Sample Assessment Items
This is not meant to be printed off and given as a test…this document is to give you ideas
of how this standard might be assessed. Please use these as an example when you are
developing your own formative assessments. Remember formative assessment is to be
given throughout the teaching of a standard to help you guide your instruction based on
students needs. A good formative assessment should have a mix of multiple choice as
well as open ended.
SS5H3 The student will describe how life changed in America at the turn of the century.
a. Describe the role of the cattle trails in the late 19th century; include the Black
Cowboys of Texas, the Great Western Cattle Trail, and the Chisholm Trail.
b. Describe the impact on American life of the Wright brothers (flight), George
Washington Carver (science), Alexander Graham Bell (communication), and Thomas
Edison (electricity).
c. Explain how William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt expanded America’s role in the
world; include the Spanish-American War and the building of the Panama Canal.
d. Describe the reasons people emigrated to the United States, from where they
emigrated, and where they settled.
e. Describe the impact of westward expansion on Native Americans; include the Battle
of the Little Bighorn and the relocation of Native Americans to reservations.
Multiple Choice:
The years marking the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth
century are often called the _______________________.
a. old west
b. cattle trail era
c. age of innovation
d. turn of the century
Answer: d
Which of the events listed below took place during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency?
a. the Spanish-American War
b. the acquisition of the Philippines
c. the building of the Panama Canal
d. all of the above
Answer: d
Which statement would complete the chart above?
a. caused the Civil War
b. decreased the need for slave labor
c. caused conflict for Native Americans
d. decreased the desire to explore new land
Answer: c
Which invention helped bring "long drives" of the late 19th century to an end?
a. barbed wire
b. paved roads
c. the cotton gin
d. the refrigerated box car
Answer: a
"The Chisholm Trail" is an example of what kind of route?
a. cattle trails leading out of Texas
b. patterns of migration of American bison
c. foot trails that became the roads traveled by settlers
d. the railroad lines that stretched into the American West
Answer: a
Which of these BEST describes the Chisholm Trail?
a. It was first discovered by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1803.
b. It was a trail used to drive cattle from ranches in Texas to railroad stations in
Kansas.
c. It was a trail used by the thousands of miners who went west during the California
Gold Rush.
d. It was a trail used to remove the Cherokee Indians from the southeast for
resettlement in Oklahoma.
Answer: b
Which of these BEST describes the Great Western Cattle Trail?
a. It was financed by the U.S. government to keep the land away from the Indians.
b. It made it possible to ship cattle to San Francisco for export across the Pacific.
c. It was a trail that connected the stockyards of Chicago with the seaport of New
York.
d. It was a trail used to drive cattle from ranches as far away as Montana and
Wyoming to railroad stations in Kansas and Nebraska.
Answer: d
After the Civil War, thousands of African-Americans migrated west in search of work as
cowboys. In addition to the availability of steady work, what drew many of these newly
freed ex-slaves to the west?
a. There were laws in place that prevented them from moving to northern cities.
b. They moved west because of better educational opportunities for their children.
c. There was less discrimination in the west compared to northern or southern states.
d. They were lured by the chance to earn extra money working on the newly built
Indian reservations.
Answer: d
Thomas Edison is BEST remembered for his ________________.
a. use of electricity
b. ability to build airplanes
c. invention of the telephone
d. development of crop rotation
Answer: c
The first airplane was flown in 1903. Who is responsible for this great American invention?
a. Herbert Hoover
b. Charles Lindbergh
c. the Wright brothers
d. Theodore Roosevelt
Answer: c
Which of these BEST describes how Alexander Graham Bell’s invention impacted the
world?
a. It made long distance travel faster and easier.
b. It helped mail reach people much more quickly.
c. It led to the creation of the motion picture industry.
d. It allowed people to talk to one another over greater distances.
Answer: d
Which of these was a major contribution of George Washington Carver?
a. sharecropping
b. crop rotation
c. designed the first tractor
d. invention of the electric plow
Answer: b
• Lived from 1847 to 1922
• Scientist and engineer
• His mother and wife were both deaf
• Credited with inventing the telephone
Who is being described by these statements?
a. Henry Ford
b. Thomas Edison
c. Alexander Graham Bell
d. George Washington Carver
Answer: c
Orville and Wilbur Wright are associated with what invention?
a. airplane
b. automobile
c. solar power
d. railroad car
Answer: a
What country did the United States go to war with while William McKinley was president?
a. Cuba
b. England
c. Russia
d. Spain
Answer: d
What was the GREATEST impact of the Panama Canal?
a. The economic power of the United States was greatly strengthened.
b. Spain went to war with the United States to gain control of the Canal.
c. It tremendously reduced the travel time between the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans.
d. Revolutionaries in Panama began a decades-long uprising to drive out the United
States.
Answer: c
Why did President William McKinley want to go to war with Spain in 1898?
a. Spain had attacked American forces in Hawaii.
b. American slaves were receiving weapons from Spain.
c. War was needed to make the region safe for American business and commerce.
d. Spain had violated treaties after World War I by building up their navy and army.
Answer: c
Which president believed that a US-controlled canal across Central America was a
major interest to America, and was largely responsible for construction of the Panama
Canal?
a. William Taft
b. Herbert Hoover
c. William McKinley
d. Theodore Roosevelt
Answer: d
Someone who moved from Germany to the United States in the early 1900s would have
been considered a(n) _______________.
a. expansionist
b. immigrant
c. imperialist
d. native
Answer: b
Which group of immigrants poured into the United States between 1890 and 1920?
a. Scandinavians and Germans
b. Irish, Spanish, and Italian
c. English, Scottish, and Welsh
d. Immigrants from southern and eastern Europe
Answer: d
Between 1836 and 1914, over 30 million Europeans immigrated to the United States.
Where did most of these immigrants settle?
a. California
b. northern cities
c. the Great Plains
d. southern farm towns
Answer: b
The Sioux and Sitting Bull led the attack on General George Armstrong Custer's cavalry at
the Battle of Little Big Horn. Why did the Sioux take this course of action?
a. General Custer wanted Congress to outlaw the Sioux's ritual Ghost Dance.
b. The Transcontinental Railroad was moving through the area the Sioux inhabited.
c. The U.S. Army was threatening to take over the Sioux's gold mines, which were key
to the Native American economy.
d. The U.S. Government had broken promises to let the Sioux remain in the Black Hills
and was attempting to force them from those lands.
Answer: d
Open ended:
How did expanding our territory change America’s role in the world?
Why was the Spanish-American War considered a "turning point" in American History?
How did the Panama Canal and the Spanish-American War play a role in global
expansion of the United States?
Why did people emigrate to the United States during the turn of century?
Explain how William McKinley expanded America’s role in the world.
Explain how Theodore Roosevelt expanded America’s role in the world.
How did westward expansion impact Native Americans?
How did inventions change American life during the turn of the century?