"My Foundation of Education"

1. Politics of Education

1.1. Focuses on the relationship between local, state, federal gov't and education.

1.2. Conservatives- "only the strong survive" individuals & groups compete in the social environment in order to survive.

1.3. Liberals- "equality of opportunity"- believe that capitalist systems gives the wealthy an unfair advantage. Therefore, gov't must ensure rights for all citizens.

1.4. Radicals- believe that schools should reduce inequality of educational results and provide upward social mobility.

1.5. Liberals- believe that most students begin school with more chances in life than others from disadvantaged backgrounds. Therefore, policies and programs are created to give them a better chance.

1.6. Conservatives believe that schools should return to the traditional curriculum of history & literature.

2. Philosophy of Education

2.1. Teachers

2.1.1. 1. Who they are or intend to be 2.Why they do or propose to do what they do.

2.2. Idealism

2.2.1. Teachers play an active role in discussion, pose questions, select materials. The teacher is the role model and the students emulate him/her.

2.3. Contemporary Realists

2.3.1. Teachers should have high knowledge in academic disciplines, science, mathematics, and humanities. Teachers must present ideas in a clear manner and demonstrate ways to judge fine arts.

2.4. Pragmatism

2.4.1. The teacher is the facilitator. They encourage, offer suggestions, questions, and help plan and implement courses of study.

2.5. Existentialism

2.5.1. Teachers take risks, expose themselves to resistant students, an work constantly to enable their students to become "wide awake" or in touch with their world and make their own choices.

2.6. 3 areas of Philosophy

2.6.1. 1.metaphysics 2.epistemology 3.axiology

3. Schools as Organizations

3.1. The U.S. school system allows all students regardless race, gender, or social class the ability to enroll into public schools and remain until graduation.

3.2. No Child Left Behind (NCLB)- requires that all schools have qualified teachers in the classrooms. Whether it be a Bachelor's or Mater's Degree.

3.3. Linda M. McNeil- "contradictions of control"=the bureaucratic design of schools free teachers to teach by assigning to administrators and business managers the duties of keeping the school under control.

3.4. Students who attend school in wealthy school districts are more likely to have more curriculum options, better teachers, and more extracurricular activities than students in poorer school districts.

3.5. School processes identify the powerful cultural qualities of schools that make them so potent in terms of emotional recall, if not in terms of cognitive outcomes.

3.6. Team building must extend to the entire school. The process a team uses in going about it's work is as important as the content of educational changes it attempts.

4. Equality of Opportunity

4.1. 4 points of view= 1.conservative 2.neo-liberal 3.liberal 4.radical

4.2. "Tournament selection"- winners are allowed to proceed to the next round and losers are dropped when it comes to education.

4.3. Minority students receive fewer and inferior educational opportunities than white students. Minorities do not receive the same educational opportunities as whites, and their rewards for educational attainment are less.

4.4. Class- students in different social classes have different kinds of educational experiences. Families from the upper & middle class expect their children to finish school. Working & underclass have lower expectations for their children.

4.5. Race-An individuals race has a direct impact on how much education he or she is likely to achieve.

4.6. Gender-In the last 20yrs. gender differences between men and women, in terms of educational attainment, have been reduced. Females are less likely to drop out of school than males, and are more likely to have a higher level of reading proficiency than males.

5. History Of Education

5.1. Equality of Opportunity

5.1.1. Brown vs. Board of Education-Ruled that state imposed segregation of schools was unconstitutional. Chief Justice Earl Warren

5.2. After WWII

5.2.1. The GI Bill Of Rights-offered 16 million servicemen and women the opportunity to pursue higher education.

5.3. During the 1960's and 70's a series of reform efforts were directed at providing equality of opportunity and increased access at all levels of education.

5.4. During the 1970's many Supreme Court cases increased funding efforts for low-income students, but did not eliminate segregation in most Urban districts.

5.5. In 1983, the National Commission of Excellence, Secretary of Education- Terrel Bell issued the famous report "A Nation at Risk"

5.6. From the 1980's -the 21 Century, significant attention has been given to the improvement of curriculum, standards and a move toward the setting of academic goals and their assessments.

6. Sociological Perspectives

6.1. The values, beliefs, and norms of society are internalized within children so that they come to think and act like other members of society.=Socialization.

6.2. Theory- an integration of all known principles, laws, and information pertaining to a specific area of study. There are 3 major theories between school & society.

6.3. Functional Theory- view society as machine, where 2 parts combine to make society work. Emile Durkheim invented the sociology of education. Durkheim believed that moral values were the foundation of society.

6.4. Conflict Theory- view schools as social battlefields where students, teachers, & administrators struggle against each other for authority and power in the school system.

6.5. Interactional Theory- attempt to make the commonplace strange by turning on their heads everyday take for granted behaviors and interactions. This theory puts labels on students, whether gifted or living in poverty.

6.6. Americans live in a society where mobility is blocked because of structural inequalities that have little or nothing to do with individuals merits or abilities.

7. Curriculum of Pedagogy

7.1. The Traditional approach to curriculum -view curriculum as objective bodies of knowledge and examine the ways in which this knowledge may be designed, taught, and evaluated.

7.2. The Sociologist approach to curriculum- viewed curriculum as an organized body of knowledge that represents political, social, and ideological interests.

7.3. The humanist curriculum reflects the idealist philosophy that knowledge of the traditional liberal arts is the cornerstone of an educated citizenry and that the purpose of education is to students the best of what has been thought and written.

7.4. The social efficiency curriculum was a philosophically pragmatist approach developed in the early 20th century as a putatively democratic response to the development of mass public secondary education.

7.5. The developmental curriculum is related to the needs and interests of the students rather than the needs of society.

7.6. The Scope Trials- reflected tensions between schooling and particular groups opposed to the official curriculum.

8. Educational Inequality

8.1. Arthur Jensen-Harvard Educational Review (1969)- Argued that African-Americans, genetically, are less intelligent than whites and therefore do poorer in school.

8.2. Cultural Deprivation-suggest that working class and non-white families often lack the cultural resources and lack the value system of the middle class.

8.3. Some critics argue that Cultural Deprivation takes the heat off the school systems for the failures of students and places it on family. Further it blames the victims of poverty for the effects of poverty instead of social and economic processes.

8.4. In Abbott vs. Burke (1990) the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the funding differences between rich and poor districts was unconstitutional.

8.5. Cultural Difference- suggest that there may be cultural and family differences between working class and nonwhite students, and white middle class. Working class and nonwhite students may arrive at schools lacking skills.

8.6. According to Richard Rothstein (2004)- poor people suffer from significant health problems and the health problems can have major effects on academic achievement.

9. Educational Reform

9.1. A Nation at Risk- Government leaders, educational reformers, teacher organizations, administrators, and various other groups attempted to improve the quality of U.S. schools.

9.2. Goals 2000- Bill Clinton- A reform which included increasing high school graduation requirements in math & science, instituting statewide testing programs, offering more Advanced Placement courses, promoting technology in classrooms, and instituting new teacher evaluation programs.

9.3. No Child Left Behind (NCLB)- George W. Bush- A reform that education has underserved low-income and minority students through curriculum, poor instruction, and low-quality teachers. The reform was set to eliminate social class and race achievement.

9.4. Race to the Top (RTT)- President Barack Obama- A reform with a primary goal of meeting the components of NCLB. Provided grants to improve student outcomes and close achievement gaps.

9.5. Charter schools are public schools that are free from many regulations applied to traditional public schools, and are held accountable for student performance. They produce the results in the ways they think best.

9.6. Advocates argue that Charter schools often admit students who have failed in public schools and that Charter schools take time to make an impact and perform below public schools.