Answer to Question 1
An ideal response will:
1, Include examples like Japanese Americans on the West Coast in the 1940s; Mexican Americans being deported in the 1930s; Asians targeted by segregation laws especially in the western U.S.; the ban on Chinese immigrant laborers in the late nineteenth century; and national quotas giving way to the Immigration Act of 1965 and the Immigration Act of 1990 .
2, Explain how historically segregation laws have been particularly prominent in the Southwest and provide a few examples.
3, Discuss the current rates of immigration to the U.S. such as Asian immigrant which was at 43 in 2011 and immigration from Spanish-speaking regions at 28 (with 30 of all current immigrants living in the U.S. from Mexico.)
4, Discuss the increased flexibility and also the limitations of the Immigration Act of 1990.
5, Consider the contributions of immigrantslegal and illegalto the U.S. and their role in the current economy. Show that students can think critically about the current controversies surrounding illegal immigration and likely future policies to deal with it under the Obama administration.
Answer to Question 2
An ideal response will:
1, Describe the Equal Rights Amendment as a proposal that would have enshrined gender equality in the Constitution.
2, Explain the concerns of the ERA's opponents, such as the fear that it could disrupt the traditional family relationship and put women on the front lines in the armed forces.
3, Include that the ERA addresses a much broader array of civil rights than did the Nineteenth Amendment that guaranteed women the right to vote.
4, Evaluate how the ERA has impacted civil rights in the United States. The most common assessment will be that the ERA has had little effect on civil rights in the United States because it never became law. Others, however, could argue that the ERA has impacted civil rights by keeping women's rights on the front burner, despite the fact that it never became law.