Question

Many of the poorest performing schools in the country are also located in some of the most economically disadvantaged areas.

It's pretty safe to say that poor performance in school is caused by poverty. Government funding for education should be distributed
in such a way that poorer school districts get more money than the districts where parents earn higher incomes.

How is this passage an example of faulty cause and effect reasoning?
A. It implies that students at poor schools are not as intelligent as other students.

B. It assumes that poverty alone is the cause of poor school performance.

C. It reasons that schools in impoverished areas should receive more funding.

D. It suggests that children whose parents make more money should suffer.

Answer 1

Answer: B. It assumes that poverty alone is the cause of poor school performance.

Step-by-step explanation:

The passage states that poor performance in schools is cased by poverty. This is faulty because it is solely ascribing poor performance to poverty when in fact there could be other factors that are contributing to the poor performance.

The passage therefore oversimplifies the problem and draws a conclusion from a faulty cause assumption as a result. If the writer did not want to do the appropriate research, they could have used simpler wording such as ''poverty contributes to poor school performance'' which would imply that other factors are involved.