1. •Schools as Organizations
1.1. Alabama Senators
1.1.1. Jeff Sessions
1.1.2. Richard Shelby
1.2. Alabama Representatives
1.2.1. Bradley Byrne
1.2.2. Martha Roby
1.2.3. Mike Rogers
1.2.4. Robert Aderholt
1.2.5. Mo Brooks
1.2.6. Spencer Bachus
1.2.7. Terri Sewell
1.3. Alabama State School Board
1.3.1. State Superintendent: Tommy Bice
1.3.2. Governor Robert J. Bentley
1.3.3. Jeffery Newman
1.3.4. Yvette Richardson
1.3.5. Matthew S. Brown
1.3.6. Betty Peters
1.3.7. Stephanie Bell
1.3.8. Ella B. Bell
1.3.9. Cynthia Sanders McCarty
1.3.10. Mary Scott Hunter
1.4. Morgan County
1.4.1. Superintendent: Bill Hopkins
1.4.2. Morgan County Board: Jimmy Dobbs, Tom Earwood, Paul Holmes, Billy Rhodes, Mike Tarpley, Adam Glenn, Jeff McLemore
1.5. JAPAN
1.5.1. Japanese education is highly competitive. To be admitted to a prestigious university, one must pass extremely competitive examinations. The emphasis is on achievement and attainment.
1.5.2. The Japanese work ethic benefits the education, but it is also the strong belief in the value of education that separates the Japanese from other countries. This belief led to a phenomenon called "double schooling."
1.5.3. The Japanese system has its own struggles since it places such importance on moral education, thus causing debate over national character.
2. Politics of Education
2.1. Conservative Perspective
2.1.1. views social evolution as process the enables the strongest to survive
2.1.2. human progress is dependent on individual initiative and drive
2.1.3. believes the free market or market economy of capitalism is the most economically productive economic system, and it's most respectful of human needs
2.1.4. the conservative perspective places its primary emphasis on the individual, and it suggests that the individual has the capacity to either earn or not earn his/her place in a free market economy
2.2. Traditional Vision of Education
2.2.1. views the schools as necessary to the transmission of the traditional values of U.S. society, such as hard work, family unity, individual initiative, etc.
2.2.2. believes the schools should pass on the best of what was and what is
3. •Philosophy of Education
3.1. Existentialism
3.1.1. Generic Notions
3.1.1.1. Existentialists pose questions as to how their concerns impacts the lives of individuals.
3.1.1.2. They basically believe that individuals are placed on this earth alone, and they must make some sense out of the chaos they encounter.
3.1.2. Key Researchers
3.1.2.1. Some important existentialists include Soren Kierkegaard (founder), Martin Buber, Karl Jaspers, Jean Paul Sartre, and Maxine Greene.
3.1.3. Goal of Education
3.1.3.1. Existentialists believe that education should focus on needs of individuals.
3.1.3.2. They also believe that individuality should be stressed, including the discussion of the non-rational and rational world, and tensions of living in the world should be addressed.
3.1.4. Role of the Teacher
3.1.4.1. The role of a teacher is considered to be an intensely personal one that carries tremendous responsibility.
3.1.4.2. Teachers should understand their own "lived worlds" and help their students understand their "lived worlds." They also should take risks, expose themselves to resistant students, and work to enable their students to become "wide awake."
3.1.5. Methods of Instruction
3.1.5.1. Existentialists abhor methods of instructions, and they believe that each child has a different learning style.
3.1.5.2. "The role of the teacher is to help students understand the world through posing questions, generating activities, and working together.
3.1.6. Curriculum
3.1.6.1. Existentialists would have a curriculum that is heavily geared towards the humanities, since literature is able to evoke certain responses that might lead the readers to new levels of awareness.
3.1.6.2. They believe in exposing students to problems and possibilities and horrors and accomplishments of mankind.
4. •History of U.S. Education
4.1. Public Education Reform
4.1.1. Horace Mann led this reform, and he lobbied for a state board of education. His annual reports served as models for public school reforms throughout the nation.
4.1.2. Horace Mann's efforts helped lead to the first state normal school.
4.1.3. Mann also fought for the establishment of common schools (free publicly funded education) which would address the concern for stability and order, and it would also address the concern for social mobility.
4.1.4. Many historians view Mann as one of America's greatest educational reformers.
4.1.5. I think that this reform (led by Horace Mann) has been the most important education reform, because it has given us the foundation our free public education system that we have today.
4.2. Conservative Perspective of U.S. Education
4.2.1. Those who have a conservative perspective (with regards to a historical interpretation of U.S. education) believe that the evolution of U.S. education has resulted in the dilution of academic excellence.
4.2.2. I would side with the conservatives on this issue, but I would also agree with the democratic-liberal goal of equality of opportunity and mobility through education.
5. •Sociological Perspectives
5.1. Functional Theory
5.1.1. I would side with the functionalist, who view society as a machine, where one part articulates with another to produce the dynamic energy required to make society work.
5.2. Effects of Schooling on Individuals
5.2.1. Social Class Background
5.2.1.1. Coleman and colleagues, and Jencks and colleagues believe that differences between schools account for very little difference in student achievement.
5.2.1.2. However, Ron Edmonds (along with other research) disagree with Coleman and Jencks. I also agree with Ron Edmonds, and I believe that better and more schooling creates more learning, thus creating better student outcomes.
5.2.2. More Education Creates More Employment Opportunities
5.2.2.1. In 2011, college graduates earned a little over $20,000 more per year than high school graduates.
5.2.2.2. From my own personal experiences, I know that in today's world, it is hard to get a decent job without a college degree, but what if you can't afford to get a college degree? Thus, I believe that the amount of schooling and the quality of that schooling have a major effect on the outcome of an individual.
5.2.3. Education and Mobility
5.2.3.1. This is the thought process that more education leads to economic and social mobility; individuals rise and fall based on their merit.
5.2.3.2. Because we live in a capitalist society that emphasizes the success of an individual, I believe that merit influences an individual's position in society.
6. •Curriculum and Pedagogy
6.1. Developmentalist Curriculum
6.1.1. This curriculum focuses on the needs and interests of the student rather than the needs of society.
6.1.2. Emanates from John Dewey's writings and Jean Piaget's developmental stages.
6.1.3. The developmental curriculum stressed the importance of relating schooling to the life experiences of each child in a way that would make education come alive in a meaningful manner.
6.1.4. The teacher is considered a facilitator of student growth rather than a transmitter of knowledge.
6.2. Functionalist Theory
6.2.1. Functionalists believe the role of the schools is to integrate children into the existing social order.
6.2.2. This theory purports that the role of curriculum is to give students the knowledge, language, and values to ensure social stability.
7. •Equality of Opportunity
7.1. Educational Achievement and Attainment of Hispanics
7.1.1. 17.6% of Hispanic-American students are likely to drop out of high school, whereas only 5.2% of white students and 9.3% of African-American students are likely to drop out of school among 16-24 years-old.
7.1.2. 89% of white students will be able to read at the intermediate level (ability to search for specific information, interrelate ideas, and make generalizations about literature, science, and social studies) by the age of 17, whereas only 70% of Hispanic-Americans are reading at the intermediate level by the age of 17.
7.1.3. According to the graphs given on pages 345-347 of the textbook, there is a significant gap between the scores of Hispanic students and Black students vs. the scores of White students in reading and writing and at all three different test ages (9 years old, 13 years old, and 17 years old).
7.1.4. For persons of both sexes 25 years old or older, 92.1% of whites graduated from high school and 33.3% received a bachelor's degree, whereas 62.7% of Hispanic-Americans graduated from high school and only 13.9% received a bachelor's degree.
7.2. Response to Coleman Study: Round Three
7.2.1. Geoffrey Borman and Maritza Dowling applied sophisticated tools to evaluate educational data similar to Coleman's studies in 1966 and 1982. They found that "going to a high poverty school or a highly segregated African American school has a profound effect on a student's achievement outcomes, above and beyond the effect of individual poverty or minority status."
7.2.2. Borman and Dowling's study focuses on the fact that education reform must focus on eliminating the high level of segregation that remains in the United States' education system and that schools must bring an end to tracking systems and biases that favor white and middle-class students.
8. •Educational Inequality
8.1. Functionalist Explanation of Unequal Achievement
8.1.1. The role of schools is to provide a fair and meritocratic selection process for sorting out the best and brightest individuals, regardless of family background.
8.1.2. Functionalists believe that unequal educational outcomes are the result, in part, of unequal educational opportunities.
8.1.3. Functionalists seek to eliminate structural barriers to educational success to provide all groups a fair chance to compete in the educational marketplace.
8.2. School Financing
8.2.1. The belief that educational inequalities are caused, in part, by differences in funding for certain schools.
8.2.2. Most public schools are financed through revenues from local, state, and federal sources, with the majority of funds coming from state and local taxes. Property taxes are are also a significant source.
8.2.3. Serrano vs. Priest rulled the system of unequal school financing between wealthy and poor districts unconstitutional, but it did not declare the use of property taxes to be illegal.
9. •Educational Reform
9.1. Teacher Education
9.1.1. Based on 5 major reports in 1986, the debate on teacher education revolved around 3 issues.
9.1.1.1. The perceived lack of rigor and intellectual demands in teacher education programs.
9.1.1.2. The need to attract and retain competent teacher candidates.
9.1.1.3. The necessity to reorganize the academic and professional components of teacher education programs at both the baccalaureate and post-baccalaureate levels.
9.2. School Finance Reforms
9.2.1. Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Rodriguez vs. San Antonio declared that there is no constitutional right to an equal education, school finance equity, and adequacy advocates at the state level.
9.2.2. The Education Law Center field Abbott vs. Burke on behalf of several urban school districts also due to a violation of the "thorough and efficient" clause.
9.2.2.1. The court ruled in 1990 that more funding was needed to serve the children in the poorer school districts, by equalizing funding between urban and suburban school districts.
9.2.3. In 2009, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled a new funding formula (SFRA) to be constitutional, and this eliminated the Abbott remedies and implemented a formula for allocating funding to all districts based on student needs.