1. Philosophy of Education
1.1. Idealist
1.1.1. A person who is guided more by ideals than by practical considerations
1.2. Generic Notions
1.2.1. Realists reject the Platonic notion that only ideas are real, and argue instead that the material world or matter is real
1.3. Key Researchers
1.3.1. Plato
1.3.1.1. Argued for the centrality of ideas.
1.3.2. Aristotle
1.3.2.1. The first philosopher to develop a rationale, systematic method for testing the logic of statements people made.
1.4. Role of Teacher
1.4.1. To be steeped in the basic academic disciplines in order to transmit to their students the knowledge necessary for the continuance of the human race.
1.5. Goal of Education
1.5.1. To help individuals understand and then apply the principles of science to help solve the problems placing the modern world.
1.6. Method of Instruction
1.6.1. Lecture, Question, and Answer
1.7. Curriculum
1.7.1. The curriculum would consist of the basics: science, math, reading, writing, and the humanities.
2. Schools as Organizations
2.1. School Processes
2.1.1. The way we examine how school cultures are created and maintained.
2.2. Governance
2.2.1. Taxpayers within particular school districts have a substantial stake in the schools within their districts and are able to make their voices heard through community school boards.
2.3. Student Composition
2.3.1. Nonminority families have moved out of the cities and into the suburbs, leading to a high degree of residential segregation.
2.4. Degree of Openness
2.4.1. When the "common school" exemplifies a basic belief in the democracy of education for all.
2.5. Highly Qualified
2.5.1. Teachers who have a college degree, full certification, and who are able to demonstrate content knowledge.
2.6. Role Switching
2.6.1. Teachers have many roles including college, friend, nurturer, facilitator, researcher, program developer, administrator, decision maker, professional leader, and community activist.
3. Curriculum and Pedagogy
3.1. Major Stakeholders
3.1.1. State Senators
3.1.1.1. Jeff Sessions
3.1.1.2. Richard Shelby
3.1.2. House of Representatives
3.1.2.1. Mo Brooks
3.1.2.1.1. 5th District
3.1.3. State Superintendent
3.1.3.1. Tommy Bice
3.1.4. Representatives on State School Board
3.1.4.1. Governor Robert Bentley
3.1.4.2. Thomas Bice
3.1.4.3. Ella Bell
3.1.4.4. Jeff Newman
3.1.4.5. Al Thompson
3.1.4.6. Betty Peters
3.1.4.7. Stephanie Bell
3.1.4.8. Yvette Richardson
3.1.4.9. Cynthia McCarty
3.1.4.10. Mary Hunter
3.1.5. Local Superintendent
3.1.5.1. Kenneth Harding
3.1.6. Local School Board
3.1.6.1. John Lyda
3.1.6.2. Kenneth Storey
3.1.6.3. Charles West
3.1.6.4. Cecil Gant
3.1.6.5. Chad Gorham
3.2. The Developmentalist Curriculum
3.2.1. Relating the curriculum to the needs and interests of each child at particular developmental stages.
3.3. Pedagogic Practice
3.3.1. Mimetic Tradition
3.3.1.1. Transmitting specific knowledge to students.
3.4. Curriculum Theory
3.4.1. Curriculum as a body of knowledge to be transmitted.
3.5. Multicultural Education
3.5.1. Content integration, knowledge construction, prejudice reduction, equity pedagogy, and empowering school culture.
3.6. Hidden Curriculum
3.6.1. Includes what is taught to students through implicit rules and messages, as well as through what is left out of the formal curriculum.
4. Equality of Opportunity
4.1. Women's Reading Skills
4.1.1. Women achieve at higher levels in reading at age 9, 13, and 17.
4.2. Women's Mathematics Skills
4.2.1. Women achieve at higher levels in mathematics at age 9 and at lower levels at ages 13 and 17.
4.3. Women's Science Skills
4.3.1. Women achieve at lower levels in science at ages 9, 13, and 17.
4.4. Males v. Females
4.4.1. Females have outperformed makes in reading since 1973 and males have out performed females in mathematics and science since 1973.
4.5. Percentage of Females with an Education
4.5.1. 87.6 percent of females graduated from high school and 29.8 percent received a bachelors degree.
4.6. Women's Improvements
4.6.1. Female students outperform male students in most categories, with the exception of mathematics and science, where that have made some gains.
5. Educational Inequality
5.1. Abbott v. Burke
5.1.1. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the funding differences between rich and poor districts was unconstitutional.
5.2. Functionalists
5.2.1. Believe that unequal educational outcomes are the result, in part, of unequal educational opportunities.
5.3. Conflict Theorists
5.3.1. Want to significantly reduce the degree of educational, social, and economic inequalities.
5.4. Interactionism
5.4.1. Suggests that one must understand how people within institutions such as families and schools interact on a daily basis in order to comprehend the factors explaining academic success and failure.
5.5. Cultural Difference Theories
5.5.1. They attribute cultural differences to social forces such as poverty, racism, discrimination, and unequal life chances.
5.6. Poverty-Related Health Problems
5.6.1. Have significant effects on academic achievement. For example, exposure to lead paint or to smoking, alcohol, or drugs can lower IQ and limit cognitive development.
6. Politics of Education
6.1. Conservative
6.1.1. Personal Responsibility
6.1.2. Limited Government
6.1.3. Free Market
6.1.4. Individual Liberty
6.1.5. Traditional American Values
6.1.6. Strong National Defense
6.2. Traditional
6.2.1. Viewing the schools as necessary to the transmission of the traditional values of U.S. society, such as hard work, family unity, individual initiative, and so on.
6.3. Economic
6.3.1. Preparing students for their later occupational roles and to select, train, and allocate individuals into the division of labor.
6.4. Education
6.4.1. All processes in a society that transmit knowledge, skills, values, and educational institutions as all the places in which these activities occur.
6.5. Intellectual
6.5.1. Teaching basic cognitive skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics; to transmit specific knowledge.
6.6. Perspective
6.6.1. A model for understanding, analyzing, and solving educational problems.
7. History of U.S. Education
7.1. Educational Reaction and Reform and the Standards Era
7.1.1. All students graduating from high school complete "new basics": four years of English, three years of mathematics, three years of science, three years of social studies, and a year of computer science.
7.1.2. Schools at all levels expect higher achievement from their students and that four-year colleges and universities raise their admissions requirements.
7.1.3. More time should be devoted to teaching the "new basics".
7.1.4. The preparation of teachers should be strengthened and teaching should be made a more respected and rewarded profession.
7.1.5. Citizens require their elected representatives to support and fund these reforms.
7.2. Benjamin Franklin
7.2.1. He believed that education was a way for people to better themselves.
7.3. Old Deluder Laws
7.3.1. The religious impetus to formalize instruction that can best be exemplified by the Puritans.
7.3.2. First Law: Chastised parents for not attending to their children's ability to read and understand the principles of religion and capital laws of its country and fined them for wanton and immodest behavior.
7.3.3. Second Law: Provided that every town that had "50 household" would appoint one person to teach all children, regardless of gender, to read and write.
7.4. Public High School
7.4.1. These academies taught not only academic subjects but also vocational ones.
7.5. Brown v. Board of Education
7.5.1. The Supreme Court ruled that state-imposed segregation of schools was unconstitutional.
7.6. Charter Schools
7.6.1. These are independent of local district control, but they receive public funding.
8. Sociological Perspectives
8.1. Functional Theory
8.1.1. A theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability.
8.2. Interactional Theory
8.2.1. A theory that focuses on bodily behaviors and environmental contexts rather than on mental processes.
8.3. Knowledge and Attitudes
8.3.1. The actual amount of time students spend in school is directly related to how much they learn.
8.4. Employment
8.4.1. Large organizations require high levels of education for white-collar, managerial, or administrative jobs.
8.5. Education and Mobility
8.5.1. Increased education may be directly linked to upward occupational mobility.
8.6. Tracking
8.6.1. The placement of students in curricular programs based on students' abilities and inclinations.
9. Educational Reform
9.1. A Nation at Risk
9.1.1. Placed accountability at the forefront of reforms aimed at reducing the achievement gap.
9.2. The First Wave of Reform
9.2.1. The need to recruit, train, and retain more academically able teachers, to improve the quality of teaching, and to upgrade the professional working life of teachers.
9.3. The Second Wave of Reform
9.3.1. The Nation- and the state and the local districts- need report cards about results, and about what students know and do.
9.4. Race to the Top
9.4.1. The primary goal of this initiative was to aid states in meeting the various components of No Child Left Behind.
9.5. Zelman v. Simmons
9.5.1. Ruled that the Cleveland, Ohio voucher program did not violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
9.6. Charter Schools
9.6.1. Self governing institutions with wide control over their own curriculum, instruction, staffing, budget, internal organization, calendar, etc.