1. History of U.S. Education
1.1. Reform Movement
1.1.1. Charter Schools
1.1.1.1. 1. Independent of local district control
1.1.1.2. 2. Receive Public Funding
1.2. Historical Interpretation
1.2.1. Democratic-Liberal School
1.2.1.1. 1. Believe U.S. education involves progressive evolution
1.2.1.2. 2. Each period of educational expansion involved attempts from liberal reformers to expand educational opportunities
1.2.1.3. 3. Involved both expansion of opportunity and purpose
1.2.1.4. Tend to interpret U.S educational history optimistically
2. Schools as Organizations
2.1. Private Schools
2.1.1. 1. Tend to attract students from families that are relatively affluent and have a commitment to education.
2.1.2. 2. There is a tremendous amount of diversity in the private sector, although most private schools are affiliated with religious organizations.
2.1.3. 3. Most private schools are located on the East and West Coasts.
2.2. Degree of "Openness"
2.2.1. 1. Public schools in the United States are organized as elementary, junior high or middle school, and high school.
2.2.2. 2. A key element to understanding the U.S. school system is that relatively few academic impediments are placed before students if they choose to graduate from high school, but the school system is designed to give students many opportunities for advancement.
2.2.3. 3. Many urban school districts enroll mostly minority students.
3. Curriculum and Pedagogy
3.1. Curriculum
3.1.1. 1. The history of the curriculum helps explain why the curriculum looks as it does today.
3.1.2. 2. Humanists reflects the idealist philosophy that knowledge of the traditional liberal arts is the cornerstone of an educated citizenry and that the purpose of education is to present to students the best of what has been thought and written.
3.1.3. 3. Traditionally, this curriculum focused on the Western heritage as the basis for intellectual development, although some who support this type of curriculum argue that the liberal arts need not focus exclusively on the Western tradition.
3.2. Politics of the Curriculum
3.2.1. 1. The politics analyzes the struggles over different conceptions of what should be taught.
3.2.2. 2. Throughout the 20th century, various groups, both inside and outside schools, fought to shape and control the schools' curriculum.
3.2.3. 3. The central question in the politics of the curriculum is: Who shapes the curriculum?
3.2.4. 4. As the new sociology of education suggests, the curriculum is not a value-neutral, objective set of information to be transmitted to students; rather, it represents what a culture wants its students to know.
4. Sociology of Education
4.1. Theoretical Perspective
4.1.1. Society is very seldom crystal clear
4.1.2. Knowledge cannot be totally separated from one's personal and social situation.
4.2. Three effects on schooling
4.2.1. Functional Theories
4.2.1.1. Interdependence of the social system
4.2.2. Conflict Theories
4.2.2.1. The glue of society is economic, political, cultural, and military power.
4.2.2.2. Conflict sociologist do not see the relation between school and society as unproblematic or straightforward
4.2.3. Interactional Theories
4.2.3.1. The relation of school and society are primarily critiques and extensions of the functional and conflict perspectives.
5. Sociological Perspectives
6. Philosophy of Education
6.1. Idealism
6.1.1. 1. First systematic philosophy in Western thought
6.1.2. 2. Thought to be the creation of the Greek philosopher, Plato.
6.1.3. 3. Idealism educators are interested in the truth through ideas rather than through examination of the shadowy world or matter.
6.2. Politics of Education
6.2.1. Political Perspectives
6.2.1.1. Conservative Perspective
6.2.1.1.1. 1. Talented and hard working
6.2.1.1.2. 2. Maximize economic and social productivity
6.2.1.1.3. 3. Socialize children into adult roles
6.2.1.1.4. 4. Transmit cultural traditions through curriculum
6.2.2. Vision of Education
6.2.2.1. Traditional Visions
6.2.2.1.1. 1. Tend to keep the traditional values of the U.S society.
6.2.2.1.2. 2. Believe schools should continue using what works/ has worked best.
6.3. Realism
6.3.1. 1. Follows the same historical tradition as idealism.
6.3.2. 2. Associated with both Plato and Aristotle.
6.3.3. 3. Realist reject the Platonic notion that only ideas are real, and argue instead that the material world or matter is real.
6.3.4. 4. Realist hold that matter exists, independent of ideas.
7. Equality of Opportunity
7.1. educational achievement and attainment
7.1.1. For persons of both sexes, 25 years old or older, 84 percent of African-Americans graduated high school.
7.1.2. 19.9 percent of African-Americans received a bachelor's degree.
7.2. Coleman study
7.2.1. According to the sociological community, where an individual attends school has a small effect of their cognitive growth or educational mobility.
7.2.2. The implications of these findings would lead one to believe that the road to equality of opportunity does not go through the schoolhouse door.
7.2.3. During the 1970's, this debate continued and some researchers began to examine the effects of magnet schools on students learning, arguing that schools that were innovative, learner centered, and mission driven could make a difference in what students learned and how they learned it.
7.2.4. These studies were intriguing and provided and ray of research hope for those optimists who still believed in the efficacy of education to provide equal opportunities for all children.
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. school-centered explanation
8.1.1. Public schools are financed through a combination of revenues from local state, and federal sources.
8.1.2. However, the majority of funds come from state and local taxes, with local property taxes a significant source.
8.2. unequal achievement
8.2.1. Functionalists 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.
8.2.2. 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. This perspective has been the foundations of liberal educational policy in the United States since the 1960s.
8.2.3. Functionalists focus on the attempts to provide equality of opportunity and to ensure a meritocratic system.
8.2.4. Functionalists believe unequal educational outcomes are the result, in part, of unequal educational opportunities.
9. Educational Reform and School Improvement
9.1. school-based reform
9.1.1. Every state and locally created school-to-work system had to contain three core elements: (1) school-based learnings (2) work-based learning and (3) connecting activities.
9.1.2. Although the school-to-work programs were well intentioned, researchers have suggested that these programs often failed to fulfill their promise.
9.2. societal, economic, community or political reform
9.2.1. The court ruled in 1990, stating that more funding was needed to serve the children in the poorer school districts.
9.2.2. In order to provide a "thorough and efficient education" in urban districts, funding was equalized between urban and suburban school districts.
9.2.3. In 1998, the state was required to implement a package of supplemental programs, including preschool, as well as a plan to renovate urban school facilities.
9.2.4. Other supplemental programs included social services, increased security, a technology alternative education, school-to-work, after-school, and summer-school programs