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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does the school administrator at Morris High School in the South Bronx encourage the supposedly slow children to express themselves?

2. What does John Coons of the University of California, Berkeley say all children technically are?

3. What is the dropout rate for Woodrow Wilson High School?

4. Why does one of the psychiatrists that Kozol speaks to believe many whites think more money will not help inner city schools?

5. According to Kozol, students in what racial group are more often categorized as retarded?

Short Essay Questions

1. How are test scores in math and reading determined? How do the determination of these scores affect children in poor schools?

2. How does the judge respond to the class-action suit filed by the parent's of Raymond Abbot?

3. How does Kozol describe the D.C. school system?

4. Why does Kozol think that inner city problems would not be totally solved by better schools?

5. Who is Joe Clark? What role did he play in the New Jersey public school system?

6. How does Kozol describe the situation at Asbury Park and Irvington?

7. Name three specific examples of overcrowding in New Jersey public schools.

8. What three Supreme Court justices wrote dissents for the Milliken v. Bradley case? Why did each dissent?

9. Hoe does Kozol describe Camden, New Jersey?

10. Where does Delabian Rice-Thurston say the rich and middle class in Washington, D.C. try to send their children to school? Why don't the poor parents send their children to the same schools?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why is it hard for urban public schools to retain young teachers? Where do the young teachers end up teaching? What changes should the school system to make in order to recruit and retain young teachers? Because the urban school system has many aging teachers, what future issues may arise as the teachers start to near retirement age? Please use specific examples from the book.

Essay Topic 2

Kozol has his class read Langston Hughes poem, A Dream Deferred. Based on Kozol's interviews, how does this poem apply to the lives of the children Kozol visits in the urban public school systems? Why would their dreams be deferred? What happens to those students whose dreams are deferred? Please use specific examples from the book.

Essay Topic 3

In the book's forward entitled, Looking Backward: 1964-1991, Kozol describes his teaching experience as an innovative teacher at an urban Boston public school. In later chapters, Kozol describes how other teachers try to be innovative despite their lack of resources. Give three detailed examples from the book Savage Inequalities of how teachers in the urban school districts Kozol visits are innovative with limited resources. How are these teachers innovative? Where do they find the resources to continue to be innovative? Please use specific examples from the book.

(see the answer keys)

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