This page shows questions in the 2025 Released Operational Items public release module at MSDE. 8th Grade Social Studies
"2025 Released Operational Items"
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Note on Scoring: The percentage reported for each item represents the percent of all available points earned by all test-takers. For 1-point items, this is simply the percentage of students who answered correctly. For 2- or 4-point items, this is the percentage of total points earned by all students who answered the item. For example, a 50% on a 2-point item could mean that every student earned 1 point or half of the students earned 2 and half earned 0.
The basis for categorization of item difficulty is as follows: "easy" items (greater than 60% correct), "medium" items (between 40% and 59% correct), "difficult" items (fewer than 40% correct).
This is a question with 2 parts, including a drag and drop question that allows you to select objects and place them in an appropriate answer space.
Study the diagram.
Select two events related to colonial resistance and move them to the correct boxes to complete the sequence diagram.
This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.
Information about the Question.
Which success of the Articles of Confederation is demonstrated by the Northwest Ordinance?
This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.
Which goal in the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution is most directly related to the creation of the judicial branch?
This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.
Information about the Question.
Read the excerpt.
On May 18, 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson that “separate but equal” facilities were considered sufficient [enough] to satisfy the 14th Amendment. It wasn't until May 17, 1954, however, that the Court reversed the Plessy decision, bringing the era of government-sanctioned [approved] segregation to an end.
—"14th Amendment to the Constitution was Ratified," Library of Congress
Which goal in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution is best reflected by the reversal of the Supreme Court decision described in this excerpt?
This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.
Which part of the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution demonstrates the principle of popular sovereignty?
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Information about the Question.
Read the excerpt.
The Convention do therefore recommend that the following alterations and provisions [changes and requirements] be introduced into the said Constitution:
First. That it be explicitly [clearly] declared, that all powers not expressly delegated [given] by the . . . Constitution are reserved to the several states . . .
—Convention of the Delegates of the People of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1788
This proposal helped remove Anti-Federalist fears over the ratification of the Constitution by
This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.
Information about the Question.
Read the excerpt.
. . . The only way to stop this evil, is for all the [American Indians] to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land as it was at first, and should be now–for it never was divided, but belongs to all . . . Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the clouds and the great sea, as well as the earth?
—Chief Tecumseh to Governor of Indiana Territory William Henry Harrison, 1810
What cause of the War of 1812 is Tecumseh protesting against in this speech?
This is a question with 2 parts, including a drag and drop question that allows you to select objects and place them in an appropriate answer space.
Select the two correct statements to complete the sequence of events of the War of 1812 and move them to the correct locations in the diagram.
This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.
To which group did the Emancipation Proclamation apply?
This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.
Information about the Paper Booklet.
Information about the Question.
Study the map.
United States, mid-1800s
Which region is identified by the question mark on this map?
This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select several options.
Study the political cartoon.
"Dividing the National Map," 1860
Select the three events that led to the divisions represented in the cartoon.
This is a test question that allows you to select a spot or region on a graphic.
Study the newspaper headlines.
Select the two newspaper headlines that are the best examples of popular sovereignty.
This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.
Information about the Question.
Study the diagram.
Which phrase completes this diagram?
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Information about the Question.
Read the excerpt.
. . . Napoleon was watching his dreams of a French empire in North America crumble . . . American diplomats offered an alternative which [Napoleon] initially ignored but eventually accepted . . . Napoleon’s failure in Louisiana and his renewed interest in fighting England compelled [forced] him to accept an alternative . . . and the Louisiana Purchase was negotiated.
—“The Role of American Diplomacy in the Louisiana Purchase,” 1976
Which alternative did Napoleon accept from the United States in the early 1800s?
This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.
Read the excerpt.
Well, I will tell you something of the scene which I witnessed today. The women, said to be soldiers’ wives, met this morning at 8 o’clock . . . They then went on Main Street to a shoe shop, cut and pried, broke down windows’ frames, broke out glass and went in at the windows, got large quantities of shoes, calicoes, shawls and any and everything they could get and went on a great many streets and done the same.
—Excerpt from a letter written by a Georgia soldier, April, 1863
What obstacle faced by civilians during the Civil War is described in this excerpt?
This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.
Information about the question.
Multiple-choice question with one correct answer choice. Additional information needed to answer the question is provided.
Read the excerpt.
In short, the Campaign is opening, and we have no Men for the field— . . . the Officers imployed in the recruiting Service must expect to be answerable for the Consequences. If they have done their duty, and it proceeds from unwillingness in the Men to Inlist, the Government must have recourse to [the option to use] coercive [forceful] measures.
—General George Washington, 1777
What factor that influenced the American victory in the Revolutionary War is described in this excerpt?
This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.
Information about the Question.
Read the excerpt.
I doubt whether it is possible . . . [that] a colony 3000 miles distant from the parent state shall enjoy all the liberty of the parent state . . . I wish the good of the colony when I wish to see some further restraint [control] of liberty rather than the [connection] with the parent state should be broken; for I am sure such a breach [break] must prove the ruin of the colony.
—Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson, 1769
Which term best describes the opinion expressed in this excerpt?
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Read the excerpt.
The Articles of Confederation represented an attempt to balance the sovereignty of the states with an effective national government. Under the Articles, the states, not Congress, had the power to tax. Congress could raise money only by asking the states for funds, borrowing from foreign governments, and selling western lands. In addition, Congress could not draft soldiers or regulate trade. There was no provision for national courts or a chief executive.
—The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Based on the excerpt, what was a central weakenss of the Articles of Confederation?
This is a test question that allows you to select spans of text directly from the passage.
Read the excerpt.
Select two phrases that are reasons for South Carolina’s decision to secede from the United States in 1860.
. . . [A]ll the States north of that [geographical] line have united in the election of a . . . President . . . whose . . . purposes are hostile to slavery. . . . [T]he public . . . must rest in the belief that Slavery is in the course of . . . extinction. . . .
The . . . Constitution will then no longer exist; the equal rights of the States will be lost. The slaveholding States will no longer have the power of self-government . . . and the Federal Government will have become their enemy.
. . . [A]ll hope of remedy is rendered vain [made useless], by the fact that . . . the North has invested a great political error with . . . a more erroneous [incorrect] religious belief.
—South Carolina declaration of secession, 1860
This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.
Information about the Question.
Read the excerpt.
All railroads carrying passengers in the state (other than street railroads) shall provide equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races, by providing two or more passenger cars for each passenger train, or by dividing the cars by a partition, so as to secure separate accommodations.
—Tennessee law, 1891
In which chapter of a U.S. History textbook would a student expect to find this type of law discussed?
This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.
Study the graph.
Jim Crow-Era Advertisement
Which Supreme Court decision made signs like this constitutional in the United States?