Which two assessment strategies are suitable for measuring historical thinking in high school social studies?

Which two assessment strategies are suitable for measuring historical thinking in high school social studies?

• A. True/false quizzes and short answer
• B. DBQs and performance tasks
• C. Group projects with no evidence
• D. Essays alone

Answer: (B)

Assessing historical thinking in high school involves asking students to analyze sources, weigh evidence, contextualize events, compare perspectives, and build well-supported arguments. The best pair of strategies for this is Document-Based Questions and performance tasks because DBQs require students to examine multiple documents, use evidence to support a claim, and consider sourcing and context, while performance tasks push them to apply historical thinking to new situations, interpret data, and communicate reasoning in a concrete product. The other options fall short: true/false quizzes and short answer mainly test recall and offer limited opportunity to synthesize and evaluate multiple sources; group projects with no evidence fail to demonstrate individual reasoning or the use of evidence; essays alone can assess argumentation but may not require engaging with diverse sources or completing an authentic, applied task.

Assessing historical thinking in high school involves asking students to analyze sources, weigh evidence, contextualize events, compare perspectives, and build well-supported arguments. The best pair of strategies for this is Document-Based Questions and performance tasks because DBQs require students to examine multiple documents, use evidence to support a claim, and consider sourcing and context, while performance tasks push them to apply historical thinking to new situations, interpret data, and communicate reasoning in a concrete product. The other options fall short: true/false quizzes and short answer mainly test recall and offer limited opportunity to synthesize and evaluate multiple sources; group projects with no evidence fail to demonstrate individual reasoning or the use of evidence; essays alone can assess argumentation but may not require engaging with diverse sources or completing an authentic, applied task.