Deck 6: Educational Inequality

Question 1

Schools that are predominantly non-White are more likely to be poor.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Prior to 1885, Chinese American students frequently attended public schools in California.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Because of undernourishment, children in Indian Schools often succumbed to diseases such as tuberculosis.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Nationally, prior to 1950, the average expenditure for White students was less than two-thirds that for Black students.

Question 5

Cultural representations of Black men as criminals encourage teachers to be patient with young Black students.

Question 6

By 2001, there were significantly more Black students in majority-White schools in the South than there had been in 1970.

Question 7

Education scholars argue that there is a hidden curriculum, in that the school curriculums are designed to reflect the cultural hegemony and ensure the class interests of the dominant class.

Question 8

There is substantial evidence backing the oppositional culture thesis.

Question 9

Many studies have found that non-White children are more likely to be placed in low-ability groups, beginning in elementary school, whereas White children are more likely to be placed in college-bound tracks in high school.

Question 10

Due to affirmative action programs, college admissions committees can admit students purely based on race.

Question 11

Undocumented children are not guaranteed access to public education in the United States.

Question 12

Thanks to multiple Supreme Court cases that have affirmed the civil rights of children of color to have equitable access to education, school segregation has been eradicated in the United States.

Question 13

The 2016 Fisher v. The University of Texas Supreme Court decision affirmed the University of Texas's right to take race into account for admissions.

Question 14

Although racial disparities in educational outcomes persist, they are less pronounced today than they were at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Question 15

Asian students have always been viewed as the "model minority" in the U.S. education system.

Question 16

Philosophies such as "kill the Indian and save the man," which were at the core of Indian Schools, reveal how the underlying belief behind assimilation was that:

A) Native Americans were a valuable resource worth investing in
B) Native American culture was too peaceful
C) Native Americans could be forgiven for their attacks on European settlers
D) Native Americans were savage and needed to be saved

Question 17

What were the conditions like for Native American children at Indian schools?

A) The children often experienced home-sickness, but the schools provided ample emotional support to combat it
B) many were coerced to attend the schools and brutally punished for running away
C) students attended classes with Blacks and Latinxs who often ridiculed them
D) positive because the teachers created a warm and welcoming environment

Question 18

Policies enacted at Indian schools, such as renaming the children, cutting their hair, and forbidding them from speaking in their native language or practicing their own religions were all designed to:

A) help students overcome feelings of home-sickness
B) motivate students to work harder in their studies
C) strip Native American children of their native culture
D) help Native American students blend in with Asian classmates

Question 19

Which court case supported segregated schools by deeming that "separate but equal" facilities were constitutional?

A) Mendez v. Westminster
B) Brown v. Board of Education
C) Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
D) Plessy v. Ferguson

Question 20

In the case of ____________, the federal circuit court in California ruled that the segregation of children of Mexican and Latin American descent was unconstitutional, providing one of the first victories of the Civil Rights Movement.

A) Mendez v. Westminster
B) Brown v. Board of Education
C) Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
D) Plessy v. Ferguson

Question 21

What proactive measure was successful at helping to integrate school districts after segregation was deemed unconstitutional?

A) the creation of integrated after school programs
B) race-based channeling
C) tracking
D) school busing

Question 22

Which court case ruled that schools were not obliged to desegregate, thus resulting in the rapid resegregation of schools?

A) Mendez v. Westminster
B) Dowell v. Oklahoma City
C) Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
D) Plessy v. Ferguson

Question 23

In order to enhance racial diversity on campuses, Title VI of the 1968 Civil Rights Act enabled institutions of higher education to implement _____________ programs.

A) zero tolerance
B) affirmative action
C) tracking
D) achievement

Question 24

How do affirmative action programs allow admissions committees to use racial diversity in their decision to admit a student to a university?

A) Committees can admit students solely based on their race
B) They mandate that 10 percent of all admissions must be of non-White students
C) They allow committees to discriminate against White applicants
D) Racial diversity can be one factor in their decision process

Question 25

The University of North Dakota has decided to set aside 100 slots a year for minority applicants. Which Supreme Court case ruling deemed this policy unconstitutional?

A) Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
B) Dowell v. Oklahoma City
C) Mendez v. Westminster
D) Plessy v. Ferguson

Question 26

All of the following are strides made within the last 100 years toward lessoning racial disparities in the education system, EXCEPT:

A) Nearly all youth have achieved literacy
B) High school graduation rates for all racial groups are converging
C) The number of Black students in majority-White schools has increased following the end of school busing programs
D) The gap in reading test scores between Blacks and Whites has shrank

Question 27

Because Asian students are outperforming all other students in test scores as well as high school and college completion rates, a stereotype has developed, labeling Asians as:

A) a model minority
B) "acting White"
C) exemplary immigrants
D) All of the above

Question 28

In what way are current Latinx college enrollment rates misleading?

A) Latinx college enrollment rates are lower than Whites, but they graduate at higher rates
B) Latinxs are more likely to enroll in college than Whites, but they attend less selective schools and are less likely to earn a four-year degree
C) Latino boys have high enrollment rates, but Latina girls have low enrollment rates
D) Latinxs have higher enrollment rates than Whites at selective universities, but Whites have higher enrollment rates at community colleges

Question 29

Sociologists Vincent Roscigno and James Ainsworth-Darnell found that _________could explain about half of the difference between the test scores of Black and White children.

A) family socioeconomic status
B) intelligence
C) health
D) school attendance rates

Question 30

African American children equating school success with "acting White" and developing an identity in opposition to dominant White culture are the two components of which theory on educational disparity?

A) model minority
B) social capital
C) oppositional culture
D) symbolic violence

Question 31

_______ can be described as who you know, whereas _______ is what you know.

A) Human capital; symbolic capital
B) Social capital; cultural capital
C) Symbolic capital; human capital
D) Cultural capital; social capital

Question 32

Working class students are at a disadvantage because they are less likely to have access to counselors and college mentors who can guide them in reaching their educational goals. The type of social capital these students are lacking is called:

A) institutional agents
B) a peer support system
C) a social network
D) interpersonal capital

Question 33

In the United States, there is the idea that the standard form of English spoken by middle-class White Americans is an indication of intelligence and eloquence, whereas the forms of English that working class African Americans speak to one another is an indication of ignorance. Pierre Bourdieu would argue that this constitutes:

A) tracking
B) symbolic violence
C) a hidden curriculum
D) skills mismatch

Question 34

The Jim Crow Laws and legal segregation denies rights and opportunities to African Americans and other non-Whites. Three important historical events which successfully challenged Jim Crow and segregation were:

A) Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, and the Freedom Riders
B) Plessy v. Ferguson, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, and the Civil Rights Movement
C) Mendez v. Westminster, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, and the Civil Rights Movement
D) Dowell v. Oklahoma City, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, and the Freedom Riders

Question 35

Today, high levels of racial segregation in schools are most highly associated with:

A) Poverty
B) Racial groups' neighborhood preferences
C) The legal institutionalization of segregation
D) All of the above

Question 36

Which of the following statements best describes the relationship between parental socioeconomic status and the achievement gap?

A) Children whose parents have lower incomes and levels of education tend to have better educational outcomes that children whose parents have high incomes and levels of education
B) Children whose parents have higher incomes and levels of education tend to have better educational outcomes that children whose parents have low incomes and levels of education
C) Parents' income is important for shaping children's educational outcomes, but parents' level of education has no impact
D) Parents' level of education is important for shaping children's educational outcomes, but parents' income has no impact

Question 37

Claire is a high school student who hopes to attend an Ivy League university. Both of her parents went to Stanford, her guidance counselors are well-connected with Ivy League institutions, and a close family friend is on the admissions board at Princeton. Claire has relatively high levels of _______ that will likely help her gain acceptance to her college of choice.

A) Human capital
B) Cultural capital
C) Social capital
D) Anomie

Question 38

Black students face disproportionate rates of punishment, school suspension, and arrest, linking school inequities to the criminal justice system. This is known as:

A) Hidden curriculum
B) Segregation
C) The New Jim Crow
D) School to prison pipeline

Question 39

Briefly explain how educational attainment across racial/ethnic groups has changed after the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

Question 40

What were Indian Schools? How were students treated in these schools and what were some of the long-term impacts of this treatment?

Question 41

Explain the link between Indian Schools and U.S. governmental policy. How did the practices of these schools reflect this link to government policy?

Question 42

Describe the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. What was the implication of this ruling for the U.S. school system?

Question 43

Describe the cases of Mendez v. Westminster and Brown v. Board of Education. How did each of these cases contribute to the reversal of Plessy v. Ferguson?

Question 44

How does the 1991 Supreme Court decision in Dowell v. Oklahoma City help explain the persistence of segregation in the U.S. education system?

Question 45

Explain the original intent of affirmative action policies in institutions of higher education? How did the Bakke decision and California's Proposition 209 impact the application of these policies?

Question 46

Is it correct to state that Asian Americans have always been stereotyped as the "model minority"? Why or why not?

Question 47

What is the difference between a school's "official curriculum" and its "hidden curriculum"? Identify one specific example of a school's hidden curriculum and explain how it might play a role in reproducing racial inequality.

Question 48

Describe the two basic components of the oppositional culture thesis. To what extent do you find this explanation for the achievement gap persuasive? In making your case, cite at least two empirical findings or theoretical criticisms that were discussed in Chapter 6.

Question 49

Define the term "institutional agent" and identify two specific institutional agents who helped you reach your goal of attending college.

Question 50

Explain the difference between social and cultural capital. Despite this difference, how are the two types of capital linked?

Question 51

Explain the tension that Prudence Carter finds between Black students' attempt to be perceived as authentic by their peers and their effort to be perceived as good students by their teachers. Do White students face this same problem? Why or why not?

Question 52

What is the achievement gap? Compare and contrast the following sociological explanations for this gap: parental socioeconomic status explanations, tracking explanations, social and cultural capital explanations, and hidden curriculum explanations. Which of these explanations do you find the most persuasive? Why?

Question 53

What is the school to prison pipeline? How do these practices shape outcomes for youth of color?