Placement tests. We have to guess who are also coauthors. Jason stacey is a history professor at Southern Illinois university and edwards, phil and Matt Ellington is a High School Teacher at Iowa High School in chino hills, california. These two gentlemen are all also the coauthors of this book, fabric of a nation a history with skills and sources for the ap us history course. Matt ellington what is advanced placement history . Well, hello, thanks for having us on again. Peter advanced placement. Us history is a Program Designed by the College Board in coordination with universities and School Districts, and its an opportunity for students in high school to push themselves by taking a course that is equivalent in terms of the skills and the rigor to the kind of course they would take in college. So ap was history is fundamentally designed to be similar to in terms of the scope of the content and the skills that students need to be successful in it to a two semester survey course that freshmen would often have to take in college on u. S. History. So jason stacy they get College Credit for this if they pass. Thats right. If they get a three, four or five, it depends on the college or university. They determine what scores they will accept. But typically a score of three, four or five out of five will get a student College Credit. In the us History Survey course on the test, how many students take it per year and who administers it . Last year, over 400,000 students took the ap, us history corps or the ap us history exam, making it, i think the second largest of the ap exams. Schools usually give it in lieu of the us history require it at my school. Thats the junior year though at some other schools that might be the sophomore or senior year. How is it administered. Well, its administered on friday, may 10th with a makeup about a week and a half later, and its administered at 8 a. M. Local time. It is a four is a comprehensive exam, 3 hours and 15 minutes with four different components, a multiple choice, a short answer, a document based essay question and a long essay question. This year, School Districts had an option to either take the tradition no pencil and paper version or a digital version of the exam. Starting next year, with the 2025 administration, all of the ap us history exams will be digital only on a computer. Jason stacy. What time periods does this exam encompass . There are nine time periods and it goes back to precolumbian era and all the way up to about the present. And those nine time periods are weighted differently and its important students understand that periods one and nine, the earliest and the most recent history each make up about 4 to 6 of the exam period, to which runs. To 1754, which is the end of the french and indian war. That takes up about 6 to 8 of the exam. And the other time periods are each about 10 to 17 . And those time periods may look a little unusual for when they are divided and so, for example, if youre looking at a period three, which ends in 1800, but the period just before it, period two ends in 1754, and students may ask, well, why did they decide 1754 for period two or or 1800 for period three . And in that way, students can use those time periods and those dates to help them remember some of the material that falls within those time periods. For example, 1754 is the is the beginning of the of the french and indian war or or 1800 is the election of thomas jefferson. And so those published time periods can actually help students remember some of the turning points that are significant to the u. S. History. And then they can use those time periods themselves as buckets into which they can help. Remember, some of the key factors and historical trends that happened within each time period. Professor stacey, you and Matt Ellington have written a study guide, fabric of a nation to help students prepare for this test. Whats a typical question and how would it be asked . Well, first of all, fabric of a nation is a composite, pensive textbook of the ap us history course. And the narrative overall. And so in fabric of a nation, weve got a complete narrative, a history of the United States from pre colonial times to the present. And it is aligned to the College Boards framework. But also, im glad you brought up questions, peter, because in fabric of a nation, we include practice for students for long essay questions, short answer questions, multiple choice questions and document based questions. And we also provide instruction to help students write those plan for those. And we take a step by step approach to teach them how to help tackle some of those questions. On the apa history exam and also the the textbook is full of primary source documents. So throughout the narrative to get students used to those difficult images and pieces of historical writing that theyll have to contend with on the exam. Matt ellington memorizing dates often gets disparaged. Is memorizing dates important . Memorizing dates is actually helpful, but theres a reason its disparaged because too much rote memorize asian doesnt really get at the heart of what the College Board and what we as educators are trying to do. And that is trying to help students develop those kind of deeper Critical Thinking in analytical skills. So jason mentioned the nine time periods and the years, while College Board does not require students to memorize those, i think its really helpful to know those dates because those dates reflect various turning points or key events that are used to shape a narrative and an understanding. So for example, we see some of the time periods actually have some overlap to them. So period for for instance is 1800 to 1848, but period five is 1844 to 1877. And so that overlap is in order to help better tell a story, the story of unit four is the story of antebellum america. And that story includes political changes, early industrialized nation in immigration, but it also includes reform movements. And one of the key early reform movements is the Womens Movement and an important event that takes place in that movement is the seneca falls declaration of rights and sentiments. Thats in 1848, but unit five starts before that in 1844 because theres another key event that happens in 1844. Thats the election of james k pauken, a very expansionist platform. And of course his election leads into the mexican war and College Board wants to tell the story in unit five of the war. The mexican war. Sectionalism in the 1850s, the civil war in the 1860s. And then reconstruction in the sixties and seventies. And so while students dont need to memorize dates, i think its very helpful for them to know those nine time periods and to know a few other essential dates, because the dates allow students to be able to kind of hang some of their historical knowledge on. And while dates arent critical. Chronology is very important. College board does expect students to understand things like causation, cause and effect. Its hard to do that if you dont understand the the scope, the actual time frames and the years things happen. So while its not critical that students remember that the sugar act is 1764, the stamp act is 1765, the towns and acts. 1767. Itd be helpful to know the order that those things happened and roughly the time period, because there is an interplay between them and the events of the colonial era that students are expected to know. So thats a long answer to say that, well, dates arent critical and College Board would never test student as on any specific date. They would never see a multiple choice question asking which of the following dates. There is an expectation that they do know key dates in the events that go with them and more than that they understand the chronological flow jason stacy has the test been updated to reflect Current Trends and sensibilities with regard to teaching history . Well, it has and it has in, i think to important ways. The first of all, first way is that weve changed the way we teach history at the College Level. Traditionally, a College History course would be primarily about memorization, facts and the ability of students to recall those facts. But really, in the last 20 or 25 years, College Level history classes have moved increasingly towards analysis. Student analysis of primary sources, students ability to generate a thesis, and so the College Board test almost ten years ago now, in fact, over ten years ago now, went through a revision process where students are increasing early, encouraged to analyze primary sources and secondary sources. For example, in the short answer questions, students have to analyze and compare to historians talking about a particular event or time period, and also the multiple choice questions are now what are called stimulus based, where each multiple choice question has a prime area or secondary source that is part of the question so that a Student Needs to both analyze the source and understand the period of time that the question is related to. And of course, the test is always being updated for new discoveries and changes in trends that historians are currently interested in. And so this this 2024 exam is going to represent the up to date state of american historiography today. And in fact, the Test Development committee is made up of working his story stories and High School Teachers so that so that test can continue to be fresh. Well, Matt Ellington, lets look at some examples from potentially from the test itself. Were looking now at a political engraving by paul revere. Its called the bloody massacre, 1770 is the year. Why is this significant . Well, what you have there on the screen is a very famous engraving by paul revere. Like you said in 1770. So this is a really good example of the kinds of visual documents that students might see on the ap us history exam. It is a primary source document and jason already explained. But, but most parts of the test, the multiple choice at least one of the short answers and the document based essay question all in incorporate primary sources. These are documents, whether theyre visual documents like this engraving or their maps or their posters or paintings or their text based documents, such as speeches or excerpts from a from a Court Transcript or laws and so students really need to have the ability to work with these documents, to be able to analyze them, to get information from them, but also to look at them more critically like a historian would and apply their knowledge of the history and the events and developments that are taking place as to what they see in this document. And to the question thats being asked of them, whether its a multiple choice question, short answer or document based essay question. So this document, of course, is the document that many students will actually have something, larry, with. This is a document that maybe theyve seen in their textbook or maybe they even saw it when they took u. S. History back in junior high school. So just to review what we have is a document with british soldiers lined up on one side, colonists on the other side, and the british opening fire on the colonists. And its titled the bloody massacre. So the first thing the students want to do is always look at the source line, look at who the author is, and they may know something about paul revere. They may have they may be familiar with the poem of paul revere riding in front to warn against the british invasion that was coming. Or they may know that hes a patriot. They may be familiar with the place. They may know that boston is the kind of heart of patriot activity during this time. Or its possible that theyll be able to look at the year and while 1770 is not a year where anything besides maybe the boston massacre happened that students would need to know and theres no expectation that they would memorize the year again, what students want to be able to should be able to do is to put that year in, cant next and say, okay, what do i know about the time period . I know that the french and indian war ends in 1763. I know that there are laws that are being passed the stamp act and then the towns and acts which have not yet been repealed as of this event and so students can start to look at the context, what they should already know about the document. It can really inform their analysis. Of course, students ought to actually look at the document specifically. When you look at the document, theres all kinds of telltale signs that this is a document that is very one sided. The british are lined up their fire ring. It looks like theyre being given an order by their commander. One of the british soldiers is actually kind of smiling. Some of the colonists have their hands up or their backs turn or theres even a sniper in the window. All of these and more clues really get to the kind of by bias that is pretty clearly evident in this document, because students should have some information of the boston massacre. They should be able to compare that document with what they know about the events, which is a lot more nuanced and a lot more complex where youve got colonists who were actually throwing things at the british and some of the british troops were scared and it was it was a much more confused event than is being portrayed in this document. And so one of the the skills that College Board asks of students is to be able to think like a historian. And theyve identified three different reasoning processes. I call them the three cs compare assign causation and continuity and change over time. So if we take the most fundamental of those, perhaps causation, one of the things that students can do is ask what led to the event depicted in the document. Thats the kind of question that the College Board might even ask. This was a multiple choice question. So again, by looking at the time period, looking at the year 1770, thinking about the events that have taken place and the fact that that that the bus that the colonists are being taxed, that boston is a center of patriot activity. Maybe they know that the british are occupying boston. Theres 4000 redcoats in boston and only in a population of only 15,000 in the city. Theres clues within the document behi on the wall behind the british it says customs house. Thats a reminder of the anger over the taxes that are disproportionately hurting a city like boston. That is so dependent on trade and commerce because its a port city. If students can start to remember those elements and bring those in in an analysis, whether theyre answering this is a multiple choice question or responding to this and short answer. D. B. Q theyll theyll be well on their way to being successful in using this document on the exam. Professor stacy, on a secondary note, would it get a student extra credit to know that a future president , john adams, represented one of the british soldiers at trial . Thats a good question, peter. I wouldnt say it would get them extra credit, but one of the benefits of these documents appearing on the exam is that they help students trigger and remember other information that they should know. So, for example, if theyre looking at this in graving that paul revere made to try to convince fellow colonists about the the cruelty of the british in boston, it might also trigger their memory that john adams, a prominent rebel against the british, actually defended many of these british soldiers. And that would count as outside information on the document based question. And this is one of the element that students have to bring to bear when theyre answering the document based question. They have to be able to call to mind and to deploy information as part of their arguments. Thats outside information that isnt necessary early in the question or in the documents themselves. And so if a student were to recall from their reading of the textbook or from their teachers lessons that john adams actually defended some of the british soldiers in an attempt to point out that the british colonies were capable of approaching the the various laws and oppressions of the british in in a in a fair minded and legalistic way, they would get some credit for bringing in some out side information and it would be outside information brought to mind by this primary source. Well, through our cspan in the classroom teachers, we solicited questions from high school students. And heres one professor stacy, ill address this to you. This is from ma yo at le bosco stem academy. Wayne, new jersey. What are some of the key things we should remember from around the time of the ratification of the cons stitution . Wow, thats a great question. And i think whats important to remember is that the new constitution came out of conflict itself, as you probably remember, mario, the the article of confederation by 1786 was not doing very well. It proved to be a relatively weak government and that caused all sorts of conflicts between the former colonies themselves. And in fact, it also caused a lot of conflict within some of the colonies, probably the best example would be shays rebellion of 1786, when a number of farmers in western massachusetts rose up against that stake government. And so the original plan of the Constitutional Convention was to revive ais, the articles of confederation, and what came out of that was a new plan for a new kind of government, a constitution and the constitution we think of today. And you probably remember there were a lot of compromises during that Constitutional Convention between the the virginia plan and the new jersey plan, which led to our house of representatives in our senate, the awful two thirds compromise for counting enslaved black people in the south as part of determining representatives in the house of representatives. But, of course, after that constitution, final convention, that