2021 STAAR Grade 8 Social Studies

By Huntsville ISD
Last updated over 2 years ago
44 Questions
Content accessed from https://tea.texas.gov/student-assessment/testing/staar/staar-released-test-questions
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1.

How did the introduction of barbed-wire fences benefit farmers?

8.11B
8.29B
2.

Study the diagram and answer the question that follows.


Which statement explains how the First Amendment has affected these groups?

8.25C
8.29C
3.

What was one way slow communication with the British government affected the American colonies?

8.29B
8.3A
4.

Read the excerpt and answer the question that follows.


Which statement shows how this excerpt is an example of transcendentalism in the early-to-mid 1800s?

8.29B
8.26A
5.

Read the excerpt and answer the question that follows.


What was an IMMEDIATE effect of this amendment?

8.29A
8.16B
6.

Study the photograph and answer the question that follows.


Which era is represented by this photograph?

8.29C
8.1A
7.

In which court case was the U.S. principle of judicial review established?

8.29B
8.18A
8.

Study the map and answer the question that follows.


Which physical characteristic attracted settlers to this area during the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries?

8.11A
8.29C
9.

Why did many farmers, artisans, and former Anti-Federalists support the Democratic-Republican Party?

8.29B
8.5C
10.

Which statement explains how the work of Dorothea Dix benefited U.S. society?

8.29B
8.24B
11.

Which statement explains one of the motivations behind Manifest Destiny?

8.6B
8.29B
12.

Read the excerpt and answer the question that follows.


Which of the following prompted General Washington to write this letter?

8.29B
8.4C
13.

How did sharecropping affect farmers in the South during Reconstruction?

8.29B
8.9C
14.

Study the diagram and answer the question that follows.


Which effects correctly replace the numbers in this cause-and-effect diagram?

8.12C
8.29B
15.

Why did Alexander Hamilton think a national bank would strengthen the central government?

8.29B
8.5A
16.

Boston, Massachusetts, and San Francisco, California, are geographically similar in that they BOTH —

8.29B
8.10B
17.

What is the significance of the Pilgrims’ arrival in America?

8.1B
8.29B
18.

Read the excerpt and answer the question that follows.


How was this grievance addressed by the Founding Fathers?

8.29A
8.15C
19.

During the colonial period, what was one difference between slave labor in the North and slave labor in the South?

8.29B
8.7C
20.

Read the excerpt and answer the question that follows.


Which reason BEST explains why many Swedish people settled in the American Midwest?

8.29B
8.23A
21.

Why is John Paul Jones remembered as the “Father of the American Navy”?

8.29B
8.22B
22.

Study the timeline and answer the question that follows.


Which word correctly replaces the question mark in the title of this timeline?

8.24A
8.29B
23.

Which statement describes BOTH the Free-Soil Party and the Republican Party in the mid-1800s?

8.29B
8.21A
24.

Study the table and answer the question that follows.


Which reasons correctly replace the numbers in this table?

8.29B
8.2B
25.

What was one effect of the cotton gin in the United States?

8.29A
8.27A
26.

What was the issue in Worcester v. Georgia?

8.5G
8.29B
27.

Why did President Thomas Jefferson approve the negotiations that led to the Louisiana Purchase?

8.29B
28.

How did immigrants MOST contribute to the rapid industrialization of the United States during the early-to-mid 1800s?

8.29B
8.13B
29.

Thomas Hooker’s Fundamental Orders of Connecticut is important in U.S. political history because it was an early colonial document that-

8.15E
8.29B
30.

Which statement BEST describes the importance of the Battle of Vicksburg?

8.8C
8.29B
31.

Which description is an example of an unalienable right from the Declaration of Independence?

8.19A
8.29B
32.

Study the image and answer the question that follows.


Which group would have made these arguments in 1787?

8.17A
8.29C
33.

The Great Compromise addressed disagreements over federal representation by —

8.29B
8.4D
34.

Study the map and answer the question that follows.


The canals shown on this map caused —

8.29C
8.28B
35.

Which constitutional issue contributed to sectional conflict before the Civil War?

8.29B
8.17B
36.

Settlers in Maryland struggled to resolve various disputes in the early days of the colony. The Maryland Assembly resolved many of those disputes in 1649 by passing a law that —

8.23C
8.29B
37.

What was the INITIAL reason many European explorers sailed to the Americas?

8.29B
8.2A
38.

Read the headlines and answer the question that follows.


How did the American colonists IMMEDIATELY respond to the 1774 laws described in these headlines?

8.29C
8.4A
39.

Study the diagram and answer the question that follows.


Which phrase BEST completes this diagram?

8.12B
8.29B
40.

Read the excerpt and answer the question that follows.


How did President Abraham Lincoln react to the idea expressed in Jefferson Davis’s inaugural address?

8.29A
8.8D
41.

How did the free enterprise system MOST benefit industrial development in the first half of the 1800s?

8.29B
8.14B
42.

Read the passage and answer the question that follows.


Which of the following expresses a goal of the Reconstruction Acts of 1867?

8.9A
8.29B
43.

Which situation violates the Eighth Amendment protections regarding criminal punishment?

8.29B
8.19B
44.

Study the images and answer the question that follows.


Which effect did these innovations have on life in the United States?

8.29C
8.28A