Deck 6: Competing Goals of Public Education

Question 1

Taking the best from the conservative, liberal, and critical theorists, which of the following should educators not do?

A) Increase educational scaffolding for those students who start at a disadvantage
B) Teach for learning using insights about how students learn and provide activities and quality feedback to help students master and use what they are learning
C) Ask questions about current events and to what extent they represent or deny the democratic ideals on which our country is founded
D) Continue professional learning activities to help make teaching meet each learner's needs
E) Focus more intensively on student's learning basic skills and less extensively on higher order thinking skills

Answer 1

E

Question 2

Which of the following are ways that critical theorists believe that schools can improve?

A) By changing society
B) By implementing programs that lead to more democratic schools
C) By developing curriculum and teaching methods that teach an American set of values to all students
D) By making teacher evaluation less rigorous and less based on student test scores
E) By changing society and implementing programs that lead to more democratic schools

Answer 2

E

Question 3

Which of the following is not a reason critical theorists believe that schools and society have problems?

A) The education system has failed the poor, minorities, those with disabilities, and women through continuation of classist, racist, able-ist, and sexist policies and practices.
B) The education system has stifled analysis, deep understanding, and criticism of American society's problems by implementing a curriculum and teaching practices that promote individuality and questioning of authority.
C) The traditional curriculum ignores cultures, genders, and races that are not present in the classroom and that have contributed to society.
D) The education system promotes inequality of both opportunity and results.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Taking the best from the conservative, liberal, and critical theorists, which of the following should educators not do?

A) Track students by ability groups to best individualize instruction
B) Provide high quality opportunities for all students to learn a rigorous curriculum
C) Develop student literacy and critical thinking skills to apply to curriculum, life experiences, and the larger society
D) Create inclusive classrooms characterized by respect
E) Offer challenging and relevant learning activities and foster interpersonal skills

Question 5

Which of the following statements is false concerning the conservative perspective of education?

A) Conservatives believe that schools should provide the educational training necessary to ensure that the most talented and hard-working individuals receive what they need to become socially and economically productive.
B) Conservatives believe that schools should emphasize multicultural education so workers can compete successfully in a global economy.
C) Conservatives believe that schools have lowered academic standards for students.
D) Conservatives believe that schools are state-controlled monopolies, largely immune from competition, and therefore, inefficient.

Question 6

Critical theory is best defined as

A) An educational theory that takes a somewhat negative view of education
B) An educational philosophy that concerns itself with issues of struggle, power, culture, domination, and critical consciousness
C) An educational theory that concerns itself with issues of molding immigrants into the mainstream culture
D) An educational philosophy that concerns itself with taking a skeptical look at reform measures
E) All are correct

Question 7

What does it mean that critical theorists believe our public schools practice a cultural hegemony?

A) It means that schools put up barriers, or hedges, to keep different cultures apart.
B) It means that schools teach a wide variety of philosophies and beliefs.
C) It means that schools impose a Western European culture or worldview on students.
D) It means that schools should pay more attention to culturally-diverse history, philosophy, and worldviews than we currently do - hence hegemony, like alimony for a disenfranchised partner.
E) All are correct

Question 8

Which of the following is not part of America 2000?

A) All children will start school ready to learn.
B) The national graduation rate will increase to at least 90%.
C) U.S. students will rise to be second in the world in math and science achievement.
D) Teachers will have opportunities to acquire the skills and knowledge needed to prepare students for the 21^st century.
E) All are correct

Question 9

Which of the following is not a way in which schools advance economic growth?

A) Schools can socialize future workers for the workplace.
B) Schools can sort and select students for the labor force.
C) Schools can make students more competitive in a global labor force.
D) Schools can contribute to educational inflation.

Question 10

Which of the following is not a reason that liberals believe today's educational problems exist?

A) Schools need to level the playing field experienced by economically disadvantaged or culturally different students because their backgrounds have limited these students' changes for a good life, allowing them to underachieve.
B) Schools place too little emphasis on discipline and authority, not allowing students to develop fully as individuals.
C) Academic quality and climate disparities between schools serving affluent as compared with low socioeconomic status students create unequal achievement and unequal opportunities for advancement.
D) The traditional curriculum leaves out the diverse cultures of groups that make up our pluralistic society; students need to see and feel that they gave value before they can learn.

Question 11

Cultural capital is best defined as

A) A dominant location for art, music, and theatre activities
B) The monetary benefits that the knowledge of language, currency, and culture can bring to an ethnic minority in a new country
C) The richness that multiculturalism can bring to any society
D) The language, values, and meanings of cultural minorities
E) None are correct

Question 12

Liberal critics want education reform that includes which of the following?

A) Connecting equity with excellence
B) Connecting equality with excellence
C) Improving failing schools - especially urban schools
D) Closing failing schools
E) Connecting equity and equality with excellence
F) None are correct

Question 13

Which of the following statements is false concerning the liberal perspective of education?

A) Liberals focus only on the individuals' social and economic needs to the exclusion of economic productivity.
B) Liberals seek the best balance of individual freedom with the essential legal protections for individuals, their contracts, and their businesses, which only a government of laws can provide.
C) Liberals try to minimize the differences in life outcomes between the country's richest and poorest citizens.
D) Liberals believe that individual effort is very important, but there are times when it is not enough.
E) Liberals stress the school's role in creating a more equal playing field for all students to succeed.

Question 14

Which of the following statements best defines educational inflation?

A) As the supply of well-educated individuals increases, employee wages and advanced degrees' value declines due to an over supply.
B) As more and more individuals obtain high school diplomas, the value of a high school education decreases.
C) As more individuals obtain high school diplomas, more individuals obtain college degrees which devalues college degrees.
D) As more individuals desire an education, the cost of that education increases.
E) None are correct

Question 15

Which of the following is not one of Goodlad's 1979 identified education goals?

A) Mastery of basic skills
B) Dependency
C) Career or vocational education
D) Intellectual development
E) Interpersonal relations

Question 16

Which of the following is not one of Goodlad's 1979 identified education goals?

A) Enculturation
B) Autonomy
C) Citizenship
D) Self-concept
E) Conformity

Question 17

Which of the following is not one of schools' general goals?

A) Intellectual goals
B) Political goals
C) Social goals
D) Family life goals
E) Economic goals

Question 18

Which is not an education reform liberal critics want?

A) Compensating high-quality, highly effective teachers who work in high-challenge urban schools to create a culture of academic achievement
B) Balancing the curriculum of Western thought and values along with readings and history of other groups in a culturally diverse setting
C) Linking standards with high levels of support
D) Relaxing teacher evaluation practices so as not to rely on student achievement data
E) All are correct

Question 19

Which of the following is an action that conservative education reformers would not want to make?

A) Return schools to teaching basic skills
B) Return schools to a traditional academic curriculum
C) Abandon testing requirements that "grade" schools
D) Increase charter schools, vouchers, and tuition tax credits
E) Evaluate teachers based on their students' achievement

Question 20

Which is not one of the views that Richard Rothstein would hold?

A) Teacher quality accounts for two thirds of the variation in student achievement.
B) Poverty has a negative effect on student achievement.
C) No Child Left Behind was a failed policy to increase student achievement.
D) Merit pay for teachers corrupts the process of student achievement.
E) Race to the Top's competitive grants make little sense.

Question 21

In three or fewer sentences explain the role of the individual and the government from the conservative, liberal, and critical theorist perspectives.

Question 22

List an 18^th and 20^th century writer who discussed education as an investment in human capital. Provide their names, the title of at least one of their works, and why they were important contributors to the topic.

Question 23

List three trends about the slowing of social and economic mobility (income or wealth ladder) in the U.S.

Question 24

List at least four ways in which education is seen to be an investment in human capital.

Question 25

Explain meritocracy.

Question 26

Is the U.S. public education system still the key to achieving the "good life" and upward economic and social mobility? Discuss both sides of the issue and justify your conclusion.