Deck 9: Interscholastic Sport Main Themes

Question 1

Most of the countries of the world have adopted the American system of interscholastic sports.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

In studies of social status in high school, "to be an athlete" is favored over being a nonathlete, with the highest preference being "scholar-athlete."

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The research evidence indicates that high school athletes as a group receive lower grades than nonathletes.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Over the past thirty years, high school sports have increasingly become another commercialized industry of popular culture.

Question 5

In addition to its other consequences, high school athletics serves a social control function.

Question 6

High school athletes are less advantaged academically before they participate in high school sports than their nonathlete peers.

Question 7

The evidence is overwhelmingly clear that high school athletics builds character.

Question 8

Historically, high school sports have reinforced traditional gender roles.

Question 9

Because of budget shortfalls in high schools, pay-for-play plans were implemented in the sports programs, but they were unsuccessful and have been dropped.

Question 10

High school sports programs are essential because they uniformly fulfill educational goals.

Question 11

High school sports are elitist.

Question 12

The report funded by the LA84 Foundation validated that high school sports participation causes athletes to achieve higher grades than nonathletes.

Question 13

A functionalist perspective of high school sports views it as a primary social practice for promoting social and political integration, providing a common moral code for social cohesion, maintaining social control, and sorting and selecting students for their adult roles in society.

Question 14

Which social theory views high schools as organizations having a distinctive elite orientation in the educational opportunities available for students from different minority racial and ethnic groups and for female students?

A) Functionalists
B) Conflict/culturalists
C) Interactionists
D) Social psychologists

Question 15

One of the reform efforts instituted by some school districts that requires at least a C in all subjects to be eligible to participate in extracurricular activities is called

A) Proposition 48.
B) Proposition 42.
C) No Pass, No Play.
D) Stop the Pressure.

Question 16

Which of the following social control functions is not accomplished by sport in high schools?

A) Athletes must obey school rules.
B) Athletes must achieve minimum scholastic standards.
C) Athletes tend to support the school system.
D) All of the above are social control functions of sport in schools.
E) None of the above

Question 17

The research on sports participation in high schools reveals that it

A) builds good character.
B) destroys good character.
C) can have both positive and negative outcomes as far as the "character" of the participants is concerned.
D) At this point in time, there has been no research on this topic.

Question 18

Which of the following is a consequence(s) of interscholastic athletics?

A) The athletes receive substantial social rewards and recognition.
B) There is a unifying effect on the school.
C) It serves a social control function.
D) It may be used to encourage intellectual activities among the students.
E) All of the above

Question 19

Data on interscholastic athletic participation rates show that the current rates for girls

A) are greater than those for boys.
B) did not increase during the 1990s.
C) increased dramatically from the 1970s to now.
D) are about the same as for boys.

Question 20

There are three indicators that sport is already at the corporate level at some high schools. Which of the following is not an indicator?

A) Some school districts spend extraordinary amounts of money on their athletic teams, especially football and basketball.
B) The combined effect of increased exposure and commercialization is moving high school sport to more closely resemble big-time college programs.
C) Girls teams are being added to the high school athletic program.
D) The channeling of young elite athletes into a "professional" mode.

Question 21

Among the reforms for high school sports that are recommended by the textbook authors are to

A) resist all efforts to "corporatize" high school sports.
B) enforce an educationally defensible standard for school performance for athletes to be eligible to participate in sports.
C) minimize the elitism of sports.
D) All of the above
E) A and C only
F) A and B only

Question 22

Box 9.1 titled "Thinking about Sport: Cheerleading: Is It a Sport?" asserts that

A) USA Gymnastics and USA Cheer are responsible for the National Collegiate Athletic Association adding cheerleading as a sport.
B) high school competitive sport cheerleading should be limited to four weeks.
C) USA Gymnastics and USA Cheer believe cheerleading should have a no-cut policy.
D) the issue of whether competitive cheerleading is a sport is not settled for all jurisdictions.

Question 23

A consequence of the popularity of interscholastic sports is its generation of status for males and, recently, females. Several research studies reveal interesting patterns about social status in high schools. Summarize the findings of this research.

Question 24

Many educators, parents, and high school students have expressed concern about the current situation of high school sports; and they have made suggestions for reforming high school sports to maximize educational goals. Based on your own experiences and the suggestions in your textbook, describe and discuss two suggestions for reforming high school sports to maximize educational goals.

Question 25

Several important consequences of playing high school sports are identified in your textbook. Summarize the consequences that are described about academic benefits, character development, and adjustment to the future and life after sport.

Question 26

A number of criticisms have been leveled at high school sports as they are presently organized, such as reinforcement of sex roles, cheating, autocratic coaches, excessive pressures to win, and corporatization of high school sport. Describe the basis for the criticisms that have been made for each of these.

Question 27

What evidence do you see for high school sports becoming "corporate"?