CCAP History 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Head Start, originally launched in the summer of 1965 as a short-term experiment, was administered under which federal structure?
- Department of Health, Education, and Welfare directly
- Office of Economic Opportunity as part of the War on Poverty (Correct answer)
- Department of Labor's employment training division
- Department of Housing and Urban Development
Correct answer: Office of Economic Opportunity as part of the War on Poverty
Head Start began as an OEO program in summer 1965 before later being transferred to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
Question 2: The CSBG Act of 1981 included a mandatory tripartite board structure for CAAs. The three sectors represented are:
- Federal, state, and local government representatives
- Low-income community members, elected officials, and private sector/civic groups (Correct answer)
- Healthcare, education, and housing service providers
- Staff, volunteers, and donor organizations
Correct answer: Low-income community members, elected officials, and private sector/civic groups
The tripartite board requires one-third representation each from low-income community members, public officials, and private sector/civic organizations.
Question 3: Which legislative act passed in 1994 reauthorized CSBG and formally codified many community action standards and organizational requirements?
- Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act
- CSBG Reauthorization Act of 1994
- Coats Human Services Reauthorization Act (Correct answer)
- Workforce Investment Act
Correct answer: Coats Human Services Reauthorization Act
The Coats Human Services Reauthorization Act of 1994 reauthorized CSBG and strengthened accountability and organizational standards for CAAs.
Question 4: The concept of 'interlocking causes of poverty' that CAAs address stems from which foundational War on Poverty principle?
- Trickle-down economics theory
- The 'Cycle of Poverty' framework identifying multiple reinforcing barriers (Correct answer)
- Supply-side job creation as the sole anti-poverty strategy
- Individual moral failure as the root cause of economic hardship
Correct answer: The 'Cycle of Poverty' framework identifying multiple reinforcing barriers
The cycle of poverty framework recognized that housing, healthcare, education, employment, and other barriers reinforce each other, requiring comprehensive community action.
Question 5: ROMA (Results Oriented Management and Accountability) was developed for the CAA network primarily during which decade?
- 1970s
- 1980s
- 1990s (Correct answer)
- 2010s
Correct answer: 1990s
ROMA was developed in the 1990s as a performance management system to help CAAs demonstrate outcomes and accountability to funders.
Question 6: The War on Poverty programs of the 1960s were influenced by which social science research that documented poverty's persistence despite economic growth?
- Milton Friedman's 'Capitalism and Freedom' (1962)
- Michael Harrington's 'The Other America' (1962) (Correct answer)
- John Kenneth Galbraith's 'The Affluent Society' (1958) alone
- Daniel Patrick Moynihan's 'The Negro Family' (1965)
Correct answer: Michael Harrington's 'The Other America' (1962)
Michael Harrington's 'The Other America' documented widespread 'invisible poverty' and directly influenced the Kennedy and Johnson administrations' anti-poverty strategy.
Question 7: In the historical development of community action, 'categorical grants' used before CSBG differed from block grants in that they:
- Provided larger total sums of federal money to states
- Required funds to be spent on specific defined program activities (Correct answer)
- Gave local agencies complete discretion over spending
- Were distributed by lottery among eligible organizations
Correct answer: Required funds to be spent on specific defined program activities
Categorical grants designated funds for specific purposes (e.g., job training, energy assistance), while block grants give recipients broader spending discretion.
CCAP History 3
Head Start, originally launched in the summer of 1965 as a short-term experiment, was administered under which federal structure?