My Foundations of Education

1. Educational Reform

1.1. School-Based Reform; Charter Schools

1.1.1. "Charter" is the contract of Charter Schools that state the schools mission, programs, students served, methods of assessment, etc.

1.1.2. 1st state to legislate charter laws was Minnesota in 1991; spawned charter law in 41 states, as well in Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.

1.1.3. There is 3,700 charter schools with those schools serving roughly 1.1 million students.

1.1.4. Charter schools are public schools that are free from many regulations applied to traditional public schools; holding themselves accountable for student performance.

1.1.4.1. Opponents

1.1.4.1.1. American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is a opponent of charter schools and did a statistical report stating that public schools outperformed charter schools nation wide.

1.1.4.1.2. The Center for Research on Educational Outcomes (CREDO) did national charter school study that claimed to have wide variations in the quality of charter schools; performed below district schools.

1.1.4.2. Proponents

1.1.4.2.1. Caroline Hoxby, leading proponent for charter schools. She did studies that compared charter schools nationally with their neighboring district schools and came to the conclusion that students at charter schools outperform district schools; It should be noted that her studies included multiple varibles, such as, socioecomonic background.

1.1.4.2.2. National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

1.2. Societal, Community, Economic, and Political Reforms; Connecting School, Community, and Societal Reforms.

1.2.1. Consortium for Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago did 20 years of research and promotes 5 essential objectives for school reform.

1.2.1.1. Leadership as the driver for change.

1.2.1.2. Parent-Community ties.

1.2.1.3. Professional Capacity

1.2.1.4. Student-Centered learning

1.2.1.5. Instructional guidance

1.2.2. Linda Darling-Hammond's book of 2010, "The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future", suggests that our society MUST provide for the basic needs of children that have to fight to survive vs. focusing their attention to their education. She says the state of the U.S. education system will continue to fail many students that will come to a great cost to our society; Suggestion of 5 elements of reform.

1.2.2.1. Meaningful learning goals.

1.2.2.2. Intelligent, reciprocal accountability systems.

1.2.2.3. Equitable and adequate resources.

1.2.2.4. Strong professional standards and supports.

1.2.2.5. Schools organized for student and teacher learning.

2. Politics of Education

2.1. LIBERAL: concerned mainly with broadening a person's general knowledge and experience, rather than with technical or professional training

2.1.1. The Liberal view started, and has continued to present day, about the 1900s based on the ideas of a man named John Dewey.

2.1.2. Deeply believe in equality of opportunity for all Americans. They believe that the government must inject to fight for the disadvantage.

2.1.3. Belief that Capitalism is the best system that should be balanced with the social and economic needs of the majority in America. (p. 24)

2.2. TRADITIONAL: View the schools as a central hub to teach traditional values of the United States of America

2.2.1. Socializing is an important part of traditional perspective as children are taught to be social which in turn will lead to social order.

2.2.2. Those that prefer traditional views can agree with both liberal and conservative views or completely be to the left or completely to the right.

2.2.3. Traditional views believe that schools play a very important role in our economic productivity and social stability.

3. History of U.S. Education

3.1. Post-World War II Equity Era

3.1.1. Pedagogical Progressivism: From 1945 to 1955 Progressive education came under heavy attacks from critics who believed that progressive education was choosing social goals over that of intellectual. (p. 74)

3.1.2. Pedagogical Traditionalism: Throughout the 1950s Progressive and Traditionalist argued to what is called, "the great debate." (p. 74) When Russia launched the space satellite "Sputnik" our government turned our educational system into "a one up on you" race instead considering the true interests of our students. Because of this the emphasis shifted back to the "pursuit of excellence." (p.75)

3.1.3. Equality of Opportunity

3.1.3.1. School Segregation: Because the government enacted the GI Bill of Rights it exposed the issue of educational inequality.

3.1.3.1.1. Plessy v. Ferguson: In 1896 the court upheld a Louisiana law that segregated railway passengers by race. The law stayed in place for several years until the NAACP stepped up to overturn the law and with school segregation in that strategy.

3.1.3.1.2. Brown v. Topeka Board of Education: In 1954 Supreme Court ruled that state-imposed segregation of schools was unconstitutional.

3.1.3.2. GI Bill of Rights

3.1.3.2.1. 16 million servicemen and women that came back from war was about to enter into higher education. (p.76)

3.1.3.2.2. Robert Maynard Hutchins, chancellor at the University of Chicago, and James Conant, president of Harvard University, feared that the GI Bill of Rights would lower the academic standards and also jeopardize the traditional way of education. (p. 76)

3.2. Conservative Interpretations

3.2.1. Diane Ravitch, E.D., believes in the liberal goals of equality of opportunity, however, she believes that in the process of looking to satisfy "social and political objectives resulted in significant harm to the traditional academic goals of schooling." (Cookson, Jr., Sadovnik, Semel, 2013, p.85)

3.2.2. Ultimately, conservatives believe that traditional Western curriculum has been forgotten which has resulted in "dilution of academic excellence." (Cookson, Jr., et. al, 2013, p.85)

4. Educational Inequality

4.1. Explanations of Unequal Educational Achievement

4.1.1. Functionalists: Theorists that believe that the unequal educational outcomes come from the unequal educational opportunities.

4.1.1.1. Elimination of structural barriers to educational success.

4.1.1.2. Belief in a fair marketplace in education.

4.1.2. Conflict Theorists: Belief that the role of schooling is to reproduce rather than eliminate inequality

4.1.2.1. Educational outcomes are to a large degree based on family background.

4.1.2.2. Equality of opportunity and results.

4.1.2.3. Unlike Functionalists, Conflict theorists believe in a more individual differences rather than group.

4.1.2.4. More skeptical than functionalists that the problem can be solved.

4.1.3. Interactionism: Understanding of how people within institutions, such as, families and schools interact on a daily basis in order to comprehend the factors explaining academic success and failure.

4.1.3.1. Interactionist theory: Necessary to grasp the full problem.

4.1.3.1.1. Student-Centered or Extra-School explanations; Genetic Differences, Cultural Deprivation Theories, Cultural Difference Theories.

4.1.3.1.2. School-Centered or Within-School explanations

4.2. School-Centered Explanations

4.2.1. Suggestion that school processes are central to understanding unequal educational performance.

4.2.2. Coleman & Jencks research with relationship between school equality and resources and unequal academic attainment.

5. Sociological Perspectives

5.1. Functional Theory was invented by a man named Emile Durkheim in the late 19th and early 20th century. Functionalists view society as a functional part that works with another piece to produce the energy required to make our society work.

5.1.1. An example of this theory would be the well known, Ned Flander's Interaction Analysis Scale. This means that observers will observe classroom interactions and note these interactions on the scale.

5.2. Effects of Schooling on Individuals

5.2.1. Knowledge and Attitudes

5.2.1.1. Surprisingly, sociologists of education STRONGLY disagree on how knowledge and attitudes of young people are acquired.

5.2.1.2. One of the 1st researchers to show differences in schools are directly related to differences in student movement was Ron Edwards. He is known as the pioneer of the effective schools movement.

5.2.1.3. It said that the more schooling a person has the more likely they will have more knowledge and have social participation.

5.2.2. Employment

5.2.2.1. In 2011, high school graduates on average made roughly $33,000 and those with a college degree made roughly $54,000 yearly which means that a college degree is related to higher income.

5.2.2.2. In the workforce, women earn less than me even if they have the same education level. The differences are due to occupational segregation by sex, pay discrimination and the fact that women take more time off from work to take care of family matters, such as, a sick child.

5.2.3. Education and Mobility

5.2.3.1. "Civil Religion" is the faith among most Americans that education is the great equalizer.

5.2.3.2. Most people believe that the more education one has that it will lead to economic and social mobility.

5.2.3.3. Popular belief is that education opens the doors of opportunity.

6. Philosophy of Education

6.1. Generic Notions

6.1.1. Dewey's Pragmatism

6.1.1.1. John Dewey's notion of education was instrumentalism and experimentalism.

6.1.1.2. Referred to as "progressive" education.

6.1.1.3. Believed that children were active, organic beings, children grew and changed, and required that course of study to reflect the child's stage of development.

6.2. Key Researchers

6.2.1. George Sanders Peirce

6.2.2. William James

6.2.3. John Dewey

6.3. Goal of Education

6.3.1. The goal of education was growth. It was also rooted in social order with the belief that you balanced society, community and the needs of the individual. Many misunderstand the philosophy of Dewey and referred to as "life adjustment education".

6.4. Role of Teacher

6.4.1. Not authoritarian but referred to as a facilitator.

6.4.2. The teacher encourages, questions, helps plan and implements the course of study.

6.4.3. Teacher must know several subjects in order to create curriculum but also write it.

6.5. Curriculm

6.5.1. All academic and vocational disciplines are integrated.

6.5.2. Educators are not to become dedicated to a set curriculum.

6.5.3. Changes as the social order changes and as children's interests and needs change.

7. Schools as Organizations

7.1. U.S. Senators of Alabama: Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby

7.2. U.S. House of Representative of Alabama: Rep. Mo Brooks

7.3. Alabama's Superintendent of Education: Thomas R. Bice, Ed.D.:

7.4. Representative on Alabama School Board for District 8: Mary Scott Hunter

7.5. Alabama Madison County Schools Superintendent: Mr. Matthew Allen Massey

7.6. Madison County Schools, Alabama School Board: Mr. Dan Nash, Mrs. Angie Bates, Mrs. Mary Louise Stowe, Mr. Jeff Anderson, and Mr. David Vess (District 8)

8. Curriculum and Pedagogy

8.1. Developmentalists Curriculum

8.1.1. Related to the needs and interests of the student rather than the needs of society.

8.1.2. This curriculum came out of some aspects of Dewey's writings that is related to the relationship between the child and the curriculum.

8.1.3. Psychologists Jean Piaget thoughts that emphasized the process of teaching as well as its content.

8.2. Functionalists Curriculum

8.2.1. Functionalist theory is a positive view of the role of the schools and suggests that what schools teach are the general norms, values, and knowledge required for the maintenance and development of modern society.

8.2.2. Emile Durkheim developed the general functionalist theory in the late 19th and 20th century. He was concerned with the role of schools in combating the social and moral breakdown initiated by modernization.

8.2.3. Modern Functionalist was developed in the United States by the works of Talcott Parsons and Robert Dreeben. They emphasized the role of the school in preparing students for our complex society.

9. Equality of Opportunity

9.1. Women: Marginalized Population

9.1.1. There has always been a comparison between male and female. Females excel in Reading and Math. However, in math, scores tend to drop at age 9 for females. Males out perform in math and science.

9.1.2. A lot of the studies have taken place in the 70s & 80s. Females are said to be better students than than males, higher reading & writing proficiency. The last 20 years the gap has closed between males and females. To this day, women are discriminated against occupationally and socially but it is slowly changing.

9.1.3. Even data shows that females out preform in most subjects compared to male, socioeconomic status and social class are not included in the data.

9.2. The Coleman Study

9.2.1. Sociologist James Coleman was given a huge grant to study the relationship between the organizational characteristics of schools and student achievement.

9.2.2. 1st Response to the report: Where an individual goes to school has little effect on his or her cognitive growth or educational mobility.

9.2.3. 2nd Response to the report: Private Catholic serve the low-income minority.

9.2.4. 3rd Response to the report: Where an person goes to school is often related to her race and socioeconomic background, however, the racial and socioeconomic composition of a school has a greater effect on student achievement than an person's race and class.