1. Chapt. 10 - Educational Reform
1.1. School-Based Reforms
1.1.1. School-Based
1.1.1.1. School choice became a thing in the 1980s where parents or marketplaces would pay for vouchers to reward "good" schools and to punish "bad" schools
1.1.1.2. In the 1990s to 2000s, charter schools came into a high demand. Charter schools are public schools that do not have the same regulations and are held accountable for student performance
1.1.2. School-Business Partnerships
1.1.2.1. In the 1980s, business leaders became concerned so they started forming partnerships with public schools in order to fund the schools and get better candidates for the workplace.
1.2. Other Reforms
1.2.1. Full Service and Community Schools
1.2.1.1. Focus on meeting students' and their families educational, physical, psychological, and social needs in a coordinated and collaborative fashion between school and community services. Schools serve as community centers and are open extended hours to help students and family in need
1.2.2. Harlem Children's Zone
1.2.2.1. Geoffrey Canada set up what they called "Baby Colleges" to teach parents of minorities in Harlem how to take care of, teach, and give guidance to their children before they are ever born.
2. Chapt. 2 - Politics of Education
2.1. Purposes of Schooling
2.1.1. Intellectual
2.1.1.1. To teach cognitive skills like reading, writing, and mathematics
2.1.1.2. To transmit knowledge of literature, history, and more
2.1.1.3. To help students develop higher-order thinking skills
2.1.2. Political
2.1.2.1. Encourage patriotism
2.1.2.2. Prepare future citizens
2.1.2.3. Assimilate people of other cultures into the political order
2.1.2.4. Teach the laws of society
2.1.3. Social
2.1.3.1. Assist in solving social issues
2.1.3.2. Serve as an institution to ensure social cohesion
2.1.3.3. Help children fit into society
2.1.4. Economic
2.1.4.1. Prepare students for their future occupations
2.1.4.2. Select, train, and allocate people into divisions of labor
2.2. Conservative Perspective
2.2.1. Role of the School
2.2.1.1. Provides educational training in order to maximize economic and social productivity
2.2.1.2. Socialize students into adulthood
2.2.1.3. Transmitting cultural traditions to students
2.2.2. Unequal Performance
2.2.2.1. Students succeed or fail based on their own intelligence
2.2.2.2. Achievement is based on hard work and sacrifice
2.2.2.3. If students fail, the student or the student's group may be deficient in some way.
2.2.3. Educational Problems
2.2.3.1. Decline of Standards -Lowered academic standards and educational quality
2.2.3.2. Decline of Cultural Literacy - Weakened ability to pass on traditions
2.2.3.3. Decline of Authority - Schools lost their traditional disciplinary function and schools became chaotic
2.2.3.4. Decline of Civilization - Schools lost traditional role of teaching morals and values
2.2.4. Important Scholar
2.2.4.1. William Graham Sumner - Developed Conservatism
3. Chapt. 9 - Educational Inequality
3.1. Cultural Deprivation
3.1.1. Cultural Deprivation - Developed by Oscar Lewis, this theory states that the poor do not have the same values as the middle class, such as hard work and initiative, and therefore they do not have the academic and social skills for success in school.
3.1.2. Cultural Difference - Developed by people like Ogbu and Bourdieu, this theory acknowledges that the students with lower socioeconomic backgrounds have different cultures and beliefs, but does not blame the people for these cultural values. Instead, this theory states that all that has happened is that the students have adapted to their harsh conditions and the conditions need to be changed in order for the students to do better.
3.2. School Centered
3.2.1. Within-School Differences - In this explanation, students have more academic achievement differences in their own schools compared to their own classmates, rather than with students at another school.
3.2.2. Economically disadvantaged students attend inferior schools that spend less money on each student, on materials, and extracurricular activities and have inferior teachers.
3.2.3. Another explanation is that the differences among the different kinds of students can affect the achievement of students
3.2.4. The final explanation states that students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds do poorly in school due to their selves, culture, and even their genetic make-up
4. Chapt. 8 - Equality of Opportunity
4.1. Educational Outcomes
4.1.1. Class
4.1.1.1. Students in higher classes can afford better resources than the students in lower classes
4.1.1.2. Students in lower classes are less likely to finish school
4.1.1.3. From a cultural point of view, schools favor the upper and middle classes
4.1.1.4. Children in the upper and middle classes are more likely to speak a "standard" English
4.1.1.5. Teachers think more highly of higher class students
4.1.1.6. Peer groups of different classes also affect the grades of students
4.1.1.7. Students of higher classes are more likely to achieve and go to college, while students of lower classes are more likely to drop out of high school
4.1.2. Race
4.1.2.1. An individual's race has a direct impact on how much education he or she is likely to achieve
4.1.2.2. Among 16-24 year olds, the percent for students dropping out based on race are White: 5.2%, African American: 9.3%, and Hispanic-American: 17.6%
4.1.2.3. Students reading at the intermediate level: White: 89%, African American: 66%, and Hispanic-Americans: 70%
4.1.2.4. Minorities have lower SAT scores than White students
4.1.3. Gender
4.1.3.1. Women are rated as better students than men, but usually do not achieve the same amount of education, or at least that is how it used to be
4.1.3.2. Females are less likely to drop out of school and have a higher reading proficiency than males
4.1.3.3. Same goes for writing
4.1.3.4. Males, however, are more efficient at mathematics
4.1.3.5. Males are more likely to score higher on the SAT than females
4.1.3.6. Women are attending more colleges than men, but men are attending more prestigious colleges than women
4.1.3.7. In the last 20 years, gender differences have been reduced. Females are achieving a lot more than males now.
4.2. Coleman Study from 1982
4.2.1. Round Two
4.2.1.1. Jenks, Alexander, and Pallas protested against Coleman and his colleagues' research by stating that even though the differences between public and private schools are statistically significant, the differences in learning are minor.
4.2.2. Round Three
4.2.2.1. Borman and Dowling conclude that the races of the students play a contributing factor in their success, but they go against Coleman by saying that schools do contribute to the success of the students.
5. Chapt. 3 - History of U.S. Education
5.1. Progressive Movement
5.1.1. Reformations
5.1.1.1. Active Learning and integrated curriculum
5.1.1.2. Experience emphasized in education and teachers became the facilitators of knowledge
5.1.1.3. G. Stanley Hall's child-centered reform and Edward L. Thorndike's social engineering reform worked to change how students should be taught in the classroom
5.1.1.4. High School Reformation/ Rise of High School
5.1.1.4.1. Committee of Ten
5.1.1.4.2. National Education Association
5.1.1.4.3. Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
5.1.1.5. Focused on equal education and equal opportunity
5.1.2. Important Scholars/Reformers
5.1.2.1. John Dewey - the main developer of the Progressive Movement and the biggest reformer
5.1.2.2. "Fighting Bob La Follete" - Architect of the "Wisconsin Idea"
5.1.2.3. Other reformers: Jane Adams, Lillian Wald, Henry Bruere, and John Golden
5.2. Conservative Interpretation
5.2.1. History
5.2.1.1. Argued that progressive education did not fulfill its social goals
5.2.1.2. Diane Ravitch and E.D. Hirsch, Jr. argued that the pursuit of social goals harmed traditional academic goals
5.2.1.3. Meeting the need of all of the different cultural groups has violated the function of schooling
5.2.1.4. Progressive ideals have eroded the transmitting of traditions
5.2.1.5. Argues that while the push for fixing society is good, the need to provide a proper education and to focus more on content, than skills, is more important
5.2.1.6. Dilution of Academic Excellence
5.2.2. Conservative Scholars/Historians
5.2.2.1. Others - William Bennet, Chester Finn, Jr., E.D. Hirsch Jr., and Allan Bloom
5.2.2.2. Diane Ravitch - Provided most of the information about the conservative interpretation of education's history
5.2.3. Status cultures and class position are important in society
6. Chapt. 4 - Sociological Perspectives
6.1. Theoretical Perspectives
6.1.1. Interactionalism
6.1.1.1. Primarily critiques of the other two theories
6.1.1.2. Focuses more on the small interactions that people experience in everyday classrooms
6.1.1.3. States that the traits of the students, how they act, and more reflects the students' backgrounds
6.1.1.4. Take everyday behaviors as signs
6.1.2. Functionalism
6.1.2.1. Stresses the interdependence of the social system
6.1.2.2. Society is held together by shared values
6.1.2.3. Consensus is the normal state of society
6.1.2.4. Conflict represents a breakdown of shared values
6.1.2.5. Schools socialize students into society's values and sort students by their abilities
6.1.2.6. Educational reform is supposed to create structures, programs, and curricula that are technically advanced, rational, and support social unity
6.1.3. Conflict Theory
6.1.3.1. Social order based on a group's dominance of other groups and for that group to impose their will through force, cooptation, and manipulation
6.1.3.2. Glue of society is economic, political, cultural, and military power
6.1.3.3. Schools are social battlefields where everyone struggles against an opposing group. For example, students struggle against teachers
6.1.3.4. Achievement ideology disguises the conflicts
6.1.3.5. Achievement ideology - promotes learning and selecting students based on their abilities
6.1.3.6. Analyzes schools based on status competition and organizational constraints
6.1.3.7. Rewards such as diplomas are status symbols instead of academic achievements
6.1.3.8. Cultural capital, knowledge and experiences related to art, music, and literature, and social capital, social networks and connections, characteristics of groups and individuals are indicators of status and class position
6.2. Effects of Schooling on Individuals
6.2.1. Knowledge and Attitudes
6.2.1.1. The higher a student's social status, the higher the achievement level
6.2.1.2. Ron Edmonds first discovered that the differences between schools affect students achievement level
6.2.1.3. The more discipline and higher the push to take a subject results in higher achievement levels
6.2.2. Employment
6.2.2.1. Graduating from college leads to higher employment opportunities
6.2.2.2. Schools do not provide sufficient job skills
6.2.3. Education and Mobility
6.2.3.1. Civil religion - People have a faith that education increases social status
6.2.3.2. People believe that education allows for social and economic mobility, but this has yet to be seen
6.2.4. Teacher Behavior
6.2.4.1. Teacher's Behaviors affect student grades.
6.2.4.2. Role Strain - where a teacher is weighed down by conflicting demands and does not feel comfortable in any role
6.2.4.3. Teachers influence students' self esteem and sense of efficacy
6.2.4.4. Self-fulfilling prophecy - A teacher's expectations affects the achievement level of the students
6.2.5. Education and Inequality
6.2.5.1. The U.S.'s society is organized into five classes: Upper Class (1-3% of population), Upper-Middle Class (10-15%), Lower-Middle Class (25%), Working Class (40%), and the Lower or Underclass (20%)
6.2.5.2. Social classes affect how people see the world, their beliefs, their practices, their education, and more.
6.2.5.3. This system of classes is known as social stratification
6.2.5.4. Researchers are unsure if schools help with inequality
7. Chapt. 5 - Philosophy of Education
7.1. Existentialism
7.1.1. Generic Notions
7.1.1.1. Pose questions on how their concerns impact the lives of individuals
7.1.1.2. Believe that individuals are placed on this earth alone and must make sense out of the chaos they encounter
7.1.1.3. People must create themselves and their own meaning
7.1.1.4. People have a lot of freedom and they define themselves through their choices
7.1.2. Goal of Education
7.1.2.1. Focus on the cognitive and affectionate needs of the individuals
7.1.2.2. Stress individuality; Should include discussion of both the rational and non-rational world and that anxiety generated through conflict should be addressed
7.1.2.3. Emphasize the notion of possibility
7.1.2.4. Education as an activity that liberates the individual from a chaotic world
7.1.3. Key Researchers
7.1.3.1. Soren Kierkegaard
7.1.3.2. Martin Buber
7.1.3.3. Karl Jaspers
7.1.3.4. Jean Paul Sartre
7.1.3.5. Maxine Greene
7.1.4. Role of Teacher
7.1.4.1. Understand their own "lived worlds" as well as the students' in order to help the students
7.1.4.2. Teachers must take risks, expose themselves to resistant students, and work constantly with students
7.1.4.3. Teachers must use introspection to enable students to become in touch with their worlds and to empower them
7.1.5. Curriculum
7.1.5.1. Heavily biased towards the humanities
7.1.5.2. Especially Literature as it evokes responses in readers that might move to new levels of awareness
7.1.5.3. Art, drama, and music as well
7.1.5.4. Believe in exposing students at early ages to problems, possibilities, horrors, and accomplishments that mankind is capable of
7.1.6. Method of Instruction
7.1.6.1. Learning is intensely personal
7.1.6.2. Each child has a different learning style and its up to the teacher to discover what works for each child
7.1.6.3. I-thou approach (Martin Buber) - Student and teacher learn cooperatively from each other in a nontraditional, nonthreatening, "Friendship"
7.1.6.4. The teacher constantly rediscovers knowledge, while the student discovers the knowledge
7.1.6.5. Teachers help the students understand the world through posing questions, generating activities, and working together
8. Chapt. 7 - Curriculum, Pedegogy
8.1. Humanist Curriculum
8.1.1. Reflects the idealist philosophy that knowledge of the traditional liberal arts is the cornerstone of education
8.1.2. Purpose of education is to present to students the best of what has been thought and written.
8.1.3. Used to focus solely on Western heritage, but now focuses on all liberal arts
8.1.4. Codified in 1893 by the National Education Association's Committee of Ten
8.1.5. Focuses on English, foreign languages, mathematics, history, and science
8.1.6. Assumes a common culture
8.2. Dominant Traditions of Teaching
8.2.1. Mimetic
8.2.1.1. Purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students
8.2.1.2. Didactic method - Relies on the lecture or presentation as the main form of communication
8.2.1.3. Educational process involves the relationship between the teacher and the student
8.2.1.4. Education is a process of transferring information from one to the other
8.2.1.5. Stresses the importance of rational sequencing in the teaching process and assessment
8.2.2. Transformative
8.2.2.1. Purpose of education is change the student in some meaningful way, including spiritually, intellectually, creatively, and emotionally
8.2.2.2. Provide a more multidimensional theory of teaching
8.2.2.3. Reject authoritarian relationship between teacher and student
8.2.2.4. Dialectical method - Involves the use of questioning, instead of just lecturing.
8.2.2.5. All teaching begins with the active participation of the student and results in some form of growth
9. Chapt. 6 - Schools as Organizations
9.1. Alabama School Organization - Walker County
9.1.1. Senators
9.1.1.1. Richard C. Shelby and Jeff Sessions
9.1.2. Representative
9.1.2.1. Robert B. Aderholt
9.1.3. Representative on State School Board
9.1.3.1. Yvette Richardson
9.1.4. Local Superintendent
9.1.4.1. Jason Adkins
9.1.5. Board of Education
9.1.5.1. Brad Ingle, Jamie Rigsby, Todd Vick, Bill Edd Gilbert, and Lee Ann Headrick
9.1.6. State Superintendent
9.1.6.1. Michael Sentance
9.2. School Processes and Cultures
9.2.1. Conflict
9.2.1.1. Necessary for change
9.2.1.2. Previously hidden problems, issues, and disagreements must surface and be resolved.
9.2.2. New Behaviors
9.2.2.1. Building communication and trust
9.2.2.2. Enabling leadership
9.2.2.3. Initiative to emerge
9.2.2.4. Learning techniques of communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution
9.2.3. Team Building
9.2.3.1. Shared decision making must work out
9.2.3.2. Give on-going attention to relationships with the staff
9.2.3.3. Must extend to the entire school
9.2.4. Process and Content
9.2.4.1. Substance of a project depends upon the degree of trust and openness within the team
9.2.4.2. The usefulness and the visibility of the project will influence future commitments and get the relationships among the staff and others involved.