The Contest Rule Book
After much discussion with stakeholders and the national office, the Illinois History Day competition will now use the National History Day Rule Book. We will no longer use the Illinois History Day Rule Book, so please remove it from circulation with your students. The IHD leadership team determined this would be the best year to change to the NHD Rule Book as it was significantly updated this year. Please take the time thoroughly review the update; for a list of specific changes, see NHD's Summary of Changes.
NOTE: All project submissions will be subject to the NHD Rule Book and must adhere to the yearly theme. This year's theme is "Turning Points in History."
Evaluation Forms
In addition to updating the Rule Book, NHD also updated the evaluation forms for all categories. Students are now evaluated using a standardized rubric. This will assist judges in providing clear, objective feedback to students while ensuring students understand the expectations in each category and can respond, meaningfully, to judge feedback. The hope is also to enable them to self-reflect on the quality and progress of their projects during the creation stage.
Beginning this year, IHD will use the NHD forms to evaluate students' projects at our Regional and State competitions. You are encouraged to do the same at your local competition.
Please see the updated evaluations here: nhd.org/evals.
To further assist students working on their project, NHD created a project checklist for each category, as well as category resources. You can view those at: https://nhd.org/en/resources/by-type/project-creation/
Please ask your students to use these as they create their projects to ensure their alignment with NHD standards.
About Northern Regional Contest
2024 UPDATE: NORTHERN HISTORY DAY WILL BE HELD ON A VIRTUAL PLATFORM!
Illinois History Day began in 1947 as a publication entitled Illinois Junior Historian and later Illinois History sponsored by the Illinois State Historical Society. By 1963 the monthly essay and art contest for the magazine soon grew into physical fairs where students could show off their talents and craftsmanship.
Illinois History Day is an annual state-wide academic competition in which students can create a wide variety of projects (exhibit, research paper, website, documentary, or performance) about an aspect of Illinois history. Students from sixth grade through eighth grade participate in the Junior Division and students from ninth grade through twelfth grade participate in the Senior Division.
Illinois History Day consists of four regions; Northern, Central, Southern, and Chicago Metro. Students will participate in their respective regional competitions in hopes of being selected to participate in the state competition held in April 2024.
Students must ensure that their projects meet the qualifications listed in this handbook. Projects will be assessed based on historical accuracy, clarity in argument, relevance to Illinois, and the overall quality of the presentation.
STUDENT/TEACHER REGISTRATION OPENS: Monday, February 26 at 8:00 AM CT
STUDENT/TEACHER REGISTRATION CLOSES: Monday, March 11 at 4:00 PM CT
Please note: ALL projects are due at this date/time.
VIRTUAL JUDGING: Wednesday, March 13 - Wednesday, March 20
RESULTS ANNOUNCED: Thursday, March 21, Time TBD
No formal event will take place, but a link to the results will be available on this website by March 21, 2024.
Each category has its own unique evaluation sheet that will be used. Please review the category evaluation sheets here: nhd.org/evals.