1. Politics of Education
1.1. Perspective: Neo-liberal
1.1.1. Origins: Diane Ravitch's Left Back (2000)
1.1.2. Combines conservative and Liberal Perspectives
1.1.3. The Role of the School
1.1.3.1. Education needs to improve because it is what helps expand our global economic competitiveness
1.1.4. Explanations of Unequal Educational Performance:
1.1.4.1. Poverty is no excuse for inequality. Unequal education and performance are results of failing schools.
1.1.5. Definition of Educational Problems:
1.1.5.1. There are too many standardized tests and school closings. This has made the curriculum too narrow.
1.1.6. Educational Policy and Reform:
1.1.6.1. We need to close failing schools, all more choices in schooling. This will increase competition.
1.1.7. The American Dream:
1.1.7.1. School should promote middle-class educational attitudes, values and behaviors (Mosovitch et al.,2010). Found on p. 33
1.2. Vision of Education: Progressive
1.2.1. Schools are important in helping social problems , creating mobility, and helping individuals live up to their potential
1.2.2. Schools should be constantly trying to improve things.
2. History of U.S. Education
2.1. Progressive Reform Movement
2.1.1. New focus on the Welfare of the Citizens
2.1.2. Purpose of education: "Preserverving and promoting democracy within the new social order"(Sadovnik et al. 70)
2.1.3. John Dewey: pedagogic practice
2.1.4. New Curriculum
2.1.4.1. child's interests
2.1.4.2. child's developmental level
2.1.4.3. trace progress of mankind in history
2.1.4.4. understanding materials and principles needed
2.1.5. Emphasis on experience in education and teachers role as facilitator
2.1.6. 2 approaches
2.1.6.1. child-centered
2.1.6.2. social effiency
2.2. U.S. Education in The Age of Reform
2.2.1. Main Belief: Education will lead to a more secular world
2.2.2. Horrace Mann
2.2.2.1. lobbies for a state board of education.
2.2.2.1.1. created by the Massaachusetts legislature in 1837
2.2.2.2. free public school
2.2.2.2.1. public school apposed by people of certain religions and taxpayers without children
2.2.3. 1839: First teacher training school
2.2.4. Mary Lyon & Catharine Esther Beecher
2.2.4.1. secondary schools for women
2.2.5. Roberts v. City of Boston
2.2.5.1. separate education for whites and blacks
2.2.5.2. African-Americans encouraged to establish schools
2.2.5.3. equality is a major problem
2.2.6. Influx of immigrant: leads to a large gap between the poor and rich
2.2.7. High school become required and unselective.
2.2.8. College entrance requirement established-NEA
3. Sociological Perspectives
3.1. Interactional Theoretical Perspective
3.1.1. both incorporates and critiques the functional and conflict theories
3.1.2. looks at education through a microsociolgical perspective
3.1.3. Basil Bernstein: structure and interactional aspects of the education system should be viewed WHOLISTICALLY
3.1.3.1. Example: Bernstein found a link between speech patterns, student background and their relation to how these students do in the school system.
3.2. 3 effects of Schooling on the Individual
3.2.1. Employment
3.2.1.1. Students who graduate college are more likely to be employed
3.2.1.1.1. Curricular placement in earlier education is a huge factor in college attendance.
3.2.1.2. College Education means higher pay
3.2.1.2.1. There are still pay discrepancies among different genders.
3.2.1.3. Amount of education does not correlate with better job performance
3.2.2. Student and Peer Group Alienation
3.2.2.1. Student subcultures remain after schooling and are divided into careerists, intellectuals, strivers, and the unconnected
3.2.2.2. Schools sort students out at early ages and this reproduces these structures in society.
3.2.3. Inequality Perpetuated by Schooling
3.2.3.1. Academic tracks places students in different groups disregarding the fact that they directly affect cognitive development
3.2.3.2. Gender inequality is rampant in schools. Males come out on top.
3.2.3.2.1. Traditional male and female positions are reflected in the schools themselves.
3.2.3.2.2. Society plays a large part in these roles as well.
4. Philosophy of Education
4.1. Pragmatic Philosophy
4.1.1. Generic Notions:
4.1.1.1. embryonic community: teach kids how to live experientially and cooperatively in a democratic society
4.1.1.2. students need freedom and responsibility
4.1.2. Key Researchers
4.1.2.1. Charles Darwin: challenged the concept that organisms and the environment do not interact
4.1.2.2. John Dewey: instrumental and experimental pragmatism
4.1.2.3. Francis Bacon: we should move away from the past and instead experience the world we are in now.
4.1.3. Goal of Education
4.1.3.1. GROWTH
4.1.3.2. teach students how to improve society around them
4.1.3.3. dialectic freedom: There needs to be a balance between the social role of school and how the student develop socially, intellectually and personally.
4.1.4. Role of Teacher
4.1.4.1. facilitate learning (encourage, suggest and question)
4.1.4.2. write curriculum and implement it
4.1.5. method of instruction
4.1.5.1. incorporates individual and group work
4.1.5.2. classroom structure is more open and allows students some flexibility
4.1.6. Curriculum
4.1.6.1. core curriculum: all subjects are connected to each other through a chosen topic
4.1.6.2. curriculum of expanding environments: the curriculum must shift with changes in interest and in society
5. Schools as Organizations
5.1. Stakeholders in Education
5.1.1. State Senators
5.1.1.1. Richard Shelby
5.1.1.2. Jefferson Sessions
5.1.2. House of Representative
5.1.2.1. Mo Brooks
5.1.3. State Superintendent
5.1.3.1. Dr. Tommy Bice
5.1.4. District 5 Representative for the Alabama School Board
5.1.4.1. Ella Bell
5.1.5. Madison City Superintendent
5.1.5.1. Dr. Dee Fowler
5.1.6. Madison City Board of Education
5.1.6.1. Dr. Terri Johnson
5.1.6.2. Connie Spears
5.1.6.3. TIm Holtcamp
5.1.6.4. Ranae Bartlett
5.1.6.5. David Hergenroeder
5.2. United States vs: Finland
5.2.1. Government Impact
5.2.1.1. US: Decntralized, but becoming more centralized
5.2.1.1.1. localized rules and curriculums
5.2.1.2. Finland: government influence is not directly mentioned, but it appears to be centralized
5.2.2. Class Size
5.2.2.1. US: bigger schools with smaller classes
5.2.2.2. Finland: small classes
5.2.3. Teacher Training
5.2.3.1. US: Teaching degrees can be attained by anyone who seeks them and fits within the State standards
5.2.3.2. Finland: Only 15% of teacher candidates are chosen to be trained
5.2.4. Curriculum Options
5.2.4.1. US: High degree of segregation in schools based on where populations live
5.2.4.1.1. The wealthy get more options in terms of education
5.2.4.1.2. testing determines student outcome
5.2.4.2. FInland: Seeks to give all students equal opportunity for high achievement
5.2.4.2.1. Do not put student on tracks based on testing
5.2.4.2.2. cater to student needs
6. Curriculum and Pedagogy
6.1. Developmental Curriculum
6.1.1. Focused on student need as apposed to what the society needed
6.1.1.1. child-centered learning
6.1.2. Inspired on Dewey's curriculum perspectives
6.1.3. Piaget influences the need to focus on both what is learn and how it is learned
6.1.4. Stuck better in the private sector than in the public sector
6.2. Neo-Weberian Conflict Theory
6.2.1. Belief that both the perspectives of Neo-Maxism and conflict focused to much on the rational side.
6.2.1.1. Founded on views of Randall Collins
6.2.2. schools do not necessarily determined ability to perorm in the work forse
6.2.3. focused on content instead of grades
6.2.4. values of schooling is based mostly on the perspectives of the teachers
6.2.4.1. middle class perspective
7. Equality of Opportunity
7.1. Educational Achievement and Attainment of Women
7.1.1. Women have a lower dropout rate than men in schools
7.1.2. Males tend to score higher than women on the SATs
7.1.2.1. Women s tend to attend less prestigious schools
7.1.2.2. More women tend post-secondary schools
7.1.3. Women perform better than men in reading, but worse in math
7.2. Charles Coleman Study
7.2.1. 1966 Study
7.2.1.1. Organization of the schools doesn't matter, but differences in student body does in terms of students outcome
7.2.1.2. Questioned the common belief that where a student goes to school matters
7.2.2. 1982 Study
7.2.2.1. Contrasted from original findings
7.2.2.2. private school students perform better than public school student
7.2.2.3. brought about questions of elitism
7.2.3. Borman and Dowling
7.2.3.1. Requisitioned the Coleman studies
7.2.3.2. Found that socioeconomic makeup of the SCHOOL has a larger affect on achievement than INDIVIDUAL race and class
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. Cultural Difference Theories
8.1.1. student, parental and community cultruress are the reasons for unequal achievment
8.1.1.1. Ogbu
8.1.1.1.1. African American families and schools socialize students to accept their inferior chances of success
8.1.1.1.2. schools expect of African-American students to deny their own culture and accept that of upper middle class
8.1.1.2. Bernstein
8.1.1.2.1. relationships between economics, the family, and the schools lead to defecets in education
8.1.1.3. Bourdieu
8.1.1.3.1. Cultural and social capital
8.1.2. working-class and nonwhite students resist the dominant cultures of schools
8.1.2.1. Willis and Gaines
8.1.2.1.1. working-class boys reject middle class culture and embrace the culture of the working-class
8.1.2.2. Lemann
8.1.2.2.1. Lifestyles of poverty should not be celebrated as resistance
8.2. Curriculum and Ability Grouping within Schools
8.2.1. Within schools educational inequality can result from ability and curriculum grouping
8.2.2. Functionalists vs: Conflict Theorists
8.2.2.1. Functionalists: separation is based on ability
8.2.2.2. Conflict Theorists: separation is based on ascriptic characteristics
8.2.3. Shankner
8.2.3.1. there is an assumption that students on lower track are less capable than student on higher tracks
8.2.4. tracking is associated with race and social characteristics
9. Educational Reform and School Improvement
9.1. School-Based Reforms
9.1.1. School Choice
9.1.1.1. Intersectional: students can go to either public or private schools
9.1.1.2. Intrasectional: students can choose any public school in the state
9.1.1.3. Intradistrict: students can go to any public school in their district
9.1.1.3.1. Controlled choice: specifies specific zones within a district
9.1.2. Charter Schools
9.1.2.1. High demand for charter schools
9.1.2.2. considered to be autonmous
9.1.2.3. Mixed Results
9.1.2.3.1. American Federation of Teachers: public schools outperform charter schools
9.1.2.3.2. National Center for Educational Statistics: public schools have better fourth grade reading and mathematics
9.1.2.3.3. Center for Research on Educational Outcomes: wide variation in quality of charter schools
9.1.3. Vouchers
9.1.3.1. given to lower SES families to go to private schools
9.1.3.2. there is a wide debate whether private schools are any better than public schools
9.1.3.2.1. Witte: negative effects on reading
9.1.3.2.2. Greene: significant gains in math and reading
9.1.3.2.3. Rouse: a non-significant gain in reading
9.1.3.2.4. Metcalf: No significant differences
9.1.3.2.5. Hoxby: competition leads to higher test scores
9.2. Harlem Children's Zone
9.2.1. Conceptualized by Geoffrey Canada
9.2.2. Goal was to create improvements within lower SES neighborhoods
9.2.3. Baby College
9.2.3.1. teaches parents the rules of the middle class
9.2.3.2. Provides parents with resources for more healthy and prepared children
9.2.4. Has inspired similar movements