1. Sociology of Education
1.1. Functional Theory
1.1.1. Stresses the interdependence of the social system
1.1.2. view society as a kind of machine
1.1.3. Emile Durkheim- virtually invented the sociology of education; wrote "Moral Education" (1962) "The Evolution of Educational Thought" (1977) and "Education and Sociology" (1956); believed that education was of critical importance on creating the moral unity necessary for social cohesion and harmony; believed moral values were the foundation of society.
1.1.4. Education reform from a functional point of view is supposed to create structures, programs, and curricula that are technically advanced, rational and encourage social unity.
1.1.5. when "Nation at Risk" was published in 1983, argument was made that schools were responsible for a whole host of social and economic problems.
1.1.6. Functionalists assume that consensus is the normal state in society and conflict represents a breakdown of shared values.
1.2. Effects of schooling on individuals
1.2.1. Ron Edmunds-pioneer of effective schools movement- research demonstrates that academically oriented schools do produce higher rates of learning.
1.2.2. Study by Hens (1978) 6th and 7th grade students who are active in summer school, library usage, read during summer break made greater gains in knowledge.
1.2.3. The more education individuals receive, the more likely that are to read newspapers, books magazines and take part in politics and social attitudes.
1.2.4. Education is relevant to an persons' sense of well-being and self-esteem.
1.2.5. Schools act as gate keepers in determining who will be employed in high status occupations.
1.2.6. curriculum placement is the single biggest determinate of college attendance.
2. Schools as Organizations
2.1. Major Stake Holders:
2.1.1. State Senators: 1. Jefferson Sessions , 2. Richard Shelby
2.1.2. House Representatives: 1st District Bradley Byrne, 2nd District Martha Roby, 3rd District Mike Rogers, 4th District Robert Aderholt, 5th District Mo Brooks, 6th District Gary Palmer, 7th District Terri Sewell
2.1.3. State Superintendent: Tommy Bice
2.1.4. Representative on State School Board http://www.alsde.edu/sites/boe/Pages/home.aspx Jeffery Newman, Vice President, District 07
2.1.5. Limestone County Superintendent Dr. Tom Sisk http://www.lcsk12.org/
2.1.6. Limestone County School Board: Mr. Charles Shoulders-District One, Mr. Bret McGill-District Two, Mr. Marty Adams-District Three, Mr. Edward Winter-District Four, Mr. Bradley Young-District Five, Mr. Anthony Hilliard-District Six, Mr. Earl Glaze-District Seven
2.2. Finland's Educational System
2.2.1. In recent years, global attention on the high level of student achievement. High test scores in math, science, and literacy by PISA with little variation between the student's scores
2.2.2. focuses on equal access to curriculum, the provision of wrap-around services for students, and teacher education
2.2.3. eliminated all forms of tracking and instead turned its focus to ensuring that all students attain a high level of academic success.
2.2.4. abolished almost all forms of standardized testing
2.2.5. places an emphasis on formative evaluation and relies on oral and narrative dialogues between teachers and students to track progress.
2.2.6. one standardized exam is a college entrance exam that includes between 6 and 10 items that evaluate student's problem-solving skills, analysis, and writing.
3. Curriculum and Pedagogy
3.1. Historical Curriculum
3.1.1. The Developmentalist Curriculum
3.1.1.1. Developed from the inspiration of John Dewey
3.1.1.2. Relates to the needs and interests of the student
3.1.1.3. creates a relationship between the child and the curriculum
3.1.1.4. also emphasizes the process of teaching as well as its content
3.1.1.5. Is student centered and is concerned with relating the curriculum o the needs and interests of each child at particular developmetal stages
3.1.1.6. stresses flexibility in both what is taught and how it is taught with the emphasis on the development of each student's individual capacities.
3.1.1.7. Designed to make education come alive in a meaningful manner.
3.2. Sociological Curriculum
3.2.1. Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Multicultural Education
3.2.1.1. in the 1980s, critics of the humanist curriculum argued that the traditional curriculum we Eurocentric and male dominated.
3.2.1.2. James Banks- premier writer that made it clear that there is no one definition of multiculturalism and that multicultural approaches are not new but must be traced back to the nineteenth century. he presented a typology of five dimensions of multiculturalism:
3.2.1.2.1. 1. Content Integration, 2. Knowledge Construction, 3. Prejudice reduction, 4. Equity Pedagogy, 5.Empowering School Culture.
3.2.1.3. Geneva Gay- provided most comprehensive discussions of multicultural curriculum theory. "a high degree of consensus exists among multiculturalists on the major principles, concepts, concerns, and directions for changing educational institutions to make them more representative of and responsive to the cultural pluralism that exists in the U.S. and the world.
3.2.1.4. Creates students who have high self-esteem and a high regard for others, sees themselves as part of the community, believes that all students can succeed, and strive to make connections between their community, national, and global identities.
3.2.1.5. the teacher-student relationship is fluid extending to interactions beyond the classroom and into the community
3.2.1.6. the teacher demonstrates a connectedness with all students
3.2.1.7. the teacher encourages a "community of learners"
3.2.1.8. the teacher encourages students to learn collaboratively
3.2.1.9. students are expected to teach each other and be responsible for each other.
4. Equality of Oportunity
4.1. Educational Achievement and Attainment of Students with Special Needs
4.1.1. Parents of children with special needs (including physical and learning disabilities) began to put pressure on the educational system to serve their children more appropriately and effectively in the late 1960's.
4.1.2. Parent groups demanded that legislation ensure that their children receive an appropriate and adequate education, the parents argued that their children were treated as invisible and not given appropriate servies or were excluded entirely from schools.
4.1.3. in 1975 congress passed the Education of All Handicapped Children Law . This law contained 6 basic principles.
4.1.4. 1. The right of access to public education programs
4.1.5. 2. The individualization of services received in schools
4.1.6. 3. the principle of "least restrictive environment"
4.1.7. 4. the scope of broadened services to be provided by the schools and a set of procedures for determining them.
4.1.8. 5. the general guidelines foe identifying disability.
4.1.9. 6. the principles of primary state and local responsibilities.
4.1.10. The purpose of this law was to guarantee that children with special needs were properly identified and placed in appropriate classes, defined as the "least restrictive environment" . This meant that students should be placed in specially designated classes if they required such a placement and in regular classes with assistance if they could function I the mainstream.
4.1.11. The law was reauthorized in 1996 as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
4.2. Response to The Coleman Study
4.2.1. Geoffrey Borman and Maritza Dowling evaluate Coleman's study that partially confirm Coleman's original findings from 1966 as well as 1982
4.2.2. They concluded that were a student goes to school is often related to their race and socioeconomic background
4.2.3. racial and socioeconomic composition of a school has a greater effect on student achievement that an individual's race and class.
4.2.4. race and class are predictors of academic success
4.2.5. Disagreeing with Coleman, Borman and Dowling state that school segregation based on race and socioeconomic status and school interactions dominated by middle-class values are largely responsible for gaps in student achievement.
4.2.6. Borman and Dowling's study concludes that education reform must focus on eliminating the high level of segregation that remains in the U.S.'s education system and schools must bring an end to tracking systems and biases that favor white and middle-class students.
5. Educational Inequality
5.1. Sociological Explanation of Unequal Achievement
5.1.1. Functionalists Theorists
5.1.1.1. Expect that the schooling process will produce unequal results.
5.1.1.2. Believes that results should be based on individual differences between students, not on group differences.
5.1.1.3. although there is a persistent relationship between family background and educational outcomes, it does not in and of itself mean that the system fails to provide equality of opportunity.
5.1.1.4. 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 the foundation of liberal educational policy in the U.S. since the 1960s
5.1.2. Conflict Theorists
5.1.2.1. The fact that educational outcomes are to a large degree based on family background is fully consistent with th perspective of their belief that the role of schooling is to reproduce rather than eliminate inequality.
5.1.2.2. Conflict theorists are concerned with inequality and its eradication as well as equality of opportunity and results.
5.1.2.3. Conflict theorists do not believe that equality of opportunity is a sufficient goal.
5.2. School-Centered Explanation of Unequal Achievment
5.2.1. School Funding
5.2.2. Jonathan Kozol wrote "Savage Inequalities" in 1991 that compared public schools affluent suburbs with public schools in poor districts. This work called for the equalization in school financing.
5.2.3. Public schools are finaced through a combination of revenues from local, state, and federal sources however the majority of the of funds come from state and local taxes and local property taxes are a significant source.
5.2.4. Since property taxes are based on the value of property in the local communities, they are a proportional tax. Since property values are significantly higher in more affluent communities, those communities are able to raise significantly more money for schools through this form of taxation than poorer communities with lower property values.
5.2.5. Since families in more affluent communities have higher incomes, they pay proportionately less of their incomes for their higher school taxes.
5.2.6. More affluent communities are able to provide more per-pupil spending than poorer districts, often at a proportionately less burdensome rate than in poorer communities.
5.2.7. Serrano vs. Priest (1971): California Supreme Court rules the system of unequal school financing between wealthy and poor districts unconstitutional but did not declare the use of property taxes for school funding illegal.
6. Education For All: Emergence of Public High School
6.1. Compulsory school laws: increased to 27 states by 1890, by 1918 all states included.
6.2. Court Cases: Kalamazoo, Michigan- 1874- paves the way for the school districts' right to levy taxes to support public high schools.
6.3. Diane Ravitch- historian- pointed out four themes troubling in high school: 1. tension between classical subjects (Latin and Greek) and modern subjects (science, English lit, and foreign languages. 2. Problem of meeting college entrance requirements (different colleges had different requirements) 3. Educators had two different views (some believed in studying in subject that prepared for life, others wanted traditional academic subjects only). 4. should all students pursue the same course of study or should it be determined b the individual's interests and abilities?
6.4. Committee of Ten: formed by National Education Association headed by Harvard University president Charles Eliot, reported in 1893 that stated the purpose of secondary education was to prepare students for the "duties of life" and should teach "five model curricula"- classical and modern languages, English, mathematics, history, and science- a liberal arts curriculum.
6.5. Committee of Tem reinforced by 1. National Education Association's newly established committee on college entrance requirements 2. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's adoption of the same core courses "Carnegie units"
6.6. "Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education"- report from the NEA's Commission of the Reorganization of Secondary Schools.
6.7. Main Goals of the Cardinal Principles: 1. Health 2. Command of fundamental process 3. Worthy home-membership 4. Vocation 5. Citizenship 6. Worthy use of leisure 7. Ethical character
7. Politics of Education
7.1. Conservative Perspective
7.1.1. Darwinist Theory analysis of societies.
7.1.2. "Social Evolution"- process that enables the strongest individuals/groups to survive
7.1.3. Individuals and groups must compete in he social environment in order to survive
7.1.4. Human progress is dependent on individual initiative and drive.
7.1.5. "Free Market" (market economy) is the capitalism that is both most economically productive and is most respectful of human needs.
7.1.6. Places primary emphasis on the individual and suggests that individuals have the capacity to earn or not earn their place within a market economy.
7.1.7. Reagan Philosophy- individual initiative, portrayed the individual as the only capable of solving his or her own problems.
7.2. Progressive Visions
7.2.1. Views schools as central to solving social probmes.
7.2.2. vehicle for upward mobility
7.2.3. essential to the development of the individual's potential.
7.2.4. Schools are an integral part of a democratic society.
7.2.5. Progressives believe schools should be part of the steady progress to make things better.
8. History of U.S. Education
8.1. Equal Opportunity
8.1.1. Plessy vs. Ferguson: 1896- upheld Louisiana law that segregated by race; "separate but equal"
8.1.2. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the 1930s-1940s: campaigned to overthrow the law including school segregation
8.1.3. Booker T. Washington: 1895 in Tuskegee AL, gave "Atlanta Compromise Speech" that argued that blacks should be more thrifty and industrious, should pursue vocational education to prepare them for work in the new Southern industrial economy.
8.1.4. W.E.B. DuBois: 1903 publishes "The Souls of Black Folk" that criticized Booker T. Washington and called for academic education and Civil Rights protest against institutional racism.
8.1.5. Supreme Court Case: Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education- May 17, 1954- rules the state imposed segregation of schools was unconstitutional. Chief Justice: Earl Warren
8.1.6. Court Decision: Swamm vs. Charlotte-Mecklenbery (NC) School District- 2002- ruled that busing was no longer necessary to achieve racial balance to formerly integrated districts; resulting in re-segregation.
9. Philosophy of Education
9.1. Generic Notations
9.1.1. Pragmative/Progressive Educational Philosophy: John Dewey- instrumentalism and experimentalism "choudren could learn skills both experientally as well as from books, in addition to traditional information, which would enable them to work cooperatively in a democratic society.
9.2. Key Researchers
9.2.1. George Sanders Peirce, William James, ***John Dewey***
9.3. Goal of Education
9.3.1. 1. School should function as preparation for life in a democratic society. 2. school is a place where cause and effect theories could implemented 3. John Dewey: primary goal of education is GROWTH within the student. 4. to make sure that needs and interests are being met for the student
9.4. Role of Teacher
9.4.1. Teacher is a facilitator of knowledge, the teacher guides instruction in a fashion in which it is student lead, not teacher lead.
9.5. Method of Instruction
9.5.1. Student lead. The students are allowed to follow areas of personal interests in the individualized curriculum. Through solo-research as well as group projects, students follow the inquirery method or problem solving method of learning.
9.6. Curriculum
9.6.1. "curriculum must have a command of several disciplines in order to create and implement curriculum." John Dewey: Involves both traditional instruction as well as student interests.
10. Educational Reform and School Improvement
10.1. Teacher Education
10.1.1. American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) took an active role in raiding the debate as the opportunity to both recognize and improve the problematic conditions under which most of their members work.
10.1.2. Teacher education and schools and colleges of education began to be analyzed
10.1.3. 3 major issues within teaching education: 1. perceived lack of rigor and intellectual demands in teacher education programs. 2. the need to attract and retain competent teacher candidates. 3. necessity to reorganize the academic and professional components of teacher education programs at both the baccalaureate and post-baccalaureate levels.
10.1.4. Carnegie and Holmes reports focus on the same general concerns:
10.1.5. 1. overall educational problems cannot be solved without corresponding changes in teacher education
10.1.6. 2. teacher education must be upgraded in terms of rigor and focus, emphasizes liberal arts, their need to eliminate undergraduate teacher ed. programs, and move professional training and certification to the graduate level.
10.1.7. 3. Rigorous standards of entry into the profession must be implemented and systematic examinations to monitor such entry must be developed.
10.1.8. 4. university teacher education programs and schools must be connected in a more systematic and cooperative manner
10.1.9. 5. Career ladders that recognize differences in knowledge, skill, and commitment must be created for teachers
10.1.10. 6. necessary changes must be made in the schools and the professional lives of teachers in order to attract and retain the most competent candidates for the profession
10.2. Economic
10.2.1. Rodriguez vs. San Antonio (1973) Supreme Court declared there is no constitutional right to an equal education, school finance equity and adequacy advocates litigated at the state level.
10.2.2. Robinson vs. Cahill (1970) filled against the state of New Jersey, citing discrimination in funding for some school districts which prosecutors believed was creating disparities in urban students' education by failing to provide all students with a "thorough and efficient" education
10.2.3. Education Law Center filed Abbott vs. Burke on behalf of several urban school districts also due to a violation of the "through and efficient" clause.
10.2.4. Court ruled in 1990 that more funding was needed to serve the children in poorer school districts. In order to provide the "through and efficient education" in urban districts, funding was equalized between urban and suburban school districts. Also, extra funding was to be distributed to provide additional programs in order to eliminate disadvantages within poorer school districts.
10.2.5. 1998- state was required to implement a package of supplemental programs, including preschool, as well as a plan to renovate urban school facilities. this is a comprehensively managed and funded facilities program to correct code violations; a plane to eliminate overcrowding, and to provide adequate space for all educational programs.
10.2.6. Other supplemental programs included social services, increased security, a technology alternative education, school-to-work, after-school, and summer-school programs.