My Foundation of Education

1. Politics of Education

1.1. John Dewey

1.2. Equal opportunity for all students.

1.3. Government Involvement is necessary.

1.4. Schools should steadily make things better.

1.5. Schools are central to solving social problems.

1.6. Schools are a vehicle for upward mobility.

1.7. Schools are essential for the development of individual potential.

1.8. Schools are an integral part of a democratic society.

1.9. Curriculum must include diverse cultures along with Western civilization.

1.10. Policies must lead to improvement of failing schools.

1.11. Balance of acceptable performance standards and ensure that all students can meet them.

1.12. More concerned with social and political functions of schooling than the economic functions.

2. History of U.S. Education

2.1. Rise of the Common School

2.2. Horace Mann led the struggle fro free public education.

2.3. Massachusetts legislature created a state board of education in 1837.

2.4. Many opposed the reform of the common school. Taxation for public education was "unjust."

2.5. Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education. May 17, 1954

2.6. Ruling passed that state imposed segregation of schools was unconstitutional.

2.7. The Brown vs. Topeka began the affirmation of the ethos of democratic schooling. It created equality of opportunity.

3. Sociological Perspectives

3.1. Functional theories

3.2. Interdependence of the social system

3.3. Emile Durkheim

3.4. Create moral unity

3.5. Moral values are the foundation of society

3.6. Educational reform should "create structures, programs, and curricula that are technically advanced, rational, and encourage social unity."

3.7. Teachers strongly impact student learning.

3.7.1. Teachers are role models for the student and should care for their students. If a teacher treats a student differently because of economic or social class, it can effect that student and the other students learning process

3.8. Peer groups also impact student learning.

3.8.1. Being labeled as belonging to certain groups (nerds, jocks, goths) can cause bullying or can cause a child to look at them self as unimportant or too important

3.9. Inadequate schools can cause an enormous impact on the learning process of students.

3.9.1. Schools that do not have finances or proper teaching facilities can cause a decline in the learning of its students

4. Philosophy of Education

4.1. Pragmatism

4.2. Processes that work in order to achieve their desired ends.

4.3. Progressive education-child-centered & social reconstructionism.

4.4. Terms: instrumentalism and experimentalism.

4.4.1. Instrumentalism-refers to the pragmatic relationship between school and society.

4.5. Experimentalism-refers to the application of ideas to educational practice on an experimental basis.

4.6. Balance needs of society and community on one hand and the needs of the individual on the other.

4.7. Role of school is to integrate children into a democratic society.

4.8. Aim of education is growth.

4.9. Teacher is no longer the authoritarian figure but the facilitator of knowledge.

4.9.1. The teacher encourages, offers suggestions, questions, and helps plans and implement courses of study.

4.9.2. The teacher also writes curriculum and must have a command of several disciplines.

4.10. Children learn both individually and in groups.

4.11. Use problem-solving or inquiry method.

4.12. Core curriculum or integrated curriculum.

4.13. Have a balance between traditional disciplines and the needs and interests of the child.

5. Schools as Organizations

5.1. Stakeholders in my community

5.1.1. Senator Larry Stutts

5.1.2. Representative Mike Millican

5.1.3. State Superintendent Dr. Bice

5.1.4. County Superintendent Ryan Hollingsworth

5.1.5. County Board Members: L.C. Fowler, Beverly Burleson, Jim Atkinson, Belinda McRae, Darryl Weatherly

5.2. Teaching is a very demanding profession.

5.3. A teacher's roles include: colleague, friend, nurturer of the learner, facilitator of learning, researcher, program developer, administrator, decision maker, professional leader, and community activist.

5.4. A teacher must also be caring, empathetic, and a well-rounded person that can act as a role model, not only students, but parents and other professionals.

5.5. Role switching is one of the main causes of "burning out"

5.6. Teaching is routinized and creative.

5.7. Teachers take the every day events and turn each day into a special event. They make a mundane lesson become exciting.

5.8. Teachers professionalism goes unrecognized and in reality is difficult to achieve due to the many roles a teacher must play.

5.9. School based management must empower teachers in terms of their decision-making capacities about curriculum, discipline, and other academic areas of importance.

6. Curriculum and Pedagogy

6.1. Stakeholders in my community

6.1.1. Senator Larry Stutts

6.1.2. Representative Mike Millican

6.1.3. State Superintendent Dr. Bice

6.1.4. County Superintendent Ryan Hollingsworth

6.1.5. County Board Members: L.C. Fowler, Beverly Burleson, Jim Atkinson, Belinda McRae, Darryl Weatherly

6.2. Social meliorist curriculum

6.3. Schools should help solve society's fundamental problems.

6.4. George Counts & Harold Rugg

6.5. Apple and Giroux

6.6. Teach children to think and help solve social problems

6.7. Transformative Tradition pedagogic practice.

7. Equality of Opportunity

7.1. In the past women were less likely to attain the same level of education as men.

7.2. Women are outperformed by men in mathematics.

7.3. In the last 20 years, gender differences between male and females, as far as educational attainment, have been reduced.

7.4. More women, now, are attending post-secondary institutions than men. However, many of the institutions attended by women are less academically and socially prestigious than those that men attend.

7.5. The Coleman Study of 1982 compared public and private schools.

7.6. Coleman's findings suggest that private schools were more effective learning environments than public schools because they place more emphasis on academic activities and because private schools demand more from their students than public schools do.

7.7. The interpretations of Coleman's findings are still under debate.

7.8. The findings that Coleman and his associates saw as significant, others see as insignificant.

7.9. Subsequent studies have shown that private schools seem "to do better" particularly for low-income students.

7.10. The debate still continues. Are the findings as significant as some believe?

8. Educational Inequality

8.1. Functionalists' vision is one of a just society where individual talent and hard work based on universal principles of evaluation are more important than ascriptive characteristics based on particular methods of evaluation.

8.2. The functionalist belief is that it is imperative to understand the sources of educational inequality so as to ensure the elimination of structural barriers to educational success and to provide all groups a fair chance to compete in the educational marketplace.

8.3. Functionalists believe that the schooling process will have unequal results, but these results will be based on individual differences and not on group differences.

8.4. Cultural Deprivation Theory suggests that working class and nonwhite families often lack the cultural resources, such as books and other educational stimuli, and thus arrive at school with a significant disadvantage.

8.5. The Cultural Deprivation theory places the blame on the families and takes the blame off of the schools and the teachers.

8.6. The Cultural Difference Theory acknowledge the impact of student differences yet they it does not blame working-class and nonwhite families for educational problems. It attributes the cultural differences to social forces such as poverty, racism, discrimination, and unequal life chances.

8.7. Students and their families should not be blamed for the educational inequality.

8.8. School centered explanations to the inequality in schools look at the effect that schools have on children.

8.9. School financing plays a huge role in educational inequality between affluent suburb public schools and poor inner city public schools.

8.10. The funding for public schools mostly comes from state and local taxes, with local property taxes as a significant source. Therefore, because property taxes are higher in affluent suburbs, these communities are able to raise more money for their schools than the poorer communities with lower property taxes.

8.11. Since families in the affluent neighborhoods normally have higher incomes they pay proportionately less of their income for their higher school taxes.

8.12. The affluent communities are able to provide more per-pupil spending than the poorer districts.

8.13. This unequal funding has been under attack saying that funding based on local property taxes is discriminatory under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and that it denies equality of opportunity.

8.14. School climates also affect academic performance and can cause inequality.

8.15. This research looks at why those that live in higher socioeconomic communities achieve better in school than those that live in the lower socioeconomic communities.

8.16. The evidence as to why this effects student attainment is conflicting. However, there is reason to conclude that these differences are part of the explanation of unequal educational achievement.

8.17. The belief is that the different school backgrounds give the individual students from each background different life expectations and therefore, schooling can elevate or limit sets of aspirations from their schooling.

9. Educational Reform

9.1. School to Work Programs derived from school-business partnerships. Their intent is to extend what has been a vocational emphasis to non-college-bound students regarding skills necessary for successful employment and to stress the importance of work-based learning.

9.2. This reform allows students that are not capable or that can't afford college to have the opportunity to learn skills that will allow them to get and maintain a job when they leave high school.

9.3. Using federal seed money, the states and their partnerships were encouraged to design the school-to-work system that made the most sense for them.

9.4. Each system was to provide every U.S. student with: relevant education, allowing the students to explore different careers and see what skills are required in their working environment. Skills, obtained from structured training and work-based learning experiences, including necessary skills of a particular career as demonstrated in a working environment. Valued credentials, establishing industry-standard benchmarks and developing education and training standards that ensure proper education is received for each career.

9.5. Every state and locally created school-to-work system had to contain three core elements: (1) school based learning (classroom instruction based on high academic and business-defined occupational skill standards); (2) work-based learning (career exploration, work experience, structured training and mentoring at job sites); (3) connecting activities (courses integrating classroom and on-the-job instruction, matching students with participating employers, training of mentors, and the building of other bridges between school and work).

9.6. Although these programs have often failed to fulfill their promise, the intentions are good.