1. Schools as Organizations
1.1. State Senate: Paul Sanford
1.1.1. House of Representative: Terri Sewell
1.1.1.1. Representative State School Board: Jeffrey Newman
1.2. Local Superintendent: Michael Sentance
1.2.1. Local School Board: Jim Bonner
1.3. School Processes and School Cultures:
1.3.1. When one is speaking on behalf of school processes, what's being identified are the powerful qualities of schools.
1.3.2. Changing a culture of a school would require patience, skill, and a good will.
1.3.3. Changing the culture in school to make it centered around learning would involve effort, intelligence, and time.
1.3.4. Planned change would require diverse ways of thinking, and that would be teachers having to be a the forefront of an educational change.
1.3.5. The four elements identified of change are as followed: conflict must be part of the change, new and different behaviors must be learned, team building must extend to the entire school, and process and content are similar.
2. Curriculum, Pedagogy, and the Transmission of Knowledge
2.1. Developmentalist Curriculum
2.1.1. This particular curriculum focused on the primary needs and the interests of the students, not what society thought was needed.
2.1.2. This curriculum related to the relationship between the student and the curriculum itself.
2.1.2.1. (Dewey,1902)
2.1.3. This curriculum focused on development stages of each student, meaning each student is to be taught differently depending on their learning capability. This was a student being the main focus curriculum.
2.1.4. Teachers that followed the guidelines for this curriculum were not only to teach knowledge, but ultimately to help with the student's growth in establishing who they are as a person.
2.2. Sociologists and Functionalists
2.2.1. Sociologists focused on why the curriculum is being taught as to it only being taught. They were concerned with what is taught in the school and how it related to schools within society.
2.2.2. Functionalists believed in the schools teaching the students values that are necessary to survive in society. Morals and ethics was their main concern.
3. Equality of Opportunity and Educational Outcomes
3.1. Impact Educational Outcomes
3.1.1. Class: Students that come from a lower class family have less expectancy to graduate, therefore they tend to take longer to graduate if they do at all and it prolongs financial support from the family. Whereas the upper and middle class families have their student graduate at the appropriate age.
3.1.2. Race: The percentages that relate to the student's racial background are different in both dropout rates and in learning capability. The book states which students from different races struggle in one or both of those situations, family financial support and capabilities are factors in these percentages.
3.2. Gender: It has shown that men were more intelligent in the earlier years of education, but that women have caught up to men over the years. Men are expected to be better at mathematics for the most part, but women have shown signs of improvement in all areas of study over the years.
3.3. The Coleman Study (1982)
3.3.1. The first response to this was comparing the public schools to the private schools. The high school achievements were better in which school setting, according to the passage the private school seemed to have better results for positive feedback.
3.3.2. The second response to this was referring to an individual, student, that goes to school is related more often than not to their race and background. This was an argument of bringing an end to the favor of white and middle-class students.
3.3.3. In conclusion to this was that does schools make a difference of a student's outcome. It has been proven depending on what the school makes its primary priorities can affect a student's outcome.
4. Explanations of Educational Inequality
4.1. Cultural Deprivation Theories
4.1.1. Found that the poor have a deprived culture, lacks what the middle-class contains. Middle-class values hard work, their okay with being patient for future rewards, and the priority of schooling was for a successful future.
4.1.1.1. Oscar Lewis (1966)
4.1.2. This deprivation was shown that students that are educational disadvantaged would succeed poorly because they haven't been raised with the skills to achieve satisfied academically, which was a goal in mind.
4.1.2.1. Deutsch (1964)
4.2. Four School-Centered Explanations
4.2.1. School Financing: Shown in this passage is that public schools were being financed trhough revenues from local, state, and federal sources. Property taxes were a valuable source as well, obvious that the higher class community was able to bring in more revenue through taxes than the lower class.
4.2.2. Effective School Research: Higher expectations for students by the authority of the school, monitoring of learning from students, availability for teachers and those in authority to adapt to new problems.
4.2.3. Within-School Differences: Track placement was associated with the student's race and their social personality. Working-class and the nonwhite students were more likely of being placed in lower tracks.
4.2.4. Gender and Schooling: This topic is about how men and women view the schooling aspect differently. They look at the cultural background from a different aspect.
5. Educational Reform and School Improvement
5.1. Two School-Based Reforms
5.1.1. Teacher Education: This was a result of failure and poor performance in the schools. Teachers were reevaluated and were looked at critically on their ability of helping students obtain the necessary knowledge to being successful.
5.1.2. Teacher Quality: This become a standard that teachers had to be highly qualified to teach, it was requirements of the NCLB.
5.1.3. To add on to the teacher quality, urban districts were replacing teachers on a normal basis, which meant that teachers weren't able to get the experience of becoming an expert teacher.
5.1.3.1. Ingersoll
5.2. Describing Two Reforms
5.2.1. Societal Reform: This movement was seeking to change not only the social views, but also the political views of groups marginalized.
5.2.2. Societal Reform: They have pursued to reform policies that are against slavery, civil rights, women's rights, public school systems, and so forth.
5.2.3. Political Reform: The objective of this reform was to improve the laws and constitutional rights that the public demanded.
5.2.4. Political Reform: It's an electoral system, and and everybody obtains equal rights of a single vote, but equal in the decision-making isn't ensured.
6. Politics of Education
6.1. Four Purposes of Education
6.1.1. Intellectual purpose: The purpose of this schooling is teaching the basic skills necessary. These skills would consist of reading, mathematics, and writing. Students then learn to evaluate and analyze the knowledge they obtain.
6.1.2. Political purpose: The purpose behind this method is preparation to those planning to be a part of political order. Teaching the youth the laws of society is the foundation of helping them become successful.
6.1.3. Social purpose: Helping to ensure social skills, which in long term helps children learn the appropriate behavior and values needed in society. This can help to solve social problems that cause issues within the youth.
6.1.4. Economic purpose: The purpose behind this method is to help prepare students for future work. It's important for students to learn of this topic because it's a big role in their future lives.
6.2. Conservative Perspective
6.2.1. The role of the school: Their perspective is investing all training that's necessary allowing the most talented to help boost productivity in both the social and economic aspects. Basically it's look at as an investment.
6.2.2. Unequal performance: The conservative sees it as I would personally view this topic, which is that students either succeed or fail according to their own work ethic and sacrifice.
6.2.3. Definition of Educational Problems: There are several definitions listed in the text, but I'll choose the ones that I view most vital. Their response to the liberal and radical demands for individual performances and freedom rights were lost due to disciplinary problems and often situations became overwhelming. Also teaching values and morals has lost sight due to not teaching traditionally.
7. History of Education
7.1. Cycles of Reform (Progressive and Traditional):
7.1.1. Traditionalists believe in structure for education purposes. They believe in discipline and authority playing a big role, and I agree with this point of view.
7.1.2. Progressives believe in education with experimental features. Their point of view was using curriculum appropriate for the need of students and adjusting to the time in which they are living in.
7.1.3. This movement not only focused on education itself, but also on its goals desired to be achieved. Debates were discussed on whether all the students should receive virtually the same education.
7.1.4. In the end two processes became the ultimate debate. They were to challenge the schooling in a traditional format, and the attempt of providing opportunities in education for the disadvantaged.
7.2. Historical Interpretation of U.S. Education:
7.2.1. The democratic-liberal school was committed to providing an equal amount of opportunity for all. The historians on this matter suggest expansion of education to larger parts of the population, and also to reject conservative views on the schools, which was the privileged.
7.2.2. Educational history in the U.S. involved the expansion of both purpose and opportunity. Said that more students from different backgrounds went to school for a longer time and the overall goals become diverse.
7.2.2.1. Lawrence A. Cremin
8. Sociology of Education
8.1. Theoretical Perspective:
8.1.1. Functionalism: They view society as an overall group, where one part goes with another to help achieve the dynamic energy that is required to help society work.
8.1.1.1. Durheim emphasized moral values being the foundation of society.
8.1.2. Conflict Theory: This view focuses on economic, cultural, political, and military power. Sociologist don't see the relation between school and society as a problem whereas functionalists emphasize cohesion in explaining social order.
8.1.2.1. Karl Marx is the intellectual founder of the conflict school in the sociology of education.
8.1.3. Interactionalism: Theories from this point of view are derived from extension of the conflict and functional perspectives. The observation that functional and conflict theories emphasize structure and process at a general level.
8.2. Effects of Schooling With Greatest Impacts:
8.2.1. Knowledge and Attitudes: According to Heyns (1978) students who attended summer school and had to do a great deal of studying, ended up being more successful and able to comprehend better than those who didn't read during the summer.
8.2.2. Education and Mobility: The number of years of education is a measure of attainment, but also where people attend school can affect their mobility as well. One that attends a private school over the public school could be more prestigious from what that diploma represents.
8.2.3. Teacher Behavior: Teachers have such a huge role in a student's life. The amount of time and opportunity that a teacher has to reach out to their students is more than even a parent could have with their own child on weekly basis in reality. A teacher, to be successful, must take responsibility and realize their role of importance.
8.2.4. Student Peer Groups and Alienation: Mentioned in this section is reflecting on the experiences that one had with fellow students when in school and the doubt of remembering the groups created. Meaning that if groups are formed to better each individual and give encouragement, that's something that students can carry with them the rest of their lives.
8.2.5. Gender: In this section it speaks of the inequality of men vs women in the aspect of men have the better occupational opportunities over women. While this is true in most scenarios, the world today has proved that women can be just as successful. While it may not seem equal rights, it should be equality between both genders in all aspects.
9. Philosophy of Education
9.1. Pragmatism:
9.1.1. Generic Notions: The ideas about education were progressive, as mentioned in the text, meaning that the educators start off with learning the interests of students and then allow the student to participate in his or her course of study, and eventually depend upon experiential learning.
9.1.2. Key Researchers: George Sanders Pierce (1839-1914), William James (1842-1910), and John Dewey (1859-1952).
9.1.3. Goal of Education: Importance of school where ideas could be challenged in providing students the knowledge of how to improve the social order. Dewey was concerned on the social aspects of schooling, and the effects it had on individuals within the school.
9.1.4. Role of the Teacher: No longer authority in where the knowledge comes from, instead encourages and suggests courses of study. They write the curriculum and have command of disciplines in creating the curriculum.
9.1.5. Methods of Instruction: Proposed that the students learn individually, but also in groups as well. Specified disciplinary instructions were eliminated, and eventually formal instruction was abandoned.
9.1.6. Curriculum: The educators aren't attached to a fixed curriculum, rather the curriculum itself changed as the social order began to change; the student's needs and interests changed.