Tollefson's Immigration Study

Answer choices

1. A

   Out of Scope: adequate job training19% picked this

   Although the programs offer adequate job training, they offer inadequate

   Tollefson is not happy with the job training. He thinks that it overemphasizes the goal of getting the immigrants immediately employed (so it just trains them to get the lowest-level jobs ... ones that you don't even need to know English to do). He wants the programs to improve job training (even if it means publicly assisting the immigrants in the short term) so that it sets the immigrants up for a more prosperous long-term.

   19%
2. B

   Correct70% picked this

   Some of the programs’ attempts to improve the earning power of the immigrants cut them off from

   Why this is right

   The most attractive reason to stop and consider this answer choice is its soft, provable wording: some Would Tollefson think that in at least one case, an educational program did something ostensibly to improve the earning power of the immigrants but it's really cutting them off from potential sources of income? Yes! He thinks that educational programs are not bothering to teach the immigrants English or train them to apply to "career-level" jobs. Instead, the programs are determined to get these immigrants employed as soon as possible, so they train them "almost exclusively for low-level jobs that do not require English proficiency". We could also support this from the 2nd paragraph where it says that educators try to "instill in the immigrants the traditionally Western principles of self-sufficiency and individual success". The educators are probably doing so to improve the earning power of the immigrants. But, Tollefson says, " these efforts ... sometimes isolate [the immigrants] from the moral support and even from business opportunities afforded by the immigrant community". That's a strong match for cutting them off from potential sources of income.

   Skill tested: Non-Author Opinion · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

   70%
3. C

   Out of Scope3% picked this

   Inclusion of the history of immigration in the United States in the programs’ curricula facilitates

   Out of Scope: history of US immigration The passage never talks about the "history of immigration in the US", so we have no idea what Tollefson would say about this. The 3rd paragraph mentions that Tollefson's book discusses a concise history of the assimilationist movement in immigration education, which is something way more specific than "history of immigration in the US". This history is in Tollefson's book, not in immigrant educational programs.

   3%
4. D

   Out of Scope: teacher-training curricula3% picked this

   Immigrants would benefit if instructors in the programs were better prepared to teach the curricula developed

   Teacher-training courses are almost never mentioned in the passage. The end of the 1st paragraph briefly lists "visits to a teacher-training unit" among the sources Tollefson used for his book, and that's it. We never hear about any curricula developed there, nor do we hear Tollefson complain about instructors being under-prepared to teach such curricula.

   3%
5. E

   Opposite6% picked this

   The programs’ curricula should be redesigned to include greater emphasis on the shared values, beliefs, and practices

   Tollefson was complaining that the current version of these educational programs places too much emphasis on making immigrants assimilate the values/attitude/behaviors of the U.S., while encouraging them to shed some of their old traditions and identity. Tollefson would want less emphasis placed on teaching U.S. values, beliefs, and practices.

   6%