Logical Reasoning

PT5 · S3 · Q14 School superintendent: It is a sad

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School superintendent: It is a sad fact that, until now, entry into the academically best high school in our district has been restricted to the children of people who were wealthy enough to pay the high tuition.

Conclusion

Parents who were previously denied the option of sending their children to the best high school now have this option.

Evidence (since)

The high school previously required high tuition, which limited entry to children of wealthy parents. The requirement has now changed to only allow students who live in the neighborhood of the school.

Evaluate

The superintendent assumes that by replacing a tuition barrier with a neighborhood residency barrier, more parents who could not afford the tuition will now have access to the school.

Essentially, the claim is that the neighborhood residency requirement will create greater access for families that aren't wealthy, compared to what the high tuition requirement allowed.

For this to work, we need to assume that living in the neighborhood isn't just another filter for wealthy families. Otherwise, it could be that the people who live near the school are still only those who previously could afford the tuition.

We're looking for whether the superintendent is assuming that the neighborhood residency requirement includes parents who couldn’t afford the tuition, which would indicate increased access.

Goal

Look for an answer dealing with this Assumed Difference, that a neighborhood requirement is more likely to result in economic diversity than the old tuition requirement. Or an answer that, if negated, would give us a way to show that this Plan (neighborhood requirement) would not achieve its Goal (enabling parents who were previously denied to now be able to send their kids to this school).

14.

The superintendent’s claim about the effect of replacing the tuition requirement relies on the assumption that

  1. the residents of the school’s

    Opposite (if anything)

    This answer basically weakens the argument, and an author is never needing to assume something that weakens her argument. We need to assume that residents of the neighborhood are of mixed economic backgrounds and would include non-wealthy parents who were previously denied going to this school because of its high tuition requirement.

    2% picked this

  2. Correct

    people other than those wealthy

    Why this is right

    This gets at the difference the author's plan is assuming. She thinks that if we switch from tuition requirement to neighborhood requirement, it will enable some previously denied parents to get their kids into this school. In order for that to be true, we need to know that some of the residents of the neighborhood are parents who were not wealthy enough to meet the old tuition requirement. If negated, it would say "only people wealthy enough to pay the old tuition are living in this neighborhood", which would weaken because it would mean that even under the new plan, we are still restricting access to the wealthy.

    Skill tested: Necessary Assumption · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    81% picked this

  3. people less wealthy than those

    Too Strong/Specific: in the majority

    It doesn't matter whether most of the district could or couldn't afford the old tuition. Either way the plan could make sense. The author just has to assume that by switching from a tuition requirement to a neighborhood requirement means that at least one local household that couldn't afford the tuition will now be able to send their kid to this school.

    9% picked this

  4. there are no high schools

    Out of Scope

    Out of Scope: other schools Too Strong: no This plan is only about this school. It doesn't matter whether there are / aren't other schools in the district.

    0% picked this

  5. there are many people not

    Irrelevant Quality: desire to attend

    (E) speaks to the desire of families to attend the school, which doesn't affect whether or not they actually can under the new requirement. The conclusion isn't saying parents WILL send their kids to this school, just that there will be some parents who previously COULDN'T send their kids to this school and now CAN.

    7% picked this

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