: A procedural text or product describes a specific process
with attention to the proper sequence and relationship among steps or
parts in the process.
Example: A description of how a bill becomes a law is a procedural
description.
Process: A series of related events or developments that unfold in
time. Processes may also be of various lengths.
Example: Industrialization is a process that began in the eighteenth
century, involving technological, economic, and other factors, and
leading to changes in every aspect of life.
Productivity: The ratio of output per worker per unit of time.
Example: Bonnie owns a bakery. Her employees are able to produce
48 chocolate chip cookies each per hour. She purchases a new oven
that bakes cookies in half the time. As a result, her workers’ productivity increases to 96 chocolate chip cookies per worker per hour.
Profit: The amount of revenue that remains after a business pays the
costs of producing a good or service.
Example: It costs Bonnie 42 cents (wages, ingredients, electricity,
water, sewer, and other overhead) to produce 1 chocolate chip cookie.
She is able to sell each cookie for 50 cents. Her profit per cookie is 8
cents.
Glossary • 103

Property rights: The ability of an individual to own and exercise
control over a resource.
Example: People are able to own and exercise control over land, cattle, chickens, factories, and other resources and means of production
Purpose (of a historical source): The reason a historical source
was produced. The maker of the source may state an explicit purpose,
or analysts of the source may later infer its purpose. Sometimes the
purposes stated by the maker and those inferred by later historians are
very different from each other; historians may also disagree with each
other about the purpose of a source.
Example: During the Renaissance, European city governments
issued laws limiting what people could spend on weddings, stating
that the purpose of these laws was to restrict wasteful spending. Later
historians studying these laws have also determined that their purpose was to prohibit people from buying products made outside the
city and so promote local industries, and also to make distinctions
between social classes sharper. Some historians assert that a purpose
of these laws was to control spending by women that the city leaders
saw as frivolous, while other historians assert that men made most
of the decisions regarding spending on weddings, so that limiting
women’s spending was not one of the purposes of these laws.
Real interest rate: The nominal or stated interest rate adjusted for
inflation.
Example: If the nominal interest rate on a loan is 2% and inflation
for the year is 2%, the real interest rate is zero. If the nominal interest
rate is 5% and the inflation rate is 2%, the real interest rate is 3%.
Region: An area with one or more common physical or cultural
features that give it a measure of homogeneity and distinguish it from
surrounding areas.
Example: A region may be considered formal, functional, or vernacular. A formal region is homogeneous in certain characteristics, such
as having the same vegetative cover or soil type. A functional region
is characterized by a center of population or activity interacting with
a surrounding area. A vernacular region may emerge out a people’s
sense of belonging and identity, and may be expressed by popular
regional terms, such as Dixie or Appalachia.
Resources: Resources, sometimes called productive resources, are
factors of production or inputs used to produce goods and services.
Resources fall into four broad categories: natural (e.g., land), human
(labor), capital, and entrepreneurial ability.
Example: Natural resources include water, trees, coal, minerals, soil,
and natural gas. Examples of human resources include engineers,
mechanics, nurses, doctors, lawyers, teachers, and plumbers. Capital
resources include tools, buildings, equipment, and machines.
Responsibilities (of citizens in the U.S.): The obligations that a
person must fulfill to be a good citizen. There can be disagreements
about these obligations.
Example: It is commonly believed in the United States that citizens
have the responsibility to vote, to serve on a jury when called, to obey
a just law, to serve in the military when drafted or needed, and to
protest unjust laws.

104 • C3 Framework

Rights (of citizens in the U.S.): These rights include those enumerated in the Bill of Rights as well as other rights not listed there.
Example: Rights protected under federal and state laws today
include the rights to vote, to receive an adequate education, to bear
arms, and not to be assigned to racially segregated schools.
Role (of citizens): The categories of actions taken by citizens to fulfill
their responsibilities to their political community.
Example: Citizens play an important role by educating young people to promote the common good.
Rules: Regulations or norms governing actions or procedures.
Example: A rule in our classroom is: “You can’t say, ‘You can’t play!’”
Rural: A geographic area that is less densely settled than cities or
towns, and has less intensive land use. Agriculture is a common form
of land use in rural areas.
Example: Landscape nurseries and local organic farms are often
located where land is available in sparsely settled areas outside of
cities.
Satellite images: Images produced by a variety of sensors including
radar, microwave detectors, and scanners that measure and record
electromagnetic radiation.
Example: Data from satellite images may be turned into digital or
electronic forms that can be reconverted into imagery resembling a
photograph. The digital data may then be used to create maps and
other visualizations.
Scale: The relationship between distance on a map and the corresponding distance on Earth’s surface.
Example: The scale 1:1,000,000 means that one unit on the map
represents 1,000,000 similar units on Earth’s surface.
Scarcity: The condition that exists because there are insufficient
resources to produce goods and services to meet everybody’s wants.
Example: Most of us would like to have more goods and services
for ourselves and for our community; however, given our current
resources, we cannot have all of the goods and services we want. As
a result, we must make choices.
Secondary interpretation (or secondary work or secondary
source): An analysis of a historical event or process, or of a historical
figure, that uses historical sources and is usually produced after the
event or process. The line between a primary source and a secondary
work is not always sharp.
Example: The textbook for any course is a secondary interpretation,
as are most published works of history, biographies, and encyclopedias. Former British prime minister Winston Churchill’s history
of World War II is both a primary source, because he was directly
involved in some of the events he describes, and a secondary work,
because he uses historical sources of many different types to tell the
story of developments in which he was not directly involved.
Services: Actions that can satisfy people’s wants.
Example: Transportation provided by bus drivers, car repair
provided by mechanics, and haircuts provided by barbers and hair
stylists are examples of services.

Source: The materials from human and natural activities that can be
studied and analyzed. Sources can be written, visual, oral, or material.
Historians often also use the terms accounts and documents to refer to
sources.
Example: The sources that can be used to study the powered flight
experiments of Orville and Wilbur Wright in North Carolina in
December of 1903 include Orville Wright’s diary, a telegram sent by
the Wright brothers to their father immediately after the flight, Virginia and Ohio newspaper articles on the flight, and a letter written
by Orville three weeks after the flight.
Spatial: Pertains to space and spatial relationships on Earth’s surface.
Example: The scale, organization, and uses of spaces on Earth vary.
A neighborhood occupies and uses a small space in a nation’s entire
collection of settlements.
Spatial connection: Contact over space resulting in flows of ideas,
information, people, or products among places.
Example: People in many parts of the world are linked together
by communications technology moving information over vast
distances in a short time via cell phones, the Internet, and radio and
television transmissions.
Spatial diffusion: The spread over space and through time of natural
phenomena, people, ideas, technology, languages, innovations, and
products.
Example: Infectious diseases may spread in human populations
through direct contact with infected persons, food, or insects, or
through airborne and waterborne methods. Use of the automobile
spread throughout the United States and many other parts of the
world during the 20th century as people adopted it for daily transportation. Numerous languages and religions spread to different
world regions during past land and water explorations by members
of different national groups.
Spatial distribution: The spread and arrangement of physical and
human phenomena on Earth’s surface.
Example: A large number of service stations, restaurants, and hotels
are found along interstate highways in the United States. Extensive
wheat and corn farming areas may be developed in locations with
good soils and sparse population.
Spatial pattern: Objects and phenomena on Earth’s surface are
often arranged in lines, areas, or clusters of points that are related to
the locations and placements of other phenomena. These arrangements
may occur in an orderly and observable manner.
Example: Productive agriculture is likely to occur where soils are
fertile and sufficient water is available. In such cases, the spatial pattern displayed in productive agriculture is connected to the spatial
patterns of soil fertility and water supplies.
Specialization: The production of a single good or service or a limited number of goods and services in order to increase productivity.
Example: Elementary educators, pediatricians, nurse practitioners,
electricians, plumbers, patent lawyers, and economics professors all
specialize in the production of a particular good or service.
Spending: The expenditure by people of some or all of their income
to purchase goods and services.
Example: All people spend some of their income on goods and
services, such as food, clothing, housing, insurance, transportation,
appliances, and entertainment.

Suburbs: Suburbs are less intensively developed areas than central
cities. They contain residential developments that may be an outlying
part of a city or a separate community located within commuting
distance of a central city.
Example: Suburbs are located adjacent to cities in many regions of
the world. Transportation technology, especially railways and the
automobile, helped to extend suburbs ever farther out from central
cities. Over time, many centers for goods and services have been
located in rapidly growing suburbs.
Supply: The quantity of a good or service that producers are willing
and able to sell at all possible prices during a certain time period.
Generally, producers are willing to produce and sell more of a product
at higher prices than they are at lower prices.
Example: An automobile repair shop is willing to produce more
brake repairs and oil changes at a higher price than at a lower price.
If the owner receives a higher price for each brake repair, she can
stay open an hour later and pay mechanics to do the work. At the
lower price for brake repair, she is unwilling to provide additional
brake repair service by doing so.
Supporting question: Supporting questions are intended to
contribute knowledge and insights to the inquiry behind a compelling
question. Supporting questions focus on descriptions, definitions, and
processes about which there is general agreement within the social
studies disciplines, which will assist students to construct explanations
that advance claims of understanding in response.
Example: What were the regulations imposed on the colonists
under the Townsend Acts?
System of government: The combination of all the branches of
government (legislative, executive, and judicial), other important
political institutions, and the customs, laws, and rules that are the basis
for the government of a society.
Example: Although not mentioned in the Constitution, political
parties are now part of the U.S. system of government.
Technical: A technical explanation is one that describes the mechanics of an activity or process.
Example: A description of the geographic term plate tectonics would
require a technical explanation.
Technological disaster: An event that results from the failure of
a human built system and is destructive to human life, property, and
community well-being.
Example: The April 1986 nuclear incident at Chernobyl in Ukraine
resulted in nuclear contamination in varying intensities over large
areas of Earth’s surface. This event caused numerous human deaths
and many long-term, life-threatening illnesses.
Technological hazard: A risk situation resulting from human activity that may cause harm to humans and ecosystems. The construction
and use of some technologies may pose serious threats to the well-being of humans and ecosystems.
Example: Energy production involves technologies that include
nuclear power and the extensive extraction of energy resources
such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas. The physical plants and
processes involved in energy production pose risks of industrial
accidents and pollution that may cause harmful effects on ecosystems and human settlements.

Glossary • 105

Time periods of different lengths (see also Historical time
period): Time can be segmented into periods of different lengths,
depending upon the scale and meaning of events, and the relationships
between them.
Example: The history of the women’s suffrage movement in the
United States might focus on the time period from the 1840s to
the 1920s, beginning with the time at which advocates of women’s
suffrage first began to organize and ending with the ratification of
the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote; or it might
focus on a longer time period starting with colonial times, when a
few female property owners voted, and continuing beyond the 1920s
to include the women’s movements of the later twentieth century.
Trade: The exchange of goods, services, or resources for other goods,
services, or resources, or for money.
Example: Workers normally trade their labor for wages and then
use that income to purchase goods and services.
Transportation network: A pattern of links that connect roads,
rails, pipelines, aqueducts, power lines, or other structures that permit
vehicular movement or the flow of a commodity.
Example: A transportation network may combine different modes of
transport, such as walking, cars, trains, ships, and aircraft, creating
multi-modal trips for people or goods. Trucks on interstate highways in the United States may carry goods from ocean-going vessels
to freight trains and to various market centers.
Triggering event: A triggering event is an event, sometimes unexpected, that has an immediate consequence, causing another event or
process. Not every event or development has a single triggering event.
Example: The triggering event for World War I was the assassination
of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the throne of
Austria-Hungary, by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo in June 1914.
One month later, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and
declarations of war by other countries quickly followed.
Unemployment: A condition where people at least 16 years old are
without jobs and actively seeking work.
Example: The number of unemployed people in the U.S. reached
15,382,000 in October 2009.

106 • C3 Framework

Unintended consequences: Unforeseen costs or benefits.
Examples: In 1867 Secretary of State William Seward purchased
Alaska from Russia for $7 million, which was roughly 2 cents per
acre. The purchase was ridiculed in Congress as Seward’s folly. An
unintended consequence of the purchase was the later benefit of gold
deposits and oil supplies.
We impose minimum wage laws in this country to afford lowskilled workers a better income. An unintended consequence of this
policy may be higher unemployment rates for young minorities, as
employers restrict their hiring to cover their higher labor costs.
Urban: An urban region is a built-up region characterized by a higher
population density and more buildings, transportation systems, and
other human-built features than in surrounding areas.
Example: Urban places offer a greater variety of goods, services, and
activities than less densely populated surrounding regions. Megacities such as New York, Moscow, Cairo, Nairobi, Tokyo and many
smaller cities are all defined as urban places.
Values: Ethical or moral standards for evaluating attitudes and
behavior.
Example: The values associated with open discussion of a controversial issue should include the demonstration of equal respect to
all participants and the possibility of reaching a consensus through
listening and negotiation.
Wages: Income earned for providing human resources (labor) in the
market. Wages are usually computed by multiplying an hourly pay rate
by the number of hours worked.
Example: Plumbers, electricians, carpenters, store clerks, and car
assembly workers earn an hourly wage for work that they perform.

C3 Framework Writing Team
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
LE A D W R I T E R / PR O J E C T D I R E C TO R
Kathy Swan is an associate professor of curriculum and instruction
at the University of Kentucky. Her research focuses on standards-based
technology integration, authentic intellectual work, and documentary-making in the social studies classroom. Swan has been a four-time
recipient of the National Technology Leadership Award in Social
Studies Education, innovating with web-based interactive technology curricula including the Historical Scene Investigation Project, the
Digital Directors Guild, and Digital Docs in a Box. She is co-author of
the forthcoming book And Action! Doing Documentaries in the Social
Studies Classroom and children’s series Thinking Like A Citizen. She is
also the advisor for the Social Studies Assessment, Curriculum, and
Instruction Collaborative (SSACI) at the Council of Chief State School
Officers (CCSSO) and is the co-editor of Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education—Social Studies.

WRITING TEAM
Keith C. Barton is professor of curriculum and instruction and
adjunct professor of history at Indiana University. His research focuses
on students’ understanding of history in the United States and internationally, and he is the co-author of Doing History: Investigating with
Children in Elementary and Middle Schools, Teaching History for the
Common Good, and Researching History Education: Theory, Method,
and Context.
Stephen Buckles has served on the economics faculty of Vanderbilt
University as a senior lecturer or professor since 1994. He is senior
advisor for programs for the Council for Economic Education, and is
a former president of the National Council on Economic Education
and the National Association of Economic Educators. He played a
central role in the creation of the original Voluntary National Content
Standards in Economics and is a member of the Standing Committee
of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Economics Assessment.
Flannery Burke is associate professor of history at Saint Louis
University and the author of From Greenwich Village to Taos. She
specializes in environmental history, the history of the American
West, and gender studies. She is a member of the Missouri Council
for History Education and the co-author of “What Does It Mean to
Think Historically?” published in Perspectives, the American Historical
Association newsmagazine.
Jim Charkins is the executive director of the California Council
on Economic Education and professor emeritus of economics at
California State University, San Bernardino. He served on the writing

team for the Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics, has
developed a number of teaching materials for economics education,
and was the economics editor of The Wall Street Journal Classroom
Edition Teacher’s Guide for nine years. He is the 2011 recipient of the
national Bessie Moore Award for outstanding service and dedication to
excellence in economic education and the 2012 Hilda Taba Award, the
California Council for the Social Studies’ highest honor.
S.G. Grant is the founding dean of the Graduate School of Education
at Binghamton University. His research interests lie at the intersection
of state curriculum and assessment policies and teachers’ classroom
practices, with a particular emphasis on social studies. In addition to
publishing papers in both social studies and general education journals,
Grant has published five books including History Lessons: Teaching,
Learning, and Testing in U.S. High School Classrooms (2003), Measuring
History: Cases of State-Level Testing Across the United States (2006), and
Teaching History with Big Ideas: Cases of Ambitious Teachers (2010). He
won the Exemplary Research Award from the National Council for the
Social Studies in 2004 for his History Lessons book and the 2011 Roselle
Award from the Middle States Council for the Social Studies.
Susan W. Hardwick is professor emerita of geography at the
University of Oregon and a past president of the National Council for
Geographic Education. She specializes in geographic education and the
geography of immigration, national identity, and place in the North
American context. She has authored or co-authored 11 scholarly books
and university and secondary level textbooks as well as numerous refereed journal articles. Hardwick is also known for her role as co-host of
the Annenberg/PBS series The Power of Place (2012) and her contributions as a writer and editor to Geography for Life: National Geography
Standards (1994).
John Lee is an associate professor of social studies education at North
Carolina State University. His scholarly work focuses on pedagogies
and tools for using digital historical resources in K-12 and teacher education settings as well as theories and practices related to new literacies.
He directs the Digital History and Pedagogy Project (http://dhpp.org)
and co-directs the New Literacies Collaborative (http://newlit.org).
In addition, he is interested in theory and practice related to global
learning and democratic education. He is the author of Visualizing
Elementary Social Studies Methods.
Peter Levine is Lincoln Filene Professor of Citizenship and Public
Affairs and director of The Center for Information and Research
on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University’s
Jonathan Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service. He is the
author of The Future of Democracy: Developing the Next Generation of
American Citizens (2007) and co-editor of Engaging Young People in
Civic Life (2009), among other works.

C3 Framework Writing Team Biographical Sketches • 107

Meira Levinson is associate professor of education at Harvard University, where she teaches courses on civic and multicultural education,
urban education, social studies methods, and justice in schools. She
taught middle school for eight years in low-income schools. Her most
recent books include No Citizen Left Behind (2012) and Making Civics
Count (2012, co-edited).
Anand Marri is an associate professor of social studies and education at Teachers College, Columbia University. A former high school
social studies teacher, his research focuses on economics education,
civic education, and teacher education. He is principal investigator for
Understanding Fiscal Responsibility: A Curriculum for Teaching about
the Federal Budget, National Debt, and Budget Deficit and Loot, Inc.,
which aims to improve the financial literacy of K-12 students. He also
served as one of the authors of Teaching the Levees: A Curriculum for
Democratic Dialogue and Civic Engagement.
Chauncey Monte-Sano is associate professor of educational studies
at the University of Michigan. A National Board Certified teacher, her
research examines how history students learn to reason with evidence
in writing, and how their teachers learn to teach such historical
thinking. She has won research awards from the National Council for
the Social Studies and the American Educational Research Association. She has twice won the American Historical Association’s James
Harvey Robinson Prize for the teaching aide that has made the most
outstanding contribution to teaching and learning history. Her most
recent award was for her book with Sam Wineburg and Daisy Martin,
Reading Like a Historian: Teaching Literacy in Middle and High School
History Classrooms.
Robert W. Morrill is professor emeritus of geography at the Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University and co-coordinator of
the Virginia Geographic Alliance. Morrill is a primary author for
Guidelines for Geographic Education (1984) and Geography for Life:
Geography National Standards (1994), writer for Geography Framework
for the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), and
writer for A Road Map for 21st Century Geographic Education (2013).
He won the National Council for Geographic Education George Miller

108 • C3 Framework

Award (2007) and the Association of American Geographers Gilbert
Grosvenor Honors for Geographic Education (2012).
Karen Thomas-Brown is associate professor of social studies
and multiculturalism at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Her
research interests include neoliberalism and the impact of globalization on the operation of secondary urban centers in developing countries; the impact of gender on the teaching and learning of geography;
and the incorporation of technology into the teaching of social studies.
Cynthia Tyson is a professor in the department of teaching and
learning in the College of Education and Human Ecology at The Ohio
State University where she teaches courses in multicultural and equity
studies in education; early childhood social studies; and multicultural
children’s literature. Her research interests include inquiry into the
social, historical, cultural, and global intersections of teaching, learning, and educational research. She has published scholarly articles in
Theory and Research in Social Education, Social Education, and Social
Studies and the Young Learner, and is the co-author of three books: The
Handbook of Social Studies Research, Charlotte Huck’s Children’s Literature, Briefly: 2nd Edition, and Studying Diversity in Teacher Education.
Bruce VanSledright is professor of history and social studies education at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He has written
extensively about ways of improving the teaching and learning of history. His research program has included studies of how teachers teach
U.S. history and how students of various ages learn it. Most recently, he
spent a decade evaluating Teaching American History grant programs
in Maryland. His most recent book, Assessing Historical Thinking and
Understanding, is due to appear in summer 2013.
Merry Wiesner-Hanks is distinguished professor and chair of the
department of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In
addition to numerous works on the history of Western Europe and the
early modern world, she has published source collections for classroom
use, textbooks for both middle school and college students, and has
worked on the redesign of Advanced Placement courses.

“Knowledge of our system of
government and rights and
responsibilities as citizens is not
passed down through the gene pool, it
must be taught. The ‘College, Career
and Civic Life’ Framework will help each
state improve civic learning for all
students.”

JUSTICE SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR
Co-Chair,
Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools

“The 21st century demands new and
innovative approaches to acquiring and
practicing competencies needed for success
in higher education, the workforce, and civic
life. The C3 Framework for Social Studies State
Standards provides the K-12 guide for students
developing critical thinking and problem
solving, collaboration, communication, and
creativity, through inquiry in social studies.”
DR. STEVE PAINE
President,
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills



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