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Testing History?

Standardized tests for history and social studies (among other subjects) have spread rapidly in the past few years. How well do they test student knowledge and understanding of the past? Most of these questions came from actual junior high school and high school standardized tests; at least one did not. As you read through the test questions below, answer “yes” if you think the question came from a state exam; “no” if you think the question did not come from a real exam.


1) Which best describes how the Native Americans of the Plains and the Native Americans of the Southeast obtained their food?

a. The Plains tribes were hunters and farmers, while Southeast tribes depended almost entirely on agriculture.

b. Both cultures subsisted on their farm crops.

c. Both cultures were primarily hunters and did very little farming.

d. The Southeast tribes depended on the buffalo as a source of food more than the Plains tribes did.

Is this question from a Standardized test?

a. Yes

b. No

2) Read the following statements and then answer the question.

Historian Perry Miller (1930s) - sees the Puritans as an example of the way in which religious ideas influence all other aspects of life.

Historian Daniel J. Boorstin (1950s) - sees the Puritans as a practical people, community builders who were not primarily preoccupied with religious dates.

Why might these historians have such differing views of the same topic? Explain your answer.

Is this question from a Standardized test?

a. Yes

b. No

3) Read the quotations from Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board. Then answer the question.

“The object of the [Fourteenth] Amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, but, in the nature of things, it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political, equality, or a commingling [mixing] of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either.”
Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896)

“to separate [children in grade and schools] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone . . . . We conclude that in the files of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.”
Brown v. Board, 347 U.S. 483 (1954)


The differences in the decisions in Plessy and Brown demonstrate

    a. speedy trials
    b. precedent
    c. rigid interpretation of the Constitution
    d. flexible interpretation of the Constitution

Is this question from a Standardized test?

a. Yes

b. No

4) The United States has followed different policies toward immigration during different time periods.
    Time Periods:
    1789 - 1850
    1880 - 1910
    1920 -1930
    1945 -1960
    1965 - today

Choose three of the time periods listed and for each one chosen:

    a. State the policy followed by the United States during that time period.
    b. Explain why the United States followed that policy during the time period. [Use different information for each time period.]
    c. Describe one result of the application of that policy.

Is this question from a Standardized test?

a. Yes

b. No

5) Jane Addams, Upton Sinclair, and Lincoln Steffens are most closely associated with the:

    a. Gilded Age
    b. Progressive era
    c. Harlem Renaissance
    d. Cold War

Is this question from a Standardized test?

a. Yes

b. No

6) Large-scale plantation agriculture was a feature of all of the following except-

    a. Virginia
    b. Georgia
    c. Connecticut
    d. South Carolina

Is this question from a Standardized test?

a. Yes

b. No

7) What has been responsible for the most significant change in business and communication in the late 20th century?

    a. Computers
    b. Radios
    c. Telegraphs
    d. Telephones

Is this question from a Standardized test?

a. Yes

b. No

8) Base your answer on the graph and on your knowledge of social studies. The trend shown in the graph was mainly the result of:

    a. increases in immigration
    b. demands for more schoolteachers
    c. a buildup in the defense industry
    d. new social attitudes

Is this question from a Standardized test?

a. Yes

b. No

9) One reason the U.S. Congress created the National Park Service in 1916 was to:

    a. protect the natural beauty of selected federal land
    b. make a profit on its investment in park facilities
    c. search for new sources of oil and mineral resources
    d. supervise mining and lumber operations on federal land

Is this question from a Standardized test?

a. Yes

b. No



10) Use the cartoon to answer the question. What do the figures on the left and right sides of the cartoon represent?

    a. groups that promoted racism in the South after the Civil War
    b. government evils before and after the Civil War
    c. the Northern and Southern sides during the Civil War
    d. the evils of slavery before the Emancipation Proclamation

Is this question from a Standardized test?

a. Yes

b. No

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