THE UNITED STATES, 1492-1865 and THE UNITED STATES SINCE 1865
“American history,” wrote James Baldwin, “is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has said about it.” In these two sequential first-year college American history courses, students study significant themes in US history to uncover the range and depth of the American story. Using lectures, primary and secondary readings, videos, maps, and other graphics, students work both independently and collaboratively to develop critical thinking skills to evaluate the historical record. History 315K surveys from the colonial beginnings through the Civil War and History 315L considers the post-Civil War era to the end of the 20th century. Exams include essay questions that require students to craft well-written narratives and arguments that set events in historical context, engage the complexity of cause and consequence, and make connections that reveal the dynamics of change over time.

UNITED STATES HISTORY BIG IDEAS
AMERICAN IDENTITIES
Since its colonial beginnings, the American identity has been formed by sometimes uneasy and evolving relationships among many people.

LABOR AND TECHNOLOGY
New machines and technologies have expanded America’s agricultural and industrial productivity, but often at the expense of workers, both free and enslaved.

AMERICA AND THE WORLD
America’s role in the world began on the periphery and has moved to take a central place.

REFORM AND RENEWAL
The Puritan mission to create a City on a Hill has been adopted in many forms throughout America’s history, resulting in social and political movements that reinvigorate and often challenge Americans to reflect on their future.

SELF AND SOCIETY
Our increasingly participatory democracy reflects a changing and carefully negotiated balance between individual freedoms and the social and political structures intended to protect the best interests of the community and nation.

EXPERIENCE COLLEGE BEFORE COLLEGE
Most students who graduate from high school never complete a college degree. This problematic national trend can be reversed for students who engage in high-quality college-level learning experiences early in their academic career.

 OnRamps was designed with this in mind and works to align K12 and higher education institutions around a shared vision of high-quality learning opportunities that prepare students for postsecondary success.

OnRamps offers distance education courses through a dual enrollment model. Using best-in-class resources, materials, and instructional strategies OnRamps also provides intensive, yearlong professional development and support that improves instructional quality in hundreds of classrooms throughout the state for a widespread benefit to Texas high school students.

Key outcomes of early exposure to postsecondary education include:

• aligning high school students to the academic and social expectations of college;

• accelerating student matriculation, retention and time to degree; and

• increasing the number and diversity of students who are fully prepared to follow a path to college and career success.

TRANSFERABILITY

• 6 College Credits
• HIS 1301 & HIS 1302
• UT HIS 315K & HIS 315L

PRE-REQUISITES
• English 2 (concurrent or pre-requisite)