Deck 13: Education

Question 1

The dropout rate for young people from families with incomes $100,000 and above is less than 3 percent; for those from families with incomes below $25,000, the dropout rate is about

A)2 percent.
B)12 percent.
C)22 percent.
D)32 percent.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

About 30 million men and women in the United States do not read, write, or do basic arithmetic well enough to carry out daily responsibilities. This situation is the problem of

A)low ambition.
B)poor socialization.
C)functional illiteracy.
D)dropping out.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

In 1896, what decision by the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the principle of racial segregation if the facilities for blacks and whites were separate but equal?

A)Meredith v.Mississippi
B)Brown v.Board of Education of Topeka
C)Plessy v.Ferguson
D)Miranda v.Arizona

Answer 3

C

Question 4

The ability to read and write is referred to as

A)education.
B)literacy.
C)schooling.
D)socialization.

Question 5

Doug Downey and his colleagues discovered that U.S. children spend what percentage of their waking hours in school?

A)13 percent
B)23 percent
C)33 percent
D)43 percent

Question 6

By which year had every state enacted a law requiring children to attend school?

A)1789
B)1865
C)1918
D)1965

Question 7

Research shows that the quality of the school matters to student performance, but what matters even more?

A)the region of the country in which the student lives
B)the sex of a student
C)the student's home environment
D)the student's age

Question 8

On the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), for all racial and ethnic categories of people, a higher rate of poverty is linked to

A)lower performance on the test.
B)no change on test scores.
C)a slight increase in test scores.
D)a large increase in test scores.

Question 9

About what percentage of U.S. adults now complete high school?

A)48 percent
B)68 percent
C)88 percent
D)100 percent

Question 10

Which term refers to the social institution by which society transmits knowledge to its members?

A)socialization
B)cultural transmission
C)education
D)the family

Question 11

Prior to the civil rights movement, the main reason that schools in the North were segregated was that

A)most African Americans had to live in all-black neighborhoods.
B)federal laws mandated segregated schools throughout the country.
C)because both white and black parents preferred to keep their children with those "of their own kind."
D)few African Americans lived in cities.

Question 12

In the world as a whole, about how many men and women are illiterate?

A)80,000
B)8 million
C)800 million
D)8 billion

Question 13

Although the government claims that only a tiny percentage of the U.S. population is illiterate, research suggests the nation's level of functional illiteracy is about what percentage of the adult population?

A)1 percent
B)4 percent
C)14 percent
D)34 percent

Question 14

The term "dropping out" refers to

A)refusing to attend high school.
B)quitting school before earning a high school diploma.
C)not going on to college.
D)being expelled from a public school.

Question 15

Church-sponsored parochial schools were formed in the United States primarily by

A)southerners.
B)Californians.
C)rural farmers.
D)Catholic immigrants.

Question 16

A major reason that schooling is limited in poor societies of the world is that

A)parents can't take responsibility for teaching knowledge and skills.
B)urban areas have little room for schools.
C)parents need their children to work to provide food and income.
D)literacy is not necessary for industrial, factory jobs.

Question 17

During the 1960s, many white families moved from the central cities to the suburbs, thereby escaping required school busing programs. This movement out of the city was commonly called

A)decentralization.
B)bus busting.
C)beltway sprawl.
D)white flight.

Question 18

Which term refers to formal instruction carried out by specially trained teachers?

A)education
B)socialization
C)cultural transmission
D)schooling

Question 19

In the United States, what percentage of the population aged twenty-five to sixty-four has a four-year college or university degree?

A)12 percent
B)32 percent
C)52 percent
D)72 percent

Question 20

In 1954, which decision by the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated schools violated the Constitution, striking down the "separate but equal" standard that dated back to 1896?

A)Plessy v.Ferguson
B)Brown v.Board of Education of Topeka
C)Meredith v.Mississippi
D)Miranda v.Arizona

Question 21

In 1998, Californians passed Proposition 227, which

A)prohibited teachers from using physical punishment to discipline students.
B)allowed teachers to talk about birth control in public schools.
C)banned bilingual programs in favor of the English-immersion approach.
D)mandated that school teachers must teach in English until at least the ninth grade.

Question 22

Compared to 1960, today we find school segregation is

A)a thing of the past.
B)reduced.
C)about the same now as then.
D)much greater.

Question 23

As the U.S. economy moved from farming to industry, the responsibility for teaching the young moved from parents to

A)the workplace.
B)specially trained teachers.
C)the community.
D)technology.

Question 24

Which policy directs schools to integrate students with special needs into the overall educational program?

A)mainstreaming
B)redlining
C)special education
D)tracking

Question 25

Which policy requires school officials to severely punish or expel any student who brings a weapon, alcohol, or some other drug to school?

A)no excuses policy
B)zero tolerance policy
C)conflict resolution policy
D)shock reality policy

Question 26

About how many teaching job vacancies are there each year in the United States?

A)4,500
B)45,000
C)435,000
D)4.5 million

Question 27

Overall, what percentage of Hispanic students in the United States attends a school with a nonwhite student majority?

A)40 percent
B)60 percent
C)80 percent
D)100 percent

Question 28

Which of the following is identified in the text as a latent function of schooling?

A)providing society with skilled workers
B)giving people the skills they need to earn a living
C)preparing people to participate in the country's political and economic systems
D)providing child care to working parents

Question 29

What policy mandates teaching non-English speakers in English?

A)bilingual education
B)English immersion
C)official English
D)linguistic mainstreaming

Question 30

Read the four statements below. Which statement is NOT correct?

A)Young children who gain skills in their native language and also in English outperform one-language children on achievement tests.
B)Gaining bilingual skills has great value in today's global economy.
C)Bilingual education encourages people to see some cultural traditions as better than others.
D)English immersion seeks to "Americanize" children by teaching them the dominant culture.

Question 31

What school policy assigns students to different educational programs?

A)tagging
B)tracking
C)mainstreaming
D)academic segregation

Question 32

What percentage of undergraduates enrolled in U.S. colleges are women?

A)37 percent
B)47 percent
C)57 percent
D)67 percent

Question 33

The extent of school violence is higher in

A)private schools.
B)small, rural schools.
C)urban and suburban schools with large enrollments.
D)school that require students to wear uniforms or conform to other dress codes.

Question 34

According to symbolic-interaction analysis, tracking and other forms of labeling in education

A)improve student performance.
B)are generally helpful to disadvantaged categories of students.
C)can create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
D)are linked to the budget concerns of schools.

Question 35

Labels such as "gifted," "average," or "deficient" that are placed on students by schools

A)reflect their innate abilities combined with their work ethic.
B)may reflect their school work but also reflect students' social background.
C)have little effect on students' performance or future.
D)keep students in school longer because schools treat them according to their individual abilities

Question 36

In 1997, the state of Vermont enacted a law (Act 60) that

A)combines school taxes across the state and redistributes funding on an equal, per-student basis.
B)eliminated property taxes as a method of gaining school funding.
C)enacted a "voucher system" that parents could use to "pay" for their child to attend a private or parochial school.
D)eliminated busing.

Question 37

Since 1979, women have outnumbered men in U.S. colleges and universities. Despite this remarkable change, women still

A)usually fail to graduate.
B)are more inclined to major in math, science, or engineering.
C)primarily attend college in order to meet a successful husband.
D)tend to concentrate in many traditionally feminine majors.

Question 38

Which term refers to lifetime experiences and opportunities that enhance a student's ability to learn and succeed?

A)tracking
B)cultural capital
C)home schooling
D)educational advantage

Question 39

A school that provides students with learning disabilities with separate classes taught by specially trained teachers is following a policy of

A)special education.
B)tracking.
C)mainstreaming.
D)redlining.

Question 40

New York Public School 261, described by Jonathan Kozol as overcrowded, with inadequate heat and air conditioning, and no playground, stands out as

A)having a diverse mix of racial and ethnic students that mirrors New York.
B)enrolling children of all class levels.
C)excelling in sports.
D)having a large minority student population.

Question 41

Which political point of view argues that the main problem of public education is that government controls most schools, so public schools do not have to compete for students?

A)conservative
B)liberal
C)feminist
D)radical left

Question 42

From which political point of view would someone claim that it is far less costly to pay for good schools today than to pay the costs of dealing with the problems that result from poor schools?

A)conservative
B)radical right
C)radical left
D)liberal (

Question 43

What can you say about where in the world literacy rates are high and low? Where does the United States stand in terms of literacy?

Question 44

The "conservative solution" to many problems of schooling can be summed up as

A)more tracking.
B)more school choice.
C)more mainstreaming.
D)more equal funding for all schools.

Question 45

What important insights about schooling do we gain from structural-functional analysis, symbolic-interaction analysis, social-conflict analysis, and feminist analysis? What can you learn from each approach that helps you see ways to improve education in the United States?

Question 46

Discuss the debate over English immersion versus bilingual education, and how this affects cultural diversity for students. What arguments are made for each approach? Which one do you favor? Why?

Question 47

Following social-conflict analysis of education, the fact that our school system socializes all students to be obedient citizens who are respectful of authority is one example of schooling's

A)self-fulfilling prophecy.
B)tracking system.
C)hidden curriculum.
D)manifest functions.

Question 48

Radicals on the left argue that problems in our schools arise from

A)the shortcomings of students.
B)the shortcomings of administrators.
C)basic flaws in the economic and political structure of society.
D)the shortcomings of teachers.

Question 49

According to the liberal point of view, the main cause of school problems is

A)too little involvement on the part of parents.
B)not enough competition among schools.
C)too little funding for public schools and too much inequality of funding among schools.
D)that the capitalist economic system created too much inequality to begin with.

Question 50

Which type of schools provides freedom to try out new policies and programs?

A)charter schools
B)magnet schools
C)voucher programs
D)mainstreaming

Question 51

Social-conflict analysis of education claims that, within any single school, tracking mandates that the best the school has to offer goes to those students who

A)most closely match the school's definition of an "average student."
B)are socioeconomically disadvantaged and need extra help, regardless of their academic potential.
C)are socioeconomically disadvantaged, but have strong academic potential.
D)already have a lot going for them-those from more privileged backgrounds.

Question 52

Public schools that offer special facilities and programs in pursuit of educational excellence are known as

A)charter schools
B)magnet schools
C)voucher programs
D)mainstreaming

Question 53

Chris teaches at a university at the rank of full professor with tenure. Based on the statistical likelihood, Chris is probably

A)female.
B)male.
C)conservative.
D)African American.

Question 54

Discuss how schooling in the United States differs for the poor and the wealthy. Consider per-student expenditures, performance on standardized tests, cultural capital, and the policy of tracking.