1. Philosophy of Education
1.1. Existentialism
1.1.1. Existentialism is viewed as a modern Philosophy. Roots have been traced all the way back to the bible that has relevance to education.
1.1.1.1. Generic Notions are viewed as particular philosophical movements that have important implications towards education. Since existentialism is viewed as an individual philosophy, existentialists pose questions as to how their concerns impact the lives of individuals.
1.1.1.2. The goal of education focuses on the need of individuals, both cognitively and affectively. Existentialists also believe education should be stresses individually and their discussion should include both non-rational and rational world views.
1.1.1.3. The role of the teacher should understand their own "lived worlds" before they can help students achieve their own "lived worlds". Existentialists believe it's important for teachers to take risks, expose themselves to resistant students and work constantly.
1.1.1.4. Methods of instruction are believed by existentialists that each student has a different learning style. They believe it's up to the teacher to discover the best way for their students to individually learn.
1.1.1.5. According to Existentialists, curriculum should be heavily based of humanities. They believe exposing students at an early age to problems as well as possibilities will aid in more students accomplishments.
1.1.1.6. Soren Kierkaddard, a European philosopher, is known as the first existentialists to discover this type of philosophy. His research dates back to the nineteenth century. More recent philosopher include: Martin Buber, Karl Jaspens, Jean Paul Sartre and Maxine Greene.
2. Schools as Organizations
2.1. Stakeholders
2.1.1. State Senators- Bob Corker & Lamar Alexander
2.1.2. House of Representatives- David Roe, John Duncan, Charles Fleischmann, Scott DesJarlois, Jim Cooper, Diane Black, Marsha Blackburn, Stephen Fincher, Steven Cohen
2.1.3. State Superintendent- Kevin Huffman
2.1.4. Representatives on State School Board- B. Fielding Rolston, Mike Edwards, Allison Chancey, Lonnie Roberts, Carolyn Pearre, Lillian Hartgrove, Wendy Tucker, Cato Johnson, William Troutt
2.1.5. Local Superintendent- Wanda Shelton
2.1.6. Local School of Board- Brandon Kolle, Stan Golden, Veronica King, Jerry Perndergrass, Kevin Posey, Johnny Collin, Jennifer Haynes, Thomas Stevenson
2.2. Elements of Change
2.2.1. Conflict is a necessary part of change. They allow previously hidden problems arise.
2.2.2. New Behaviors must be learned. Change requires new relationships and behaviors. This leads to building communication and trust.
2.2.3. Team building must extend to the entire school. Shared decision making skills must be spread within the entire school.
2.2.4. Process and content are interrelated. The process a team uses in going about its work ia as important as the content of educational changes it attempts.
3. Curriculum & Pedagogy
3.1. Curriculum theory- developmentalist curriculum
3.1.1. Developmental curriculum is simply related to the needs and interest of the student rather than the needs of society.
3.2. The two dominant traditions of teaching
3.2.1. Traditional and social efficiency curriculum have both dominated in our US education system to a large degree. They both reflect values and interests of professional educators. As noted by Ravitch and Kliebard, the struggle over the US curriculum has involved primarily educators and revolved around the different philosophies of education.
4. Equality of Opportunity
4.1. Educational outcomes
4.1.1. Class- studies show that families from the upper and middle class are more likely to finish school, whereas working and underclass families often have lower expectations for their children.
4.1.2. Race- studies show that even today race has a direct impact on how much education he or she is likely to achieve. Among 16 - 24 year olds 5.2 percent of whites drop out, 9.3 percent of African Americans drop out and 17.6 percent of Hispanics drop out.
4.1.3. Gender- studies show that in today's world, women are less likely to drop out of school and women are also more likely to higher reading and writing scores. The one area that men outperform women is in mathematics.
4.2. Coleman Study
4.2.1. Differences among schools do make a difference. Coleman and his colleagues argued that private schools were more effective learning environments than public schools because they place more emphasis on academics. Private schools also expect more from their students academically than public schools.
5. Educational Reform
5.1. School based reform
5.1.1. 1. School- business partnership- This reform was put into place due to the concern that schools were not producing the kinds of graduates needed for many business work-forces.
5.1.2. 2. Teacher quality- is a reform that was put into place to insure that all schools have highly qualified teachers in the classrooms.
5.2. Reforms
5.2.1. 1. School finance reforms- This form was created to fund the children in the poorer school districts. The urban and suburban schools were equalized in funding. Extra money was disbursed to the poorer schools to allow for additional programs.
5.2.2. 2. Full service and community schools- were put into place to serve not only the student but the students family as well. These schools have extended hours of operation to severe the community itself.
6. Politics of Education
6.1. Purposes of Education
6.1.1. 1. The intellectual purpose of schooling is to teach the basic cognitive functions such as reading, writing and mathematics. Once the basic cognitive functions are met. Students are able to transmit knowledge and students are able to think more critically.
6.1.2. 2. The political purpose of schooling is to teach about our existing political order, then to, prepare students who will later participate in our political order. The main purpose is to teach students the basic laws of our society.
6.1.3. 3. The social purpose of teaching is to bring the students and the students of different cultures in as one, a family. These students need to be able to solve problems and learn to work together. This is a process referred to as socialization and is a key ingredient to the stability of any society.
6.1.4. 4. The economic purpose of teaching is to prepare students for their later occupational roles. It's important to teach students basic knowledge of the workforce before they are thrown into it.
6.2. Perspective
6.2.1. The role of the school- The role of school is viewed as both conservative and liberal. Both views have a common goal. That goal in the broadest sense is directly concerned with the aims, purposes, and functions of education in a society.
6.2.2. Explanations of unequal performance- Conservatives, Liberals and Radicals all play a part in this role. Liberals and Radicals believe that certain students began school with fewer chances of exceeding and conservatives believe that all students rise and fall based on their own intelligence.
6.2.3. Definition of educational problems- Educational problems are seen differently by the conservatives, liberals and radicals. The conservatives see decline of standards as a major problem. Due to the liberals and radicals, conservatives believe the educational system lowered standards to provide greater equality. The liberals believe that many times the lower class, poor and minority students are not given a proper education. The radicals believe that there is no hope for the poor and minorities. They believe the school system has already failed them before even starting school.
7. History of US Education
7.1. Reform movement
7.1.1. The reform movement "National Commission on Excellence" was founded by President Reagan's secretary of education, Terrel Bell. The commission offered five recommendations: 1. All students were to complete the "new basics before graduating high school. 2. All schools should expect higher achievement from students and colleges should raise their admission requirements. 3. Teachers should be allowed more time to teach the "new basics". 4. More time should be implemented into preparing lessons and the teaching profession should be more respected and rewarded. 5. Elected representatives should offer more support and offer more funding to this reform.
7.2. Historical interpretation
7.2.1. The Democratic- Liberal School is committed to providing students with equality of opportunity for every student. Their main concern is student achievement among all students.
8. Sociological of Education
8.1. Theoretical prespective
8.1.1. Functional Theory can be seen and viewed as a machine. One part articulates with another to produce the dynamic energy required to make society work. In a highly well functioning society, schools socialize students into the appropriate values and sort and select students according to their abilities.
8.1.2. Conflict Theory can be viewed as the glue of society. Society is economic, political, cultural, and military power. Conflict sociologist emphasize struggle. Students struggle against teachers and teachers struggle against administration.
8.1.3. Interactional Theory are primarily critiques of functional and conflict perspectives. Interactional theorist work together to understand education in the "big picture".
8.2. 5 effects of schooling that have the greatest impact on students.
8.2.1. 1. Knowledge and Attitudes effects schooling in individuals in that academically oriented schools tend to produce higher rates of learning. Schools that encourage students to take academic subjects and have a consistent discipline program often see student achievement go up.
8.2.2. 2. Employment effects schooling in individuals in that the average salary is higher when students continue their education and graduate from college. A high school graduates starting salary will be around $32,552, while the average salary for a student who graduates from college is around $53,976. It's also important to know that the amount of education a students earns is not always an indicator of good job performance. People learn how to do their job by actually doing their job.
8.2.3. 3. Teacher behavior effects schooling in individuals in that students learned more and felt better about their selves when teachers demanded more and praised more.
8.2.4. 4. Inadequate school effect schooling in individuals in that students who attend suburban and private schools get a better experience than students who attend urban school.
8.2.5. 5. Gender effects schooling in individuals in that boys typically get more attention (good or bad) from the teacher then girls. In todays worl we are still faced with gender discrimination. It is not nearly as bad as it once was, however, it is still a problem. Men are paid more then women for the same position and women also experience fewer occupational opportunities than men.
9. Educational Inequality
9.1. Cultural deprivation
9.1.1. 1. Intellectual skills- is the development of your reasoning and reflects what you've learned in the past years.
9.1.2. 2. Social skills- deals with ones ability to interact and communicate with others
9.2. School centered explanations for educational inequality
9.2.1. 1. Not having the proper technology
9.2.2. 2. Not having adequate books for students
9.2.3. 3. Not teaching to everyone's individual style
9.2.4. 4. inadequate disciplinary actions