1. Educational Reform
1.1. School-based reform
1.1.1. School-business Partnerships
1.1.1.1. In the 1980s business leaders became increasingly concerned that the nations schools were not producing the kinds of graduates necessary for a revitalization of the U.S. economy.
1.1.1.2. The Boston Compact was the most notable partnership formed and begun in 1982.
1.1.1.3. Over the past decade, a group of foundations and entrepreneurs have contributed to educational reform efforts, most often neo-liberal variety.
1.1.1.4. These have attracted considerable media attention, but there is little convincing evidence that they have improved schools or that they will address the fundamental problems facing the U.S. education.
1.1.1.5. In the 1980s only 1.5 percent of corporate giving was to public primary and secondary public schools.
1.1.1.6. In fact, corporate and business support for public schools has fallen dramatically since the 1970s.
1.2. Community Reform
1.2.1. Full Service and Community Schools
1.2.1.1. Another way to attack education inequality is to examine and plan to educate not only the whole child, but the whole community.
1.2.1.2. Dryfoos's model of full service schools like Canada's Harlem Children's Zone and Newark's broader boulder approach are models of community-based reforms.
1.2.1.3. Full service schools focus on meeting students' and their families educational, physical, psychological, and social needs in coordinated and collaborative fashion between school and community services.
1.2.1.4. Schools service as community centers within neighborhoods that are open extended hours to provide services like adult education, health clinics, recreation facilities, after-school programs, mental health services, drug and alcohol programs, job placement and training programs, and tutoring services.
1.2.1.5. Designed to target and improve at-risk neighborhoods, full service schools aim to prevent problems and support them.
1.2.1.6. Anyon's argues that to repair the larger social and economic problems of society as a means of improving public education, there is no evidence that full-service schools affect student achievement.
2. Philosophy of Education
2.1. Progressivism is when education is focused on the whole child rather than just the content.
2.1.1. generic notions - Dewey's beliefs were directed toward attaining a better society through education. His ideas of education were that teacher should start with the needs and interest of the child in the classroom. He wanted both freedom and responsibility for students because democracy was important to him and he believed that it could be realized through education that was continuing to change.
2.1.2. Goal of Education - Dewey wanted schools to function in preparation for life in a democratic society. Dewey's philosophy of education was that schools could balance the social roles with its effects on the social, intellectual, and personal development of individuals. The primary role of education was growth, to make humans live life to the fullest. That they will also add to the quality and meaning of their experiences and participate actively with others in building a good society.
2.1.3. Role of Teacher - The teacher is not an authoritarian figure anymore. The teacher would instead make his/her students think. So they would encourage, make suggestions, ask questions, and help plan courses of study along with writing curriculum.
2.1.4. Methods of Instruction - Dewey purposed that students would learn in groups and individually. He believed that students should ask questions about what the want to know. This would be called the problem-solving method. Students are able to move their desk or tables so they can work together quietly, or they could choose to work individually.
2.1.5. Curriculum - Progressive schools usually follow Dewey's notion of a core curriculum. Progressive teachers often start with contemporary problems and work form the known to the unknown which is now called "curriculum of expanding environments." This curriculum can change depending on the students interest and needs.
2.1.6. Key Researchers - John Dewey, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, George Sanders Peirce, William James, and Frances Bacon.
3. Schools as Organizations
3.1. Major Stakeholders
3.1.1. State Senators
3.1.2. House of Representatives
3.1.3. State Superintendent
3.1.4. Representative on State School Board
3.1.5. Local Superintendent
3.1.6. Local School Board
3.2. Japan
3.2.1. The educational system seemed to produce skilled workers and highly competent managers.
3.2.2. The first system of education was est. in 1880s under the central authority of the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture.
3.2.3. Their system of education is highly competitive. To be accepted to prestigious university students are required to pass exams that are extremely competitive.
3.2.4. The belief in education in Japan is so strong that it has led to the "double schooling" phenomenon. Many students are exposed to two educational systems, a traditional and a non-formal school that acts as a national system of tutorial opportunities for students.
3.2.5. The love of education in Japan has made Japan a nation of strivers but not without its own drawbacks. The Japanese have always placed a high value on moral education.
3.2.6. Reconciling the cultural values of achievement and competition with those of cooperation and mutuality will be the hallmark of Japanese educational reform in the coming years.
4. Curriculum and Pedagogy
4.1. Historical Curriculum Theory
4.1.1. Social Efficiency
4.1.1.1. The belief that groups of students that have different needs should have different types of teaching/schooling.
4.1.1.2. Dewey and his ideas of flexible curriculum were responsible for this but Bobbit developed it in 1913.
4.1.1.3. Basically, social efficiency is where different groups of students should have different types of curriculum based on what they need.
4.1.1.4. The development was related to the scientific management of schools in the twentieth century.
4.1.1.5. The scientific management of curriculum involved both the division of knowledge into strictly defined areas and its transmission into scientifically defined goals and objectives. Also the division of students into different views of the curriculum based on their ability.
4.1.1.6. The writings of Fredrick Taylor focused on the management of the factory system, administration of schools started to copy this type of social organization with the focus of efficiency, time on task and social division of labor.
4.2. Sociological Curriculum Theory
4.2.1. Functionalist Theory
4.2.1.1. It was derived by the work of Emile Durkheim in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
4.2.1.2. It was concerned with the role of schools in combating the social and moral breakdown caused by modernization.
4.2.1.3. She argued that schools should have to teach students to fit into the less cohesive modern world.
4.2.1.4. Modern functionalists theory developed in the US through the works of Talcott Parsons and Robert Dreeben and stressed the role of schools in preparing students for the complex roles necessary in a modern society.
4.2.1.5. They believed that schools began to move away from teaching through memorization to general task of teaching students how to learn.
4.2.1.6. Society according to functionalists is a democratic, meritocratic, and expert society and the school curriculum is designed to enable them to function within this type of society.
5. Equality of Opportunity
5.1. Achievement and Attainment of Marginalized Population
5.1.1. Students with Special Needs
5.1.1.1. It was argued that the law had good intentions and produced adverse effects like over identification of students with special needs.
5.1.1.2. The regular education initiative called for mainstreaming children with disabilities and called for inclusion of almost all children into the mainstream.
5.1.1.3. Critics of REI claimed that this type of involvement was unfair to regular students and special needs students.
5.1.1.4. Disability study theorist argued that handicapping conditions are for the most part socially constructed and majority of children identified as handicap can be better helped in mainstream settings.
5.1.1.5. In the 21st century it is important that educational researchers provide evidence to inform placement decisions for these students.
5.1.1.6. In 1975 Congress passed the education of all handicap children law which includes six basic principles: right of access to public education, individualization of services, least restrictive environment, broadened services by schools, guidelines for identifying disability, and principles of primary state and local responsibilities.
5.2. Coleman Study
5.2.1. This is where an individual goes to school and has little effect on the students cognitive growth.
5.2.2. Its the difference among schools that are not powerful predictors of differences in student outcomes.
5.2.3. The road to equality of opportunity doesn't go through the school doors.
5.2.4. The student body composition has a major effect on the student learning then the implication is that poor students should go to school with middle class students to equalize their opportunities.
5.2.5. Research that was done in the 1970s on effects of magnet schools on student learning, argues that they were innovative and learner centered which would make a difference in student learning.
5.2.6. Optimists believe in the efficacy of education to provide equal opportunities to all students.
6. Politics of Education
6.1. Conservative
6.1.1. Decline of authority is where the lost their disciplinary function and the schools became chaotic.
6.1.2. Decline of standards is where schools lowered academic standards and lowered educational quality because of the greater equality demands.
6.1.3. The demands of cultural relativism led to schools losing their traditional roles of teaching and the moral standards and values.
6.2. Progressivism
6.2.1. Progressive views are a steady progress to make things better in schools.
6.2.2. Progressive views also see schools as a place to solve social problems.
6.2.3. Progressive views also want to help in the development of each individuals potential.
7. Educational Inequality
7.1. Sociological Explanation of Unequal Achievement
7.1.1. Functionalists sociological Theory
7.1.1.1. Concerned about the existence of profound and persistent inequalities.
7.1.1.2. The role of the school is to provide a fair and meritocratic selection for sorting out the best and brightest individuals regardless of family background.
7.1.1.3. Functionalist vision of a just society is one where individual talent and hard work are more important than ascriptive characteristics.
7.1.1.4. They expect that the schooling process will produce unequal results, but the results should be based on individual differences between students not groups.
7.1.1.5. It is also possible that with equal opportunities there could be patterns of unequal results even though they believe its highly unlikely.
7.1.1.6. They believe that it is imperative to understand the sources of educational inequality to ensure the elimination of structural barriers to provide all groups a fair chance to compete.
7.2. School Center Explanation
7.2.1. School financing between affluent and poor districts make a difference.
7.2.2. Affluent communities are able to provide more per-pupil spending that poorer areas.
7.2.3. School process is central to understanding unequal educational performance.
7.2.4. Public schools are financed by revenues from local, state, and federal sources.
7.2.5. Affluent communities also have higher property values and raise more money for schools than poorer communities.
7.2.6. School financing equalization is a moral imperative to provide more equality and funding.
8. History of U.S. Education
8.1. Democratic-Liberal School
8.1.1. They believe that the school system should provide equality of opportunity for all.
8.1.2. They also believe that you U.S. Educational System should move closer to both equality and excellence without sacrificing one or the other to much.
8.1.3. Lawrence Cremin says, "That democratic-liberals provide a place for everyone who wishes to have one and in the end yields one of the most educated populations in the world."
8.2. Progressive Reform
8.2.1. People who were part of the progressive reform believed that experimental education was best because it responded to both the needs of the students and the times.
8.2.2. Progressives also believed that freedom and individualism needed to be a big part of education. They also believed in equity and child-centered education.
8.2.3. Progressive Education was often attacked because of how it sacrificed the intellectual goals for social goals and many people like Mortimer Smith, Robert Hutchins and Arthur Bestor disagreed with it and said it destroyed traditional academic functions of schooling.
9. Sociological Perspectives
9.1. Interactional Theories
9.1.1. These are primarily focused on the critiques and extensions of the functional and conflict perspectives.
9.1.2. This also wants people to see the every day things that are taken for granted in the schools between the students and students or the teachers and students.
9.1.3. Basil Bernstein says that the structural aspects of the educational system and the interactional aspects of the system reflect each other and need to be viewed wholistically.
9.2. Knowledge and Attitudes
9.2.1. Recent research that compares public and private schools shows that academically oriented schools produce higher rates of learning. It also shows that in schools where students are compelled to take academic subjects and have discipline the student achievement levels go up.
9.2.2. Different research indicates that the more education that students receive the more likely they are to read newspapers, magazines, books, and take part in politics and public affairs. The more highly educated they are the more likely to be liberal in their political and social attitudes.
9.2.3. Other research also indicates that differences between schools in terms of their academic programs and policies do make a difference in student learning.