Skip to main content
Common Core LiteracyGrades 11–12History & Social Studies

RH.11-12.3: Weighing Rival Explanations

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.3 · Cluster: Key Ideas and Details.

All 29 Grades 11–12 Literacy Standards

The Official Wording

Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain.

Common Core State Standards, Grades 11-12, Reading: History & Social Studies · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RH.11-12.3 Means in Plain English

Juniors and seniors set rival explanations of a historical event side by side, decide which one the documents support best, and say plainly what the record cannot settle. A navy court in 1898 and an admiral’s study in 1976 blamed different causes for the battleship Maine’s explosion.

Ninth and tenth grade (RH.9-10.3) traced a chain of events and asked whether one caused the next or only came first. Grades 11-12 judge whole explanations against each other. This is the last band of the line, the college and career readiness level of a history seminar.

RH.11-12.3 I Can Statements

  • I can state two competing explanations for the same historical event.
  • I can decide which explanation the evidence supports better, and why.
  • I can say exactly where the evidence leaves the question open.

RH.11-12.3 Worked Example

The passage summarizes two real investigations; the weak answer picks a side by its headline, and the strong one weighs the evidence and marks its limits.

Read the Story
On the night of February 15, 1898, the battleship USS Maine exploded in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, where it had been sent while Cubans fought for independence from Spain. More than 250 of its crew died.Explanation A, a U.S. Navy court of inquiry, March 1898: divers found part of the ship’s bottom bent upward, and the court concluded that a mine outside the hull had set off the forward magazines. It said it could not fix responsibility on anyone.Explanation B, a study published by Admiral Hyman Rickover in 1976: the Maine burned soft coal, which can heat up and catch fire on its own, and one of its coal bunkers sat against a magazine wall. Bunker fires had broken out on other warships of the period, and the study’s experts argued that an internal blast could also have bent the bottom plates.A second navy board examined the raised wreck in 1911 and also blamed a mine, though at a different spot. In 1912 the hull was towed out to sea and sunk in deep water, where it can no longer be examined.Context: When the 1898 court reported, the newspapers had already blamed Spain, and the United States declared war that April.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: Which explanation of the explosion best fits the evidence in the passage, and where does the record leave the question open?
Not Yet“The navy found that a mine sank the Maine, so Spain did it. That is why the United States went to war.”It takes one explanation’s conclusion as fact, adds a claim the court itself refused to make, and never weighs the coal bunker evidence or mentions that the wreck can no longer be examined.
Meets the Standard“On this evidence an internal coal fire fits slightly better, but neither explanation is proven. Explanation B rests on known facts: soft coal ‘can heat up and catch fire on its own,’ a bunker ‘sat against a magazine wall,’ and such fires had happened on other warships. Explanation A rests mainly on the bent bottom plates, which B’s experts say an internal blast could also produce, and the 1898 court worked while ‘the newspapers had already blamed Spain.’ Still, the 1911 board also found a mine, and even A never blamed Spain: the court ‘could not fix responsibility on anyone.’ Because the hull was sunk in 1912, the plates that might settle it can no longer be examined.”It judges both explanations by the evidence behind them, names the context that weakens the 1898 finding, admits the evidence that cuts the other way, and says exactly why the question stays open.
Question Stems to Use
What evidence does each explanation rest on, and who gathered it?Could the same piece of evidence fit both explanations?What was happening when each investigation reached its conclusion?Which explanation accounts for more of the evidence, and what does it leave unexplained?What evidence would settle the question, and is it still available?

Common Mistakes with RH.11-12.3

Choosing by authority

“The navy court said it was a mine, and they were experts, so it was a mine.”

Try this: Ask students to list the evidence behind each explanation and the conditions under which it was gathered before they choose between them.

Refusing to choose

“Both explanations could be true, so there is no way to decide.”

Try this: Require a ranked judgment, which explanation fits better and by how much, followed by one sentence naming what would change it.

Adding claims the sources never make

“The court proved that Spain blew up the ship.”

Try this: Have students check each claim against the exact wording of the source, marking anything the source does not say, like who was responsible.

Where RH.11-12.3 Fits

Comes BeforeRH.9-10.3Analyze a series of events and decide whether earlier events caused later ones or simply came before them.
AlongsideRI.11-12.1Cite strong evidence and determine where a text leaves matters uncertain.WHST.11-12.1Write arguments that weigh claims and counterclaims with evidence from historical sources.
Comes NextRH.11-12.6Evaluate authors’ differing points of view on one event by their claims, reasoning and evidence.RH.11-12.8Corroborate or challenge an author’s premises, claims and evidence with other information.

Practice RH.11-12.3

Quick Check

  1. What did the 1898 court of inquiry conclude, and what did it decline to say?
  2. What facts support the coal bunker explanation?
  3. Why can the question no longer be settled by examining the ship?

RH.11-12.3: Other Names

RH.11-12.3CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.3

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.