1. Sociological Perspectives (Chapter 4)
1.1. Theory - "integration of all known principles, laws, and information pertaining to a specific area of study"
1.2. Functional Theory
1.2.1. Functionalists believe that society is held together by social consensus, in which members of the society agree upon, and work together to achieve, what is best for society as a whole.
1.2.2. stresses the interpendence of the social system (pg 117)
1.2.3. views society as a kind of machine, where on part articulates with another to produce the dynamic energy required to make society work
1.3. Effects of Schooling on Individuals:
1.3.1. Teacher Behavior -
1.3.1.1. Teachers have a huge impact on student learning and behavior. They play many different roles other than teacher such as employer, friend, or mentor. Teachers are models for students. They set standards and influence student self esteem and sense of efficacy.
1.3.2. Employment-
1.3.2.1. Graduating college will lead to greater employment opportunities
1.3.2.2. Research has shown that large organizations, such as corporations, require high levels of education for while collar, managerial, or administrative jobs.
1.3.3. Knowledge and Attitudes-
1.3.3.1. Research indicates that differences between schools in terms of their academic programs and policies doo make differences in student learning.
1.3.3.2. Education is related to a person's sense of well being and self esteem.
2. History of US Education
2.1. Education for Women
2.1.1. Emile- a book by Jean Jacques Rousseau that was written in the eighteenth centruy. Vividly described the role of a woman.
2.1.2. Traditionally, the role of the woman was the helpmate or homemaker to the male. Education for women was viewed as biologically harmful or too stressful. (Pg. 68)
2.1.3. 1821- Emma Hart Willard opened the Troy Female Seminary in Troy, New York. Sought to deliver an education to females that was similiar to that of their male counterparts.
2.1.4. Other female reformers : Catharine Esther Beecher & Mary Lyon
2.1.5. 1833 - Oberlin Collegiate Institute in Ohio opened its doors for women and African Americans.
2.2. Conservative Perspective
2.2.1. William Bennett, Chester Finn, Jr. , Diane Ravitch, E.D. Hirsch, Jr. , and Allan Bloom all pointed to the failure of so called progressive education to fulfill its lofty social goals without sacrificing academic quality. (pg. 85)
2.2.2. Ravitch stayed faithful to the democratic-liberal belief that school have expanded opportunities to countless numbers of the disadvantaged and immigrants, she has argued that the adjustment of the traditional curriculum to meet the needs of all of these groups has been a violation of the fundamental function of schooling, which is to develop the powers of intelligence.
3. Schools as Organizations
3.1. Major Stakeholders
3.1.1. State Senators - Sen. Clay Scofield (R-9)
3.1.2. House of Representatives - Rep. Robert B. Aderholt (R-4)
3.1.3. State Superintendent - Thomas R. Bice, Ed.D.
3.1.4. Representative on Local School Board - Rep. Kerry Rich (R-26)
3.1.5. Local Superintendent - Dr. Mark Isley -Superintendent
3.1.6. Local School Board Members - Brian Bishop - CFO Susan Rutledge - Account Payable Misty Tarvin - CNP and Accounts Payable Brandy Tarvin - CNP Director and Community Education Vivian Brown - Curriculum Director and Federal Programs Becky Ray - Career Tech Director Wayne Caudle - Technology Director Barry Latham - System Lead Technician Ryan Stephens - System Technician Jan Walker - Secretary to Superintendent Tracey Scott - Receptionist and Secretary to Asst. Superintendent Walker Segars - Transportation Director and Truancy Neal McCoy - Lead Maintenance
3.2. Nature of Teaching
3.2.1. Teachers perform many roles such as friend, colleague, nurturer of the learner, facilitator, researcher, program developer, administrator, decision maker, professional leader, and community activist. A teacher wears "many hats" every day.
3.2.2. Although, the most important role of the teacher is the caring, empathetic, well-rounded example we must be each and every day. Not only in school.
3.2.3. Classrooms are communities where needs are met.
3.3. Professionalism
3.3.1. Dan Lortie argues that teaching is only partially professionalized. There is little opportunity for teachers to teach independently of their school, and thru there is little opportunity for teachers to fain a reputation for excellence outside of their school or school district. (pg. 236)
3.3.2. School based management, if it si to succeed must empower teachers in terms of their decision making capacities about curriculum, discipline, ad other academic areas of importance. Whether or not school based management will succeed as a reform will determine in no small degree the level of professionalization achieved by teachers. as one looks to the future, one can only hope that educational reformers will listen to teacher advocates such as John Goodlad who argue that without creating a new generation of teacher leaders, there is little hope that schools will become more productive and just.
4. Equality of Opportunity
4.1. Students with Special Needs
4.1.1. 1975 - Congress passed EHA (Education of All Handicap Chlildren Law) which included six basic principles - Purpose of the law was to guarantee that children with special needs were properly identified and placed in appropriate classes, defined as the "least retractive environment" (pg. 364)
4.1.2. Mid 1980s -Critics of special ed pushed the REI (regular education initiative), which called for mainstreaming children with disabilities into regular classes
4.1.3. As of today, the field of special ed remains in conflict. REI and EHA controversies continue
4.2. The Coleman Study (1966) - pg. 366
4.2.1. Reponses to Coleman - Round 2 - Public vs. Private
4.2.1.1. Jencks (1985) used Coleman's finding to compare the estimated yearly average achievement gain by public and Catholic school students.
4.2.1.2. Jencks estimated that the annual increment attributable to Catholic schooling was tiny. The differences that do exist between public and Catholic schools are statistically significant, but in terms of significant differences in learning, the results are negligible.
4.2.1.3. Subsequent studies found that private schools "do it better" particularly for low income students. (Chubb & Moe, 1990; Bryk, Lee, & Holland, 1993.)
5. Educational Unequality
5.1. School Financing
5.1.1. Jonathan Kozol (1991) - Savage Inequalities - compares public schools in affluent suburbs with public schools in poor inner cities
5.1.2. Data from 2009-2010 - New York City receive less than 21k per students and Affluent Long Island school receiving per 25k per students.
5.1.3. This unequal funding has been the subject of considerable legal attach by communities that argue that funding based on local property taxes is discriminatory under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and that it denies quality of opportunity.
5.2. Curriculum and Ability Grouping
5.2.1. Aka - tracking by ability or curriculum tracking
5.2.2. divided into reading groups and separate classes based on teacher recommendations, standardized test scores, and sometimes ascriptive characteristics such as race, class, or gender
5.2.3. Research indicates that differences in tracks help to explain the variation in academic achievement of students in different tracks (pg 436)
5.2.4. Persell (1977) argues that teacher perceptions of students and their abilities have an impact on what is taught, how it is taught, and ultimately student performance.
6. Educational Reform
6.1. Teacher Quality
6.1.1. NCLBs requirement that all schools have highly qualified teachers in every classroom highlighted the problem of unqualified teachers in urban schools.
6.1.1.1. Data indicated that most teachers were highly qualified, but maybe not in the subject that they teach. This is called out of field teaching.
6.1.2. At the secondary school level, about 1/5 of classes in each of the core academic subjects are taught by teachers who do not hold a teaching certificate in the subject taught.
6.1.2.1. Data shows this is more common in low income schools. (pg. 531)
6.1.3. Ingersoll (199, 2003, 2004) assets that problems in staffing urban schools have less to with teacher shortages and more with organizational issues indie schools.
6.1.4. Recently, school improvement reformers have stressed the existence of teacher tenure and seniority based transfers and layoff provisions in union contracts as a primary factor in preventing an improvement of teacher quality .
7. Politics of Education (Chapter 2)
7.1. Perspective - a general model for looking at something --- in this case, a model for understanding, analyzing, and solving educational problems.
7.2. Neoliberals -
7.2.1. A synthesis of conservative and liberal perspectives that provides a critique of traditional public education.
7.2.2. efforts to reduce achievement gap
7.3. 5 Areas for Educational Policy :
7.3.1. 1. Austerity
7.3.2. 2. The Market Model
7.3.3. 3. Individualism
7.3.4. 4. State Intervention
7.3.5. 5. Economic prosperity, race, and class
7.4. Progressive Vision
7.4.1. tend to view the schools 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 democratic society (pg. 26)
7.4.2. Steady process to make things better.
7.5. John Dewey
7.5.1. was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform
7.5.2. major voice of progressive education
8. Philosophy of Education (Chapter 5)
8.1. What is Philosophy?
8.1.1. firmly rooted in practice
8.1.2. engaging in philosophy helps teachers to clarify what they do or intend to do and, as they act or propose to act, to justify or explain why they do what they do in a logical, systematic manner
8.2. Pragmatism
8.2.1. Comes from pragma - meaning work
8.2.2. a philosophy that encourages people to find processes that work in order to achieve their desired ends, pragmatist are generally interested in contemporary issues adn in discovering solutions to problems in present day terms. They are action oriented & experimentally grounded.
8.3. Pragmatism Founders -
8.3.1. George Sanders Pierce
8.3.2. William James
8.3.3. John Dewey (most important)
8.3.4. Others that are also considered pragmatists are Frances Bacon, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau
8.4. Dewey's Forms of Pragmatism
8.4.1. Instrumentalism - school and society
8.4.2. Experimentalism - application of ideas to educational practice on an experimental basis
8.4.3. Examples : group learning, project method, experimenting
8.5. Goal of Pragmatism
8.5.1. providing students with knowlege of how to improve social order (pg.188)
8.5.2. School should be a place where ideas can be implented, challenged, and restructured.
8.5.3. GROWTH
8.6. Role of Pragmatic Teacher
8.6.1. Peripheral position of the facilitator
8.6.2. encourages, offers suggestions, questions, and helps plan and implement courses of study
8.7. Methods of Instruction/Curriculum
8.7.1. Both individually and in groups
8.7.2. Field trips and projects
8.7.3. problem solving or inquiry method -student-centered method of education focused on asking questions
8.7.4. expanding enviroments (pg. 190)
9. Curriculum and Pedagogy (Chaper 7)
9.1. Developmentalist Curriculum
9.1.1. related to the needs and interests of the student rather than the needs of society (pg. 284)
9.1.2. emanated from the aspects of Dewey's writings related to the relationship between the child and the curriculum, as well as developmental psychologists such as Piaget, and it emphasized the process of teaching as well as its content.
9.1.3. relates school to life experiences in a way that would make education come alive in a meaningful manner
9.2. State Senators -
9.2.1. Sen. Clay Scofield (R-9)
9.3. House of Representatives
9.3.1. Rep. Robert B. Aderholt (R-4)
9.4. State Superintendent
9.4.1. Thomas R. Bice, Ed.D.
9.5. Respresentative on State School Board
9.5.1. Rep. Kerry Rich (R-26)
9.6. Local Superintendent
9.6.1. Dr. Mark Isley -Superintendent
9.6.2. Dr. Randall Haney - Assistant Superintendent
9.7. Local School Board
9.7.1. Brian Bishop - CFO Susan Rutledge - Account Payable Misty Tarvin - CNP and Accounts Payable Brandy Tarvin - CNP Director and Community Education Vivian Brown - Curriculum Director and Federal Programs Becky Ray - Career Tech Director Wayne Caudle - Technology Director Barry Latham - System Lead Technician Ryan Stephens - System Technician Jan Walker - Secretary to Superintendent Tracey Scott - Receptionist and Secretary to Asst. Superintendent Walker Segars - Transportation Director and Truancy Neal McCoy - Lead Maintenance
9.8. http://www.legislature.state.al.us/aliswww/Senators.aspx
9.9. http://www.boazk12.org/
9.10. Transformative -
9.10.1. purpose of education is to change the student in some meaningful way, including intellectually, creatively, spiritually, and emotionally
9.10.2. conversation between teacher and student in such a way that the students becomes an integral part of the learning process
9.10.3. Educators, such as John Dewey, believe that all teaching begins with the active participation of the student and results in some form of growth (pg. 297)