Deck 15: Education

Question 1

The educational process in the United States is largely __________.

A) conservative
B) liberal
C) libertarian
D) progressive

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Bill is in favor of a strong, centralized national curriculum and educational standards. As such he would likely be __________ No Child Left Behind.

A) in favor of
B) opposed to
C) uninterested in
D) skeptical of

Answer 2

A

Question 3

No Child Left Behind requires states to establish standards in __________.

A) math
B) theater
C) music
D) physical education

Answer 3

A

Question 4

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, only _____ of the nation's eighth graders are proficient in math.

A) 5 percent
B) 26 percent
C) 41 percent
D) 65 percent

Question 5

Tracking __________.

A) is a way of monitoring a child's academic performance to ensure that he or she is performing up to standard
B) segregates students by perceived ability
C) causes wealthy children to be overrepresented in the slow track
D) is relatively rare in American education

Question 6

Local control of education is often a social problem because of __________.

A) the relationship between national tax revenues and the quality of education
B) the underrepresentation on school boards of business leaders
C) the lack of standardized curriculum
D) a preoccupation with conformity

Question 7

When schools determine learning groups based on the results of an assessment of some kind it is known as __________ and is highly controversial.

A) tracking
B) channeling
C) differential placement
D) reference grouping

Question 8

A system of school vouchers is a __________.

A) program for directly funding home schooling
B) program for specifically funding magnet schools
C) technique for paying tuition to any public or private school
D) technique used for paying out-of-district school costs

Question 9

In 2007, over __________ California schools were identified as "chronic failures."

A) 1,000
B) 2,000
C) 3,000
D) 4,000

Question 10

Some people think that schools should compete for students by opening up a free market for public education. They are likely to support __________.

A) a voucher system
B) private schools
C) the status quo
D) more discipline in schools

Question 11

"Sifting" and "sorting" __________.

A) do not occur in schools
B) are techniques used to determine which students will occupy high-status positions in society and which students will occupy low-status positions
C) are techniques used to ensure that the most able students are identified and provided resources with which to attain the highest of educational goals
D) refer to the process of selecting sports teams in schools

Question 12

Schools today tend to be __________.

A) segregated by social class and race
B) integrated with respect to ability
C) segregated by gender
D) integrated with respect to age

Question 13

Under the original Common Core legislation, states that set ____ proficiency benchmarks were _____.

A) higher; punished
B) lower; punished
C) higher; rewarded
D) lower; rewarded

Question 14

How do schools encourage conformity?

A) By expecting students to give answers the teacher wants
B) By placing no restrictions on dress
C) By encouraging talking and exploration during class
D) With a national curriculum

Question 15

Manny is disillusioned. He originally got into education to help students learn but he finds that he spends much of his time focusing on order and control. He is beginning to think that __________.

A) conformity matters more than control
B) education matters more than following the rules
C) conformity matters more than learning
D) learning matters more than conformity

Question 16

As a result of a lack of curriculum standardization, __________.

A) there is a great deal of variation in what students learn
B) each year many students go to different schools with the same standards
C) American students are acquiring the skills necessary to succeed in the modern world
D) the American education system is the best in the world

Question 17

Statistics indicate that education level and income __________.

A) are strongly correlated
B) show little association to each other
C) are inversely related
D) are not related in a consistent pattern

Question 18

As cited in your text, about what percentage of American adults are high school graduates?

A) 35 percent
B) 55 percent
C) 85 percent
D) 95 percent

Question 19

What feature of the current education system contributes to its nature of replicating class structures?

A) The lack of a competitive nature in U.S. education
B) The preoccupation with freedom and individuality
C) Sifting and sorting functions
D) A nationalized curriculum

Question 20

Poor students and their schools __________.

A) have more computers per student
B) have higher student-teacher ratios
C) have higher-paid teachers
D) are highly funded after taxes are redistributed

Question 21

__________ affects how long a child will stay in school, whether s/he will have a computer in the home, and out-of-school enrichment activities.

A) Intellectual ability
B) Standardized test scores
C) Desire
D) Level of affluence

Question 22

Mark has been assigned to the Blue Fish reading group, which focuses on simple sentences and recognizing basic punctuation. His friends in the more advanced Red Fish reading group make fun of him and Mark begins to think of himself as stupid. He is suffering from __________.

A) a student subculture
B) a stigma
C) stratification
D) exploitation

Question 23

The tracking system that exists in schools today contributes to the formation of a student subculture that is antagonistic toward school by __________.

A) segregating students so that low achievers are stigmatized and labeled as inferior
B) encouraging children of the elite to participate in cooperative learning alongside low achievers
C) creating a democratic system that prides itself on providing avenues of upward mobility
D) providing low achievers with special education to prepare them to take elite positions in society

Question 24

The future payoff of education is based on the assumption that __________.

A) primary school will be relevant for students going into the workforce
B) school and grades are much less important for entry into a job for students not going to college
C) everyone will go to college
D) very few skills will be needed in the jobs of the future

Question 25

The fact that the average SAT score for high income youths was 381 points higher than for low income youths illustrates that __________.

A) class has an influence on education
B) upper-income families value education more
C) low-income students do not work as hard at school
D) upper-income students are cheating

Question 26

A student who lives in a section of a city with a lot of rental housing and low property values is likely to _________.

A) receive more funding at school to make up for the disadvantage
B) receive less funding at school
C) be offered vouchers to attend private school
D) have free or reduced cost tutors available in home

Question 27

Julia is Hispanic and her family is poor. When a local reporter came to visit her school, she was appalled at the learning conditions and ended up reading the sociological research which shows that poor children are __________ the children of the affluent to attend schools with poor resources.

A) more likely than
B) less likely than
C) more inclined
D) not as inclined

Question 28

A Tennessee study found that students in smaller classes tend to __________.

A) achieve lower grades
B) have better college graduation rates
C) be more likely to attend college
D) take more internships

Question 29

The practice of awarding college applicants a certain number of points or credit automatically based on their race is an example of __________.

A) reverse racism
B) institutional racism
C) tracking
D) affirmative action

Question 30

Megan has been placed in an advanced learning track and her teachers begin to expect more from her. Additionally, she has more resources available to her to help with the more difficult material. With the extra attention and help she scores very well on her exams and gets admitted to good colleges. This illustrates __________.

A) the student subculture
B) gentrification
C) the self-fulfilling prophecy
D) school segregation

Question 31

__________ are/is recommended to increase equality in education.

A) Universal preschool
B) Larger class sizes
C) Market-based higher education
D) State-run boarding schools

Question 32

About 15 percent of low-income students enroll in college, while nearly 65 percent of high-income students enroll in college. This illustrates that __________.

A) upper-income families value education more
B) low-income students do not work as hard at school
C) upper-income students are cheating
D) there is stratification in higher education

Question 33

Teacher expectations __________.

A) have a minimal effect on student performance
B) have no effect on student performance
C) are shaped objectively
D) have a large effect on student performance

Question 34

Families' economic resources influence children's education in that __________.

A) wealthy children are more likely than children of the poor to attend schools with poor resources, forcing many of them to hire private tutors
B) most wealthy young people live in communities that have few opportunities to apply academic skills because they are always in school
C) children from poor families cannot afford private early development programs
D) the redistribution of tax dollars to equalize school spending across all districts results in inferior education for the middle class

Question 35

Since No Child Left Behind was enacted, improvements in passing rates on state tests can largely be explained by __________.

A) better standardization of curriculum
B) better teachers in the classroom
C) declines in the difficulty of assessment tests
D) continuity between state testing difficulty

Question 36

The self-fulfilling prophecy __________.

A) produces results that match the expectations teachers and administrators have of one group attaining great things and another group failing
B) does little to justify the greater expenditures of time and resources for those in the higher track
C) has little effect on students' performance
D) is an old psychological concept that does not apply to modern educational settings

Question 37

Members of the disadvantaged who band together in a group with values and behaviors antagonistic toward school are in a __________.

A) parent-teacher association
B) student subculture
C) charter school
D) magnet school

Question 38

A powerful negative social label that affects a person's social identity and self-concept is a __________.

A) stigma
B) matrix of domination
C) master status
D) student subculture

Question 39

Tracking __________.

A) is seen as universally positive
B) positively affects self-esteem
C) correlates with the social stratification system
D) is unrelated to the social class system

Question 40

Jeremy is trying to get the school board to reject advertising in schools. Although it raises revenue, he argues that exposing children to advertising as a captive audience and school environment is inherently __________.

A) educational
B) exploitative
C) profitable
D) egalitarian

Question 41

At the highest tier of higher education it is __________ that matters much more than sheer ability.

Question 42

The authors of the text recommend a(n) __________ college education for all qualified students.

Question 43

There are approximately __________ schools in the United States.

Question 44

Americans' faith in education is based on the assumption that a democratic society requires a(n) __________.

Question 45

When Pedro's mom was in middle school, she spent a lot of time memorizing facts and dates. Pedro does not think these skills are particularly useful in today's global world. Instead, he would rather focus on thinking outside the box, thinking sociologically, and developing good people skills. He would like to __________.

A) restructure society
B) reform the educational philosophy of schools
C) become a dropout
D) reduce class sizes

Question 46

Critics of the current educational philosophy of schools assert that __________.

A) the present system focuses too much on nurturing the natural curiosity of children
B) schools reflect society's competitive and repressive nature
C) schools produce people who need to please only themselves
D) there is not enough ability tracking to truly make a positive difference

Question 47

__________ is an indicator that the situation for poor children will worsen significantly.

A) The slowly increasing gap between the affluent and poor
B) The increasing number of minority students
C) The aging of society that will likely lead to increased tax revenue for education
D) The fact that since Brown v. Board of Education schools have gotten more integrated every year

Question 48

The longer children live in poverty, the __________ they perform on working-memory tests.

Question 49

__________ is a problem associated with the assessment of schools.

A) The inability to take religion into account
B) Requiring special education students to take the test
C) A subtle encouragement for slow learners to drop out of school
D) The lack of funding tied to standardized test results

Question 50

Charter and private schools often result in increased racial __________.

Question 51

Angie wants to send her kids to a school that is able to choose its own curriculum. She would be interested in __________.

Question 52

Empirical studies have demonstrated conclusively that investing in preschool programs for the poor __________.

A) has no long-term effects
B) saves money in the long run
C) is not financially viable
D) is not nearly as important as focusing on race

Question 53

According to research cited in the text, __________ seems to enhance a student's school performance and __________ seems to lead to behaviors that can impair it.

A) small class size; isolation
B) isolation; small class sizes
C) bonding; small class sizes
D) large class sizes; rejection

Question 54

__________ have been shown to be capable of eliminating the learning gap between middle-class and lower-class children at a very young age.

Question 55

Jim has done some research about education in other countries and is appalled at what he sees when he compares the United States. He is most concerned about the amount of time U.S. schoolchildren spend in school. He is a proponent of __________ as a part of school reform.

A) less standardized testing
B) more physical education
C) a shorter school day and year
D) a longer school day and year

Question 56

The data presented in the text show that U.S. schools tend to block the chances of minority and economically __________ children in their quest to be successful.

Question 57

In the past, the school year was developed around the __________ calendar.

Question 58

Josie agrees with the results from the Project Star initiative and other research about the importance of school and class size. She would be in favor of efforts to __________.

A) increase class size
B) decrease class size
C) desegregate schools
D) segregate schools

Question 59

As suggested in your text, the federal government could promote equal opportunity by engaging in __________.

A) the elimination of funding for compensatory programs like Head Start
B) practices that would encourage states to maximize disparities between rich and poor districts
C) institutionalizing a national curriculum
D) residential segregation

Question 60

Although the state and federal governments finance and control education in part, the bulk of money and control for education comes from __________.

A) school principals
B) teachers themselves
C) the Gates foundation
D) local communities

Question 61

Discuss how the financing of public education reflects the economic divide that exists in society.

Question 62

The idea behind having common educational standards for primary and secondary education was to close the gaps that plague education and to make schools accountable for success or failure of their students.

Question 63

What are the goals and issues involved in No Child Left Behind?

Question 64

"Sifting" and "sorting" are techniques used to ensure that the most able students are identified and provided resources with which to attain the highest of educational goals.

Question 65

Explain how local control of education influences the quality of public schools. What would be the effects of removing local control? Do you think we should remove local control?
Ideal

Question 66

What would be the costs and benefits of making a commitment to a free education for all students?
Ideal

Question 67

States currently do not equalize monies to minimize disparities between rich and poor school districts.

Question 68

Discuss the claim that American education is the "great equalizer." Is it now? Has it ever been? Does it need to be?
Ideal

Question 69

Discuss the pros and cons of "tracking." Would you want to be in an education system with a lot of tracking? What do we gain and lose with such a system?
Ideal

Question 70

By making education entirely free to all children, communities could reduce dropout rates among the poor.

Question 71

In what ways are K-12 schools not truly cost-free? What forces would have to come together to ensure a K-12 education that is truly free of charge?

Question 72

Schools in the United States today are no longer segregated by social class or race.

Question 73

Education is the great equalizer in U.S. society.

Question 74

How can teacher expectations create self-fulfilling prophecies?

Question 75

Programs that work to hold educators accountable by instituting standardized exams often lead to slow learners being encouraged to drop out of school.

Question 76

The failure in school of poor and minority children can be said to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Question 77

Discuss the way that family economic resources affect the quality of poor children's education.

Question 78

Tracking is a way of monitoring a child's academic performance to ensure that he or she is performing up to standard.

Question 79

Taxpayer-funded charter schools and school vouchers go against the American value of competition.

Question 80

In what ways are college opportunities affected by stratification? What would be the advantage of offering a free higher education to all who qualify?
Ideal