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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. What term does Harper describe as "you crawl along the street and look for rocks. You look for rocks that other people spill. You crawl along your knees..."

2. What was the former purpose of the building that houses PS261?

3. What term does the principal at Camden High School give to the dividing up of the children based on their previous test results?

4. Why did the city of Chicago construct the high-speed Dan Ryan Expressway to go around certain parts of the city?

5. How long do some of the students at Morris High School think it will be before blacks and whites work together to better public education?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Hoe does Kozol describe Camden, New Jersey?

3. How does the court ultimately rule in the class-action suit filed in 1981 by parents of school children in East Orange, Camden, Irvington, and Jersey City? What is the reaction of wealthier tax payers?

4. How does Kozol describe the Anacostia neighborhood where Harper and her mother live?

5. 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?

6. Describe the Milliken v. Bradley case's appeal to Supreme Court.

7. What resources do the teachers at Pyne Point Junior High lack? How do the teachers improvise?

8. Why would the students at Woodrow Wilson High want to remain there rather than attending a school with better resources?

9. How do the suburban schools in New York compare to the urban schools in New York?

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

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

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.

Essay Topic 3

What are some of the difference that exist between urban schools and suburban schools in East Lawndale (Chapter 1, Life on the Mississippi) and North Lawndale (Chapter 2, Other People's Children)? Based on Kozol's account of the school systems, why do these differences exist? What are some ways that these differences can be eliminated? Please use specific examples from the book.

(see the answer keys)

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