1. History of U.S. Education
1.1. Reform Movement
1.1.1. 1. The Rise of the Common School (1820-1860) was a period that encountered a tremendous amount of changes, in just a 40 year time frame. The movement to establish the common school, or free publicly funded elementary schools, was headed by Horace Mann.
1.1.2. 2. Horace Mann became the first secretary of the state board of education in Massachusetts. Due to his efforts, the first teacher training school was established in Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1839.
1.1.3. 3. Mann's arguments reflects both the stability and order and the concern for social mobility.
1.2. Historical Interpretation of U.S. Education
1.2.1. 1. Democratic liberals believe that the history of U.S. education involves the progressive evolution, albeit flawed, of a school system committed to providing equality of opportunity for all.
1.2.2. 2. Historians such as Cubberly (1934) and Curti (1959/1971), have portrayed the Common School era as a victory for democratic movements and the first step in opening U.S. education to all.
1.2.3. 3. Democratic-liberals believe that the U.S. educational system must continue to move closer to the ideals of equality and excellence.
2. Sociological Perspectives
2.1. Theoretical Perspective: Functional
2.1.1. 1. Functionalists view society as a kind of machine, where one part articulates with another to produce the dynamic energy required to make society work.
2.1.2. 2. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) was perhaps the earliest sociologist to embrace a functional point of view about the relation of school and society.
2.1.3. 3. Functionalists tend to assume that consensus is the normal state in society and that conflict represents a breakdown of shared values. In a well-functioning society, schools socialize students into the appropriate values, and sort and select students according to their abilities.
2.2. 3 effects of schooling on individuals
2.2.1. 1. Employment - it is stated that college graduates average a high salary, than individuals with only a high school diploma.
2.2.2. 2. Education and mobility - Hopper (1971) has made the point that there is a difference between educational amount and educational route. That is, the number of years of education is one measure of educational attainment, but where people go to schools affects their mobility. The more prestigious educational route will act as a "mobility escalator".
2.2.3. 3. Teacher Behavior - Persell (1977) found that when teachers demanded more from their students and praised them more, students learned more and felt better about themselves.
3. Philosophy of Education
3.1. Pragmatism
3.1.1. 1. Generic Notions - Dewey's ideas were influenced by the theory of evolution and by an eighteenth-century belief in progress. This meant attainment of a better society through education. Dewey's ideas about education, often referred to as progressive, proposed that educators start with the needs and interests of the child in the classroom, allow the child to participate in planning his or her course of study, employ project method or group learning, and depend heavily on experiential learning.
3.1.2. 2. Goal of Education - Dewey believed that school should provide "conjoint, communicated experience" -- that should function as preparation for life in a democratic society. Dewey's view on the primary role of education was growth. In his book, Democracy and Education, Dewey (1916) stated that education had no other goals than growth--growth leading to more growth. In other words, education should be a continuous cycle of students growing, so that they may fulfill their potential as human beings.
3.1.3. 3. Key Researchers - Some of the key researchers of Pragmatism include George Sanders Pierce (1839-1914), William James (1842-1910), and John Dewey (1859-1952). There are also some European philosophers from earlier periods who might have been classified as pragmatists. They are Francis Bacon, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
3.1.4. 4. Role of the Teacher - In a progressive setting, thee teacher is no longer the authoritarian figure from which all knowledge flows; rather, the teacher assumes the peripheral position of facilitator. The teacher encourages, offers suggestions, questions, and helps plan and implement courses of study. The teacher also writes curriculum and must have a command of several disciplines in order to create and implement curriculum.
3.1.5. 5. Method of Instruction - Dewey proposed that students learn both individually and in groups. Formal instruction was abandoned. Traditional blocks of time for specific discipline instruction were eliminated. Furniture, usually nailed to the floor, was discarded in favor of tables and chairs that could be grouped as needed. Students could converse quietly with one another, could stand up and stretch if warranted, and could pursue independent study or group work.
3.1.6. 6. Curriculum - Progressive schools usually follow an integrated curriculum. Progressive educators support starting with contemporary problems and working from the known to the unknown, or what is now called in social studies education, "the curriculum of expanding environments." Progressive educators are not wedded to a fixed curriculum either; rather, curriculum changes as the social order changes and as children's interests and needs change.
4. Schools as Organizations
4.1. Major stakeholders in Lauderdale Co. school district
4.1.1. 1. Local school board member: Mr. Chad Holden. Member of the Lauderdale Co. Board of Education
4.1.2. 2. Local Superintendent: Dr. Jennifer Gray. Superintendent of Lauderdale Co. schools
4.1.3. 3. State Superintendent: Dr. Phillip C. Cleveland. State Superintendent of Education
4.2. Comparison to Japan
4.2.1. 1. Some experts thought that the educational system in Japan was exemplary when compared to the educational system in the United States (White, 1987).
4.2.2. 2. The Japanese educational system seemed to produce skilled workers and highly competent managers.
4.2.3. 3. The educational system benefits from its work ethic that is so deeply entrenched in the Japanese culture. It makes it extremely efficient and effective.
5. Curriculum and Pedagogy
5.1. The developmentalist curriculum
5.1.1. 1. It's related to the needs and interests of the student rather than the needs of society.
5.1.2. 2. The curriculum emanated from the aspects of Dewey's writings related to the relationship between the child and the curriculum (Dewey, 1902), as well as developmental psychologists such as Piaget, and it emphasized the process of teaching as well as its content.
5.1.3. 3. This philosophically progressive approach to teaching was student centered and was concerned with relating the curriculum to the needs and interests of each child at particular developmental stages. Thus, it stressed flexibility in both what was taught and how it was taught, with the emphasis on the development of each student's individual capacities.
5.2. Modern functionalist theory
5.2.1. 1. Stressed the role of the schools in preparing students for the increasingly complex rules required in a modern society.
5.2.2. 2. This society, according to functionalists, is a democratic, meritocratic, and expert society (Hurn, 1993, pp. 44-47) and the school curriculum is designed to enable students to function within this type of society.
5.2.3. 3. For functionalists, the specific content of the curriculum, such as history or literature, is less important than the role of schools in teaching students how to learn--a skill in an increasingly technocratic society.
6. Educational Inequality
6.1. Cultural Deprivation Theory
6.1.1. 1. Suggests that working-class and nonwhite families often lack the cultural resources, such as books and other educational stimuli, and thus arrive at school at a significant disadvantage.
6.1.2. 2. Theorists assert that the poor have a deprived culture--one that lacks the value system of middle-class culture. The culture of poverty eschews delayed gratification for immediate reward, rejects hard work and initiative as a means to success, and does not view schooling as the means to social mobility.
6.1.3. 3. According to Deutsch (1964), the culture deprivation results in educationally disadvantaged students who achieve poorly because they have not been raised to acquire skills and dispositions required for satisfactory academic achievement (Dougherty & Hammock, 1990, p. 341).
6.2. Gender and Schooling
6.2.1. 1. Feminists agree that schooling often limits the educational opportunities and life chances of women in a number of ways. For example, boys and girls are socialized differently through a variety of school processes.
6.2.2. 2. First, curriculum materials portray men's and women's roles often in stereotypical and traditional ways (Hitchcock & Tompkins, 1987).
6.2.3. 3. Second, the traditional curriculum, according to Bennett and LeCompte (1990) "silences women" by omitting significant aspects of women's history and women's lives from discussion. As with other groups calling for multicultural curriculum, feminists call for a more gender-fair curriculum.
6.2.4. 4. Third, the hidden curriculum reinforces traditional gender roles and expectations through classroom organization, instructional practices, and classroom interactions (Bennett & LeCompte, 1990, pp. 234-237).
7. Educational Reform
7.1. Privatization
7.1.1. 1. From the 1990's, the traditional distinction between public and private education became blurred, with private education companies increasingly becoming involved in public education in a variety of ways.
7.1.2. 2. First, for profit companies, such as the Edison Company, took over the management of failing schools and districts.
7.1.3. 3. Second, for-profit companies, such as Kaplan and Sylvan Learning Centers, have the majority of contracts for supplemental tutoring under the No Child Left Behind Act.
7.2. Full Service and Community Schools
7.2.1. 1. A way to attack education inequality is to examine and plan to educate not only the whole child, but the whole community.
7.2.2. 2. Dryfoo's model of full service schools (Dryfoos, 1994, 2005), Canada's Harlem Children's Zone (Tough, 2008), and Newark's Broader Bolder Approach, are three models of community-based reforms.
7.2.3. 3. Full service schools focus on meeting students' and their families educational, physical, psychological, and social needs in a coordinated and collaborative fashion between school and community services (Dryfoos, 1994, 2005).
8. Politics of Education
8.1. Conservative Perspective
8.1.1. 1. Developed originally by William Graham Sumner, this perspective looks at social evolution as a process that enables the strongest individuals and/or groups to survive, and looks at human and social evolution as adaptation to changes in the environment. Individuals and groups must compete in the social environment in order to survive, and human progress is dependent on individual initiative and drive.
8.1.2. 2. The presidency of Ronald Reagan represented the political ascendancy of this viewpoint.
8.1.3. 3. Conservatives argue that individuals or groups of students rise and fall on their own intelligence, hard work, and initiative, and that achievement is based on hard work and sacrifice.
8.2. Progressivism Vision
8.2.1. 1. View the schools as central to solving social problems, as a vehicle for upward mobility, as essential to the development of individual potential, and as an integral part of a democratic society.
8.2.2. 2. Believe the schools should be part of the steady progress to make things better.
8.2.3. 3. Education should focus on the whole child, rather than the content or the teacher.
9. Equality of Opportunity
9.1. Educational achievement and attainment for African-Americans
9.1.1. 1. An individual's race has a significant impact on how much educations he or she is likely to achieve. Among 16-24 year olds, for instance, 5.2% of white students drop out of school, whereas 9.3% of African-American students are likely to drop out of school.
9.1.2. 2. Among 17 year olds, 89% of white students will be able to read at the intermediate level, which includes the ability to search for specific information, interrelate ideas, and make generalizations about literature, science, and social studies materials. However, 66% of African-American students have reached that level of reading proficiency ( U.S. Department of Education, National Center for education Statistics, 2003).
9.1.3. 3. Minorities do not receive the same educational opportunities as whites, and their rewards for educational attainment are significantly less.
9.2. Coleman Study
9.2.1. 1. I agree with The Coleman Study of 1982. Differences among schools do make a difference.
9.2.2. 2. Where an individual goes to school is often related to his or 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 and class.
9.2.3. 3. Schools that are less bureaucratic and more academically oriented are better learning environments for students.