Performance Based Learning Assessments
AP U.S. History
2007-2008
This performance based final exam will consist of two parts – an essay portion, and an oral-interactive portion.
PART I. (One hour, 80 percent.) - Essay portion (1.1.1, 1.4.1) – Choose either Choice A, free-response essay, or Choice B, documents based question.
Choice A. – free-response essay - Using only the space provided on the attached lined paper, you will select four of the American presidents, and describe the major impact that they had on American history. The impact of the presidents can be measured by factors that include social, cultural, economic, political, and governmental considerations. You also might consider the impact that the president had on American foreign policy. Your answer will be limited to the space provided for your response.
Choice B – documents based question–In this DBQ, you must construct an essay that uses both your interpretation of Documents A-G, and your own outside knowledge of the period 1861-1865.
In a letter to newspaperman Horace Greeley on August 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln explained, “if I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others, I would also do that.” Six months later, however, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, making the abolition of slavery, as well as the preservation of the Union, a war aim. Discuss the relationship between Lincoln’s goals of preserving the Union and freeing the slaves.
Use these documents and your knowledge of the period from 1861-1865. Use only the space provided on the attached lined paper.
Document A – Source: Abraham Lincoln to Congress, March 1862
“I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by your honorable bodies, which shall be substantially as follows: Resolved, that the United States ought to cooperate with any state which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such state pecuniary aid, to be used by such state, in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, pubic and private, produced by such change of system….The Federal government would find its highest interest in such a measure as one of the most efficient means of self preservation.”
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Document B – Source: Abraham Lincoln to a Committee of Religious Denominations of Chicago, September 13, 1862.
“I admit that slavery is the root of the rebellion, or at least its sine qua non. The ambition of politicians may have instigated them to act, but they would have been impotent without slavery as their instrument. I will also concede that emancipation would help us in Europe, and convince them that we are incited by something more than ambition….unquestionably, it would weaken the rebels by drawing off their laborers, which is of great importance; but I am not so sure we could do much with the blacks. If we were to arm them, I fear that in a few weeks the arms would be in the hands of the rebels; and, indeed, thus far we have not had arms enough to equip our white troops.”
Document C – Source: Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November, 1863.
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated can long endure….It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish form the earth.”
Document D – Source: Lincoln to members of the Democratic Party, speech, August 26, 1863.
“You say you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you, but no matter. Fight you, then, exclusively to save the Union. I issued the proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the Union.
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Document E – Source: Recruiting Poster for the 54thMassachusetts Regiment, 1863.
Document F – Source: Thomas Buckner on anti-Negro rioting in Detroit, self published pamphlet, 1863.
“The present state of affairs in relation to the colored people is one of great perplexity, and it is not only so on account of the South but also in the North….
On the one hand, they are being mobbed, and everything that is sacred to a people to make a country or home dear are denied them in many of the large Northern cities. On the other had, they are marching off to the call of the government as if they were sharing the blessing of the most favored citizens!”
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Document G – Source: Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March, 1865.
“One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it.
Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease. Each looked for an easier triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding.”
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Part II. (One hour, 20 percent)–Oral-interactive portion (1.4.1, 1.5.1, 1.5.2) - Assume the following: Franklin Roosevelt was successful in his effort to expand the Supreme Court, and that Congress, instead of making the maximum number of justices 15, capped the number at 18 – and guess who the current justices are – that’s right, you are. You are all appearing together on the Charlie Rose program on public television – and guess who Charlie Rose is – that’s right, me. Mr. Rose is particularly interested in the role that the high Court played in chartering the path of our nation. He does not know about loose and strict construction, nor does he know about judicial activism and judicial restraint, so you will need to explain and give historical context to these concepts. He knows that John Marshall and Earl Warren were somehow important, but he doesn’t remember why. He has forgotten what federalism is, and to him ‘Marbury’ is just a guard that the Knicks spent too much money for. He was absent from school on those days that the role of the Supreme Court in the evolution of American federalism was discussed. You will need to set him straight on all of these things.
To prepare for the taping of this program, you should be particularly prepared to discuss the decisions (holdings) ofthe Court in the following cases:
1)Marbury vs. Madison (1803)
2)McCulloch vs. Maryland(1819)
3)Gibbons vs. Ogden(1824)
4)Worcester vs. Georgia(1832)
5)Dred Scott vs. Sanford(1857)
6)Plessy vs. Ferguson(1896)
7)Brown vs. Board of Education, TopekaKansas (1854)
8)Komatsu vs. the United States (1944)
9)Wesberry vs. Sanders (1964)
10)New York Times vs. Sullivan (1964)
11)Roe vs. Wade (1973)
12)Bakke vs. California Board of Regents (1978)
13)Milliken vs. Bradley (1974)
Mr. Rose’s TV ratings, and your grade, will be determined by how well each of you can
a)educate him and his audience in regards to the aforesaid areas, and
b)respond to his questions concerning said areas, and
c)articulate the holdings of the major cases noted above, and to describe why they are historically significant.
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NOTE: The following grading conversion to the school-wide rubric will apply –
Needs Improvement: 0-3 points
Meets Expectations: 4-7 points
Exceeds Expectations: 8-10 points