1. Politics of Education
1.1. The Conservative Perspective
1.1.1. Charles Darwin
1.1.2. Free market Economy
1.1.3. President Ronald Reagan
1.2. Traditional
1.2.1. family unity
1.2.2. individual initiative
2. The History of U.S Education
2.1. The Rise of the Common School
2.1.1. 1860-1880
2.1.2. The Industrial Revolution brought factories to urban areas.
2.1.3. Andrew Jackson was elected President.
2.1.4. Horace Mann was one of America's greatest educational reformers.
2.2. The Democratic-Liberal School
2.2.1. Equality of Opportunity for all
2.2.2. Lawrence A. Cremin
2.2.3. "Popular Education and Its Discontents" (1990) last book by Cremin
3. Sociological Education
3.1. Theoretical Perspectives of Education
3.1.1. Functional theories
3.1.1.1. stresses interdependence from the social system
3.1.2. Conflict Theories
3.1.2.1. Karl Marx- founder
3.1.2.2. From this point of view, schools are similar to social battlefields.
3.1.3. Interactional Theories
3.1.3.1. Critiques and extensions of the functional and conflict perspectives
3.1.3.1.1. hel
3.1.3.2. Helps in understanding education in the "big picture"
3.2. Three Effects of Schooling on Individuals
3.2.1. Employment
3.2.1.1. Graduating from college leads to greater employment opportunities.
3.2.2. Knowledge and Attitudes
3.2.2.1. More years of schooling leads to greater knowledge and social participation
3.2.3. Education and Mobility
3.2.3.1. The popular belief that education opens the doors of opportunity
4. Philosophy of Education
4.1. Generic Notation
4.1.1. Plato argued for the centrality of ideas.
4.1.1.1. Dialetic
4.1.1.1.1. state should be active in education
4.1.2. Aristotle believed that only through studying the material world was it possible for an individual to clarify ideas.
4.1.3. idealism
4.2. Key Researchers
4.2.1. Rene Descartes
4.3. Goals of Education
4.3.1. searches for truth through ideas
4.3.2. responsibility of those that find truth relay it to others
4.4. Role of the Teacher
4.4.1. must be clear and consistent to the students
4.4.2. leads students to connect analysis and action
4.5. Methods of Instruction
4.5.1. Analyzing
4.5.2. Synthesizing
4.5.3. Group and Individual work
4.5.4. Questioning
4.6. Curriculum
4.6.1. Back to the basics
4.6.2. Classics
5. Schools as Organizations
5.1. State Senator: Richard Shelby
5.2. House of Rep: Terri Collins Republican 9 Ed Henry Republican 10 Mike Ball Republican
5.3. Super intendant: Brett Stanton
5.4. Rep on State Board: Kerry RIch
5.5. Local School Board: Robert Bentley
5.6. German System: almost the opposite of the US
5.7. The German school system sorts and selects students for a secondary schooling.
6. Curriculum and Pedagogy
6.1. Historical Curriculum Theory
6.1.1. Social Efficiency Curriculum
6.1.1.1. Pragmatist Approach
6.1.1.2. Democratic response to the development of mass public secondary education
6.1.1.3. Students with different needs should receive different types of schooling.
6.2. Sociological Curriculum Theory
6.2.1. Functionalists
6.2.1.1. They argue that the school curriculum represents the codification of the knowledge that the students need to become beneficial members in society.
6.2.1.2. Emile Durkheim dealt with the social and moral breakdown,
6.2.1.3. Functionalists teach general values and norms.
6.2.1.4. Values are essential to a modern society.
7. Equality of Opportunity
7.1. Educational Achievement of African Americans
7.1.1. The gap has increased since 1988.
7.1.1.1. Gap could be due to cocaine addiction
7.1.1.2. African Americans began kindergarten with lower math and reading skills than whites did.
7.1.2. The achievement gap goes up based on parental education and when related to the gender.
7.2. Educational Attainment of African Americans
7.2.1. Only 84 percent graduate high school verses the 92 percent of whites that graduate
7.2.2. 19.9 percent of African Americans earn a Bachelors degree. 33 percent of whites obtain a bachelors.
7.2.2.1. Females outperform the males.
7.3. Coleman Study
7.3.1. by James Coleman
7.3.2. School differences did not create the gap.
7.3.2.1. this was highly debatable
7.3.2.2. two conflicting studies and results
7.3.2.3. Private schools said to be greater than public, because the emphasis was on academics and discipline.
7.3.2.4. Socioeconomic status and make up played a big role in determining success.
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. Student Centered Explanations
8.1.1. Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds did worse in school than those students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds.
8.1.2. Inferior schools are schools that spend less money on the students, their materials, and on extracurricular activities. These are the schools where students seem to not do as well a lot of the time.
8.1.3. Later research suggested that there were far more significant differences academically between students in the same school rather than in different schools.
8.1.4. Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may not have done worse because of their school, but perhaps because of their genuine makeup, culture, and community.
8.2. School Financing
8.2.1. Jonathan Kozol (1991)
8.2.2. Compared suburb public schools to intercity poor public schools, and he called for equalizing school financing
8.2.3. Majority of school funds come from local and state taxes.
8.2.4. More affluent cities can provide more for their schools than poorer communities.
9. Educational Reform
9.1. School based Reform
9.1.1. No Child Left Behind
9.1.1.1. Centerpiec for George W. Bush's educational policy
9.1.1.2. George W. Bush
9.1.1.3. Annual Testing required third through eighth grade in reading and math plus at least one test in grades 10th-12th. Science to follow.
9.1.1.4. Report school-by-school data on student test performance and the ethnicity of the student
9.1.1.5. Schools must have highly qualified teachers for the core academic subjects.
9.2. School Finance Reforms
9.2.1. More funding was needed in 1990 to serve children in the poorer school districts.
9.2.2. Funding was equalized between urban and suburban school districts.
9.2.3. 1998-The school was required to implement preschool and renoavtion to urban schools.
9.2.4. still limited in reducing the achievement gaps