Common Core example

Posted by $ jbrenner 11 years, 10 months ago to Education
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My younger daughter is taking an Advanced Placement US History exam. The following question is an entirely valid question to ask. I just am very curious as to how her and our essays, substantiated by facts, might get graded.

For more detail, see the above URL. Briefly, students are asked to "evaluate the effectiveness of Progressive Era reformers and the federal government in bringing about reform at the national level. In your answer be sure to analyze the successes and limitations of these efforts in the period 1900-1920 (i.e Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson).


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  • Posted by Robbie53024 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I'm not sure that I'd call Nixon a Progressive. Wrong headed on some things, but certainly not a socialist. Price controls and going off the gold standard were not done for some ideological reasons, rather due to incorrect understanding of the causes and effects of the actions.
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  • Posted by $ 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    You are correct about the antitrust legislation. I had forgotten that one, but who can forget the top tax rate going down from 70% to 28%? Between the implementation of the income tax and Reagan, that was the only tax cut I can remember.
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  • Posted by teri-amborn 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    JFK was BIG into anti-trust legislation ... so I beg to differ on the economic front.

    As far as all three go, they are all Progressives. Big overreaching government and the guns and whips to back it up.
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  • Posted by Robbie53024 11 years, 10 months ago
    Yes. What would be interesting to see would be the answer guide. What themes are given credit, and which are deducted.
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  • Posted by $ 11 years, 10 months ago
    JP Morgan, John Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie worked together to get President McKinley elected. Teddy Roosevelt was actually put in to the VP role to put a muzzle on him. This is well documented in The Men Who Built America on the History Channel.

    When McKinley was assassinated, the aforementioned producers had the biggest "O s***!" moment of their careers. Was this just pumishment for what some might consider non-Galtish values, or were those titans of industry justified in trying to protect themselves from William Jennings Bryan, the first progressive presidential candidate? I don't think there is any doubt that Hank Rearden is based off of John Rockefeller, especially the "monopoly trial". I am curious to hear others' opinions on that part of American history. One could certainly argue that both Rockefeller and Carnegie shrugged late in their lives.
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  • Posted by $ 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    JFK - had his good (economic) and bad points (Bay of Pigs, and more)
    Johnson - all bad
    Nixon - only good was China and perhaps ending Vietnam; enemies list only surpassed by the current looter-in-chief; worst part was regulation like EPA
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  • Posted by khalling 11 years, 10 months ago
    I was also interested in the very last question. You were to contrast three presidents - JFK( camelot) , Johnson ( Great Society) and Nixon (Watergate) in terms of media. The interesting thing here is all three Presidents shared Vietnam and all three had executive power over -reach and secret enemy lists. But the students are to draw clearly biased political conclusions and see the media as transparent and truth -seeking. Frustrating.
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  • Posted by LetsShrug 11 years, 10 months ago
    "successes and limitations" why does that not say "successes and failures"??? I don't like the word "reform" either...unless it's referring to being reformed from freedom to slavery. bla
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  • Posted by $ 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I noticed the "successes and limitations" phrase as well. If that person were conducting a scientific survey, use of the word limitations instead of failure would be treated as an example of bias, and the survey results would be challenged during peer review. That was part of why I associated the assignment with Common Core.
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