1. The types of education in the U.S. include which of the following?
a. public education
b. home schooling
c. private education
d. All of the answer choices are correct.
2. Schooling refers to
a. informal education.
b. formal, institutionalized education.
c. mandatory education.
d. luxury education.
3.
Inequality within the U.S. education system explains most of the decline in the U.S.’s standing in global
education rankings.
a. True
b. False
4. Which of the following is true regarding graduation rates?
a. Since 1972, Hispanic students have had the highest graduation rates.
b. Since 1972, White students have had the highest graduation rates.
c. Since 1972, Black students have had the highest graduation rates.
d. Since 1972, Hispanic, White, and Black students have had equal graduation rates.
5. Bob is going to a private school. He is most likely attending a _____________ .
a. secular school
b. school for alternative students
c. religious or parochial school
d. home school
6.
The United States is no longer the world leader in student math and science achievement scores. According to the
text, what explains this decline in the nation’s standing?
a. Inequality within the education system
b. Poorly trained teachers
c. No Child Left Behind reform
d. Shorter school years
7. According to functionalists, education accomplishes all of the following, except:
a. socialization.
b. occupational training.
c. social control.
d. teacher expectancy.
8. According to _____, education supports the needs of a capitalist economy.
a. functionalists
b. conflict theorists
c. symbolic interactionists
d. feminists
9. Which of the following conclusions is accurate regarding social mobility and education?
a. Education is the strongest predictor of social mobility.
b. Education is unrelated to social mobility.
c. Education is related to social mobility for the majority of people.
d. Education is related to social mobility for those in the middle class only.
10. Since education became mandatory, education has
a. had no influence on inequalities in society.
b. increased inequality in society.
c. reduced many inequalities in society.
d. been the primary cause of inequality in society.
11. _____ tests are intended to measure what has actually been learned.
a. Achievement
b. Standardized
c. Predictive
d. Placement
12. Group differences in IQ tests and SAT scores are related to all of the following, except:
a. parental education.
b. childhood socialization.
c. social class status.
d. peer groups.
13. According to Herrnstein and Murray’s The Bell Curve,
a. the distribution of intelligence closely approximates a normal distribution.
b. the majority of intelligence is environmental.
c. family background has almost no influence in predicting intelligence.
d. genetics and environment play equal roles in determining intelligence.
14. Research on tracking has found all of the following, except
a. students in the lower tracks learn less because they are taught less.
b. even students with the same test scores are put into different tracks according to their race and social
class.
c. less is expected of lower track students and so their academic performance is lower.
d. detracking penalizes high achieving students.
15. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Brown v. Board of Education that
a. separate but equal was unconstitutional.
b. segregation within schools was legal.
c. racial segregation was illegal, but social class was legal.
d. resegregation is constitutional.
16. One of the major goals of No Child Left Behind was to
a. limit racial segregation in schools.
b. narrow the racial achievement gap.
c. increase funding to minority schools.
d. rewrite curricula to be more racially diverse.
17. Health care is a .
a. matter of science and an elaborate social structure
b. social system of behaviors and a for-profit only business
c. cultural reflection and a social structure
d. medical matter and a flawed enterprise
18. What has been the outcome of No Child Left Behind?
a. The racial achievement gap has narrowed.
b. The racial achievement gap has widened.
c. Test scores have improved for most students.
d. There has been no change in test scores.
19. Recently, obesity has become
a. a minimal problem.
b. defined as a public health problem.
c. an individual issue.
d. largely solved by social movements.
20. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classified obesity as
a. a minor problem
b. a modest problem
c. a sporadic problem
d. an epidemic
21. The impact on an individual’s social identity when they are devalued due to an identifiable characteristic is termed
_____.
a. disability
b. stigma
c. minority
d. accommodation
22. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers and schools to provide _____, such that those with
disabilities are not denied access to employment and education.
a. “rational aid”
b. “equitable assistance“
c. “practical help“
d. “reasonable accommodations“
23. Medicare provides all of the following, except:
a. medical insurance.
b. prescription drug plans.
c. hospital care.
d. elective survery.
24. Which of the following countries spends the highest proportion of their gross national product on health care?
a. Canada
b. Greece
c. Italy
d. United States
25. The health care crisis in the United States is largely a question of _____.
a. cost
b. quality
c. education
d. discrimination
26. The Affordable Health Care for America Act of 2010 does all of the following, except:
a. require all people to purchase a health insurance plan.
b. prohibit insurers from rejecting customers based on preexisting conditions.
c. provide free health coverage for all children under the age of 18.
d. require employers to provide health insurance for employees.
27. According to the text, which of the following would be considered a latent function of education?
a. Socialization
b. Occupational training
c. Social control
d. Credentialism
28. In the U.S., one’s SAT score may be used as a “proxy” measure of one’s social class. What does this mean?
a. The SAT score is a more realistic measure of social class than income or education.
b. SAT scores are the best predictors of how well a student will do in their career.
c. Family income is strongly correlated with scores on the SAT exam.
d. SAT scores are more related to race than income.
29. Which of the following is not a consistent outcome of SAT scores?
a. On average, women of any ethnic group score lower than men of that group on the quantitative portion of
the exam.
b. African Americans, Latinos, and American Indians score, on average, lower than Whites.
c. Asian Americans, as a group, have recently scored higher than Whites on the quantitative portion of the
exam.
d. Historically, racial minorities have scored higher than Whites.
30. Withinacertainrange,youcanguesssomeone’slikelySATscorefromknowingonly
a. the income and social class of his or her parents.
b. how well the child performed in grade school.
c. how well the child performed in high school.
d. thechild’sACTscore.
31. Standardized ability tests are intended to measure _____.
a. potential
b. skill
c. intelligence
d. performance
32. When the SAT was first introduced in the late 1940s, it was supposed to be an objective predictor of academic
ability. How well does the SAT predict future achievement?
a. Grade school grades are much better at predicting future performance than results of the SAT.
b. The SAT has proved to be a good predictor of future academic achievement.
c. Results of the SAT are a better reflection of class and social environment than academic ability.
d. The SAT, while not perfect, is much more accurate and objective than Grade school grades as a predictor of
future achievement.
33. When students take a standardized ability test administrators learn _____.
a. about their political and creativity
b. about their spatial ability
c. about their aptitude ability
d. about their athletic ability
34. The research that The Bell Curve by Herrnstein and Murray was based on is considered flawed by many because
a. the studies included only fraternal twins, not identical twins.
b. twins raised in similar social environments were more similar than those raised in very different social
environments.
c. the twins that were studied were too diverse in terms of sex and racial or ethnic background.
d. only White, middle-class twins were studied.
35. The field of ____________ studies these social dimensions of health and illness, the social organization of health
care institutions, and the inequality of access to quality health care.
a. therapeutic sociology
b. medical sociology
c. homoeopathic sociology
d. healing sociology
36. John has diabetes. The cost of treating it is _________ .
a. more expensive than preventing it
b. less expensive than preventing it
c. unrelated to preventing it
d. more profitable than preventing it
37. Breast cancer is most likely to afflict
a. African American women.
b. White women.
c. Latino women.
d. Asian women.
38. If the Joneses need palliative care such as hospice the current healthcare system ___________ .
a. does not cover it because of an emphasis on treatment
b. covers the cost
c. provides support from the medical community
d. none of the above
39. Which of the following is true about the Affordable Care Act?
a. It is designed to include doctors in care.
b. It is based on the idea that healthcare cannot be provided to everyone.
c. It provides support for the medical community.
d. It extends coverage to the uninsured.
40. Which of these is nota problem within the U.S. health care system, as discussed in the text?
a. Unequal distribution of health care by race/ethnicity, social class, or gender
b. Unequal distribution of health care by geographic region
c. Inadequate health education of inner-city and rural parents
d. Inadequate health care for the elderly
41. Increasing diversity in society creates new challenges for the health care system. The text notes that immigrants to
the U.S.
a. are generally treated better than native born Americans.
b. tend to feel most satisfied with their health care when their physician is White.
c. experience social distance from health care providers that makes them reluctant to seek care.
d. seek out medical professionals from their home countries.
42. Research on the relationship of social class to health care finds that
a. people with lower incomes do not generally rate their health as excellent.
b. those in lower social classes have rates of infant mortality and stillbirths roughly equal to those of upper-
class people.
c. lower income people are less likely to smoke than upper-class people.
d. those using Medicaid are healthier than those not using Medicaid.
43. Comparing the health status of high income people and lower income people demonstrates that
a. illness and disease are equally likely to strike anyone from any particular social class.
b. the effects of social class are less dramatic in the area of health than in other areas.
c. social circumstances have an effect on health.
d. poor people do not care about taking care of themselves.
44. According to the text, the U.S. currently spends about _____ of its gross domestic product on health care.
a. 5 percent
b. 10 percent
c. 18 percent
d. 20 percent
45. Education in the U.S. was made compulsory in _____.
a. 1778
b. 1860
c. 1900
d. 1920
46. In the past, state laws in the US prohibited education for _____ children.
a. female
b. young
c. disabled
d. minority
47. High school and college graduation rates are not the same for all racial-ethnic groups. In fact,
a. Blacks have the lowest graduation rates compared with Whites and Hispanics.
b. Hispanics have the lowest graduation rates, compared with Whites and Blacks.
c. Hispanics have graduation rates that are equal to those of Whites.
d. Blacks have graduation rates that are equal to those of Whites.
48. Jeff wants to home school his children. Statistically he _________________ .
a. is average in income and a minority
b. has an advanced college degree
c. has a low to median income and is white
d. is from a wealthy neighborhood
49. The four types of education in the U.S. are parochial, public, private and home schooling. How does home
schooling compare with other forms of education?
a. Ninety-five percent of the elementary aged children who were home schooled in 2000 were White.
b. Almost all home-schooled children are Catholic and Mormon.
c. Children who are home-schooled score lower on standardized subject tests than children from public
schools.
d. Lower income students tend to be home-schooled more than upper-income students.
50. A poor community in the U.S. wants to increase the life chances of its best students. It must contend mostly with
_____.
a. school curriculum
b. school funding
c. unresponsive teachers
d. socialization
51. _____ emphasizes that education unifies and stabilizes society.
a. Functionalist theory
b. Conflict theory
c. Symbolic interactionism
d. Feminist theory
52. According to functionalist theory, schools provide _____along with learning skills.
a. stratification
b. social control
c. labeling
d. equality
53. From a(n) _____ perspective unequal education is used to separate different groups and benefit those in the
middle and upper classes.
a. functionalist
b. conflict
c. symbolic interactionist
d. interpretivist
54. The perspective focuses on the process of how expectations are created as students and teachers interrelate.
a. functionalist
b. conflict
c. symbolic interactionist
d. postmodern
55. Which theoretical perspective is the concept of the teacher expectancy effect associated with?
a. Functionalism
b. Conflict theory
c. Symbolic interactionism
d. Feminist theory
56. A teacher believes that Latinos are poor at math. Interaction between a Latino student and the teacher has the
effect of encouraging the Latino student to fail. This phenomenon is called _____.
a. sorting
b. a latent function
c. the expectancy effect
d. tracking
57. The teacher expectancy effect occurs independently of a student’s actual ability. What explains this effect?
a. The concept of self-fulfilling prophecy
b. Teachers’ greater ability than testing to predict academic success
c. The type of students the teacher has
d. The economic environment of the school district
58. When expectations are converted into reality or actual performance, this is called _____.
a. reality tracking
b. performance prophecy
c. a self-fulfilling prophecy
d. predicted expectations
59. The process of labeling a student a “good student,“ the attention the teacher pays to that student, and the adjustment
of a student’s behavior to meet expectations is explained by _____theory.
a. functionalist
b. conflict
c. symbolic interactionist
d. feminist
60. Level of formal education achieved is strongly correlated with _____.
a. occupational status
b. income
c. wealth
d. life satisfaction
61. What is the relationship between formal education and occupational status?
a. There is none;many people are “self-taught“ and work their way up the corporate ladder.
b.
The higher one’s occupational status, the greater the likelihood that person has a great deal of formal education.
c. Many years of formal education virtually guarantees one will have a high prestige job.
d. Many high prestige jobs require little formal education.