The following represents evaluations/comments that Maryland Government Item Reviewers/Writers have made, which they believe might be helpful to teachers.

• SR items are a continuum from recall to higher-level analysis.
• Move away from recall questions.
• The expectation of application in the SRs is much greater expected.
• Make distracters plausible, not entertaining. A distracter can actually be true, but for another question.
• Avoid creating clang (cues) in your own assessment items. (A clang or cue is using a word in one of the SR choices that also appears in the item stem.)
• Instruct students to read stimulus carefully and to read all items choices in SRs.
• Use the www.mdk12.org website for public released documents, rubrics and scoring practice.

• Teach least likely, most likely, best, excerpt.
• Its good that there are advocates for the "special" students present.
• Directly assess use of political cartoons, headlines, charts, graphs, primary source documents, and a variety of maps.

• Use the language of the assessment limits as guide for instruction on in-class assessments including the action verbs (Skills for Success).
• Use the format: vocabulary, excerpts from articles, graphs, headlines, and political cartoons. This can be seen in the Public Released forms.
• Review issues before the Maryland General Assembly, regional Maryland issues, what urban sprawl and Smart Growth mean, and how these impact your community.
• Ways in which citizens can influence government policy.
• Improving reading skills, vocabulary and term development is key.
• Primary Source documents and analysis need to be a point of regular instruction.
• Goal 4- Economics taught in isolation should be integrated into the rest of the government course.

• Practice writing items that encourage comparison and contrast.
• Use scaffolding and bullets in practice CRs.
• Use the Social Studies rubric.
• Encourage students to provide details and examples in their answers.
• Extend the example by providing additional information as an application.
• Supreme Court cases need to be taught thoroughly where it can be applied to other cases,
• Political Cartoons need to be analyzed as part of regular daily instruction.
• Practice answering CR items.