1. Schools as Organizations
1.1. Structure of the U.S. Education
1.1.1. 1. Most U.S. public schools are paid for by the revenue that is raised by local property taxes. As a consequence, taxpayers within a particular school district have a substantial stake in the schools within their districts and are able to make thier voices heard through community school boards.
1.1.2. 2. Student composition of the U.S. schools is becoming more diverse, at the same time that there has been a trend toward increasing residential segregartion. Students composition can also be viewed along other dimensions such as gender, class, ethnicity, and even ability.
1.1.3. 3. In this sense, the U.S. school system is quite open. All children are entitled to enroll into public schools and to remain in school until they graduate. There is a powerful democratic underlining the belief in the common school.
1.2. International Comparisons
1.2.1. 1. Great Britain- Before the 19th century, the education of children in Great Britian was considered to be a responsibility of parents. All schools were private. For the children of very wealthy families, parents often hired tutors. For poor children, there was no schooling. During the 19th century, there was a system of charity schools for the poor, and most school were operated by religious organizations.
1.2.2. 2. Germany- Germany selects and sorts its children at a relatively young age and tracks them into a tripartitesystem of secondary education ( Mitter, 1992) It is marked by a rigorous university preparatory track and two vocational and technical tracks, with a state-supported apprenticeship system.
1.2.3. 3. Finland- Exceeds in test scores on math, science and literacy exams admisistered by PISA (Program for International Students Assessment). They specialize in problem solving skills, analysis, and writing. (Darling Hammond, 2010)
2. Curricculum and Pedagogy
2.1. The Developmentalist Curriculum
2.1.1. 1. This curriculum is focused more on the needs ad interests of students rather than the needs of society.
2.1.2. 2. This curriculum is emanated from the aspects of Dewey's writings related to the relationship between the child and the curriculum.
2.1.3. This approach is student centered and is concerned with relating the curriculum to to the needs and interests of the students at particular developmental stages.
2.2. Transformative Tradition
2.2.1. 1. The purpose of education is to change the student in some meaningful way.
2.2.2. 2. All teachings begin with active participation from both the teacher and the students.
2.2.3. 3. Specific classroom goals that allows student growth. Goals that allow the student to be a crucial part of the learning process.
3. Equality of Opportunity
3.1. Students with Special Needs
3.1.1. Concerned with the apporpriate placement of students with special educational needs.
3.1.2. Putting pressure on the education system to serve their children more appropriately and effectively.
3.1.3. children often treated as invisable and not given appropriate services, or in some cases, excluded from schools, parents, and group demands.
3.2. The Coleman Study
3.2.1. Round 1. African American students and White students had fundamentally different schooling experiences. The differences bwtween school were not particularly important in determining students otcomes when compared to the differences in student body compositions between schools.
3.2.2. Round 2. Comparing and contrasting public schools and private schools. Arguing that a private school had more effective learning environments. Private schools also enforce discipline in a way that is consistent with student achievement.
3.2.3. Round 3. School segregation based on race and socioeconomic status and within school interactions dominated by middle class values are largely responsible for gaos in students achievement.
4. Educational Inequality
4.1. Functionalist
4.2. 1. Believe that the role of school is to provide a fair and meritocratic selection process for sorting out the best and brightest individuals, regardless of family background.
4.3. 2. The functionalists vision of society is one where individual talent and hard work based on individual principles of evaluation are more important than ascriptive characteristics based on particulatstic methods of evaluation
4.4. 3. For functionalists 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.
4.5. Cultural Difference Theories
4.6. 1.Theorists agree that there are cultural and family differences between working-class and nonwhite students, and white and middle class students.
4.7. The key difference in this perspective is that although cultural difference theorists acknowledge the impact of student differences, they do not blame working class and non white families for educational problems.
4.8. 3. Rather, they attribute cultural differences to social forces such as poverty, racism, discrimination, and unequal life chances.
5. Educational Reform
5.1. Charter Schools
5.1.1. 1. Charter school are public schools that are free from many regulations applied to traditional public schools., and in return are geld accountable for student performance.
5.1.2. 2. The "charter" itself is a performance contract that details the school's mission, program, goals, students served, methods of assessment, and ways to measure success.
5.1.3. 3. They produce the results in the ways they think best, for charter schools are self-governing institutions with wide control over their own curriculum, instruction, staffing, budget, internal organization, calendar, etc.
5.2. Community
5.2.1. 1.Leadership as the driver for change, parent-community tips, and professional capacity
5.2.2. 2. student-centered learning climate, instructional guidance
5.2.3. 3. meaningful learning goals, intelligent, reciprocal accountability systems, equitable and adequate resources, strong professional standards and supports, and schools organized for student and teacher learning.
6. Politics of Education
6.1. The Liberal Perspective
6.1.1. 1. Origins in the 20th century, in the works of the U.S. plilosopher John Dewey, and, Historically, in the progressive era of U.S. politics from the 1880's to the 1930's.
6.1.2. 2. The Liberal Perspective, although accepting the conservative belief in a market capitalist economy, believes that the free market, if left unregulated, is prone to signifigant abuses, particularly to thoses groups who are disadvantaged economically and politically. Thus, the liberal perspective insists that government involvement in the economic, political, and social areans is necessary to ensure fair treatment to all citizens and to ensure a healthy economy.
6.1.3. 3. Because liberals place a heavy emphasis on issues of equality, espically equality of opportunity, and because they believe that the capitalist system often gives unfair advantages to those with wealth and power, liberals assert that the role of the government it to ensure the fair treatment of all citizens, is to ensure that the quality of opportunity exists, and to minimize exceedinly great differences in the life chances and life outcomes of the country's richest and poorest citizens. Moreover, liberals believe that individuals effort alone is sometimes insufficient and that the government must sometimes intercede on behalf of those in need. Finally, the liberal perspective on social problems stresses that groups rather then individuals are affected by the structures of society, so solutions to social ptoblems must address group dymanics rather than individuals alone.
6.2. Progressive Vision
6.2.1. 1. Tend to view the schools as a 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 a democratic society.
6.2.2. 2. Believe that schools should be a part of the steady progress to make things better.
6.2.3. 3. Progressive visions encompass the left liberal to the radical spectrums.
7. History of U.S. Education
7.1. Cycles of Reform (Porgressive)
7.1.1. 1. Experiential Education. The opportunity to give students the freedom to learn from trial and error.
7.1.2. 2. A curriculum that respondes to the needs of the students and the times.
7.1.3. 3.Child centered education. Every child will not come into the classroom with the same learning styles. As a teacher you have to be willing and able to change, in order to fit the learning style of the student.
7.1.4. 4. Freedom and Individualism. Providing opportunities for students to explore and learn in a confortable accessable environment.
7.2. Distinct movements toward progressive reform.
7.2.1. 1. Civil Rights Movement, led to an emphasis on equity issues.
7.2.2. 2. Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Emphasized the education of disadvantaged children. Second, in the context of the antiwar movement of the times, the general criticism of the U.S. society, and the persistent failure of the schools to ameliorate problems of poverty and of racial minorities, a "new progressivism" developed that linked the failure of schools to the problem in society.
7.2.3. 3. Usheres in by the publication of A.S. Neill's Summerhill in 1960- a book about an English boarding school with few, if any, rules, and that was dedicated to the happiness of the child- the new progressivism provided an intellectual and pedagogical assault on the putative of sins of traditional education, its authoritianism, its racism, its misplaced values of intellectualism, and its failure to meet the emotional and phychological needs of children.
8. Sociological Perspectives
8.1. Theoretical Perspectives
8.1.1. 1. Functional Theories- begins with a picture of society that stresses the interdependence of the social system; this research often examines how well that parts are integrated with each other. The earliest sociologist to embrace a functionalism point of view about the relation of school and society was Emile Durkheim.
8.1.2. 2. Conflict Theories- from a conflict point of view, schools are similar to social battlefields, where students struggle against teachers, teachers against administration, and so on. Conflict sociologists emphasize and focus on the struggle.
8.1.3. 3.Interactional Theories - this level of analysis helps in understanding education in the "big picture" what do students and teachers actually do in school? This theory attempts to make the commonplace strange by turning on their heads everyday taken-for-granted behavior and interactions between students and students, and between students and teachers.
8.2. Impacts and Effects of Schooling on Individuals
8.2.1. 1. Teachers and students. Teachers are the pathway for higher education. Yes, the students have to put forth effort and be ready and willing to learn, but the impact a teacher has on a student is far greater.
8.2.2. 2. Does there have to be conflict on and in the education field? Teachers have to be willing to research, change, and adapt in every situation. Doing that , the teacher make a safe and welcoming learning environments. Students will know that while their teacher is knowledgeable their teacher is also human. There will be room for mistakes, changes, and growth, for both the students and the teachers.
8.2.3. 3. Overall experience in a daily school setting can shape a student into who they will eventually become. Student to student relationship, student to teacher relationship, and teacher to teacher relationship plays a tremendous roll in the everyday activities on a student.