Liberal Ideology: Meritocracy Reexamined
The Political-Economic Context
Gender&Socioeconomic Class
Education: Ethnicity, Gender, and Class
Miscellaneous
100
During the winter of 1966-1977, the Carnegie foundation sponsored a seminar at Harvard University to examine the implications of the Coleman Report. What two books were conceived during the seminar?
On Equality of Educational Opportunity, edited by Daniel P. Moynihan and Frederick Mosteller, and Inequality, by Christopher Jencks and his associates.
100
Income differences are very real for who? What do these differences lead to?
Racial and ethnic groups, and these differences lead to different life chances for children in different groups.
100
True or False: Women with a graduate degree make less than men who only graduated from college.
True
100
Different outcomes can be expected for different students based on what two varying things?
Inherited talents and dispositions
100
List three examples that would be in the category of “learning disabled”.
Speech impaired, mentally “retarded”, and emotionally disturbed.
200
The 1960s debate appeared to confirm the fairness of America’s meritocratic economic structure. If some children succeeded in school while others failed, what was believed?
The fairness of the system ensured that children succeeded due to their own individual rights.
200
What do social scientists examine to gain a more detailed picture of how wealth and power are distributed in society?
Income, educational level, childhood mortality, teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, home ownership, capital stock, and other social indices.
200
Although problems of poverty persist, what has improved considerably?
Educational levels
200
What are two acts or events in United States history that were fueled by discrimination against Asians?
The Chinese Exclusion Act of the 1880’s and the imprisonment of Japanese American citizens during World War II.
200
Who is the fastest-growing minority group today?
Asian and Pacific Americans
300
To fulfill one of the provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the U.S. Office of Education commissioned James Coleman to conduct a survey concerning what?
”the lack of availability of equal educational opportunity for individuals by reason of race, color, religion, or national origin.”
300
What is one reason we continue to use the terms race and ethnicity and emphasize differences among us?
People in the United States are deeply affected- privileged, damaged, even killed- according to their perceived membership in one racial or ethnic group or another.
300
In 1993, the United States passed the Family Medical Leave Act, what did this do?
Partly closed the gap with other nations by providing workers with up to 12 weeks of paid leave for specified family medical emergencies.
300
What is LEP and what does it help?
Limited English Proficiency refers to a level of listening/speaking and reading/writing in English that is not at or near native-level proficiency. The largest group of LEP in the United States is for Spanish speaking people.
300
Why does the United States have the highest infant mortality rate?
Due significantly to the effects of racism and poverty on African Americans.
400
According to Jencks and his colleagues work, what had little or no predictive value on future economic success?
Family background, schooling, IQ, and cognitive skills.
400
What two things have different consequences for different groups?
A group’s cultural practices, together with how groups are differently perceived by people who hire and fire in the workplace.
400
What is the simplest way to designate class?
By income bracket
400
What did Congress pass into law in 1975, and what did it do?
In 1975 Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA). This was made for children with varying handicaps to be assured the same educational rights and privileges to their non-handicapped peers. EHA also transformed the special education practice across the nation by holding all states to the same standards.
400
What different ways are boys and girls encouraged to act in early education?
Boys are encouraged to be aggressive, assertive, and independent. Girls were encouraged to be timid, cooperative, and quiet. Preschool classroom research shows that girls receive less instructional time, less affection, and less teacher attention than boys.
500
Henry M. Levin’s review of Jencks and colleagues work points out many of its major flaws. What did Levin note?
That the author’s conclusion that family background has little effect on future income, especially for the rich and poor, defies the results of many studies of intergenerational mobility which show that the effect of family is quite significant.
500
_______ is not a purely biological term, while _______ has strong base in social science.
Race, Ethnicity
500
Explain the difference between Marx-Engels notion of class and W. Lloyd Warner’s.
The Marx-Engel notion of class was based on division of people into two classes according to their different places in the production of goods: either owning the means of production or working for those owners. The SES version is based more on the idea of people as consumers of goods, defined by their incomes, their purchases, and their ability to buy such social goods as education.
500
What are the positive and negative outcomes of labeling a child into special education?
With extra funding tied to the identification of students as disabled, the program might grow because well-meaning educators may label other students, too. With a separate learning disabled identification in a school, the performance scores would not be averaged into those of the school district. However, the rise of these standards might also make schools “refer difficult children to special education” in hopes of scores becoming higher. Also, once the student is labeled as “learning disabled” they rarely return to the mainstream of school life again.
500
Until American society begins to believe that all persons are equal and treats everyone as an individual rather than typing people according to group membership, we will continue to experience problems of what?
Equal Educational Opportunity
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