1. Equality of Opportunity Chapter 8
1.1. Class: Students in different social classes have different kinds of educational experiences. For example; with education being extremely expensive students are usually going to have to have help from their parents. This is easier for the upper or middle class. From a cultural point of view, schools represent the values of upper and middle class.
1.1.1. Race: Sadly, U.S. society is still stratified by race. An individual's race may have an impact on how much education he or she is likely to achieve. 5.2% of white students drop out of school, 9.3% of African-Americans, and 17.6% of hispanic-americas are likely to drop out of school. Minorities do not receive the same educational opportunities as whites, and their rewards for educational attainment are significantly less.
1.1.1.1. Gender: Women are often rated as being better students than men, in the past they were less likely to attain the same level of education. Females are less likely to drop out of schools than males. In the last 20 years, gender differences between men and women in terms of educational attainment have been reduced.
1.1.1.1.1. 1982 Responses: Coleman and his colleagues argued that private schools were more effective in learning environments than public schools because they place more emphasis on academic activities and because private schools enforce discipline in a way that is consistent with student achievement.
2. Educational Reform Chapter 10
2.1. School Based Reforms: During the 1980s and 1990s, many educational researchers and policy analysts indicated that most public schools were failing in the term of student achievement, discipline, and mortality. At the same period, some researchers were investigating private schools and concluding that they were more effective in learning environments than public schools. - There is evidence that school choice can lead to improvement in individual schools, but there is little convincing evidence that choice will result in the overall improvement of U.S. education.
2.1.1. School to Work Programs: In the 1990s, school-business partnerships became incorporated into school-to-work programs. Their intent was to extend what had been vocational emphasis to non-college-bound students regarding skills necessary for successful employment and to stress the importance of work-based learning.
2.1.1.1. Harlem Children's Zone: Geoffrey Canada grew up in South-Bronx and was not prepared for the academic and social challenges he had when we went to college in Maine. In result to that he wanted to make sure that other African-Americans were prepared. The Harlem Children's Zone changed lives for young people.
2.1.1.1.1. School Finance Reforms: In 1990 the court ruled that more funding was needed to serve the children in the poorer school districts. Although all of these educational reforms have demonstrated the potential to improve schools for low-income and minority children, especially in urban areas , by themselves they are limited in reducing the achievement gaps unless they also address the factors outside of schools responsible for educational inequalities.
3. Sociological Perspectives Chapter 4
3.1. Sociology of Education:
3.1.1. Functional sociologists begin with a picture of society that stresses the interdependence of the social system; these researchers often examine how well the parts are integrated with each other.
3.1.1.1. Conflict theories: Sociologists argue that the social order is not based on some collective agreement, but on the ability of dominant groups to impose their will on subordinate groups through force, co-optation, and manipulation.
3.2. Employment: a lot of students believe that graduating from college will lead to greater employment opportunities... In 1986, about 54 percent of the 8 million college graduates in the US entered professional and technical jobs.
3.2.1. Inside the schools: Since most people are apt to think about learning and growth from a psychological perspective - student structures can also influence student outcomes. Smaller schools may allow more student and teacher freedom but smaller schools often lack resources.
3.2.1.1. Teacher behavior: Teachers have the impact on student learning and behavior. Jackson found that teachers have as many as 1,000 interpersonal contacts each day with children in their classrooms.
3.2.1.1.1. Education and Inequality: Income, power, property, are unevenly distributed in society. Social class differences are not only reflected in differences in income but in other social characteristics such as educational, family, child-rearing practices, and occupations.
4. Philosophy of Education Chapter 5
4.1. Existentialism is a rather model philosophy. Its roots are traced back to the Bible as a philosophy that has relevance to education one may date it came about in the nineteenth century.
4.1.1. Generic Notations: Because existentialism is individualistic philosophy, many of its adherents argue that it is not a particular school of philosophy at all. Basically, existentialists believe that individuals are placed on this earth alone and must make some sense out of the chaos they encounter. Key researchers: Plato and Aristotle.
4.1.1.1. Goal of education: Existentialists believe that education should focus on the needs of individuals, both cognitively and affectively. Education should stress individuality; that it should include discussion of the non-rational as well as the rational world.
4.1.1.1.1. Role of the teacher: They should understand their own "lived worlds" as well as their students in order to help their students achieve the best "lived worlds" they can. Teachers must take risks; expose themselves to resistant students; and work constantly to enable in Green's (1978) words, "wide awake."
5. Schools as Organizations Chapter 6
5.1. Senators: Doug Jones, Richard Shelby
5.1.1. Representatives: Terri Sewell, Mo Brooks, Martha Roby, Bradley Byrne, Gary Palmer
5.1.1.1. Superintendent: Dr. Ed Richardson
5.1.1.1.1. Representative on State School Board: Jackie Zeigler
6. Politics of Education Chapter 2
6.1. Four purposes of education...
6.1.1. Intellectual purposes of schooling are to teach basic cognitive skills, such as reading, writing, and mathematics; to transmit knowledge to help students require higher thinking skills such has analysis, evaluation, and synthesis.
6.1.1.1. Political purposes of schooling are to inculcate allegiance to the existing political order; to prepare citizens who will participate in this political order to help assimilate diverse cultural groups into a common political order; and teach children basic laws of society.
6.1.1.1.1. Social purposes are to help solve social problems; to work of one of many institutions, such as the family and the church to ensure social cohesion; and to socialize children into the various roles, behaviors, and values of society.
6.2. The role of the school: The conservative perspective sees the role of the school as 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.
6.2.1. Explanations of unequal educational performance: The liberal perspective argues that individual students of groups of students begin school with different life chances and therefore some groups have significantly more advantages than others.
6.2.1.1. Definition or educational problems: The conservative's response to liberal and radical demands for greater equality in the 960s and 1970s, schools systematically lowered academic standards and reduced educational quality.
7. History of U.S. Education Chapter 3
7.1. The struggle fro free public education was led by Horace Mann or Massachusetts. Abandoning a successful career as a lawyer, Mann lobbied for a state board education, and when the Massachusetts legislature created in 1837, Horace Mann became its first secretary, an office he occupied for 11 years.
7.1.1. Education for women and African-Americans: The role of a woman in Western society has been that of helpmate or homemaker to the male, who assumed the role of the provider.
7.1.1.1. In 1821, Emma Hart Willard opened the Troy Female Seminary in Troy, New York. The curriculum at this female seminary included so-called serious subjects of study, such as mathematics, science, history, and geography.
8. Curriculum and Pedagogy Chapter 7
8.1. A theory I relate to most: Social Efficiency; curriculum based on what is going to benefit students as adults and help them in life in the future.
8.1.1. The mimetic tradition - what people seem to think education is all about. It can be judged right or wrong, accurate or inaccurate, correct or incorrect on the basis of comparison with the teachers own knowledge or some other model found in a text book.
8.1.1.1. "mimetic" (the root term is the Greek word mimesis, from which we get "mime" and "mimic") because it gives a central place to the transmission of factual and procedural knowledge from one person to another.
8.1.1.1.1. Transformative Tradition: A transformation of one kind or another in the person being taught. Teacher focus on effecting "transformation" of character, morals, and virtue.
9. Educational Inequality Chapter 9
9.1. John Ogbu (1978, 1979, 1987) argue that African-American children do less well in school because they adapt to their oppressed position in the class and caste structure. He argued that there is a "job ceiling" for African Americans in the U.S., as there is for similar caste-like minorities in other countries.
9.1.1. Bourdieu's concepts of social and cultural capital are also important in understanding how cultural differences affect educational inequality. More affluent families give their children access to cultural capital and social capital.
9.1.1.1. School-Centered Explanations for educational inequality: School financing - public schools are financed through a combination of revenues from local, state, and federal sources. However, the majority of funds come from state and local taxes. Since property values are significantly higher in more affluent communities, these communities are able to raise more money for schools.
9.1.1.1.1. Gender and Schooling: feminists agree that schooling often limits the educational opportunities and life changes of woman in a number of ways. Organization of schools reinforces gender roles and gender inequality.