1. Schools as Organizations
1.1. Madison County School District
1.1.1. State Senators: Bill Holtzclaw & Arthur Orr
1.1.2. House of Representatives: Mike Ball, Mac McCutcheon, Laura Hall, Howard Sanderford, Jim Patterson, and Chris Blackshear
1.1.3. State Superintendent: Tommy Bice
1.1.4. Representative on state board: Yvette Richardson
1.1.5. Local Superintendent: Matt Massey
1.1.6. Local board members: Dan Nash, Angie Bates, Mary Louise Stowe, David Vess, Jeff Anderson
1.2. Tallapoosa County School District
1.2.1. State Senator: Tom Whatley & Clyde Chambliss
1.2.2. House of Representatives: Mark Tuggle & Pebblin W. Warren
1.2.3. State Superintendent: Tommy Bice
1.2.4. Representative on state board: Stephanie Bell
1.2.5. Local Superintendent: Joe Windle
1.2.6. Local board members: Matilda Woodyard-Hamilton, Martin Johnson, Michael Carter, Karen White, and Randy Anderson
2. Curriculum and Pedagogy
2.1. Developmentalist Curriculum
2.1.1. Focuses on the needs and interests of the students rather than the needs of society
2.1.2. Relates to the relationship between the child and the curriculum, and emphasizes the process of teaching as well as its content.
2.1.3. Revolves around the student, and places extra stress on the flexibility of what is taught and how it is taught.
2.2. Conflict Theorist/Radicalist Curriculum
2.2.1. Believes that what is taught in schools is more of a reflection of ideology than empirical reality
2.2.2. Realizes that the hidden curriculum of schools teaches students the attitudes and behaviors that are required within the workplace
2.2.3. Believes that the formal curriculum represents the dominant cultural interests that are present in society
3. Equality of Opportunity
3.1. Hispanic-American
3.1.1. Of students aged 16-24, Hispanic-Americans have the highest chance of dropping out, at 17.6%.
3.1.2. Among 17-year-old students, 70% of Hispanic-Americans are reading at the intermediate level.
3.1.3. Hispanic-Americans and other minorities do not receive the same educational opportunities as whites; therefore, their rewards for educational attainment are significantly less.
3.2. Coleman Study: Round Three
3.2.1. The racial and socioeconomic composition of a school has a more impactful effect on student achievement than an individual's race and class.
3.2.2. Contrary to Coleman's argument, Geoffrey Borman and Maritza Dowling argue that gaps in student achievement are the result of school segregation based on race, socioeconomic status, and inner-school interactions.
3.2.3. Borman and Dowling's response concludes that the high level of existing segregation must be stopped, including tracking systems and biases that favor white and middle-class students.
4. Educational Inequality
4.1. Cultural Deprivation
4.1.1. Working-class and nonwhite families often lack the cultural resources, including books and other educational materials, resulting in them arriving at school with a significant disadvantage.
4.1.2. The middle-class culture places an importance on school for future success, while poverty-stricken and lower-class families do not perceive schooling as the means to social mobility.
4.1.3. This deprivation results in educationally disadvantaged students who achieve poorly because they have not been raised to acquire the skills/dispositions necessary to attain academic achievement.
4.2. School Financing
4.2.1. More affluent communities are able to provide more per-pupil spending than poorer districts, due to the funding of public schools relying heavily on local property taxes.
4.2.2. This unequal method of funding has led to many legal attacks by communities that argue that funding based on local property taxes is discriminatory.
4.2.3. In the future, it appears that states will being to use state funding to close the gap between rich and poor districts.
5. Educational Reform
5.1. Privatization
5.1.1. Beginning in the 1990's, private education companies began increasing their involvement in public education in a variety of ways.
5.1.2. For-profit companies began taking over the management of failing schools and districts and controlling the contracts for supplemental tutoring under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
5.1.3. In many major cities, these portfolio models of education have replaced traditional district schools. The success of this reform has given mixed results.
5.2. Full Service and Community Schools
5.2.1. Full service schools focus on meeting students' and their families educational, physical, psychological, and social needs in a coordinated fashion between school and community services.
5.2.2. In this model, schools serve as community centers within neighborhoods that provide an assortment of services such as adult education, health clinics, recreational facilities, after-school programs, mental health services, drug and alcohol programs, job placement and training programs, and tutoring services.
5.2.3. Full service and community schools strive to improve at-risk neighborhoods by preventing problems and providing support.
6. Politics of Education
6.1. Radical Perspective
6.1.1. Does not believe that free market capitalism is best form of economic organization
6.1.2. Believes that a socialist economy that builds on the democratic political system would more adequately provide all citizens with a decent standard of living
6.1.3. Believes that social problems are structural in nature (caused by the structure of society in the United States)
6.1.4. Supported by Karl Marx, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and Malcolm X
6.2. Progressivism
6.2.1. Views schools as central to solving social problems, as vehicles for upward mobility, as essential to the development of individual potential, and as an essential part of a democratic society
6.2.2. Believes schools should be part of the steady progress to make things better
6.2.3. Ties in with liberal and radical spectrums
7. History of U.S. Education
7.1. Urbanization and the Progressive Impetus
7.1.1. Early on, nearly 58% of children in schools in larger cities were born outside of the United States.
7.1.2. John Dewey was an advocate for this reform. He believed that the result of education was growth, and he called for a restructuring of schools along the lines of embryonic communities. To practice his ideas, he created the Laboratory School at the University of Chicago.
7.1.3. The number of students filling up classrooms grew rapidly during this reform. In 1870, around 6.5 million children aged five to eighteen attended school. Ten years later in 1880, there were over 15.5 million children school in school.
7.2. Radical-Revisionist School
7.2.1. Believes that the educational system expanded to meet the needs of the elites in society for the control of the working class and immigrants, supported by Michael Katz, Joel Spring, and Clarence Karier.
7.2.2. Suggests that each new educational expansion increased stratification of the working-class and disadvantaged students within the system
7.2.3. Concludes that the entire process of educational expansion has benefited the elites more than the masses
8. Sociological Perspectives
8.1. Education & Inequality
8.1.1. Urban education has failed to educate minority and poor children.
8.1.2. Most evidence indicates that racially diverse schools benefit minorities and do not suppress white achievement. African-American students who attended integrated schools were less likely to be arrested, more likely to live in desegregated neighborhoods, and women were less likely to have a child before turning eighteen.
8.1.3. Since girls are "supposed" to be nice and feminine and boys are "supposed" to act out and gain attention, many teachers treat boys and girls differently based on how they're "supposed" to behave.
8.2. Effects of Schooling
8.2.1. Independence: Students being required to do things on their own, relying strictly on themselves, accepting personal responsibility for behavior, and acting self-sufficiently.
8.2.2. Achievement: Students realizing that their performance on every task determines the amount of success they will reap, in terms of grades, awards, and honors. Learning achievement takes place inside and outside the classroom. Schools offer an array of clubs, organizations, sports, and group activities to appeal to the interest of students looking to learn and participate.
8.2.3. Universalism & Specificity: Students acknowledging and accepting the similarities between themselves and others around them. People often resent this principle when they feel they deserve special consideration or when their individuality appears to vanish by being "processed."
9. Philosophy of Education
9.1. Existentialism
9.1.1. Generic notions: Believes that individuals are placed on Earth alone and must make some sense of the chaos that they encounter throughout their lives. People must create themselves, and they must create their own meaning/purpose for their existence.
9.1.2. Key researchers: Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean Paul Sartre, and Maxine Greene
9.1.3. Goal of education: Believes that education should stress individuality. The focus should be on the needs of individuals, cognitively and affectively.
9.1.4. Role of teacher: Teachers should have an understanding of their "lived worlds" as well as that of their students to help them achieve the best "lived worlds" that they possibly can. Teachers must take risks, expose themselves to resistant students, and work constantly to enable their students to become "woke."
9.1.5. Method of instruction: Believes learning is an intensely personal process. Each child has a different learning style; therefore, the teacher must discover what works for each child. The teacher must assist the students in understanding the world by posing questions, creating activities, and working together.
9.1.6. Curriculum: The humanities are commonly used, but literature is also a favorite due to the potential it has to evoke responses and move students to new levels of awareness. Art, drama, and music are also used to encourage personal interaction.