Which of the following is one important reason for lower academic achievement in the United States relative to other countries?
a. Because of the size of our population, we simply cannot afford to spend as much on education as can smaller countries such as Japan and Germany.
b. Historically, one of the aims of U.S. public education has been to establish educational equity, which sometimes conflicts with producing an educated elite that would compare more favorably with other countries.
c. Students in the United States simply are not capable of performing at the levels attained by those in other industrialized countries.
d. We are not as apt to use standardized tests in this country as are other countries, so our students do not perform as well on them.
[Ques. 2] Which of the following aspects of education appears to be most consistent among countries?
a. academic achievement levels
b. instructional methods
c. expenditures on education
d. types of students who attend school (for example, age, gender, class)
[Ques. 3] Kevin, a high-school math teacher, claims that the U.S. educational system is performing better than has been portrayed in international studies. Which of the following arguments that he makes to support his position is not accurate?
a. The studies show that U.S. performance rates are now increasing rapidly and that in the last few years, we have raised our per-pupil expenditures to a level higher than those of all other industrialized nations.
b. Higher performance in math in other countries may be due more to family and cultural factors than to educational systems and practices.
c. Achievement in U.S. schools has improved during the past few decades, along with a growing enrollment of students from low-income families.
d. The performance of high-achieving students in the United States is similar to that of high performers in other nations.
[Ques. 4] Based on an analysis of IEA, PISA, and TIMMS findings, which of the following might be the best approach to raising mathematics performance levels in the United States?
a. reduce class size
b. increase the amount of math homework
c. reduce curriculum differentiation
d. reduce tell and show teaching approaches
[Ques. 5] Which of the following statements is not true of one of the first major studies of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement?
a. Results show that there is remarkable sameness in achievement levels across nations.
b. Results show that there is a wide range of achievement levels across nations.
c. The United States ranked near the middle of the nations studied.
d. The areas for which achievement was studied are civic education, foreign languages, literature, reading comprehension, and science.
[Ques. 6] In which country do more than half of elementary and secondary students attend private schools?
a. The United States
b. Cuba
c. North Korea
d. The Netherlands
[Ques. 7] In the United States, what proportion of people aged twenty-five to thirty-four has attained postsecondary education?
a. nearly 40 percent
b. approximately 25 percent
c. slightly more than 50 percent
d. less than 25 percent
[Ques. 8] In the United States today, the rate of young people attending and completing higher education
a. surpasses any other nation in the world.
b. has fallen below most other industrialized nations.
c. is greater for males than for females.
d. is now surpassed by several other nations.
[Ques. 9] Which of the following is not true of the bipartite system?
a. It is a modern-day version of the traditional European dual-track system.
b. It separates students into vocational and academic tracks beginning with their first year in school.
c. The academic track is designed for college preparation.
d. It separates students into different tracks after several initial years of common schooling.
[Ques. 10] Which of the following countries has the most decentralized approach to educational organization?
a. France
b. Japan
c. Greece
d. The United States
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