1. Politics of Education
1.1. Conservative Perspective
1.1.1. Sociologist, William Graham Sumner, Originally developed this perspective in the nineteenth century.
1.1.2. This view places the primary emphasis on the individual and suggest that all individuals have the capacity to earn or not their place in the economy.
1.1.3. Sumner's conservative perspective looks at social evolution as a process that enables the strongest individual/group to survive or progress.
1.1.4. President, Ronald Reagan, represented the ascendancy of this viewpoint. He stressed individual initiative and portrayed that the only one capable of solving one's problems was themselves.
1.1.5. Conservatives support returning to basics, returning to traditional academic curriculum's, introducing accountability, and free market mechanism in the educational marketplace.
1.2. Progressive View
1.2.1. View the schools as central to solving social problems.
2. History of U.S. Education
2.1. Equality of Opportunity
2.1.1. The Equality of Opportunity reform was a demand for equality of opportunity. This issue of education inequality for the poor and disadvantaged, and particularly for the African-Americans quickly became the focus of national attention and debate during the early 1900's.
2.1.1.1. Race has challenged the American dream more than any other single issue in U.S. history.
2.1.1.2. Plessy v. Ferguson segregated railway by race.
2.1.1.2.1. Justice John Marshall Harlan stated that "In the view of the constitution and the eye of the law there is in this country no superior, dominant ruling class of citizens." He went on to state that our constitution is color blind and all citizens be treated equal before the law.
3. Sociological Perspectives
3.1. Functional Theories:
3.1.1. Functionalist view society where one thing articulates with another to produce a dynamic energy required to make society work. Schools would
3.1.1.1. Emile Durkheim was perhaps the earliest sociologist to embrace a functional point of view about the relation of school and society. He virtually invented sociology of education and has several major works such as : Moral Education(1962), Education and Sociology(1956) and The Evolution of Educational Thoughts(1977). Moral values were the foundation of society for Durkheim.
3.1.1.2. In 1983 authors argued that schools were responsible for a whole host of social and economic problems in society. Most U.S. educators and educational reformers base their reform suggestions on functional theories of schooling.
3.1.1.3. Emile Durkhiem was perhaps the earliest sociologist to embrace a functional point of view about schools and society. Emily basically invented th esociology of education in the late nineteeth and early twent
3.2. Three effects on schooling
3.2.1. Teacher Behavior- When teaching students teachers must realize that their behavior has a huge influence on how these children learn and grow. Teachers are models for children and set standards for students as well as influence them with life decisions.
3.2.2. Student Peer Groups and Alienation- This is where "labeling" comes into view for students. When students are labeled into a certain group/type then that student usually feels as though that is who they are. This can lead a student to have a detached lifestyle and also lead to alienation or even violence. In today's society we are seeing more and more of students attacking their teachers or other classmates.
3.2.3. Inadequate schools: As times change and technology rapidly excels schools that are lower funded will suffer from this. This substantially will affect the students that are in these lower class school system compared to the upper class schools that have access to the current technology and material. Coleman, Hoffer, & Kilgore state that students that attend suburban and private schools get a better education experience than other children.
4. Schools as Organizations
4.1. State Senators: Richard Shelby and Jeff Session
4.1.1. House of Representatives for Alabama
4.1.1.1. Click the link http://www.legislature.state.al.us/aliswww/ISD/House/ALRepresentatives.asp
4.2. State Superintendent: Tommy Bice
4.2.1. Representatives
4.2.1.1. J. Bentley
4.2.1.2. Thomas Bice
4.2.1.3. Jeffery Newman
4.2.1.4. Yvette Richardson
4.2.1.5. Matthew Brown
4.2.1.6. Betty Peters
4.2.1.7. Stephanie Bell
4.2.1.8. Ella Bell
4.2.1.9. Cynthia Sanders
4.3. Jackson County Superintendent: Kevin Dukes
4.3.1. Board Members:
4.3.1.1. John Lyda
4.3.1.2. Kenneth Storey
4.3.1.3. Charles West
4.3.1.4. Cecil Gant
4.3.1.5. Chad Gotham
5. Curriculum and Pedagogy
6. Equality of Opportunity
6.1. African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans lag behind white students in all educational achievements and attainments according to the data collected in The Digest of Educational Statistics in 2002.
6.2. Female students outperform males students in all categories except science and math, where they are still on the rise.
6.3. Social and economic status has alot to do with educational achievement and attainment. Parents with college degrees or further education plays a big factor in educational achievement in their children. School quality also plays a big role in student achievement.
6.4. The Coleman Study
6.4.1. In the mid-1960's sociologist James Coleman led a research team in a extremely large study of the relationship between the organizational characteristics of school and student achievement. He began this study to prove that African-American students had different schooling experiences compared to white students. This study to me was relevant when he conducted the study, but now this type of study is not needed. Education is free and given to the community not the race. All students are getting a fair free education in the world today. Larger schools will tend to have access to more advanced equipment base on funding compared to the smaller school systems, but this will effect the educational school as a whole.
7. Education Inequality
7.1. Cultural Deprivation suggest that the working class and non-white families suffer from lacking the resources needed for school thus resulting in a disadvantage.
7.1.1. Critics argue that placing blame on the "students" for not having material is often just taking the blame away from the school systems that should be providing the materials.
7.2. Functionalist believe the role of education is to provide a fair and meritocratic selection process by sorting out the brightest students despite their backgrounds.
7.3. Conflict theorist feel the role of schools are to reproduce. The believe that one's background does effect and determine their future.
7.4. School centered explanations tell us that academic failures are based on student differences that they had before coming to school.
8. Education Reform
8.1. School-Business Partnerships
8.1.1. School-Business Partnerships were formed in the 1980's by leaders that became concerned about the nations schools not producing enough graduates to revitalize the U.S. economy.
8.1.2. School-Business partners would give scholorships to "poor" students.
8.1.3. Even though these businesses gained attention and provided millions of dollars to these students, there is little evidence that it actually improved schools as a means of reform.
8.2. School Finance Reforms
8.2.1. Courts ruled in 1990 that schools needed more funding to better serve children in the more poor districts.
8.2.1.1. Abbot V reform added entitlements to renovate urban schools. Including whole day reforms, full day kindergarten, comprehensively manage funding and teaching, eliminate overcrowding.
8.2.1.2. Added supplemental programs: social services, increased security, technology alternative, school to work programs, and summer school programming.
8.2.1.3. Abbot equalized funding by addressing factors outside the school as well as in the school.
8.2.1.4. These reforms are limited in reducing the achievement gap, but they do have potential to help with low income and minority groups.