Counseling Chapter 4 Answer Ahead The Value Education What Not Goal The Race The Top

CHAPTER 4

School Issues That Relate to At-Risk Children and Youth

SUMMARY

In education, the term at risk refers primarily to students who are at risk of school failure.

As we discussed earlier, at risk actually means much more than flunking reading or math,

or even dropping out of school. Yet from an educator’s perspective, educational concerns

define at-risk issues. School problems and dropout are linked to many other problems

OUTLINE

 The Value of Education

♦ Federal Engagement in Education

♦ Federal Legislation: No Child Left Behind; Race to the Top

♦ State Initiatives: Common Core

 Research on Effective Schools

♦ Variables in Research on School Effectiveness

o Leadership Behaviors

o Academic Emphasis

♦ Definitional Issues in Research on School Effectiveness

o School Culture

o Student Climate

o Peer Involvement

o Teacher Climate

 Educational Structure: Schools and Classrooms

♦ School Structure

♦ School Choice

♦ Charter Schools

♦ Classroom Structure

♦ Curriculum Issues

 Education Structure: Innovations

 Conclusion

SUPPLEMENTS

PowerPoint: Chapter 4 Summary Slides

ACTIVITIES

1) An activity for the start of class: In groups, have students develop a list of

qualities they feel make an effective school. Bring them back into the larger

group and debrief their ideas before discussing the elements of effective schools.

2) Using the Diaz Family case study, have students write down what they feel most

ESSAY QUESTIONS

1. Explain why prevention and treatment of teens should focus not only on the

2. Describe six elements of effective schools and discuss how these factors influence

3. Explain the issues in our educational system that the Program on International

4. Why do you believe that the United States has such a high rate of success in teen

reading, when in other subjects it falls behind other Western nations? Could the

5. Why do you believe that education is important? Do you believe that this

importance can be communicated to at-risk teens? Explain and justify your

answer. Do you believe that a belief in the importance of education will

necessarily lead at-risk teens to pursue it? Why, or why not?

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

The following questions conform to the standards required by CACREP, EPAS, and other

accrediting agencies.

1. In the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program, schools required to demonstrate

improvement will do so most efficiently by:

A. focusing on resources on those children who test just below the minimum pass

rates.

B. increasing school choice options for parents.

C. insisting stronger accountability from schools to meet pass rates for

standardized test.

D. encouraging students to have a higher attendance rate.

2. What is not a goal of the Race to The Top (RTTT)?

A. Improve student achievement

B. Improve high school graduation rate

C. Increase community and parent support

D. Ensure post-secondary success

3. The Program on International Student Assessment (PISA) goal is to assess how

well schools teach youth to think and solve common everyday problems in what

three areas?

A. Science, mathematics, and art

B. Reading, mathematics, and science

C. Literature, art, and science

D. Mathematics, literature, and social science

4. Which of the following is not a strategy to create a positive school climate?

A. Increased teacher empowerment

B. Increased student empowerment

C. Increased collaborative efforts and decision making

D. Increased presence of security guards

5. Team teaching provides teachers with:

A. the ability to receive immediate feedback from one another.

B. a change of instructor for the classroom.

C. more time to grade papers.

D. control of larger number of students.

6. Positive Behavior Support (PBS) is an alternative to “zero tolerance” polices that:

A. support teacher behavior with data that supports effective decisions and

practices that support student behavior.

B. focus on the children with the highest incident of behavior problems.

C. provide faster responds to increasing incidences of disruption.

D. have yet to be proven as an acceptable alternative to Zero Tolerance.

7. What might explain the shift in the self-confidence levels of adolescent girls?

A. Peer pressure to conform

B. The realization that others are more talented than they are

C. A psychological shift from the need to achieve to the need to belong

D. Increased competition from adolescent boys

8. What description is not a discussed characterization of effective schools?

A. Community support

B. Academic emphasis

C. Zero Tolerance

D. Student involvement

A-head: Research on Effective Schools

9. Teens often regress into past behavior after receiving treatment owing to:

A. an unstable personality.

B. divorced parents who struggle with communication.

C. a poorly implemented school curriculum.

D. reconnection with a deviant peer group.

10. Which of the following is not considered part of the Educational Structure?

A. School structure

B. Curriculum issues

C. Hot lunch program

D. Classroom structure

11. Which of the following is not an element common to effective schools?

A. Teachers engage students.

B. The staff is dedicated and caring.

C. Teachers are bilingual.

D. There are stable classroom routines.

12. Which of the following is not an example of social capital?

A. Supportive parents

B. Community support

C. Financial support

D. Supportive peers

13. A focus on students’ performance on standardized tests is:

A. an effective way to measure overall performance.

B. unfair to certain cultural minorities.

C. a narrow view of education.

D. a purely subjective measure of success.

A-head: Research on Effective Schools

14. School Choice has been criticized for:

A. replicating inequalities based on socio-economic status

B. reducing the number of teachers needed

C. increasing class size

D. introducing competition

15. The primary organizing principle of the American educational system has been:

A. the pursuit of excellence.

B. the pursuit of conformity.

C. grade configuration.

D. ability streaming.

16. Which movement emerged from the school choice movement?

A. The charter school movement

B. The school within a school movement

C. The streaming movement

D. The conservative competition movement

17. What is flipped in a flipped classroom?

A. The teachers learn, the students teach.

B. Students do the grading.

C. What is done in class is done outside of class.

D. The class is taught outside where possible.

18. Which of the following is not an aspect of flipped classrooms that could help at-

risk youth?

A. Increased student-teacher interaction

B. Students can learn from peers.

C. Students can pace their learning.

D. Students can receive immediate feedback.

A-head: Educational Structure: Innovations

19. How might the charter school movement be contributing to a decline in teaching

standards?

A. It uses large classrooms that do not require student-teacher interaction.

B. It does not require that teachers be certified.

C. It does not require that teachers be bilingual.

D. It requires teachers to pass a certain number of students regardless of their

achievement.

20. In education, what does the term “at-risk” refer to?

A. Students who are at risk of school failure.

B. Teachers who are at risk of unemployment.

C. Schools that are at risk of closure.

D. Students that are at risk of failing to go to college.

21. The ability to recall facts is indicative of a student’s problem-solving skills.

A. True

B. False

22. Being assigned a mentor is important to ensure that new teachers continue

teaching.

A. True

B. False

23. The United States maintains separate and unequal schools and neighborhoods.

A. True

B. False

24. Effective schools are often located in communities that have high expectations of

them.

A. True

B. False

25. Classroom structure affects the academic experience of at-risk students.

A. True

B. False