1. History of U.S. Education
1.1. Reform Movement
1.1.1. John Dewey wanted to reconstruct schools by using "embryonic communities".
1.1.1.1. He wanted to create a curriculum that would use a child's interest for development.
1.1.1.1.1. He created the Laboratory School at the University of Chicago, where the children learned through an integrated curriculum.
1.2. Historical Interpretation
1.2.1. Old Deluder Laws required parents to provide their children with a basic education and reading of the Bible, they would be taken away.
2. Sociological Perspectives
2.1. The Relation between School and Society
2.1.1. It is believed that educators cannot understand how schools operate.
2.1.1.1. Socialization - is the values, beliefs, and norms of society within children, where they will act as society.
2.1.1.1.1. Schools play a part of being successful and unsuccessful in society.
2.2. Theoretical Perspectives- thoughts and ideas pertaining to a specific area study.
2.2.1. Functional Theories
2.2.2. Emile Durkheim believed education to be a critical for the moral unity of social harmony
2.2.3. Functionalists assume that consensus is normal in state and causes a breakdown of shared values.
2.2.4. Conflict Theories
2.2.5. Some sociologists believed in dominating others.
2.2.6. Karl Marx believed class systems were unpreventable and there would be an overthrow of capitalists.
2.2.7. Randall Collins argued educational credentials are a status symbol and not an indication of achievement.
2.2.8. Interactional Theories
2.2.9. The "big picture" of understanding education.
2.2.10. Basil Bernstein argued the structural and interactional aspects of education should be viewed as a whole. Especially including speech patterns.
2.3. The 3 effects of schooling on individuals that have the greatest impact on students.
2.3.1. Knowledge and Attitudes
2.3.2. Coleman and Jencks believes there is not a difference in the schools background that effects the students success.
2.3.3. Heyns found that students who attended summer read more and gained greater knowledge, by spending more time in school.
2.3.4. Teacher Behavior
2.3.5. Role strain maybe a contribution of teacher burnout, since teachers have to wear many hats.
2.3.6. Self-fulfilling prophecy indicates that labeling students will either lift students spirits or bring them down and they cannot succeed.
2.3.7. Education and Inequality
2.3.8. United States consist of five classes.
2.3.9. Social stratification are those who are oppressed by their social
3. Schools as Organizations
3.1. Major Stakeholders
3.2. 1. Alabama State Senators - Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions
3.3. 2. Alabama House of Representatives - Mike Hubbard
3.4. 3. Alabama State Superintendent - Dr. Tommy Bice
3.5. 4. Alabama Representative on State School Board - 1.Governor Robert Bentley 2. Thomas R. Bice 3. Jeffery Newman 4. Yvette Richardson 5. Matthew S. Brown 6. Betty Peters 7. Ella B. Bell 8. Cynthia Sanders McCarty 9. Mary Scott
3.6. 5. Tuscaloosa Superintendent - Dr. Paul McKendrick
3.7. 6. Tuscaloosa School Board - 1. Mr. Lee Garrison 2. Mr. Norman Crow 3. Mr. Cason Kirby 4. Mrs. Earnestine Tucker 5. Mr. Harry Lee 6. Mr. Marvin Lucas 7. Mr. Erskine Simmons 8. Rev. Clarence Sutton Sr.
3.8. Comparison of another country's education system - France -
3.9. 1. The central government in France controls the educational system right down to the classroom level.
3.10. 2. Two public school systems - one for ordinary people and one for the elite.
3.11. 3. George Male says the French educational system is "excessively verbal." The French students are taught to frame ideas as an end unto itself, a matter of aesthetics.
3.12. 4. Objective of the French system is to produce a small number of highly qualified intellectuals by instituting a set of examinations.
3.13. 5. In 1984 the socialist government proposed to reduce State grants to private Catholic schools.
3.14. 6. The French educational system has become more democratic, where a third of 17 and 18 year olds enroll in the highest education with only 15% graduating from college.
3.15. 7. The top 10% of secondary students compete to enter the grandes ecoles, where entrance is based on meritocratic selection that is related with social class background.
4. Philosophy of Education
4.1. Pragmatism-problem-speculative thought-action-results. Progressive Education
4.1.1. Instrumentalism - Pragmatic relationship between school and society.
4.1.1.1. Experimentalism - The application of ideas through an experimental basis.
4.2. Generic notions
4.3. Dewey's ideas were influenced by theory of evolution and progress.
4.4. The school became an "embryonic community", where children learn by experiment an books.
4.5. He believed children were active, growing, and changing through stages of development.
4.6. He also thought the school should include the community in order to enable students to have a societal roles to live in a democratic way.
4.7. Key researchers
4.8. Charles Darwin-Theory of natural selection included interactions between organism and environment.
4.9. George Counts and Theodore Brameld-viewed schools as vehicles for improving and changing society.
4.10. Goal of Education
4.11. Ideas should be implemented, challenged, and restructured to provide students knowledge to improve social order.
4.12. Believed schools should have a balance in society and community.
4.13. To be prepared as adults in a more democratic order, schools should instill democratic and cooperative values.
4.14. Diana Ravitch believes that Dewey's philosophy were misunderstood and misapplied because of the problem of integrating diverse groups within the community.
4.15. Role of Teacher
4.16. Not seen as an authoritarian figure, but as a facilitator, who encourages, questions, and helps plan and implement courses.
4.17. Methods of Instruction
4.18. Children should begin by posing questions about what they want to know.
4.19. Rote memorization was replaced by individual study, problem solving and the project method.
4.20. Curriculum
4.21. Progressive schools = integrated curriculum is balance.
4.22. Progressive educators support contemporary problems and working from the known to the unknown.
5. Politics of Education
5.1. Perspective
5.1.1. Liberal
5.1.2. Role of the School
5.1.2.1. The liberals believes in equality of opportunity, where the school role is providing the education so that all students have an equal opportunity to succeed.
5.1.2.1.1. Liberals see the role of education as balancing the needs of society in an individual manner.
5.1.3. Explanations of Unequal Educational Performance
5.1.3.1. Students begin school with different life chances, so society through policies should to equalize the playing field.
5.1.4. Definition of Educational Problems
5.1.4.1. Schools have shortened the chances of poor and minority children and underachievement is at a high.
5.1.4.1.1. Schools concentrate on discipline and not developing students as individuals.
5.1.5. Educational Policy and Reform
5.1.5.1. Policies should work on improving failing schools and making them effective.
5.1.5.1.1. Programs should make opportunities available for disadvantage groups.
5.1.6. Education and the American Dream
5.1.6.1. Liberals are concerned with the social and politics of school more than the economics.
5.1.6.1.1. Liberals believe the government has been slow to recognize being different is important.
5.1.7. From Political Perspectives to the Politics of Education
5.1.7.1. Plato believed education is to create a social stable society.
5.1.7.1.1. John Locke believed that families should have a say in what their children are taught, since they know best what interests them.
5.2. Vision of Education
5.2.1. Progressive
5.2.2. Views the schools as central to solving social problems
5.2.2.1. A vehicle for upward mobility
5.2.2.1.1. Essential to the development of individual potential
6. Educational Reform
6.1. School-based reform
6.2. School-to-Work Programs
6.3. 1. In the 90's, school-business partnerships became incorporated into school-to-work programs, that extended a vocational emphasis to non-college bound students to gain skills for successful employment.
6.4. 2. President Bill Clinton signed the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 to provide seed money to states and local partnerships of business, labor, government, education, and community organizations.
6.5. 3. The law did not create a new program, but it allowed states and their partners to bring together efforts at education reform and prepare youth for high-wage and high-skill careers.
6.6. 4. States and their partnerships were encouraged to design the school-to-work system that made the most sense, while using the federal seed money.
6.7. 5. Every state and locally created school-to-work system had to contain three core elements: 1. school-based learning; 2. work-based learning; and 3. connecting activities.
6.8. 6. Researchers suggest that these programs often fail to fulfill their promise.
6.9. 7. The U.S. vocational education remains a second class educational track and when students do not wish to go on to postsecondary education are not given adequate career paths.
6.10. Societal, Community, Economic, and Political Reforms
6.10.1. School Finance Reform
6.10.2. 1. In 1973 the decision in Rodriguez v. San Antonio declared there is no constitutional right to an equal education.
6.10.3. 2. In 1970, Robinson v. Cahill was filed against the state of New Jersey, citing discrimination in funding for some school districts, where it is believed to create disparities in urban students' education by failing to provide all students with a thorough and efficient education.
6.10.4. 3. In 1998 Abbott V implemented entitlements for urban schools, whole school reforms, full day kindergarten, preschool for all 3 and 4 year olds.
6.10.5. 4. The difference between Abbott and other school finance decisions is to equalizing funding.
6.10.6. 5. In 1993, New York state began its own 16 year battle for equity in education. A group of concerned parents and advocates came together under the CFE to challenge the state to provide a sound basic education.
6.10.7. 6. In CFE v. State of New York, the State Supreme Court found the state school funding formula to be unconstitutional in 2001.
7. Equality of Opportunity
7.1. Educational achievement and attainment of one marginalized population
7.2. Students with special needs - Parents believed that their children were often treated as invisible and not given appropriate services.
7.3. In 1975, Congress passed the Education of All Handicapped Children Law (EHA).
7.4. 1. The right of access to public education programs
7.5. 2. The individualization of services
7.6. 3. The principle of "least restrictive environment"
7.7. 4. The scope of broadened services to be provided by the schools and a set of procedures for determining them.
7.8. 5. The general guidelines for identifying disability.
7.9. 6. The principles of primary state, and local responsibilities.
7.10. Purpose of law is to guarantee that children with special needs were properly identified and placed in appropriate classes - Less restrictive environment.
7.11. In the 1980s the law produced adverse effects, such as the over-identification of students with handicap conditions, failure of students to make it back into the mainstream, and overrepresentation of minority students.
7.12. One response to the Coleman Study
7.13. A. Round One - Ron Edmonds argued that all students could learn and that differences between schools had a significant impact on student learning.
7.14. 1. A school has little effect on his or her cognitive growth or educational mobility.
7.15. 2. In the 1970s research began to examine the effects of magnet schools on student learning, which schools that were innovative, learner centered, and mission driven could make a difference in how students learn.
7.16. B. Round Two - High School Achievement
7.17. 1. Jencks computed the estimated yearly achievement gain of public and Catholic school students.
7.18. 2. Catholic schools have an advantage with low-income minority students in urban areas.
7.19. C. Round Three -
7.20. 1. The school a child attends is related to their race and socioeconomic background, but the racial and socioeconomic composition of a school will effect a child's achievement.
7.21. 2. Borman and Dowling argue that school segregation based on race and socioeconomic status, dominated by middle-class values are the cause of gaps in a child's achievement.
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. Sociological explanation of unequal achievement
8.1.1. Functionalists
8.2. 1. They believe that 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.
8.3. 2. Their vision of a just society is where individual talent and hard work based on universal principles of evaluation are more important than characteristics based on methods of evaluation.
8.4. 3. Will expect that schooling process will produce unequal results, but these results should be based on individual differences between students, not group differences.
8.5. 4. There is a possibility that even with equality of opportunity there could be these patterns of unequal results.
8.6. 5. Believe that unequal educational outcomes are the result, of unequal educational opportunities.
8.7. 6. It is imperative to understand the sources of educational inequality so as to ensure the elimination of structural barriers to educational success and provide all groups a fair chance to compete in the educational marketplace.
8.8. School-centered explanation
8.8.1. School Financing
8.8.2. 1. Public schools are financed through a combination of revenues from local, state, and federal sources.
8.8.3. 2. Property taxes are based on the value of the property and with property values significantly higher in more affluent communities, they raise more money for schools through this than poorer communities with lower property value.
8.8.4. 3. In Serrano v. Priest, the California Supreme Court ruled the system of unequal school financing between wealthy and poor districts unconditional, but it did not declare the use of property taxes for school funding illegal.
8.8.5. 4. Justice Thurgood Marshall stated the decision represented a move away from a commitment to equality of opportunity.
8.8.6. 5. In Abbott v. Burke the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the funding differences between rich and poor districts was unconstitutional. This resulted in the Quality Education Act being implemented.
8.8.7. 6. Critics of school financing believe equalization is a moral imperative, but there is not widespread agreement.