1. Politics of Education
1.1. Liberal Traditionalist
1.1.1. Liberal Perspective is a model for understanding, solving, and analyzing educational problems.
1.1.2. Liberal Perspective believe that programs should enhance equality of opportunity for disadvantaged groups.
1.1.3. Liberals believe in programs such as; Headstart, affirmative action programs, compensatory higher education programs, ect...
1.1.4. Traditional Vision views the schools as necessary to the transmission of the traditional values.
1.1.5. Traditionalist believe in hard work, family unity, individual initiative, ect.
2. History of U.S. Education
2.1. Equality
2.1.1. Brown V. Board of Education
2.1.2. With the court case Brown v. the Board the supreme Court ruled that state-imposed segregation of schools was unconstitutional.
2.1.3. Desegregation makes it where all students regardless of color can be treated as equal and be aloud to learn the same.
2.1.4. There were many African Americans that contributed to help desegregate schools; Booker T Washington, WEB DuBois being two.
2.1.5. There were many court cases of segregation in schools throughout the years.
3. Sociological Perspectives
3.1. Functional Theories
3.1.1. Functionalist view society as a kind of machine, where one part articulates with anothet to produce the dynamic energy required to make society work.
3.1.2. Schools socialize students into the appropriate values, and sort students according to their abilities.
3.2. Influences
3.2.1. Teachers are some of the biggest influences in the school. Teachers are models for students and instructional leaders.
3.2.2. Parents are also role models in a students life. The parents teach the child outside of school. Parents do what the teachers run out of time to do during the day. Parents teach after school, in the summer, and on the weekends.
3.2.3. Peers are also influences on their friends and other students. When one student does something most of the time other students follow
4. Philosophy of Education
4.1. Idealism
4.1.1. Idealism was founded by philosophers Plato, he generated his ideas from Socrates.
4.1.2. Educators who subscribe to idealism are interested in the search for truth through ideas rather than through the examination of the false shadowy world of matter.
4.1.3. The teacher's responsibility is to analyze and discuss ideas with students in order for students to move to new levels and transform.
4.1.4. Idealist teachers take an active part in the students learning, students do group work and research projects.
4.1.5. Many idealist take it back to basics and teach from the Great Books.
5. Schools as Organizations
5.1. State Senator: Richard Shelby and Jefferson Sessions
5.1.1. Richard Shelby and Jefferson Sessions
5.2. House of Represenitives:
5.3. State Superintendent:
5.3.1. Tommy Bice
5.4. representative on state school board
5.5. local superintendent
5.5.1. Jason Adkins
5.6. local school board
6. Curriculum and Pedagogy
6.1. Humanist Curriculum
6.1.1. Reflects the idealist philosophy.
6.1.2. Knowledge of the traditional liberal arts is the cornerstone of an educated citizenry.
6.2. Socialogical Curriculum
6.2.1. Focuses not only what is taught but also why it is taught.
6.2.2. Reflection of a particular interest within a society.
6.2.3. Hidden Curriculum, what is taught to students through implicit rules and messages.
7. Equality of Opportunity
7.1. Achievement and Attainment of African Americans or hispanics
7.1.1. An individual's race has a direct impact on how much education he or she is likely to achieve.
7.1.2. Minorities do not receive the same educational opportunities as whites.
7.1.3. The rewards for educational attainment are significantly less than that of whites.
7.2. The Colman Study (1966)
7.2.1. African American students and white students had fundamentally different schooling experiences.
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. Functionalist sociological explanation
8.1.1. schooling process will produce unequal results.
8.1.2. They believe that it is unlikely that even with equality of opportunity there could be patterns of unequal results.
8.1.3. Schooling process is somewhat meritocratic and that educational inequalities are caused by factors outside the school.
8.2. School-centered explanations
8.2.1. In a court case it was ruled that the system of unequal school financing between wealthy and poor districts is unconstitutional.
8.2.2. School Financing is one school centered explanation.
9. Educational Reform
9.1. One School-based reform is Privatization.
9.1.1. With Private education companies increasingly become involved in public education in a variety of ways.
9.1.2. The success of this reform has had mixed results based on Bulkley, Henig, and Levin.
9.2. A political reform is mayoral reform.
9.2.1. It is favored by the neo-liberal reform.
9.2.2. eliminates corruption, leads to effective and efficient management and budgets, increases student achievement, and reduces political battles.