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Common Core LiteracyGrades 9–10History & Social Studies

RH.9-10.8: Does the Evidence Support the Claim?

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.8 · Cluster: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.

All 29 Grades 9–10 Literacy Standards

The Official Wording

Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author's claims.

Common Core State Standards, Grades 9-10, Reading: History & Social Studies · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RH.9-10.8 Means in Plain English

Ninth and tenth graders weigh how much a history text’s evidence and reasoning really back up its claims, and point to where the support runs out. A 1920 editorial uses one county jail count and one shopkeeper’s word to promise that Prohibition will end poverty.

Middle school (RH.6-8.8) taught students to tell fact, opinion and reasoned judgment apart. Ninth and tenth grade measure how far the evidence reaches. In eleventh and twelfth grade (RH.11-12.8), students test an author’s premises, claims and evidence against other sources that corroborate or challenge them.

RH.9-10.8 I Can Statements

  • I can separate an author’s claims from the evidence behind them.
  • I can judge whether evidence is enough to support a claim.
  • I can spot where reasoning leaps past what the evidence shows.

RH.9-10.8 Worked Example

The editorial’s claims grow larger as its evidence gets thinner, and the weak answer takes one jail count as proof of all of them.

Read the Story
From an editorial in a small-city newspaper, March 1920 (invented): “Eight weeks ago the Eighteenth Amendment took effect, and already the results speak for themselves. In January of last year our county jail held 61 prisoners. This morning it holds 34.”“Drink fills the jails, and the jails are emptying. Before this year is out, the saloon’s other harvest, poverty, will follow it out the door.”“Mr. Emil Sauer, who kept a saloon on Depot Street for twenty years, has turned it into a soda fountain, and he tells us his trade has never been better. Here is proof that a dry nation is a prosperous one.”“Those who doubted the amendment have their answer. Let them come and count the empty cells.”
A short passage written for this page.
Question: To what extent do the editor’s evidence and reasoning support the claims that Prohibition is emptying the jails, that it will end poverty, and that a dry nation is prosperous?
Not Yet“The editor’s argument is strong because he uses real numbers. The jail went from 61 prisoners to 34, which proves Prohibition works.”It treats any number as proof and judges the editorial as a whole. It never asks what the jail figures compare, and it misses that the claims about poverty and prosperity have little or no evidence behind them.
Meets the Standard“The evidence partly supports the narrowest claim and not the broader ones. The jail count did fall from 61 to 34, but the editor compares one morning in March 1920 with January of the year before, in a single county, and never shows that fewer arrests for drinking caused the drop. Fourteen months leaves room for many other causes. The claim that poverty will be gone ‘before this year is out’ has no evidence at all: it is a prediction. ‘A dry nation is a prosperous one’ rests on one former saloon keeper’s word about his own soda fountain, and one success story cannot stand for a nation. The editorial’s claims grow larger as its evidence grows thinner.”It splits the editorial into separate claims, measures how far the evidence reaches for each, names the weak links in the reasoning, and answers “to what extent” instead of yes or no.
Question Stems to Use
What exactly does the author claim? List each claim separately.What evidence is offered for each claim, and how much could it prove?What else could explain this change besides the cause the author names?Where does the claim grow larger than the evidence behind it?What evidence would you need before you accepted this claim?

Common Mistakes with RH.9-10.8

Treating any number as proof

“He uses statistics, so his argument is strong.”

Try this: Ask students what a number compares, over what time and place, and what else could have produced the same change.

Judging the whole text at once

“The editorial is convincing” or “The editorial is biased,” with no claim singled out

Try this: Have students number each claim separately and rate the support for each one, since one text can be strong and weak at once.

Accepting an anecdote as a pattern

Taking one saloon keeper’s soda fountain as proof that the nation is prospering

Try this: Ask how many cases a claim covers and how many the evidence shows, then name the gap in a sentence.

Where RH.9-10.8 Fits

Comes BeforeRH.6-8.8Distinguish among fact, opinion and reasoned judgment in a history text.
AlongsideRI.9-10.8Evaluate an argument’s claims, asking whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence sufficient.WHST.9-10.1Write arguments that back precise claims with relevant, sufficient evidence.
Comes NextRH.11-12.8Corroborate or challenge an author’s premises, claims and evidence with other information.

Practice RH.9-10.8

Quick Check

  1. Which two jail counts does the editor compare?
  2. What evidence does the editor give that a dry nation is prosperous?
  3. Which claim has no evidence behind it at all?

RH.9-10.8: Other Names

RH.9-10.8CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.8

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.