Study Questions for Fall Quarter Exam.
(Date of Exam: Dec. 10, 11am - 1pm; Place: seminar rooms)
Essay questions:
What were the critical factors that caused the promise of the 1950s public
housing projects to collapse into the violence of the late 1980s as described
by Kotlowitz? Is there evidence in any other of our readings to support
or modify this view?
In her article “Poverty Knowledge,” O’Connor outlines
at least four explanations for urban poverty, especially among African Americans.
Please compare and contrast three of these explanations, and explain which
ones are supported or disputed by other authors we have read.
Authors in the Notion at Risk suggest a variety of reforms for improving
public education. Describe and assess at least four of these suggested reforms,
drawing on other class readings to support your view of how necessary or
possible they are.
What would Magnet say to Snow and Anderson about their study? What would
Snow and Anderson say to Magnet’s theories about the cultural causes
of poverty?
Describe how Bell, Magnet, Conley, and Shipler might interpret some of the
events in Kotlowitz or “Hoop Dreams.”
If you had the chance to brief our state legislature on issue of how to
understand the causes and consequences of poverty, what are the main points
you would make and the evidence you would use to back it up?
Ids (Who, What, When, Where, and equally important, Why Significant?)
No Child Left Behind
The “normalizing gaze”
An etic vs. emic perspective
The “strength of weak ties”
The dark figure
Simpson’s Paradox
Interest convergence theory
Earned Income Tax Credit
Family “caps”
Affirmative Action
The Bakke case
Serrano vs. Priest
A spurious association
The “Reagan Revolution”
John Locke
Racial fortuity
