Answer Key: Federalism — How the Constitution Divides Power

Full credit for any reasonable notice + prediction. Notice examples: "powers not given to the national government go to the states or the people," "the states keep whatever is not delegated." Predict examples: schools, licenses, elections, local rules — any power a state plausibly handles. Accept any on-topic prediction; warm-up graded for effort.

Accept any reasonable idea in the student's own words: to keep one government from getting too strong, to protect liberty, to let states meet local needs, to balance a unified nation with local control. More than one answer is defensible.

National (delegated): coin money / declare war / maintain armed forces / run the postal system / regulate trade between states.
Concurrent (shared): collect taxes / build roads / borrow money / make and enforce laws / set up courts.
State (reserved): run public schools / issue licenses / conduct elections / set up local governments.
Any one correct item per column earns full credit.

a) Coin money — N (national/delegated).
b) Run public schools — S (state/reserved).
c) Collect taxes — C (concurrent/shared).
d) Declare war — N (national/delegated).
e) Issue driver's and marriage licenses — S (state/reserved).
These map directly to Source A and the diagram. No partial-credit alternates: these five are established, neutral textbook examples.

What it establishes / which branch: it gives powers to Congress (the legislative branch, the national legislature). Accept "Congress" or "the legislative branch."
Purpose / one power named: to "lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises," to pay debts, or to provide for the common defense and general welfare — any one power quoted or paraphrased from the excerpt is fine.
Type of source: a primary source that is public domain (the text of the U.S. Constitution). Full credit if identified as primary.

Cause (any one): fear that one all-powerful/central government could threaten liberty; having just broken from a distant central power.
Effects (any two): keep any single government from becoming too strong; let states meet local needs; keep the country unified on national matters. Any valid cause plus two valid effects earn full credit.

Model: "The framers worried that one all-powerful government could threaten liberty (cause), so they divided power between national and state levels; the intended effect was that no single government could become too strong, while states could still handle local matters." Award credit for a valid cause (a worry or goal) and a plausible effect that dividing power was meant to produce. See rubric below.

a) F — checkable in the Tenth Amendment / Source A (reserved to the states).
b) I — a reasoned "probably" conclusion about the framers' motives.
c) O — a personal value judgment ("more important"); cannot be proven.
d) F — checkable in Source A (taxing is a concurrent power).
Fact = checkable; interpretation = reasoned from facts (often "probably/because"); opinion = personal belief or ranking.

Correct: B (No). Source A lists taxing as a concurrent power held by both the national and state governments. Source B also shows Congress's taxing power, but that does not make it exclusive. Reject A (taxing is not delegated/ national-only) and C (taxes are named in both A and B). Explanation must cite the concurrent-power detail from Source A.

When a valid national law and a state law genuinely conflict on a matter the national government is empowered to regulate, the national law generally controls because of the Supremacy Clause (Article VI), which makes valid national law the "supreme Law of the Land." Accept any clear one- or two-sentence answer that names the Supremacy Clause (or Article VI) and says national law generally prevails in a genuine conflict. Note: it is fine — and correct — for students to add that states still keep their reserved powers over the many matters left to them.

Strong response: claims that the scenario shows federalism because power is divided among national, state, and shared levels; supports it with two accurate pieces of evidence; and reasons clearly.
Sample: "This scenario reflects federalism because power is divided by level. Evidence 1: the state sets school rules and issues licenses — these are reserved (state) powers (Source A / diagram). Evidence 2: the national government coins the money, a delegated (national) power, while both collect taxes, a concurrent power. Reasoning: because each level does the jobs the Constitution assigns it — and some jobs are shared — the scenario matches the national/state/concurrent structure of federalism."
Defensible alternates: any accurate mapping of the scenario's examples to delegated, reserved, and concurrent categories, with two supported pieces of evidence and sound reasoning, earns full credit. Do not reward answers that confuse federalism with separation of powers (branches within one government) or that use no packet evidence.
[BLOCK] extended writing: full block credit requires (1) a described situation where a valid national law and a state law conflict on a matter the national government may regulate, and (2) a correct statement that national law generally controls via the Supremacy Clause / Article VI, framed so it still fits a federal system where states keep reserved powers.

Articulate: accept any accurate plain-language definition (e.g., "federalism is a system that divides government power between a national government and state governments, with some powers shared").
Connect: the cited items must be correctly categorized — e.g., national: coin money / declare war; state: run schools / issue licenses; shared: taxing / building roads. Grade whether each is placed in the right column.
Extend: any reasonable everyday example placed at the right level with a sensible reason (e.g., "a driver's license — my state issues it, a reserved power"). More than one answer is defensible; grade the reasoning.

(1) Running the postal system — national (delegated; Source A lists it). (2) Conducting elections — state (reserved; states run elections). (3) Borrowing money — concurrent (both levels may borrow; Source A lists it as shared). Grade the categorization and the one-line reason drawn from Source A.