1. Educational Reform
1.1. School Based Reforms: School-Business Partnerships- have attracted considerable media attention but there is little convincing evidence that they have significantly improved schools or a means of reform. Some of these partnerships include scholarships for students who cant afford to go to college.
1.1.1. Privatization: traditional distinction between public and private education became blurred, with private education companies increasingly becoming involved in public education in a variety of ways. Profit companies would take over the management of failing schoolings.
1.1.1.1. Economic reform: has the potential to improve schools for low income and minority students especially in urban areas, by themselves they are limited in reducing the achievement gaps.
1.1.1.1.1. Community reforms: designed to target and improve at-risk neighborhoods, full service schools aim to prevent problems as well as to support them. The provide multiple services such as health clinics, mental health services, drug and alcohol abuse, as well as many others.
2. Educational Inequality
2.1. Cultural differences theory: African-American children do less well in school because they adapt to their oppressed position in the class and caste structure. John Ogbu argued that there is a "job ceiling" for African-Americans in the United States.
2.1.1. Working-class and nonwhite students resisting the dominant culture of schools: This theory suggest these students reject the white middle-class culture of academic success and embrace a different, often anti-school culture- one that is opposed to the culture of schooling already exists.
2.1.1.1. School-Centered Explanations: School Financing- Inequalities in school financing exist through a combination of revenues. Public schools are financed through local, state, and federal sources where the majority comes from local and state taxes with property taxes being a significant source. Therefore, poorer communities can be at a disadvantage with school funding.
2.1.1.1.1. Effective school research: differences in school resources and quality do not adequately explain between-school differences in academic achievement was viewed by teachers as a mixed blessing. If student differences are more important than school differences, than teachers can't be blamed for lower academic performances.
3. Equality of Opportunity
3.1. Class impact on educational outcomes: The impact class has on educational outcome varies in many ways. The longer a student stays in school the more financial help the student will need in order to finish school. Studies show that teachers tend to think more highly of students in middle-class and upper-class rather than those in the working and lower class. Children from lower-classes are more likely to, underachieve, drop out, and resist the curriculum of the school.
3.1.1. Race impact on educational outcomes: Among 16-24 year-olds, 5.2% of white students are likely to drop out. Whereas 9.3% of African-American students and 17.6% of Hispanic-American students are likely to drop out.
3.1.1.1. Gender impact on educational outcomes: Today, females are less likely to drop out than males, and are more likely to have a higher level of reading proficiency than males. The same is true for writing. Males outperform females in mathematics and generally score higher on the SAT than females.
3.1.1.1.1. Coleman responses: Coleman and his associates found that when they compared average test scores of public school and private school sophomores. No public school student scored higher than a private school student in any curriculum test. Their argument was that differences among schools made a difference.
4. Curriculum and Pedagogy
4.1. Developmentalist Curriculum: I advocate this curriculum because it is more centered around the students needs rather than the curriculum's needs. This curriculum is flexible with both what is taught and how it is taught, with the interest in the development of each students individual capacities. Also, allows the teacher to be a facilitator in student growth, rather than transmitter of knowledge.
4.1.1. Dominant Traditions of Teaching: humanist curriculum dominated because it recommended that all secondary students, regardless if they intended on attending college, should be liberally educated and should study English, foreign languages, mathematics, history, and science.
4.1.1.1. Dominant Traditions of Teaching: social efficiency curriculum dominated because, it focused on standardized testing which would place students into ability groups and/or curriculum tracks. This curriculum focused on each students educational needs rather than placing them all in the same academic curriculum.
5. Schools as Organizations
5.1. Stakeholders in Cullman County School District: Alabama Senators- Doug Jones (D), Richard Shelby (R). House of Represenative- Robert Aderholt (R).
5.1.1. State Senator- Paul Bussman (R), House of Represenatives- Corey Harbison (R), Randall Shedd (R), Ed Henry (R).
5.1.1.1. Alabama State Superintendent: Michael Sentance. Represenative on state school board- Mary Scott Hunter.
5.1.1.1.1. Cullman County Superintendent: Shane Barnette. Members of School Board- Heath Allbright, Kenny Brockman, Chris Carter, Mike Graves, Wayne Myrex, Jason Speegle, Gene Sullins.
6. Philosophy of Education
6.1. Pragmatism: Generally viewed as an American philosophy that developed in the latter part of the 19th Century. John Dewey's form of pragmatism was instrumentalism and experimentalism. Earned the term "progressive education". A pragmatic schema looks like: problem- speculative thought- action- results.
6.1.1. Generic Notions: Dewey believed that the school should reflect the community in order to enable graduating students to assume societal roles and maintain the democratic way of life.
6.1.1.1. Key Researchers: John Dewey (1859-1952), George Sanders Peirce (1839-1914), William James (1842-1910). Others included: Frances Bacon, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
6.1.1.1.1. Goal of Education: Primary goal of education is growth. Dewey believed that growth should lead to more growth.
7. Sociological Perspectives
7.1. Functionalism: Sociologist believe that in well functioning schools socialize students into the appropriate values and place students according to their abilities.
7.1.1. Conflict Theory: In this view sociologist believe that school is like a social battlefield where students are against teachers and teachers are against students.
7.1.1.1. Interactional Theory: primarily critiques and extensions the functional and conflict perspectives. Helps understand eduction in the "big picture" and what schools are like on a day to day basis.
7.1.1.1.1. 5 effects of schooling: Employment- Graduation college leads to greater employment opportunity. In 2011,Research shows that students with a college degree earned, on average, $52, 976; whereas high school graduates, on average, earned $32,552 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2003a).
8. History of U.S. Education
8.1. The emergence of Public High School, to me, has the most influence on education. Prior to public high school, only a small percentage of people were receiving a secondary education. Those who could afford to attend private academies or college.
8.1.1. The emergence of public high school has enabled more people to further their education and enhance their learning skills in areas such as math, english literature and sciences.
8.1.1.1. In 1983 the federal government published a report of the status of American education. Labeling it "A Nation at Risk" and "rising tide of mediocrity" that threatened the nation's future.
8.1.1.1.1. After this reform America made drastic changes and improvements in the U.S. Education which involved federal, state, and local initiatives to improve educational programs and governance.
9. Politics & Education
9.1. Intellectual Purposes: teach basic cognitive skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics; to help students acquire higher-order thinking skills such as analysis, evaluation, and synthesis.
9.1.1. Political Purposes: inculcate allegiance to the exsisting political order (patriotism); to prepare citizens who will participate in this political order; to help assimilate diverse cultural groups into a common political order; and to teach children the basic laws of society.
9.1.1.1. Social Purposes: to help solve social problems; to work as one of many institutions, such as family, and the church to ensure social cohesion; and to socialize children into the various roles, behaviors and values of the society. This process, referred to by sociologists as socialization, is the key ingredient to the stability of any society.
9.2. The role of the school is directly concerned withe the aims, purposes, and functions of education in a society.
9.2.1. Explanations of Unequal Educational Performance: groups related to lower socioeconomic backgrounds tend to perform less well in school.
9.2.1.1. Conservatives argue that individuals or groups of students rise and fall from their own intelligence, hard work, and initiative. The liberal perspective argues that individual students or groups of students begin school with different life chances and some groups have more advantages than others.
9.2.1.1.1. Definition of Educational Problems: liberals demand for greater equality; conservatives refer to this as the decline of standards. liberals argue the school's weaken the ability to pass on the heritage of American and Western civilizations to children; conservatives define this as the decline of cultural literacy.