Deck 13: The Purposes of Education

Question 1

A "high stakes" test is one where the results

A) are used to help make decisions about promotion and/or graduation.
B) count for more points than other tests in the semester.
C) are not linked to the district's or the state's educational standards.
D) have little relationship to accountability systems.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which of the following is most likely to work on the development of educational goals?

A) a local district curriculum committee
B) a teacher planning her lesson
C) a national commission appointed by the president
D) a school-based management team

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The major effect of the Soviet satellite Sputnik on American education was

A) renewed emphasis on progressive education.
B) a return to academic essentials.
C) a revised emphasis on the humanities.
D) the start of teacher competency testing.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

An example of a goal is

A) to describe the political party system in the United States.
B) to interpret the influence of trends in public opinion on the next congressional election.
C) to prepare students for democratic citizenship.
D) to list citizens' responsibilities.

Question 5

Behavioral objectives can be evaluated by measuring

A) the observable behavior of the student.
B) graduation rates.
C) public opinion about educational issues.
D) student performance on standardized achievement tests.

Question 6

Educational policy reports in the mid-1980s emphasized

A) academic excellence.
B) educational equality.
C) the relevance of education to conditions in society.
D) the whole-child concept.

Question 7

School district goals should be based on input from

A) professional educators only.
C) citizens only.
B) parents only.
D) all of the above

Question 8

The best argument for using very precise and specific instructional objectives is that they

A) help teachers stay flexible as they teach lessons.
B) make it easier to plan for complex learning.
C) are easy to prescribe in advance of actual instruction.
D) can be clearly linked to measurable student outcomes.

Question 9

Who should influence the goals of the local school district?

A) parents
C) children
B) teachers and school personnel
D) all of the above

Question 10

By the mid-twentieth century (1950-1960), concern over the goals of public education had focused on

A) the schools' inability to implement many of the ideas of progressive education.
B) the explosion in the number of people going on from high school to college.
C) the "softening" of public education resulting from the emphasis on educating the whole child at the expense of rigorous academics.
D) the problem of how to pay for the education of the "baby boomers" following World War II.

Question 11

Schools are a mirror of strengths and weaknesses in society.Why is it important for the goals of education to change as society changes?

Question 12

Goals are commonly changed when

A) conditions in society change.
B) popular textbooks are rewritten.
C) learners have difficulty understanding a concept.
D) teachers adjust lesson plans to meet student needs.

Question 13

The launching of Sputnik rocked the foundations of the United States government, citizenry, and educational system during which period of American history?

A) Cuban Missile-Crisis
C) Vietnam War
B) Cold War
D) Detente

Question 14

The whole-child concept emphasizes

A) the development of curricular materials on values and moral standards.
B) the growth and development of the entire child.
C) the principles of psychology related to the mental discipline theory.
D) the use of a core curriculum of selected subjects.

Question 15

The primary goal that "All children in America will start school ready to learn" was established by

A) the National Education Goals Panel Report.
B) the No Child Left Behind Act.
C) Lau v.Nichols.
D) the Action of Excellence Report.

Question 16

Goals are sometimes called

A) behavioral objectives.
C) statements of intent/ "ends"
B) performance statements.
D) ultimate objectives.

Question 17

Outline and discuss the Seven Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education (1918).Are these principles still relevant almost a century after their publication? Why? Why not? In what aspects are they timely or "old-fashioned"?

Question 18

The publication of the Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education (1918) was an important benchmark in the history of the aims of American public education in that

A) it reinforced the concept of education as a process of strengthening the mental faculties.
B) it shifted the focus in secondary schools from rigorous education in traditional liberal arts to a broader focus on the skills required for successful living in our society.
C) it established the high school as the place where most people would receive their education in math and science.
D) it ensured that only competent teachers would be involved in the selection and implementation of the national curriculum.

Question 19

The 1960s brought increased attention to

A) average students.
C) gifted students.
B) disadvantaged students.
D) special-education students.

Question 20

Goals serve as a guide for developing

A) aims.
C) intermediate objectives.
B) specific objectives.
D) ultimate objectives.

Question 21

Schools interested in proposing a curriculum consistent with A Nation at Risk would probably offer

A) contemporary issues in sex education.
C) remedial mathematics.
B) science.
D) vocational education.

Question 22

The history of the goals of public education in the United States is the history of attempts to

A) establish "excellence" and the education of an elite.
B) establish "equity" and reach all children with education that will suit their needs as citizens.
C) both of these
D) neither of these

Question 23

Which of the following statements about America's educational priorities is most accurate?

A) They tend to reflect political and economic conditions.
B) They tend to remain the same over time.
C) They shift frequently, every two or three years.
D) They have little to do with actual conditions in society.

Question 24

What is the purpose of the mental discipline approach to education?

Question 25

How can the achievement of objectives be measured?

Question 26

Because of the educational policy reports of the mid-1980s, such as A Nation at Risk, schools implemented

A) an increase in high-school graduation requirements only.
B) an increase in required math and science courses only.
C) an increase in college entrance requirements only.
D) all of the above

Question 27

The educational crises of the late 1950s and the early 1980s were similar in that

A) they both focused on the need to establish equity in terms of the attention and resources devoted to different populations served by public education.
B) the reforms that followed both crises were in response to a perceived decline in academic performance and called for increased academic rigor as a solution.
C) neither event had a very dramatic impact on public education.
D) both sets of reforms failed because of the public's unwillingness to fund needed changes.

Question 28

Give an example of an influence on the identification of educational goals, and then identify the consequence of that influence in the schools.

Question 29

______________ forced change in the school curriculum by steering children towards science and math.

A) Leave No Child Behind
C) The Sputnik flight
B) The National Defense Educational Act
D) A school-based management team

Question 30

What influence do social forces have on the educational goals of a school district?

Question 31

Behavioral or performance objectives often focus on _____________.

A) content or a specific skill
C) national goals
B) the state framework
D) broad goals

Question 32

A Nation at Risk emphasized that the well-being of the nation was being eroded by

A) the high cost of education.
B) increasing federal involvement in education.
C) interference by community leaders in reforming the curriculum.
D) mediocrity in education.

Question 33

Objectives are usually prepared at the __________ level.

A) subject/grade
C) lesson plan
B) unit plan
D) all of the above

Question 34

The fact that what we perceive to be our goals for public education can change so dramatically and so frequently probably reflects

A) the problems that arise when the goals of public education are determined politically and not by educators.
B) the fact that only a small segment of the public really understands what it is that public schools are supposed to do.
C) our inability to decide whether education is a local, state, or national responsibility.
D) the idea that educational goals are based in the needs of different times and contexts and that they change as these needs change.

Question 35

A new focus on outcomes that measured academic results in a child's education led to __________.

A) states standards and assessment
C) outcome-based education
B) benchmarks
D) IDEA

Question 36

In evaluating the national goal, "all children in America will start school ready to learn," explain the concerns state and local governments might have in reaching this goal.

Question 37

___________developed an outline for the development and implementation of school goals in the late 1940s.

A) President Roosevelt
C) Sigmund Freud
B) Jean Piaget
D) Ralph Tyler

Question 38

By the 1980s, the attention of national policy reports focused on the needs of which group of students who have tended to be ignored in national priorities for education?

A) average
C) at-risk
B) gifted
D) minority

Question 39

_________________detailed policies and procedures for including children with disabilities in a regular classroom.

A) The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
B) Leave No Child Behind
C) Lau v.Nichols
D) LEP

Question 40

Discuss whether goals should be stated in behavioral or non-behavioral terms.

Question 41

What were some of the factors that contributed to the numerous educational policy reports at the end of the twentieth century?

Question 42

What were some of the recommendations that were made in the 1983 report, A Nation at Risk?

Question 43

Describe the function of a school improvement plan.

Question 44

What were the forces that contributed to the emphasis on the academically talented and the return to academic essentials in the late 1950s?