Deck 14: Education

Question 1

The transmission of culture from one generation to another is a latent function of education.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The goal of a universal system of education is to educate the more talented or privileged for positions of leadership.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The best predictor of academic success is the family.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The most important determinant of scholastic success is the student's native intelligence.

Question 5

Education is often used as a remedy for social problems in the United States.

Question 6

The stress on order, regularity, punctuality, silence, and staying in line works against lower-class students who do not practice these behaviors outside of school.

Question 7

According to the conflict theory, the educational institution tends to perpetuate the stratification system of the society.

Question 8

American schools are administered centrally, on a federal level, as are schools in all industrial societies.

Question 9

The first Coleman Report indicated that minority students improved their academic success when they attended schools in which they were in a majority.

Question 10

The Framers of the Constitution had as one of their goals the total eradication of illiteracy, as they believed that democracy required a literate electorate.

Question 11

Education is said to affect attitudes. Therefore, college students are less tolerant of nonconformity than are high school graduates.

Question 12

Credentialism is the practice of requiring degrees for specialized occupations.

Question 13

Statistics show that a much higher number of whites than African Americans hold high school degrees.

Question 14

As of 1977, women have been surpassing men in educational achievement.

Question 15

The push for teaching people to read in the English-speaking world was based on a desire to read:

A) history
B) shop manuals
C) the Bible
D) maps

Question 16

In preindustrial societies, education was intended for:

A) the masses
B) a small elite
C) productive persons
D) the obviously intelligent

Question 17

American public education is aimed at:

A) the intellectual elite
B) the average student
C) a minority of students
D) special students

Question 18

American parents generally want schools to:

A) prepare children for jobs
B) stimulate artistic endeavors
C) promote controversy
D) teach children to think

Question 19

Which are manifest functions of schools?

A) To teach skills
B) To teach the values prevalent in the society
C) To reinforce the norms of the society
D) None of the above
E) All of the above

Question 20

Latent functions of schools include:

A) maintaining the class system
B) encouraging social mobility
C) promoting nationalism
D) allowing the formation of a subculture and keeping children in school for a period of time

Question 21

Critics of our school system state that:

A) education makes no attempt to exercise social control
B) education places too little emphasis on hard work and obedience
C) education is used to foster the acceptance of our political system without question
D) none of the above
E) all of the above

Question 22

Credentialism opens jobs:

A) to all people
B) to members of skilled professions
C) to members of academia
D) but has no bearing on the job market

Question 23

American schools:

A) are sensitive to subcultural variation
B) are uniformly funded
C) are as successful as those in other countries
D) must cater to the average students's abilities

Question 24

In education:

A) the family is unimportant
B) the family is crucial to student success
C) smart students easily overcome the disinterest of the family
D) the social class of the family is unimportant

Question 25

The Coleman Report indicated that educational success for blacks was based mainly on:

A) physical facilities
B) the number of books in the school library
C) integration in the schools with white, middle-class students
D) being in a segregated all-black setting

Question 26

Coleman's later report indicated that the best schools in the United States were:

A) public schools
B) integrated public schools
C) private schools
D) segregated public schools

Question 27

American schools suffer from:

A) high dropout rates of minority students
B) the functional illiteracy of many students
C) devaluation of college degrees
D) underpaid and ill-prepared teachers

Question 28

What kind of individual was valued in pre-industrial societies?

A) a highly educated intellectual
B) manual workers
C) nonproductive citizens
D) the poor and alienated

Question 29

What kind of individual is valued in industrial and postindustrial societies?

A) the uneducated member of an underclass
B) the nonproductive elderly
C) the technically sophisticated and well-educated individual
D) the manual worker

Question 30

Compulsory mass education in the United States was NOT intended to:

A) "Americanize" the immigrants and make them fit in as citizens
B) teach immigrants the skills to fit into the work force and handle increasingly complex technology
C) provide the means for each person to become self-supporting
D) establish an elite to be trained to govern

Question 31

Which of the following is an unintended function of education?

A) Reinforcement of society's stratification system
B) Understanding mathematical concepts
C) Reinforcement of grammatical forms in language
D) Formation of youth leadership groups

Question 32

Which of the following is true?

A) Students with low levels of self-esteem and low levels of confidence tend to do poorly in school
B) Students are seldom able to evaluate their own abilities
C) Lower-class students do as well academically as those from higher social classes
D) Testing consistently low does not affect a student's self-confidence

Question 33

The most important determinant of scholastic success is:

A) how well the student's parents did in school
B) the peer group influence
C) the opinion of the neighbors
D) a family's values regarding education

Question 34

Middle- and upper-class parents foster the viewpoint that:

A) occupational success is desirable
B) success does not matter as much as happiness
C) their children should have a classical education
D) students should find peers with similar goals

Question 35

A nineteenth-century model of rote education which imitated the assembly line was called the:

A) Schumpeterian system
B) Birmingham system
C) Topeka system
D) Lancaster system

Question 36

The practice of requiring degrees as a minimum hiring requirement is called:

A) elitism
B) academicism
C) credentialism
D) syndication

Question 37

The commitment of American society to universal education derives from:

A) the ideas of the framers of the Constitution that an educated electorate is necessary for the survival of democracy
B) economic necessity, because more education translates into better jobs
C) religious principles that each individual has an obligation to learn as much as possible
D) nineteenth-century ideas which are no longer relevant in the 21st century

Question 38

Critics maintain that the following issues are present in higher education:

A) high tuitions
B) a lowering of standards
C) muzzling of academic freedom
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 39

The Bureau of the Census has reported that in the past decade:

A) more men than women have earned Bachelor's degrees and above
B) more women than men have earned Bachelor's degrees and above
C) there has been a decrease in persons of both genders in obtaining higher education degrees
D) almost 80 percent of Americans are now earning Bachelor's degrees

Question 40

We live in a society-and in a world-that has seen an "information explosion," and yet there seem to be ever fewer people who have a good grasp of even the most elementary knowledge. How did this come about? Why are American students so much father behind students from most other industrial nations in information and skills? What can we do to change this situation? What is going to happen to us as a nation if we do not?

Question 41

Describe the perfect school, as you would want to experience it. Be serious and consider the function of education in society.