Test Information Guide
Overview and Test Objectives
Field 06: History
Test Overview
| Format | Computer-based test (CBT) and online proctored test; 100 multiple-choice questions, 2 open-response items |
|---|---|
| Number of Questions |
|
| Time | 4 hours (does not include 15-minute CBT tutorial) |
| Passing Score | 240 |
The Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure (MTEL) are designed to measure a candidate's knowledge of the subject matter contained in the test objectives for each field. The MTEL are aligned with the Massachusetts educator licensure regulations and, as applicable, with the standards in the Massachusetts curriculum frameworks.
The test objectives specify the content to be covered on the test and are organized by major content subareas. The chart below shows the approximate percentage of the total test score derived from each of the subareas.
The test assesses a candidate's proficiency and depth of understanding of the subject at the level required for a baccalaureate major according to Massachusetts standards. Candidates are typically nearing completion of or have completed their undergraduate work when they take the test.
Sub area I 30%, Sub area II 25%, Sub area III 25%, and Sub area IV 20%.
Test Objectives
| Subareas | Range of Objectives | Approximate Test Weighting | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple-Choice | |||
| I | U.S. History | 01–06 | 30% |
| II | World History | 07–13 | 25% |
| III | Geography, Government, and Economics | 14–17 | 25% |
| 80% | |||
| Open-Response* | |||
| IV | Integration of Knowledge and Understanding | 18 | 20% |
*The open-response items may relate to topics covered in any of the subareas.
Subarea I–U.S. History
Objective 0001: Understand the characteristics of indigenous societies of North America, the causes and course of European exploration, and the development of colonial societies to 1760.
- For example: political, economic, and cultural features of Native American societies; European exploration, immigration, and settlement of North America, including Spanish, English, and French colonization; coexistence and conflict between Native Americans and Europeans (e.g., exchange of foods and technology, religious conversions, alliances and wars); characteristics of and regional divisions among England's North American colonies (e.g., Mayflower Compact, Massachusetts town government, plantation agriculture, emergence of slavery); political and economic relations between the colonies and Europe; ethnic and religious diversity of American colonists; intellectual heritage of Anglo-American colonials (e.g., Protestantism, principle of community responsibility, importance of education); and growing social and political divergence of the colonies from England (e.g., relations between colonial assemblies and royal governors, social mobility, resistance to trade and navigation laws).
Objective 0002: Understand the causes and key events of the Revolutionary War and major political, economic, social, and cultural developments that shaped the course of U.S. history through the Jacksonian era.
- For example: events, interests, and issues behind the American Revolution (e.g., Seven Years' War, new British imperial policy, "no taxation without representation," westward movement, Stamp Act, Boston Massacre); conflicts between British and American concepts of sovereignty; significant leaders, events, and turning points of the Revolutionary War; strengths and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation; the debate over the ratification of the U.S. Constitution; major political and economic developments of the early Republic (e.g., conflicting views of Hamilton and Jefferson, emergence of political parties, evolution of the Supreme Court, War of 1812, early industrialization in New England, Monroe Doctrine); rise of popular politics during the Jacksonian era; and the origins and accomplishments of antebellum reform movements (e.g., Horace Mann, Dorothea Dix, Seneca Falls Convention).
Objective 0003: Understand the significance of historical events related to westward expansion, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.
- For example: key events and issues related to westward expansion (e.g., the impact of geography on westward migration, the Louisiana Purchase, the concept of Manifest Destiny, major territorial acquisitions, Indian removal, the Mexican War); differences between the northern and southern economic systems and ways of life (e.g., slavery, patterns of frontier life, urbanization and industrialization); sources of sectional conflict (e.g., Missouri Compromise, rise of abolitionism); issues and events leading to the secession crisis (e.g., Compromise of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Dred Scott decision, John Brown, election of Abraham Lincoln); significant leaders, strategies, battles, and turning points of the Civil War; presidential and congressional Reconstruction, its accomplishments and failures; and the Compromise of 1877.
Objective 0004: Understand the major political, economic, social, and cultural developments that shaped the course of U.S. history from 1877 to 1920.
- For example: continued westward expansion; causes and consequences of industrialization (e.g., important scientific discoveries and technological innovations, mechanization of agriculture, spread of the railroad network, rise of the oil, steel, and electrical industries); business and labor in an era of industrial expansion (e.g., vertical and horizontal combinations, industrial entrepreneurs, Gospel of Wealth, rise of the labor movement); immigration, internal migration, and urbanization (e.g., growth of urban ethnic communities, resurgence of nativist hostility, the phenomenon of assimilation, northward migration of southern African Americans, movement from rural to urban areas, urban politics and social problems); contributions of immigrant groups; Populism and the crises of American agriculture; the Progressive movement (e.g., state and local reforms, reform initiatives of the Roosevelt and Wilson administrations, campaign for women's rights and suffrage); the movement for African American civil rights (e.g., W. E. B. Du Bois, the NAACP, Booker T. Washington); and major developments in the arts and literature.
Objective 0005: Understand the significant historical events and developments related to the emergence of the United States as a world power and the effects of major conflicts on the United States from 1898 to the present.
- For example: key events and issues related to U.S. expansionism (e.g., Spanish-American War, U.S. imperialism, construction of the Panama Canal, the Open Door policy); causes and consequences of U.S. intervention in World War I (e.g., German submarine warfare, isolationist and internationalist sentiment, the debate over the League of Nations); causes, key events, and consequences of U.S. participation in World War II (e.g., totalitarianism, attack on Pearl Harbor, internment policies, mobilization of American society, U.S. victory at Midway, D-Day, decision to use the atomic bomb, Yalta and Potsdam conferences, effect of World War II on U.S. society); U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War and the impact of the Cold War on U.S. politics (e.g., containment policy, NATO, domestic anti-communism, U.S. intervention in Korea and Vietnam, the Cuban missile crisis); and the end of the Cold War and the emergence of new foreign policy challenges (e.g., the Middle East, the Balkans, international terrorism).
Objective 0006: Understand the major political, economic, social, and cultural developments that have shaped the course of U.S. history from 1920 to the present.
- For example: major cultural, social, and economic developments of the 1920s (e.g., the Jazz Age, the Harlem Renaissance, motion pictures, sports, economic prosperity, technological innovation and the spread of consumerism, resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan, immigration restriction, Marcus Garvey and black separatism); Prohibition; causes and consequences of the Great Depression; Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal (e.g., Securities and Exchange Commission, Social Security Act, Wagner Act, Works Progress Administration); the growth and decline of organized labor; major postwar developments (e.g., economic growth, suburbanization, liberal anticommunism and McCarthyism); the struggle for African American civil rights; John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and the revival of political liberalism; the Vietnam War and American society; the conservative movement and the Reagan Revolution; the growth of Latino influence in American society; and major developments in science, medicine, and mass culture.
Subarea II–World History
Objective 0007: Understand human beginnings, the characteristics of early human societies, and the roots of Western civilization (prehistory to A.D. 500).
- For example: human origins and early societies (e.g., African origins, the Neolithic agricultural revolution, the first urban societies, the domestication of animals, river valley civilizations); political, economic, and cultural characteristics of the early civilizations of Africa, the Middle East, India, and China; slavery in the ancient world; principal teachings and influence of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism, and Christianity; institutions, culture, and legacies of ancient Israel (e.g., monotheism, Ten Commandments, ethic of individual and social responsibility); institutions, culture, and legacies of ancient Greece (e.g., literary, artistic, and philosophical achievements, principles of Athenian democracy, influence of Alexander the Great); and institutions, culture, and legacies of the Roman Republic and Empire (e.g., republican government; expansion of imperial Rome; Roman law, architecture, and engineering).
Objective 0008: Understand the major political, economic, social, and cultural developments that shaped the course of world history during the growth of agricultural and commercial civilizations (500 to 1500).
- For example: institutions, religion, and culture of the Byzantine Empire; origins and principles of Islam and political, economic, and cultural consequences of Islamic expansion; beginning of international slave trade; the political, economic, and social structure of European feudalism and manorialism (e.g., social estates, feudal contracts); the Catholic Church, monasteries, and universities in European civilization during the Middle Ages; causes and consequences of the Crusades; the rise of medieval towns, guilds, and commerce; European government in the High Middle Ages (e.g., Magna Carta, rivalries between church and state); and important developments within and among the major civilizations of Asia (e.g., India, China, Japan), Africa (e.g., Ghana, Mali, Songhai, city-states of East Africa), and the Americas (e.g., Maya, Aztec, Inca).
Objective 0009: Understand the major political, economic, social, and cultural developments that shaped the course of world history during the Global Age (1450 to 1750).
- For example: origins, principal figures, and influence of the Renaissance (e.g., artistic, literary, and scientific legacies, the political theories of Machiavelli, humanism and the works of Erasmus and Thomas More); significant ideas, leaders, and events of the Reformation (e.g., the teachings of Martin Luther and John Calvin, the English Reformation, the Counter Reformation); causes, important discoveries, and consequences of the Age of Exploration (e.g., factors encouraging European expansion, discovery of the New World, circumnavigation of the globe, establishment of colonial empires, mercantilism, the development of the international slave trade); the rise of absolute monarchies and constitutional governments in Europe (e.g., Louis XIV, Peter the Great, the English civil wars of the 1640s, the Glorious Revolution of 1688–89); the growth and decline of the Ottoman Empire; and major developments in African, Asian, and American civilizations (e.g., the empire of Genghis Khan, unification of Japan, spread of Islam into West Africa, the Spanish Empire in the Americas).
Objective 0010: Understand the major political, economic, social, and cultural developments that shaped the course of world history during the Age of Revolutionary Change (1700 to 1914).
- For example: the scientific revolution (e.g., Newton, Descartes); the influence of Enlightenment thinkers on political and economic development (e.g., Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau); origins and consequences of the American and French revolutions; the spread of democratic ideas beyond Europe and the United States (e.g., the Latin American wars for independence); causes and consequences of the agricultural and industrial revolutions (e.g., European preconditions, transformation of daily life and work conditions, growth of cities, class changes); major developments in the arts and literatures of the period (e.g., Romanticism, the symphony, the novel, national histories, Impressionism); democratic and social reform in Europe (e.g., Chartism, revolutions of 1848, expansion of the suffrage, socialism, emancipation of serfs in Russia); European nationalism (e.g., Cavour, Bismarck, and the unification of Italy and Germany); and the causes, key events, and consequences of the new imperialism (e.g., the colonization of Africa, racial theories and justifications for European expansion, Chinese resistance to Western domination, the modernization of Japan).
Objective 0011: Understand the major political, economic, social, and cultural developments that shaped the course of world history during the Era of the Great Wars (1900 to 1945).
- For example: causes, course, and consequences of World War I (e.g., Balkan nationalism, imperialist rivalry, the alliance system, modern weapons and trench warfare, the Treaty of Versailles); Lenin, the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the emergence of Communist totalitarianism; the political, social, and economic consequences of the Great Depression; Mussolini and the emergence of Fascism, the collapse of the Weimar Republic, and Hitler and the rise of Nazi Germany; the origins of World War II in Europe and Asia (e.g., the failure of the League of Nations; programs of conquest in Tokyo, Rome, and Berlin; policy of appeasement); events, leaders, and deciding factors in the outcome of World War II; the Holocaust; reconstruction and reform in postwar Europe and Japan; and major political, military, economic, and social effects of the world wars (e.g., the human toll, regional and global organizations, the division of Europe, the creation of modern Israel).
Objective 0012: Understand the major political, economic, social, and cultural developments that shaped the course of world history from 1945 to the present.
- For example: causes, key events, and consequences of the Cold War (e.g., Stalin and Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, the Marshall Plan, ideological differences, the Berlin blockade, the formation of NATO, the Warsaw Pact, the nuclear arms race); decolonization and national independence movements; Mao Zedong and the Chinese Revolution; the origins, course, and consequences of the Korean and Vietnam wars; revolution, reaction, modernization, and democratic movements in Latin America; major developments in the arts, music, literature, religion, and philosophy; causes of the collapse of the Soviet Empire (e.g., Soviet policies from Brezhnev to Gorbachev, failure of the planned economy, growing assertiveness of Eastern European nations, U.S. arms build-up); the persistence of nationalism and conflict in the post–Cold War world (e.g., ethnic rivalries, religious enmities, disparities between industrial and developing societies); and global economic developments since 1945 (e.g., postwar reconstruction in Europe and Asia, communications revolution, growing interdependence of the global economy).
Objective 0013: Understand the impact of science and technology on the development of civilization.
- For example: important scientific and technological advances that have influenced the development of civilization (e.g., tools of the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages, the clock, the compass, the astrolabe, the printing press, the laws of motion, the microscope, electric power, the theory of relativity, penicillin, the microchip); social, cultural, political, and economic factors that have encouraged or discouraged scientific discovery and technological innovation; the scientific revolutions of the seventeenth and twentieth centuries; causes and consequences of the agricultural, industrial, and information revolutions; contributions of major scientific thinkers (e.g., Copernicus, Galileo, Francis Bacon, William Harvey, Descartes, Sir Isaac Newton, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein); the scientific method and the evolution of a philosophy of science; contemporary issues in scientific and technological advances (e.g., the use of nuclear energy and biotechnology); and how science and technology are addressing ecological issues and problems.
Subarea III–Geography, Government, and Economics
Objective 0014: Understand the major physical features of the world and the effects of geographic factors on the development of human societies.
- For example: shape, location, and relationships among major land masses; location of significant landforms and bodies of water; application of basic geographic terms and concepts (e.g., habitat, acculturation, ecosystem); characteristics and uses of basic geographic sources (e.g., atlases, almanacs); the use of maps to obtain data for solving locational problems and to answer questions, infer relationships, and analyze spatial change; and the influence of geographic factors on patterns of human settlement, major historical events, and political, economic, social, and cultural developments (e.g., effect of geography on military conflicts, reasons for the location of cities, distribution of economic activities).
Objective 0015: Understand basic political science terms, concepts, and theories and the characteristics, organization, and development of various political systems.
- For example: definition and application of basic terms and concepts of political science (e.g., power and authority, justice, natural law, natural rights, citizenship); purposes of government and forms of governmental authority (e.g., to control territory, to maintain social order, to manage conflict); relationship between the evolution of political thought and the historical development of government (e.g., Enlightenment thought and political liberalism, Romanticism and nationalism); the influence of historical developments on political thought (e.g., wars of the twentieth century and the emergence of totalitarianism); characteristics of various forms of government (e.g., monarchial, oligarchic, democratic); and comparison of historical and contemporary forms of government (e.g., functions of legislatures, roles of political parties, relationship between the individual and the state).
Objective 0016: Understand the principles contained in the Founding Documents of U.S. government and the structure and operation of the U.S. political system.
- For example: origins and development of constitutional and democratic government (e.g., Athenian democracy, separation of church and state, the Germanic witans, the Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, the English Bill of Rights, English common law, the Mayflower Compact); central concepts and purposes of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and The Federalist papers (e.g., representative government, separation of powers, individual freedom, ordered liberty); the structure and functions of government at the local, state, and national levels (e.g., checks and balances, judicial review, federalism, relationships between federal, state, and local governments); the U.S. electoral system; the role of political parties and interest groups; and the rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship.
Objective 0017: Understand fundamental economic concepts and theories, characteristics of major economic systems, and the organization and operation of the U.S. economic system.
- For example: basic economic concepts (e.g., scarcity, choice, production, distribution, exchange, consumption, competition, entrepreneurship, supply and demand); major economic theorists and theories (e.g., Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman); characteristics of historical and contemporary economic systems (e.g., feudalism, capitalism, socialism, communism); components of the U.S. economic system (e.g., consumers, households, business, organized labor, banks); the role of government in the U.S. economy (e.g., fiscal and monetary policy, regulatory activities); and factors influencing the activities of American producers and consumers in the global economy (e.g., exchange rates, trade pacts, tariff barriers).
Subarea IV–Integration of Knowledge and Understanding
Objective 0018: Prepare an organized, developed analysis on a topic related to one or more of the following: U.S. history; world history; geography, government, and economics.
- For example: the influence of Greek and Roman ideas on the development of Western political thought; similarities and differences between medieval and Renaissance culture and society; the origins, goals, and consequences of the American and French revolutions; the influence of geographic factors on the development of colonial societies in North America; the influence of westward expansion on political, cultural, and economic developments in the United States during the nineteenth century; the rise of nationalism in Asia and Africa and the struggle against European colonialism; the role of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the evolution of U.S. economic and political life; and the accomplishments and limitations of the Civil Rights movement.