1. School Reform
1.1. School-Based Reform: School-to-work programs
1.1.1. 1. Incorporated in the 1990s. Their intent was to extend a vocational emphasis to non-college-bound students and stresses the importance of work-based learning.
1.1.2. 2. Each school was to provide every student with 3 things: (1) Relevant education, allowing students to explore different careers and see what skills are required (2) Skills, obtained from structured training and work-based learning experiences, demonstrated in a work environment (3) Valued credentials, establishing industry-standard benchmarks and developing education and training standards that ensure that proper education is received for each career.
1.1.3. 3. The U.S. vocational educational system remains a "second class" educational track.
1.2. Full Service and Community Schools (Community Reform)
1.2.1. 1. This plan involves examining and planning to education not only the whole child, but also the whole community.
1.2.2. 2. Schools focus on meeting students' and their families education, physical, psychological, and social needs in a coordinated and collaborative fashion between school and community services.
1.2.3. 3 Schools service as community centers within neighborhoods that are open extended hours to provide a multitude of services such as adult education, health clinics, recreation facilities, after-school programs, mental health services, drug and alcohol programs, job placement and training programs, and tutoring services.
1.2.4. 4. Schools aim to prevent problems as well as support them.
2. Educational Inequality
2.1. Sociological Explanations of Unequal Achievement
2.1.1. 1.Much research has focused on class issues.
2.1.2. 2 The research has also focused on the relationship between race and education. .
2.1.3. 3 Student-centered Explanations.
2.1.3.1. 1. School differences and financing did not explain unequal educational performance, then perhaps the schools themselves were not the most important factor.
2.1.4. 4. Cultural Deprivation Theories
2.1.4.1. 1. Cultural deprivation theorists assert that the poor have a deprived culture-on that lacks the value system of middle-class culture.
2.1.4.2. 2. This initiated compensatory programs such as Project Head Start.
2.1.4.3. 3. These compensatory programs have not improved significantly the academic performance of disadvantaged students.
2.2. School-Centered Explanation
2.2.1. 1 School Financing.
2.2.1.1. * There are vast differences in funding between affluent and poor districts.
2.2.1.2. * Public schools are funded through a combination of revenues from local, state, and federal sources. Majority of funds come from state and local taxes.
2.2.1.3. * Local property taxes are a significant source of funding. Therefore, more affluent communities have greater funding of public schools.
2.2.2. 2.Effective school research
2.2.2.1. * Found characteristics of effective schools.
2.2.2.1.1. * A climate of high expectations for students by teachers and administrators.
2.2.2.1.2. * Strong and effective leadership by a principal or school head.
2.2.2.1.3. * Accountability processes for students and teachers.
2.2.2.1.4. * The monitoring of student learning.
2.2.2.1.5. * A high degree of instructional time on task, where teachers spend a great deal of their time teaching and students spend a great deal of their time learning.
2.2.2.1.6. * Flexibility for teachers and administrators to experiment and adapt to new situations and problems.
2.2.3. 3. School climates affect academic performance
2.2.3.1. * Schools in working-class neighborhoods are more likely to have authoritarian and teacher-directed practices.
2.2.3.2. * Schools in middle-class communities are more likely to have less authoritarian and more student-centered practice.
2.2.4. 4. Curriculum and ability grouping
2.2.4.1. * Students are divided into reading groups and separate classes based on teacher recommendations, standardized test scores, and sometimes race, class, or gender.
2.2.4.2. * There is considerable debate among educators and researchers about the necessity, effects, and efficacy of tracking.
2.2.5. 5. Gender
2.2.5.1. * Curriculum materials portray men's and women's roles often in stereotypical and traditional ways.
2.2.5.2. * The traditional curriculum silences women by omitting significant aspects of women's history and women's lives from discussion.
2.2.5.3. * The hidden curriculum reinforces traditional gender roles and expectations through classroom organization, instructional practices, and classroom interactions.
2.2.5.4. * The educational opportunities an life chances of women is that the organizations of schools reinforces gender roles and gender inequality.
3. Equality of Opportunity
3.1. Educational Achievement & Attainment: Hispanic-American Students
3.1.1. 1. Achievement goes up in relation to parental level of education.
3.1.2. 2. Progress was seen narrowing the gap in achievement until 1988.
3.1.3. 3 Gaps in reading and mathematics have increased between Hispanic-American students and white students since 1988.
3.1.4. 4. These gaps have occurred even with the implementation of NCLB.
3.1.5. 5. 62.7% graduate high school and 52.4% receive a bachelor's degree.
3.1.6. Research indicates that social class is strongly and independently related to educational attainment and achievement.
3.2. Response to the Coleman Study: Round Three
3.2.1. 1. Borman and Dowling review in 2010.
3.2.2. 2. Found that where an individual goes to school is often related to her race and socioeconomic background, but the racial and socioeconomic composition of a school has a greater effect on student achievement than an individual's race or class.
3.2.3. 3. Response argues that school segregation based on race and socioeconomic status is largely responsible for gaps in student achievement.
3.2.4. 4. Study concludes that education reform must focus on eliminating the high level of segregation that remains in the U.S. education system and that school must bring an end to tracking systems and biases that favor white and middle-class students.
4. Curriculum & Pedagogy
4.1. Historical Curriculum Theory: Developmental Curriculum
4.1.1. 1.Related to the news and interests of the students rather than the needs of society.
4.1.2. 2. It was student-centered and was concerned with relating the curriculum to the needs and interests of each child at particular developmental stages.
4.1.3. 3. It stressed the importance of relating schooling to the life experiences of each child in a way that would make eduction come alive in a meaningful manner.
4.1.4. 4. Teacher is a facilitator of student growth.
4.2. Sociological Curriculum Theory:Functionalist Theory
4.2.1. 1. Schools curriculum is designed to prepare students for roles in society.
4.2.2. 2. The specific content of the curriculum is less important than the role of schools in teaching students how to learn.
4.2.3. 3. Functionalists believe that schools teach students the values that are essential to a modern society.
4.2.4. 4. This theory is a positive view of the roles 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.
5. History of Education
5.1. Reform in the Standards Era
5.1.1. 1. National Commission on Excellence (1983), founded by President Reagan's Secretary of Education.
5.1.2. 2. Five recommendations were given:
5.1.2.1. * All students graduating high school complete the basics: four years of English, three years of math, three years of science, three years of social studies, and a half year of computer science.
5.1.2.2. * Schools should expect higher achievement form their students and that four-year colleges raise their admissions requirements.
5.1.2.3. * That more time be devoted to teaching the basics.
5.1.2.4. * That the preparation of teachers be strengthened and that teaching be made a more respected and rewarded profession.
5.1.2.5. * that citizens require their elected representatives to support and fund these reforms.
5.1.3. 3. Attention was given to the improvement of curriculum, the tightening of standards, and a move toward the setting of academic goals and their assessment.
5.2. Historical Interpretation of the Radical-Revisionist School
5.2.1. 1. They do not deny the educational system has expanded, but they believe it expanded to meet the needs of the elites in society for the control of the working class and immigrants, and for economic efficiency.
5.2.2. 2. They point out each period of reform resulted in the working-class, poor, and minority students getting the short end of the stick.
5.2.3. 3. The radical interpretation is a more pessimistic view. They suggest the reforms have benefited the elites more than the masses, and they have not produced equality of opportunity.
6. Politics of Education
6.1. Liberal Perspective
6.1.1. 1.Concerned with balancing the economic productivity of capitalism with the social and economic needs of the majority of people.
6.1.2. 2. Liberals assert that the role of the government is to ensure the fair treatment of all citizens, to ensure that equality of opportunity exists, and to minimize exceedingly great differences in the life chances and life outcomes of the country's richest and poorest citizens.
6.1.3. 3.It stresses that groups rather than individuals are affected by the structure of society, so solutions to social problems must address group dynamics rather than individuals alone.
6.2. Traditional Vision
6.2.1. 1.Traditionlists believe school should pass on the best of what was and what is.
6.2.2. 2. This vision sees the role of the school as providing the necessary educational training to ensure that the most talented and hard-working individuals receive the tools necessary to maximize economic and social productivity.
6.2.3. 3. They see the school's function as one of transmitting the cultural traditions through what is taught.
7. Schools as Organizations
7.1. Governance
7.1.1. Senators
7.1.1.1. Senator Richard Shelby (R)
7.1.1.2. Senator Jeff Sessions (R)
7.1.2. House of Representatives
7.1.2.1. Congressman Mo Brooks (R)
7.1.3. State Superintendent
7.1.3.1. Dr. Phillip Cleveland (Interim Superintendent)
7.1.4. State School Board Representative
7.1.4.1. Mary Scott Hunter
7.1.5. Local Superintendent
7.1.5.1. Dr. Sandra Spivey
7.1.6. Local School Board
7.1.6.1. John Esslinger
7.1.6.2. Dr. Judy McCrary
7.1.6.3. Hollie Thompson
7.1.6.4. Julie Gentry
7.1.6.5. Darryl Eustace
7.2. U.S. compared to Japan
7.2.1. Japan
7.2.1.1. Belief in education is so strong it has led to "double schooling."
7.2.1.1.1. Public school
7.2.1.1.2. Non-formal schools (tutorial services)
7.2.1.1.3. Largest non-formal is the "study institution"
7.2.1.1.4. Debate over education has more to do with national character than structured reform.
7.2.2. U.S.
7.2.2.1. Public Schools
7.2.2.1.1. Decentralized down to local school district level
7.2.2.1.2. Student composition diverse
7.2.2.1.3. Multiple points of entry and few forced exits
7.2.2.2. Private Schools
7.2.2.2.1. Attract wealthy students and family has commitment to education
7.2.2.2.2. They are less bureaucratic than public schools.
8. Philosophy of Education: Pragmatism
8.1. Generic Notions
8.1.1. 1. Proposes that educators start with the needs & interests of the child, allow the child to participate in planning her course of study, employ project method or group learning, and dependent heavily on experiential learning.
8.1.2. Rests on the notion that children are active, growing and changing, and require a course of study that reflects their stages of development.
8.2. Key Researchers
8.2.1. 1. George Sanders Pierce
8.2.2. 2. William James
8.2.3. 3. John Dewey
8.3. Goal of Education
8.3.1. 1. Believe that education should focus on the needs of individuals, both cognitively and affectively.
8.3.2. Emphasizes the notion of possibility, since the individual is constantly changing.
8.4. Role of the teacher
8.4.1. 1. Teachers must understand their own world.
8.4.2. 2. Teachers must take risks.
8.4.3. 3. The role of the teacher is a personal one that carries great responsibility.
8.5. Curriculum
8.5.1. 1. Curriculum leans toward the humanities.
8.5.2. 2. They believe in exposing students at early ages to problems & possibilities along with accomplishments.
8.6. Method of Instruction
8.6.1. 1. They believe each child has a different learning style and it is up to the teacher to discover what works for each child.
8.6.2. 2. The role of the teacher is to help students understand the world through posing questions, generating activities, and working together.
9. Sociology of Education
9.1. Functional Theories
9.1.1. 1. Emile Durkheim invented sociology of education in the late 19th & early 20th century.
9.1.2. 2. Assumes consensus is the normal state in society & conflict represents a breakdown of shared values.
9.1.3. 3.Educational reform is to create structures, programs, and curricula that are rational and encourage social unity.
9.1.4. 4. Educational reformers vase their suggestions on functional theories of schooling.
9.2. Effects of Schooling on Individuals
9.2.1. 1.Student Peer Groups and Alienation
9.2.1.1. Students in vocational programs or on track for low-status jobs are more likely to join a rebellious subculture.
9.2.1.2. 4 majors types of college students: careerists (middle & upper-middle class background, lost confidence in college); intellectuals (come from highly educated families, studied in the humanities, politically involved); strivers (working-class background, ethnic/racial minority, not a high GPA); unconnected ( all background, participated in a few activities)
9.2.2. 2.Gender
9.2.2.1. 1. Men are frequently paid more than women for the same work.
9.2.2.2. 2. During the high school years, girls begin to show signs of not living up to their potential.
9.2.2.3. 3. Certain school policies and processes may inadvertently cause inequalities.
9.2.3. 3.Knowledge and attitudes
9.2.3.1. 1. Some research indicates differences between school in related to academics and policies make a difference in student learning.
9.2.3.2. 2. Where students are compelled to take academic subjects and where there is consistent discipline, student achievement levels go up.
9.2.3.3. Education is related to an individuals' sense of well-being and self-esteem.