1. Politics of Education (Ch.2)
1.1. 4 Roles of Education: #1- Intellectual purpose: To teach basic cognitive skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics; #2-Political purpose: To prepare citizens who will participate in political order #3-Social purpose: To socialize children into the various roles, behaviors, and values of society. #4-Economic purpose:To prepare students for their later occupational roles.
1.1.1. The Role of school: (Conservative perspective)- Role of school is providing the necessary educational training to ensure that the most talented and hard-working individuals receive the tools necessary to maximize economic and social productivity. Explanations of Unequal Educational Performance: (Liberal perspective)- Individual students or groups of students being school with different life chances and therefore some groups of students have significantly more advantages than others. Definition of Educational problems: (Radical perspective)- Educational system has failed the poor, minorities and women through classist, racist, sexist, and homophobic policies. The schools have stifled critical understanding of problems of American society. The traditional curriculum leaves out the cultures, histories, and voices of the oppressed, while being classist, sexist, racist, and homophobic. In general, the educational system promotes inequality of both opportunity and results.
2. Curriculum and Pedagogy (Ch.7)
2.1. HUMANIST CURRICULUM THEORY: Focuses on Western heritage as the basic intellectual development. This curriculum dominated in nineteenth-century in U.S. education. DOMINANT TRADITIONS OF TEACHING: (1)Behaviorist Approach: To be well-behaved obedient citizens and workers.(2) Constructivist: to be independent thinkers, developing cognitively over time as individuals that question and make their own meaning of things
3. Equality of Opportunity (Ch.8)
3.1. ***Class: Students from higher classes(middle and upper) are more likely to succeed in school and go onto graduate. While students from lower classes(working and under) are more likely to drop out. The higher the class children are typical thought of as better. ***Race: Drop out rates for white student is 5.2%, Black students is 7.4%, and Hispanic is 17.6%. At 17 years old 87% of white students read at intermediate level, black student are at 70%, and Hispanics 74%. These results result in lower stat scores for Blacks and Hispanics than White students. ***Gender: Women are more likely to go further in school rather than dropping out. Females are typically better students, but usually males make higher in Math than females. Coleman responses: (1) What Coleman saw as significant, others saw as nearly insignificant. The difference that do exist between public and Catholic schools are significant, but in terms of difference of learning. (2) Argued that school segregation based on race and socioeconomic status and within-school interactions are the main reason for gaps in student achievement.
4. Educational Inequality (Ch.9)
4.1. Cultural Difference Theories: (1) Black children do less well in school because they adapt to their oppressed position in the class and caste structure. Ogbu argued that there is a "job-ceiling" for blacks in the United States, as there is for similar cast-like minorities in other countries. (2)Working class and nonwhite students as resisting the dominant culture of the schools from this point of view, these students reject the white middle-class culture of academic success and embrace a different, often anti-school culture. School-centered explanations for Educational Inequality: (1) School Financing- Public schools are mostly financed through state and local taxes, local property taxes are a significant source. When a lot of properties have lower taxes, those school will get less money. (2) Effective School Research- Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds do poorly simply because they attend inferior schools. (3) Curriculum- Schools in high income class area are more likely to set their students up to go far, where as lower income area not so much. (4) Ability grouping- Different groups of students in the school same schools perform very differently suggest that there may be school characteristics affecting these outcomes.
5. Educational Reform (Ch.10)
5.1. *Privatization*: Private Education companies increasingly became involved involved in public education. Such as the Edison Company, they took over management of failing schools. *Teacher Education*: Teachers were blamed for the failing of schools. If the schools were not working properly , then teachers and teaching had to be looked at critically. **State policy makers are always looking for ways to reward school systems and distracts that preform well and ways to sanction those who don't. **By fostering a negative image of school board members, administration, teachers, students, and parents and urban districts, take over tends to undermine their self-esteem and capacity to improve their performance.
6. History of U.S. Education (Ch.3)
6.1. Reform Movement: Common-school movement- Horace Mann led this movement, it advocated for local property taxes financing public schools(free publicly funded elementary schools).
6.1.1. Historical Interpretations: Democratic-Liberal- Often lean towards public school systems, because they believe it is the best way to educate the general public
7. Sociological Perspectives (Ch.4)
7.1. ***Functionalist Theories: Focuses on the ways that universal education serves the needs of society. ***Conflict Theories: Sees the purpose of education as maintaining social inequality and preserving the power of those who dominate society. ***Interactionist Theories: Their analysis comes from derictly what they observe in the classroom, like performance, perceptions, and attitudes.
7.1.1. 5 Effects of School:*(1)* Knowledge & Attitudes: The higher the social class background of the student, the higher his or her achievement.*(2)* Education & Mobility: The number of years of education is one measure of educational attainment, but where people go to school also affects their mobility. Private school diploma may act as a "mobility escalator" due to it standing for more prestigious education. *(3)* Teacher Behavior: Teachers have the largest role in a students education. A study proved that the labels teachers give students can directly influence actual performance.*(4)* Student Peer Groups & Alienation: The "groups" student fall into (nerds, popular, athletes, bad, cool, band people, etc.) can lead to violence. The students head towards low-status jobs are more likely to act rebellious (fights with peers, attacking teachers, etc).*(5)* Tracking: The placement of students in curricular programs based on students' abilities and inclinations.