My Foundations of Education

1. Educational Reform

1.1. School-Based Reform

1.1.1. Teacher Quality

1.1.1.1. Most people agree that having a qualified teacher is one of the most important problems in American Education. NCLB required that all teachers be highly qualified and this proved to be a problem for urban schools' unqualified unqualified teachers. This may have been because those teachers were required to teach a subject outside of their education or training.

1.2. Other type of reform

1.2.1. Full service and community schools

1.2.1.1. Full service schools focus on meeting the needs of the child and their families. These facilities operate as a place for adult education, health clinics, recreation facilities, after-school programs, mental health services, drug and alcohol programs, job placement and training programs, and tutoring services. These facilities are designed to improve at risk neighborhoods. They aim to prevent/support problems communities may have.

2. Philosophy of Education

2.1. Phenomenology

2.1.1. Generic notions- Phenomenologists are concerned with the way in which objects present themselves to people in their consciousness, and how people place these objects. Hermeneutics, an outgrowth of phenomenology, seeks to discover how people give objects meaning. Language is important here since language is used to describe the various phenomena in life. (p. 191)

2.1.2. Key researchers- Phenomenology was primarily developed by Edmund Husserl ( 1859-1935), Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), and Maurice Merleau- Ponty (1908-1961). (p.190).

2.1.3. Goal of Education- Phenomenologists emphasize the notion of possibility, since the individual changes in a constant state of becoming. They see education as an activity liberating the individual from a chaotic, absurd world. ( p.191)

2.1.4. Role of teacher- Teachers should expose themselves to resistant students and work constantly to enable their students to become, in Green's words " wide awake". Introspection is useful in order to enable students to become in touch with their worlds and to empower them to choose and to act on their choices. Thus, the role of the teacher is an intensely personal one that carries with it a tremendous responsibility. (p. 191)

2.1.5. Method of instruction- The teacher constantly rediscovers knowledge, the student discovers knowledge, and together they come to an understanding of past, present, and future, particularly a future ripe with possibilities. Thus, the role of the teacher is to help students understand the world through posing questions generating activities, and working together. (p. 191)

2.1.6. Curriculum- Phenomenologists believe in exposing students at an early age to problems as well as possibilities and to the horrors as well as accomplishments humankind is capable of producing. (p.191)

3. Schools as Organizations

3.1. District 8

3.1.1. State senator: Shadrack McGill

3.1.2. House of Representatives: Mo Brooks

3.1.3. State Superintendent: Dr. Tommy Brice

3.1.4. Representative on state school board: Mary Scott Hunter

3.1.5. Local superintendent: Eugene Casey Wardynski

3.1.6. Local school board: Mary Scott Hunter, Cynthia Sanders McArty, Ella B. Bell, Stephanie Bell, Betty Peters, Matthew S. Brown, Yvette Richardson, Jeffery Newman, Thomas R. Brice, Governor Robert J. Bently

3.2. America's educational system compared to Asia's

3.2.1. Classrooms in Asia don't focus on discussion the way American classrooms do. In Asia, they mostly have a teacher lecture in the front of the class while the students take as much notes as they can. Some teachers do encourage discussion but most of the students shy away from answering. American students have a closer relationship with their teachers more so than Asian students. In America, students and teachers talk to each other about the weather or how their day is going. In the Asian community, teachers and students speak only in the classroom about school. The grading system is more competitive in Asia than it is in America. Asian students go to a private academy where they are taught the same thing as regular school. They are given homework at both schools. Most students take the private academy more seriously because it's more intense.

4. Curriculum and Pedagogy

4.1. Developmental curriculum: focuses more on the needs of the student rather than the needs of the society. John Dewey and Piaget both say that the process of teaching is as important as the content being taught. This means that the classroom is student centres and relates the content to what interests the students. In this type of classroom it's important to be flexible and quick thinking. This makes the teacher the facilitator.

4.2. Functionalist: believe that the purpose of schooling is to prepare the students for society. Some examples of this are teaching students to respect themselves and each other and to respect those who are different. Along with the normal school curriculum, schools should also teach students the norms and values of society.

5. Equality of Opportunity

5.1. Achievement

5.1.1. The graphs on pages 345-349 show that there is achievement gaps between African- Americans, Hispanic- Americans, and whites. These graphs also show that the parental level of education is related to the achievement gap. The graphs on pages 355- 356 show that blacks start kindergarten on lower reading and math levels than whites.

5.2. Attainment

5.2.1. A survey was done that observed people of both sexes who were around the age of 25. The survey showed that 92.1 percent of whites graduated from high school and 19.9 received a bachelor's degree. 84 percent of African- Americans graduated from high school and 52.4 percent received their bachelor's degree. 62.7 percent of Hispanic- Americans graduated from high school and 30.1 received their bachelor's degree ( pg. 357). On the SAT it has been noticed that white students outperform all other students with the exception of the Asian- American students. This data means that, even though minority students have improved, they are still lagging behind white students (357).

5.3. Coleman: Round three-

5.3.1. Approximately forty years after Coleman published Equality of Education Opportunity, Geoffrey Borman and Martiza Dowling used their best statistical devices to evaluate educational data similar to the way Coleman did in 1966. Their findings partially confirmed Coleman's findings of 1966 and 1982. Where a student goes to school is often related to his/her socioeconomic status and race. They argue that race and class are predictors of academic success. They say that schools do matter. They say that segregation in schools are the cause for the academic gaps. Education reform should focus on getting rid of the high level of segregation in the U.S education system.

6. Educational Inequality

6.1. Sociological Explanation of unequal achievement.

6.1.1. Conflict theorists

6.1.1.1. They are concerned with both the inequality in education and getting results. The more radical conflict theorists believe that equality of education is not a sufficient goal. If equitable and fair treatment, it may not guarantee equal results. Both functionalists and conflict theorists believe that the first step is understanding inequality in education.

6.2. School-centred explanation.

6.2.1. Effective school research

6.2.1.1. Ronald Edmonds suggested that comparing schools in different socioeconomic communities was only part of understanding the issue. He suggested that researchers should also look in lower socioeconomic communities as well (p. 431)

7. Politics of Education

7.1. Traditional Vision

7.1.1. 1. Traditionalists want the schools to teach the best of the past and the best of the present to prepare the students for the future.

7.1.2. 2. Liberals typically agree with both the traditional and progressive visions of education.

7.1.3. 3. Traditionalists see the schools as a necessity to teach students the importance of hard work, of working in groups, and of working individually.

7.2. Liberal Perspective

7.2.1. 1. The liberal perspective became more well know during the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

7.2.2. 2. Liberals believe that government involvement is necessary in the economic, political, and social areas to make sure their is fair treatment of all involved and to make sure that we have a healthy economy.

7.2.3. 3. Liberals are mostly concerned with finding a balance of capitalism and tending to the social and economic needs of the people of the United States.

8. History of U.S Education

8.1. The democratic-liberals believe that the history of U.S education involves the progressive evolution of a school system to provide equality of opportunity for all. The Common School Era was a victory for democratic movements and the first step in opening U.S education to all.

8.2. Before the 20th century it was considered harmful and too stressful for women to attend college. In 1821, Emma Hart Wilard opened the Troy Female Seminary so that women could go to college. After that other colleges opened up so that women learn the same things that the men were learning.

8.3. Radical historians believe that the educational system has expanded to meet the needs of the higher class Americans. They point out that each time there was an educational reform the students that were part of the working class, poor, or minority usually got the short end of the stick. (p84). The radical view sees the schooling expansion of the late 19th and early 20th century was more in the interest for social control rather than the interests of equity.

8.4. The conservative view pointed out the failure of progressive education. The progressive education was unable to succeed in their social goals without sacrificing their academic quality. They believe that social and political objectives will lead to significant harm to the traditional academic goals of schooling. Some blame public schools for valuing skills over content. Most conservatives believe that the evolution of U.S education has diluted academic excellence. (p.85).

8.5. Before 1875, fewer than 25,000 students were enrolled in a public high school. Most were enrolled in a private secondary school where they were being taught traditional standards, or they were preparing for college, or being taught vocational curriculum. Between 1880 and 1920, however, more students began to enroll in public high school. When looking at the history of high school, the tension in society over the meaning and purpose of education is easily seen. A committee of Ten was formed to address and clarify the purpose of high school education. The cardinal principles of secondary education, created by National Education Association, made the curriculum less academically demanding and far more utilitarian. The seven main goals of secondary education were: health, command of fundamental process, worthy home-membership, vocation, citizenship, worthy use of leisure, and ethical character.

8.6. A central feature of U.S history is the demand for equality for education. After World War 2, the issue of access to educational opportunity became very important. The GI Bill of Rights offered 16 million service men and women the opportunity to gain higher education. Some feared that the Bill would threaten the traditional selection process and result in the lowering if academic standards. The GI Bill was seen as a stepping block in the post World War 2 educational expansion.

9. Sociological Perspectives

9.1. The interactional theory is an extension of both the conflict and the functional theories. On their own, the functional theory and the conflict theory cannot tell what a school is like on an everyday level. By going deeper into examining the interactional aspects of school life, people are less likely to create theories that are logical and eloquent, but without meaningful content (p.120).

9.2. Basil Bernstein believes that structural aspects of the educational system and the interactional aspects of the system should both be looked at as a whole. He has observed that students from lower- class may be at a disadvantage because schools are generally middle- class organizations. Because of this, he has combined a class analysis with a class analysis with an interactional analyses that links language with educational processes and outcomes (p. 120).

9.3. The interactonal theory has shown that theory can be used to explain the link between school and society. These theories give background metaphors and analytical focus for sociologists work.

9.4. Employment- Berg did an study that looked at many occupations and found that the level of education that the employee received was unrelated to his/her job. From this evidence, we see that employees learn to do their job by doing it. The reason why schooling is important for employment is because a college degree is needed in order to obtain a high-status occupation early in your career (p.122).

9.5. Education and Mobility- The term civil religion means that education is the great equalizer in the "great status race" (p.122). Most Americans believe that the more education leads to economic and social mobility. In the U.K., they have something called sponsored mobility where they pick students at an early age for academic and university education. In this process social background is important for determining who will receive academic or vocational training. Two other things that effect mobility is where you go to school and for how long.

9.6. Most sociologists disagree that the knowledge and attitudes that young people acquire in school is not the most important. Research shows that their is a difference between schools in higher income communities and lower income communities. It has also been observed that the amount of time the student is in school (daily) effects how much they learn. The more education an individual receives the more likely they are to read newspapers, books, and magazines, and to take part in political and public affairs.