Which of the following is a factor affecting the strong academic performance of Asian Americans?
There is a high degree of social capital in Asian American communities, and the community reinforces norms regarding education and parenting
With regard to biological or genetic differences between people, sociologists have found that:
Stigmatized minorities in all countries have lower IQ scores, lower educational attainment, and lower occupational status, indicating that social processes of stratification and stigmatization affect the life chances of these groups
According to functionalist theories of education, which of the following would NOT be a function of the American education system?
Indoctrination into capitalist ideology
Which of the following is most likely to be a conflict perspective argument about why education levels have continually risen in the United States over the course of the last century?
As education became more common for all people, social elites needed to obtain more education in order to set themselves apart from others
Which of the following is an argument in favor of school vouchers?
In order for schooling to be equal for all children, parents should be able to decide where their children go, regardless of their ability to pay
One of the major reasons Native Americans were placed in boarding schools for 60 years was:
To socialize them to become "civilized" Americans
Which of the following scenarios illustrates "stereotype threat"?
Antoine, a black student at Yale University, is nervous about taking the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). He fears that if his score is low, he will confirm negative perceptions about the intelligence of black men. His fear then affects his performance, and he scores lower on the actual test than he did on practice tests
Which of the following is a functionalist explanation for the increased number of Americans with college degrees throughout the course of the twentieth century?
Jobs have become more skilled and technologically advanced, and a more educated workforce is necessary to fill these jobs
What is the relationship between birth weight and education?
Siblings who weighed less at birth exhibit lower educational attainment than their heavier siblings
Jacqui is a student at a Catholic middle school. One day she is asked by her friends from the public school to skip school. Though Jacqui wants to be with her friends and is excited by the thought of breaking the rules, she decides not to go. Jacqui is concerned that if she were seen skipping school, her actions would reflect badly on her school, her parents, and her teachers. She also does not want to undermine the trust that adults have placed in her. This example illustrates how ____________ in Catholic schools may influence behavior
Social capital
What might be a reason that upper-status students score higher on SATs?
Their parents are better able to obtain help for them, as in SAT prep courses and extra tutoring if they are doing poorly in school
Research has shown that the ____________ the family, the ____________ the children's achievement on test scores and grades
Larger; lower
As more people obtain college degrees and it becomes unreasonable for students to stay in school for most of their young adulthood, what is one consequence?
People will seek to differentiate themselves not only by having a degree but also by earning degrees from the most selective and prestigious colleges and universities
According to Bourdieu, the three types of cultural capital are:
Embodied, objectified, and institutional
One of the major reasons that lower-status parents use more directives and teach their children to be more obedient than inquisitive is that they:
Tend to have jobs that require them to be obedient and they want their children to learn this
Which of the following statements is true with regard to preferential admissions to colleges and universities?
In the last 15 years, admissions preference for athletes has risen steadily, surpassing that of minority students
When studies control for family background characteristics, the SAT:
No longer predicts college grades very well
Contrary to popular belief:
Girls and boys score about the same in national math tests
What is stereotype threat?
This is a psychological process of fear that develops when members of a negatively stereotyped group are placed
in a situation where they may confirm the stereotype.
Knowledge and skills that make someone more productive and bankable are known as:
Human capital
Which of the following is NOT an element of socioeconomic status?
Racial background
The research on teacher quality demonstrates that:
It is difficult to identify characteristics that will make effective teachers because these characteristics are hard to quantify
One of the most interesting findings from the Coleman Report was that:
When lower-class students went to school with more upper-status students, their grades improved
With regard to the effects of families on children's educational outcomes, which of the following is true?
When a family goes from two to three children, middle children are significantly more affected by the loss of family resources
According to Espenshade and Chung (2005), eliminating affirmative action programs would do which of the following?
Decrease black and Hispanic admission acceptance rates by one-half to two-thirds
At 9:05 A.M., the bell rings and children file into their third-grade classroom. The first student to sit at his or her desk—book open and pencil ready to write—wins a star for the day. The students love this little bit of competition. This example of nonacademic socialization (which can teach students the benefit of competition) can be referred to as the:
Hidden curriculum, the nonacademic socialization and training that take place in the schooling system
The embodied cultural capital that parents have may work with institutional cultural capital. Which of the following illustrates this?
If a parent has confidence in social settings, he or she may be better able to advocate for children in front of the school board or at parent-teacher meetings
Which of the following illustrates the concept of cultural capital?
Joshua and Sam have both earned bachelor's degrees from a local university and are now interviewing for the same job. When Joshua goes into the job interview, he is able to discuss art, architecture, and travel experiences he had while growing up. Sam has not had these same experiences and is not able to have the same kind of conversations with the interviewers
The SAT was developed in order to provide children from public schools with a chance to demonstrate their fitness for college and to show they were as able as students from private high schools. It is therefore ironic that:
Researchers now question how meritocratic the SAT is, because the SAT may test knowledge that is biased against certain groups
When classrooms are divided into ability levels, type of preparation, or according to future plans, it is called:
Tracking
A paradox of the American education system is that education is:
A social institution that stratifies students based on the characteristics of their backgrounds even though it is intended to provide equal opportunity
A prominent hypothesis about the effect of family size on children's educational outcomes is the:
Resource dilution model
Cultural capital refers to:
Social class-based skills and resources that people inherit and can use to their advantage
Social capital is:
The collection of relationships that can facilitate the actions and behaviors of others
With regard to research on the effects of race and social class on education outcomes, which of the following is true?
When social class characteristics are controlled for, test score gaps between black and white students shrink, black students have a higher high school graduation rate, and black students are less likely to be held back a grade
