1. Schools as Organizations
1.1. The Nature of Teaching
1.1.1. Rewards
1.1.1.1. Teachers get few chances to have professional interaction with peers, so the greatest feedback a teacher receives is from the students.
1.1.2. Teaching and Learning
1.1.2.1. Teachers have a limited knowledge base compared to other professions, therefore the key to teaching is the exercise of control. There is a delicate balance between stifling control and creating a controlled learning environment. Thus, teachers must have a great sensitivity to the balance.
1.1.3. "Dailiness of Teaching"
1.1.3.1. There is rhythm and routine to a teachers day, month, week and year. Good teachers take the dailiness of teaching and turn each day into a special event.
1.2. Professionalism
1.2.1. Dan Lortie
1.2.1.1. 1975,"The general status of teaching, the teacher's role and the condition and transmission arrangements of its subculture point to a truncated rather than fully realized professionalization."
1.2.2. Linda M. McNeil
1.2.2.1. 1988, "In theory, the bureaucratic design of schools frees teachers to teach by assigning to administrators and business managers the duties of keeping the school under control. As a result teachers begin to take on the characteristics of the workers whose craft was splintered and recast when they became factory workers."
1.2.3. John Goodlad
1.2.3.1. Seeks to raise the level of academic preparation for teachers, create a more cohesive curriculum and professionalize teacher education by enlarging its clinical component.
2. Philosophy of Education
2.1. Generic Notions
2.1.1. Only through studying the material world is it possible to clarify or develop ideas
2.2. Key Researchers
2.2.1. Aristotle
2.2.2. Thomas Aquinas
2.2.3. Francis Bacon
2.2.4. John Locke
2.2.5. Alfred North Whitehead
2.2.6. Bertrand Russell
2.3. Goals of Education
2.3.1. To help individuals understand and then apply the principles of science to help solve the problems plaguing the modern world
2.4. Role of Teacher
2.4.1. Should be steeped in the basic academic disciplines in order to transmit to their students the knowledge necessary for the continuance of the human race
2.5. Methods of Instruction
2.5.1. Lecture, and question and answer
2.6. Curriculum
2.6.1. Science and math, reading and writing, and the humanities
3. Curriculum and Pedagogy
3.1. Social Efficiency Curriculum
3.1.1. Curriculum Tracks: I think that Curriculum should be differentiated by the students goals (i.e. attend college, trade school, work). I think this should be student choice, not determined by ability based on testing. If a student struggles in academics but is determined to go to college the school should do all it can to help the student meet the challenge he/she has decided to undertake.
3.2. Policy Makers
3.2.1. District 7 Senator: Jeff Sessions, Richard Shelby
3.2.2. House Representative: Robert Adeholt
3.2.3. State Superintendent: Thomas R. Bice
3.2.4. State School Board Rep: Jeff Newman
3.2.5. WC Superintendent: Greg Pendley
3.2.6. WC School Board: Larry Yancey, Allin Bailey, Joey Boteler, Ellan E. Oliver, Ralph Williams
3.3. Functionalist
3.3.1. Curriculum represents the knowledge that students need to become competent members of society
3.3.2. Curriculum is more concerned with teaching the students how to learn
3.4. Transformative
3.4.1. All teaching begins with the active participation of the student and results in some form of growth
4. Equality of Opportuity
4.1. Special Needs Individuals Achievements & Attainments
4.1.1. 1975 Education of All Handicapped Children Law (EHA)
4.1.1.1. 1. Right of access to public education programs 2. Individualization of services 3. Principle of “least restrictive environment” 4. Scope of broadened services to be provided by the schools and a set of procedures for determining them 5. General guidelines for identifying disability 6. Principles of primary state and local responsibilities
4.1.1.2. The purpose is to guarantee children with special needs were properly identified and placed in appropriate classes, defined as the "least restrictive environment"
4.1.2. Mid 1980's EHA debates begin
4.1.2.1. critics argue the law produced adverse effects such as over-identification, failure to mainstream, and overrepresentation of minorities
4.1.2.2. Defenders countered that EHA provided significant increases in the quality of services for children with disabilities
4.1.3. Late 1980's regular education initiative (REI) debates begin
4.1.3.1. REI called for inclusion of almost all children into the mainstream.
4.1.3.2. Proponents argue that special education placement had not proven effective
4.1.3.3. Critics argue that inclusion is not fair for regular or special needs students
5. Educational Inequality
5.1. Functionalist Theory
5.1.1. Unequal educational outcomes are the result, in part, of unequal educational opportunities
5.1.2. It is imperative to understand the sources of educational inequality to ensure elimination of barriers to educational success.
5.2. Cultural Difference Theories
5.2.1. There are cultural and family differences between working class and nonwhite students, and white middle-class students.
5.2.2. Cultural difference theorist acknowledge the impact of student differences, they do not blame working-class and nonwhite families for educational problems, but attribute them to social forces such as poverty, racism, discrimination, and unequal life chances.
6. Politics of Education
6.1. Perspective
6.1.1. Neo-liberal
6.1.1.1. Individual Schools/systems are accountable for success or failure
6.1.1.2. Failing schools and ineffective teachers are the primary cause of school and student failure
6.1.1.3. Race and social class are important factors in the achievement gap and elimination of these gaps are central to reform policy
6.1.1.4. Educational policy: 1.Austerity 2. The market model 3. Individualism 4. State intervention 5. Economic prosperity, race, class
6.1.1.5. Synthesized both conservative and liberal perspectives to provide a critique of traditional public education
6.2. Vision
6.2.1. Progressive
6.2.1.1. View the school as central to solving social problems, as a vehicle for upward mobility as essential to the development of individual potential and as an integral part of a democratic society
6.2.1.2. School is 1. Attending to the whole child 2. Community 3. Collaboration 4. Social justice 5. Intrinsic motivation 6. Deep Understanding 7. Active learning 8. Taking kids seriously Alfie Kohn http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/progressive-education/
6.2.1.3. “Education fails because it neglects this fundamental principle of the school as a form of community life. It conceives the school as a place where certain information is to be given, where certain lessons are to be learned, or where certain habits are to be formed” John Dewey
6.2.1.4. Reform School by moving away from trying to achieve cultural uniformity and focus on the art of democratic participation.
6.2.1.5. Embraces our emerging postmodern culture and provide an alternative to the standardization that dominates the education system.
7. Sociological Perspectives
7.1. Functional Theories
7.1.1. Invented in late 19th and early 20th century by Emilie Durkheim
7.1.1.1. Invented in late 19th and early 20th century by Emilie Durkheim
7.1.2. Emile Durkheim
7.1.2.1. Moral values are the foundation of society
7.1.2.2. Education is critical in creating the moral unity necessary for social cohesion.
7.1.2.3. Cohesion is the normal state in society and conflict represents a breakdown of shared values.
7.2. Knowledge and Attitudes
7.2.1. Divisions
7.2.1.1. Higher social class equals higher achievement
7.2.1.2. Difference in schools directly affects achievement
7.2.1.3. More education equals higher achievement
7.3. Employment
7.3.1. Credential Inflation
7.3.1.1. Employers expect employees to have an ever increasing amount of formal education
7.3.2. Possession of college degree is significantly related to higher income
7.3.3. Level of education unrelated to job performance
7.3.3.1. People learn to do their jobs by doing them
8. History of US Education
8.1. Common School Era
8.1.1. 1820-1860
8.1.1.1. The Industrial Revolution had come to America and brought with it denser populated urban areas
8.1.1.2. The majority of American were illiterate
8.1.2. Horace Mann
8.1.2.1. Led the struggle for free public education
8.1.2.2. First secretary for the Massachusetts State Board of Education, established 1837
8.1.2.3. Believed schools can change the social order and that education can foster social mobility
8.1.3. Oppostition
8.1.3.1. Taxation on non-recipients was unjust
8.1.3.2. Catholics viewed the common school as dominated by Protestant ethos
8.1.4. The Public High School
8.1.4.1. In 1875 few than 25,000 students were enrolled. By 1940 around 6.5 million students attended public high school.
8.1.4.2. Tensions about the purpose of education mounted
8.1.4.2.1. Committee of Ten, 1893, argued the purpose was to prepare students of the duties of life
8.1.4.2.2. Progressive response, Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education.
8.1.4.3. Compulsory school laws grew; by 1918 all states had them
8.2. Conservative Perspective
8.2.1. Argued U.S. Students knew very little and U.S. Schools were mediocre
8.2.2. Blamed failure on failure on sacrificing academic quality for social goals. (Progressive Education)
8.2.3. Conservative Critics
8.2.3.1. William Bennett
8.2.3.1.1. Called for a return to a traditional Western curriculum
8.2.3.2. Chester Finn, Jr.
8.2.3.2.1. Supporter of "Common Core Standards"
8.2.3.3. Diane Ravitch
8.2.3.3.1. "The Troubled Crusade"
8.2.3.4. E.D. Hirsch, Jr.
8.2.3.4.1. Blames public schools for valuing skill over content
8.2.3.5. Allan Bloom
8.2.3.5.1. Blames universities for watering down curriculum
9. Educational Reform
9.1. 1st Wave of School Reform Mid-1980's
9.1.1. Stressed the need for increased educational excellence through increased educational standards and a reversal of the rising tide of mediocrity.
9.2. 2nd Wave of School Reform Late 1980's-the 1990's
9.2.1. Targeted the structure and process of the schools themselves.
9.3. Neo-liberal approach to school reform
9.3.1. Stresses the independent power of schools in eliminating the achievement gap for low-income students.