1. The Politics of Education
1.1. Conservative
1.1.1. As a conservative, that was an idea developed by sociologist William Graham Summer, the idea looks at social evolution as a process that enables the strongest individuals to survive and looks at human and social evolution as adaptation to changes in the environment.
1.1.2. Conservatives support "back to the basics" which include the strengthening of literacy skills.
1.1.3. Conservatives introduce accountability and standards for students to uphold.
1.1.4. Conservatives believe in the traditional curriculum, like history and the arts of literature.
1.1.5. Conservatives introduce and support market mechanisms such as school privatization.
1.1.6. The conservative view of social problems places its primary emphasis on the individual and suggest that individuals have the capacity to earn or not to earn their place within a market economy, and that solutions to problems should also be addressed at the individual level.
1.2. Traditional Visions of Education
1.2.1. A traditional vision of education tends to view the school as a necessary to the transmission of the traditional values of U.S society.
1.2.2. Traditionalist believe the schools should pass on the best of what was and what is.
1.2.3. Traditional view of education gives us the idea that school prepare students for life.
1.2.4. Traditionalist believe that skills are taught discretely and are viewed as goals.
1.2.5. Traditional teacher-centered methods focus on rote learning and memorization must be abandoned in a favor of student-centered and task-based approaches to learning.
1.2.6. Traditional education is associated with much stronger elements of coercion that seems acceptable now in most cultures.
2. History of U.S Education
2.1. Reform Movement
2.1.1. A major event that was widespread in the Reform Movement was the effort to make proper education available to all children.
2.1.2. In Massachusetts, Horace Mann became the states education supervisor. He encouraged tax payers to build better schools and pay teachers higher salaries. He made the school year 6 months long and made improvements to the curriculum. His efforts influenced most states to accept the three basic principles of public education.
2.1.3. Immigrants made a big impact on the Reform Movement an on education.
2.1.4. In 1983 The National Commison on Excellence, founded by President Reagan's Secretary of Education, Terrel Bell, issued the famous report, "A Nation at Risk".
2.1.5. The history of education in the United States has been one of conflict, struggle, and disagreement some of those issues have been resolved while other issues remain unsolved.
2.1.6. In 1954 The Browns vs. Board of Education ruled that separate but equal schools for black and white students was unconstitutional so our children eventually went to school together.
2.2. The Democratic-Liberal School
2.2.1. Believe that history of U.S. education involves the progressive evolution, albeit flawed, of a school system committed to providing equality of opportunity for all.
2.2.2. Lawrence A. Cremin, in his three-volume history of U.S. education and in a study of the Progressive Era, portrays the evolution of U.S. education in terms of two related processes: popularization and multitudinous.
2.2.3. Democratic-liberals tend to interpret U.S. educational history optimistically, the evolution of the nations schools have been flawed, often conflictual march toward increased opportunities.
2.2.4. Democratic-liberals believe that the U.S. educational system must continue to move closer to each, without sacrificing one or the other too dramatically.
2.2.5. In Cremin's final book, "Popular Education and Its Discontents", he summarizes the democratic liberal perspective as follow: "That kind of organization is part of the genius of American education- it provides a place for everyone who wishes one, and the end yields one of the most educated populations in the world".
2.2.6. Cremin also knows that there is students from diverse backgrounds and therefore he believes that the goals of education should be diverse.
3. The Sociology of Education
3.1. Interactional Theories
3.1.1. Definition of theory is an integration of all known principals, laws, and information pertaining to a specific area of study.
3.1.2. Interactional theories about the relation of school and society are primarily critiques and extensions of the functional and conflict perspectives.
3.1.3. The critique arises from the observation that functional and conflict theories are very abstract, and emphasize structure and process at a very general level of analysis.
3.1.4. Interactional theories attempt to make the commonplace strange by turning on their heads everyday taken for granted behaviors and interactions between students and students and between students and teachers.
3.1.5. An example of this is, the process by which students are labled gifted or learning disabled are, from an interactional point of view, important to analyze, because such processes carry with them many implicit assumptions about learning and children.
3.1.6. Basil Bernstein, for instance, has argued that the structural aspects of the educational system and the interactional aspects of the system reflect each other and must be viewed wholistically.
3.2. 3 Effects of Schooling on Individuals
3.2.1. Employment
3.2.1.1. Students who graduate from college will have a better opportunity of emploment
3.2.1.2. In 1986, about 54 percent of the 8 million college graduates in the United States entered professional and technical jobs.
3.2.1.3. Research has shown that large organizations, such as corporations, require high levels of education for white collar, managerial, or administrative jobs (Collins, 1971).
3.2.1.4. Berg, 1970, for instance, studied factory workers, maintenance workers, department store clerks, technicians, secretaries, bank tellers, engineers, industrial research scientists, military personnel, and federal civil service employers and found that the level of education was essentially unrelated to job performance.
3.2.1.5. People learn to perform well at their jobs by doing them.
3.2.1.6. In 2011, high school graduates earned on average $32,552; college graduates earned $53,976 (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
3.2.2. Teacher Behavior
3.2.2.1. Jackson, 1968, found that teachers have as many as 1,000 interpersonal contacts each day with children in their classroom.
3.2.2.2. Teachers must play the role as instructor, disciplinarian, bureaucrat, employer, friend, confidant, educator, and so on.
3.2.2.3. Teachers are models for students and, as instructional leaders, teachers set standards for students and influence student self-esteem and sense of efficiency.
3.2.2.4. Persell, 1977, found that when when teachers demanded more from their students and praised them more, students learned more and felt better about themselves.
3.2.2.5. Teachers should not be scapegoated for society's problems, but the findings on teacher expectations do indicate that the attitudes of teachers toward their students may have a significant influence on student achievement and perceptions of self.
3.2.2.6. Teachers have a huge impact on student learning and behavior.
3.2.3. Gender
3.2.3.1. Men and Women do not share equally in U.S. society.
3.2.3.2. Men are sometimes paid more than women for the same type of work, and women, in general have fewer occupational opportunities than men.
3.2.3.3. Girls usually start school cognitively and socially ahead of boys, by the end of high school, girls have lower self-esteem and lower aspirations than do boys.
3.2.3.4. Most teachers are women, where most men are administrators.
3.2.3.5. Textbooks have been biased against women by ignoring their accomplishments and social contributions.
3.2.3.6. Over the past few decades, however, the gender gap in academic achievement has all but disappeared, with female students outperforming males in language arts, and social studies, and closing the gap significantly in mathematics, sciences, and having higher college attendance rates, albeit much lower participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines.
4. Curriculum and Pedagogy
4.1. Historical Curriculum
4.1.1. Humanist Curriculum
4.1.1.1. Reflects the Idealist philosophy
4.1.1.2. The curriculum is focused on the Western heritage as the basis for intellectual development.
4.1.1.3. The curriculum model dominated the nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century U.S education.
4.1.1.4. Believed to transmit a common body of knowledge in order to reproduce a common cultural heritage.
4.1.1.5. Reagan emphasized the need for a traditional core of subjects and readings that would teach all students a common set of worthwhile knowledge and an array of intellectual skills.
4.1.1.6. Some argue that the liberal arts need not focus exclusively on the Western tradition.
4.2. Sociological Curriculum
4.2.1. Functionalist Theory
4.2.1.1. Argue that the school curriculum represents codification of the knowledge that students need to become competent members of society.
4.2.1.2. Schools transmit the cultural heritage required for a cohesive social system.
4.2.1.3. The general theory was derived from the work of Emile Durkheim
4.2.1.4. Schools teach students the values that are essential to a modern society such as how to respect others, respect differences, base opinions on knowledge rather than tradition
4.2.1.5. Give students the knowledge, language, and values needed to ensure social stability
4.2.1.6. In addition to teaching general cognitive skills, functionalist believe that schools teach general values
5. Philosophy of Education
5.1. Generic Notions
5.1.1. Philosophers often pose difficult, abstract questions that are not easily answered.
5.1.2. Plato distrusted the world of matter; he believed that it was in constant state of flux.
5.1.3. Plato also believed that the senses should not be trusted, as they continually deceive us.
5.1.4. The only constant for Plato, was the field of mathematics, since 1+1=2 will never change.
5.1.5. Plato's method of doing philosophy was to engage another individual in a dialogue and, through the dialogue, question that individuals point of view.
5.1.6. The approach, called the dialectic, was used by Plato to move individuals from the world of matter to the world of ideas.
5.1.7. Plato thought that education, in particular was important as a means of moving individuals collectively toward achieving the good.
5.2. Key Researchers
5.2.1. Plato
5.2.2. St. Augustine, added religion to classical idealism.
5.2.3. Immanuel Kant
5.2.4. Rene Descartes
5.2.5. George Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel
5.2.6. Socrates
5.3. Goal of Education
5.3.1. Educators who subscribe to Idealism are interested in the search for through ideas rather than through the examination of false shadowy world of matter.
5.3.2. Teachers encourage their students to search for truth as individuals.
5.3.3. Idealist subscribe to the notion that education is transformation: Ideas can change lives.
5.3.4. The discovery of truth brings responsibility.
5.3.5. Responsibility of those who achieve the realization of truth to enlighten others.
5.4. Role of the Teacher
5.4.1. The teacher is responsible for analyzing and discussing ideas with students.
5.4.2. Teachers should deal with abstract notions through the dialectic method but should aim to connect analysis with action, as well.
5.4.3. Teacher plays an active role in the classroom.
5.4.4. Idealist teacher subscribes to the doctrine of reminiscence, described in the "Meno".
5.4.5. Teachers are to bring out that which is already in the students mind.
5.4.6. Idealist teachers see his/herself as a role model in the classroom, to be emulated by students.
5.5. Method of Instruction
5.5.1. Teachers take on an active part in students learning
5.5.2. They lecture from time to time.
5.5.3. Teachers fill in background material not covered in the reading.
5.5.4. Teachers predominately use Plato's dialectic approach.
5.5.5. Students are encouraged to discuss, analyze, synthesize, and apply what they have read.
5.5.6. Teachers encourage their students to work in groups and then sometimes individually.
5.6. Curriculum
5.6.1. Idealist place a great importance on the classics.
5.6.2. All contemporary problems have their roots in the past and can be understood.
5.6.3. Example of a good Idealist curriculum would be the Great Books curriculum at Saint Johns University in Annapolis, Maryland.
5.6.4. Idealist support back to the basics approach
5.6.5. The Idealist curriculum puts a big emphasis on the 3 R's.
5.6.6. This approach was popular among educational conservatives like Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Education, William Bennett.
6. Schools as Organizations
6.1. Major Stakeholders
6.1.1. State Senators: Jeff Session and Richard Shelby
6.1.2. House of Representatives: Victor Gaston and Mike Hubbard
6.1.3. State Superintendent: Tommy Bice
6.1.4. Representative on State School Board: Stephanie Bell
6.1.5. Local Superintendent: Dr. Jason Adkins
6.2. Local School Board
6.2.1. Jamie Rigsby
6.2.2. Chairman: Brad Ingle (My Daddy)
6.2.3. Bill Edd Gilbert
6.2.4. Sonia Waid
6.2.5. Dale Reeves
6.3. Comparison of Japan's Educational System
6.3.1. Experts believed that the educational system in Japan was exemplary when compared to the educational system in the United States.
6.3.2. The Japanese educational system seemed to produce skilled workers and highly competent managers.
6.3.3. The first national system of education in Japan was established in the 1880"s under the central authority of the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture.
6.3.4. The Japanese educational system is highly competitive!
6.3.5. In order to be admitted to a prestigious university, students are required to pass examinations that are extremely competitive.
6.3.6. This emphasis on achievement and attainment is exemplified by the fact that Japanese students excel in every measured international standard up to the age of 17, both for the top students and for the 95 percent of students who graduate from high school
6.3.7. Japanese parents have a high regard for the importance of education.
6.3.8. This love of education has made Japan a nation of strivers, but not without it's on drawbacks.
7. Equality of Opportunity
7.1. Educational Achievement and Attainment of Special Needs Students
7.1.1. The academic achievement of students from different backgrounds is an important aspect of sociological research on education.
7.1.2. The field of special education has mirrored the debates about Equality of Educational Opportunity and the concern with the appropriate placement of students with special education needs.
7.1.3. In 1977 Congress passed the Education of all Handicapped Children Law (EHA) which includes 6 basis principles. 1. right to access public education programs. 2. individualization services. 3. "least restrictive environment". 4. broadened services and set procedures to determine them. 5. general guidelines for identifying a disability. 6. principles of primary state and local responsibilities.
7.1.4. In the late 1980's critics of special education pushed the regular education initiative, which called for mainstreaming children with disabilities into regular classrooms.
7.1.5. Proponents of (REI) argued that democratic principles require that all students be educated together and that special education placement had not been proven effective for most students.
7.1.6. Today. the field of Special Education remains in conflict.
7.2. The Coleman Study
7.2.1. There are two major responses to Coleman's findings.
7.2.2. On one hand, other sociologist examined and reexamined Coleman's data. On the other hand, a group of minority scholars led by Ron Edmonds, set about the task of defining those characteristics of schools that made them effective.
7.2.3. Edmonds argued strongly that all students could learn and that differences between schools had a significant impact on student learning.
7.2.4. Where an individual goes to school has little effect on his or her cognitive growth or educational mobility.
7.2.5. Differences among schools make a difference in students.
7.2.6. Coleman's findings are still a matter of debate.
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. Explanation of Unequal Achievement
8.1.1. Functionalist believe that the role of students is to provide a fair and meritocratic selection process for sorting out the best and brightest individuals, regardless of family background.
8.1.2. The functionalist vision of a just society is one where individual talent and hard work based on universal principles of evaluation are more important than ascriptive characteristics based on particular methods of evaluation.
8.1.3. Functionalist expect that the schooling process will produce unequal results, but these results ought to be based on individual differences between students, not on group differences.
8.1.4. Functionalist believe that unequal educational outcomes are the result, in part, of unequal educational opportunities.
8.1.5. 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.
8.1.6. Both theories are also concerned with the existence of profound and persistent inequalities, albeit from different vantage points.
8.2. School-Centered Explanation
8.2.1. School Financing
8.2.1.1. John Kozol documented the vast differences in funding between affluent and poor districts, and called for equalization in school financing.
8.2.1.2. Public schools are financed through a combination of revenues from local, state, and federal sources.
8.2.1.3. Property taxes are based on the value of property in local communities and therefore is a proportional tax.
8.2.1.4. In Serrano v. Priest, the California Supreme Court ruled the system of unequal school financing between wealthy and poor districts unconstitutional.
8.2.1.5. Unequal funding has been the subject of considerable legal attack by communities that argue that funding based on local property taxes is discriminatory under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and that it denies equality of opportunity.
8.2.1.6. Critics of school financing believe that equalization is a moral imperative, but there is not widespread agreement on this matter.
9. Educational Reform
9.1. Teacher Education
9.1.1. The emergence and development of teacher education as an educational problem was a response to the initial debates concerning that failure of the schools.
9.1.2. The debate revolved around three major points 1. The perceived lack of rigor and intellectual demands in teacher education programs. 2. The need to attract and retain competent teacher candidates. 3. The necessity to reorganize the academic and professional components of teacher education programs at both the baccalaureate and post-baccalaureate levels.
9.1.3. In addition to this underlying democratic-liberal model of education, the report argued that the decline in traditional low wage jobs in the U.S. economy and the corresponding increase in high-technology and service positions would require the schools to better prepare its students for the "new" economic reality.
9.1.4. In this regard, also the Carnegie Report stressed the centrality of better prepared teachers to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century
9.1.5. In order to accomplish these democratic-liberal goals, the Carnegie Report called for "sweeping changes in educational policy" which would include the restricting of schools and the teaching profession, the elimination of the undergraduate education major, the recruitment of minorities into the teaching profession, and the increase of standards in teacher education and in teaching.
9.1.6. The Holmes Group is dedicated not just to the improvement of teacher education but to the construction of genuine profession of teaching.
9.2. Full Service and Community Schools
9.2.1. Dryfoo's model of full service schools, Canada's Harlem Children's Zone, and Newark's Broader Bolder Approach are three models of community based reforms.
9.2.2. Full service schools focus on meeting student's and their families educational, physical, psychological, and social needs in a coordinated and collaborative fashion between schools and community services.
9.2.3. In this model, schools service as community-based centers within neighborhoods that are open extended hours provide a multitude of services such as adult education, health clinics, recreation facilities, after school programs, mental health services, drug and alcohol programs, job placement and training programs, and tutoring services.
9.2.4. Specifically designed to target and improve at-risk neighborhoods, full services schools aim to prevent problems, as well as to support them.
9.2.5. One way to attack education inequity is to examine and plan to educate not only the whole child, but as the whole community.
9.2.6. The model supports Anyon's argument to repair the larger social and economic problems of society as a means of improving public education, there is no evidence that full service schools affect student achievement.