As the nation prepares to commemorate America250, there is an urgent need to center civic dispositions in history classrooms to prepare students for civic life. As an organization, we believe that a quality history education , rooted in its disciplinary nature, is an exercise in civics. We also believe that, as an education system, we evaluate what we value. However, for too long, we have sent a message to students that we value their ability to retain information more than we value their ability to think critically. Therefore, to shift the social studies classroom to an environment that cultivates necessary civic dispositions, we must rethink assessment in this space. Unfortunately, access to high-quality, standards-aligned, source-based assessments remains uneven. This project addresses that gap by creating open-access, primary source-based formative assessments designed to embed historical thinking and civic learning in grades 5–12 social studies classrooms. The open-access resources that come out of this project will come directly from Library of Congress holdings.

Project Objectives:

1. To create at least 10 source-based formative assessments for 6 grade levels (MS Ancient World History, Medieval World History, U.S. History; and HS World History, U.S. History, and U.S. Government).

2. To utilize Library of Congress primary sources for 100% of the 60+ source-based formative assessments.

3. To center the focus historical thinking skills for these assessments on the following skills: causation, continuity and change over time, evaluating evidence, evaluating perspective, and contextualization.