1. Philosophy of Education
1.1. A Pragmatist View
1.1.1. Generic Notations
1.1.1.1. Dewey's ideas about education, often referred to as progressive, proposed that educators start with the needs and interests of the child in the classroom, allow the child to participate in planning his or her course of study, employ project method or group learning and depend heavily on experiential learning
1.1.2. Key Researchers
1.1.2.1. Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
1.1.2.2. John Locke (1632-1704)
1.1.2.3. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
1.1.2.4. John Dewey (1859-1952)
1.1.3. Goal of Education
1.1.3.1. Dewey's vision of schools was rooted in the social order. He stressed the importance of the school as a place where ideas can be implemented, challenged, and restructured, with the goal of providing students with the knowledge of how to improve the social order.
1.1.4. Role of Teacher
1.1.4.1. The teacher assumes the role of the facilitator. The teacher encourages, offers suggestions, questions, and helps plan and implement courses of study. The teacher also writes the curriculum.
1.1.5. Method of Instruction
1.1.5.1. Dewey proposed that children learn both individually and in groups. He believed that children should start their mode of inquiry by posing questions about what they want to know. Formal instruction was abandoned. Traditional blocks of time for specific disciplined instruction were eliminated. Furniture, usually nailed to the floor, was discarded in favor of table and chairs that could be grouped as needed. Children could converse quietly with one another, could stand up and stretch if warranted and could pursue independent study or group work.
1.1.6. Curriculum
1.1.6.1. Progressive schools generally follow Dewey's notion of a core curriculum. A particular subject matter under investigation by students, such as whales, would yield problems to be solved using Math, Science, History, Reading, Writing, Music, Art, Wood or Metal Working and Cooking or Sewing. All of the academic and vocational disciplines in an integrated, interconnected way. Progressive educators are not wedded to a fixed curriculum either, as curriculum changes as the social order changes and as children's interests and needs change.
2. Schools as Organizations
2.1. Alabama Senator in my District
2.1.1. Steve Livingston
2.2. Alabama Representative in my District
2.2.1. Ritchie Whorton
2.3. Alabama State Superintendent
2.3.1. Tommy Bice
2.4. Alabama State School Board Representative
2.4.1. Mar Scott Hunter
2.5. Jackson County Superintendent
2.5.1. Dr. Bart Reeves
3. Equality of Opportunity
3.1. Class
3.1.1. Education is expensive, meaning students from upper class families are more likely to have the financial help needed to do well and attend college.
3.1.2. Families from the upper and middle class expect their children to finish school where as working class and under class families often have lower levels of expectation for their children
3.1.3. Middle and upper class children are more likely to speak standard English. Working and under class children do not normally speak middle class English.
3.2. Race
3.2.1. Among 16-24 year olds, 5.2 percent of white students drop out of school, where as 9.3 percent of African-American students and 17.6 percent of Hispanic students are likely to drop out of school.
3.2.2. Among 17 year olds, 89 percent of white students will be able to read at the intermediate level, where as 66 percent of African-American students and 70 percent of Hispanic students are at that level.
3.2.3. Minorities have on average lower levels of SAT scores than white students.
3.3. Gender
3.3.1. Females are less likely to drop out of school than males and are more likely to have a higher level of reading and writing proficiency.
3.3.2. The one area male students outperform females is in Math proficiency.
3.3.3. In the last 20 years, educational attainment differences by gender have been reduced.
3.4. Coleman Study
3.4.1. Jencks found that the differences that do exist between public and Catholic schools are statistically significant but in terms of differences in learning, the results are negligible.
3.4.2. Subsequent studies have compared public and private schools and have found that private schools seem to "do it better", particularly for lower income students.
4. Educational Inequality
4.1. Two Theories about Cultural Deprivation
4.1.1. 1: Researchers argued that working class and non-white students came to school without the required intellectual and social skills necessary for school success.
4.1.2. 2: The poor have a deprived culture. One that lacks the value system of middle class culture. This results in educationally disadvantaged students who achieve poorly because they have not been raised to acquire the skills and dispositions required for satisfactory academic achievement.
4.2. Four School Centered Explanations for Educational Inequality
4.2.1. 1: School Financing: More affluent communities are able to provide more per pupil spending than poor districts.
4.2.2. 2: Effective School Research: If students from the same racial and socio-economic backgrounds attending different schools within the same community perform at significantly different rates, then something within the schools themselves must be affecting student performances.
4.2.3. 3: Between School Differences: There are significant differences between the culture and climate of schools in lower and higher socio-economic communities.
4.2.4. 4: Within School Differences: For the most part, elementary students receive a similar curriculum, but it may be taught at a different pace or the teachers in the various groups may have different expectations for the students.
5. Politics of Education
5.1. The Four Purposes of Education
5.1.1. 1: Intellectual: To teach basic cognitive skills
5.1.2. 2: Political: Inculcate allegiance to the existing political order
5.1.3. 3: Social: Help solve social problems
5.1.4. 4: Economic: Prepare students for their later occupational roles
5.2. Perspective
5.2.1. The role of the school: Conservative Perspective
5.2.1.1. Schools should ensure that all students have the opportunity to compete individually in the educational marketplace and that schools should be meritocratic to the extent that individual effort is rewarded.
5.2.2. Explanation of Unequal Performance: Liberal Perspective
5.2.2.1. The liberal perspective argues that individual students or groups of students begin school with different life chances and therefore some groups have significantly more advantages than others.
5.2.3. Definition of Educational Problems: Radical Perspective
5.2.3.1. 1: The educational system has failed the poor, minorities, and women through classist, racist, sexist and homophobic policies.
5.2.3.2. 2: Schools have stifled critical understanding of the problems of American society through a curriculum and teaching practices that promote conformity.
5.2.3.3. 3: The traditional curriculum is classist, racist, sexist and homophobic and leaves out the cultures, histories and voices of the oppressed.
5.2.3.4. 4: In general, the educational system promotes inequality of both opportunity and results.
6. History of U.S. Education
6.1. A Successful Reform: Brown VS Topeka Board of Education
6.1.1. On May 17th, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that state imposed segregation of schools was unconstitutional.
6.1.1.1. in 1957, President Eisenhower sent Federal Troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to enforce desegregation.
6.2. A Historical Look
6.2.1. The development of mass education was, in many respects, a genuinely progressive development.
6.2.2. A larger fraction of U.S. youth is now enrolled in college than was enrolled in elementary school 135 years ago.
6.2.3. Illiteracy has been virtually eliminated. In 1870, one-tenth of whites and four-fifths of blacks could not read or write.
7. Sociological Perspectives
7.1. Theoretical Perspectives Concerning the Relationship Between School and Society
7.1.1. Functionalism: Emile Durkheim believed that education, in virtually all societies , was of critical importance in creating the moral unity necessary for social cohesion and harmony.
7.1.2. Conflict Theories: Conflict sociologists do not see the relationship between school and society as unproblematic or straightforward. From a conflict point of view, schools are similar to social battlefields, where students struggle against teachers, teachers against administrators and so on.
7.1.3. Interactional Theories: The processes by which students are labeled gifted or learning disabled are, from the interactional point of view, important to analyze because such processes carry with them many implicit assumptions about learning and children.
7.2. Effects of Schooling on Individuals
7.2.1. 1: Employment: In 2011, high school graduates earned on average $32,552 compared to $53,976 for college graduates.
7.2.2. 2: Inadequate Schools: Differences between schools and school systems reinforce existing inequalities. Students who attend suburban schools and private schools get a better educational experience than other children.
7.2.3. 3: Knowledge and Attitudes: Education is related to an individuals sense of well-being and self-esteem. More schooling leads to greater knowledge and social participation.
7.2.4. 4: Teacher Behavior: Persell (1977) found that when teachers demanded more of their students and praised them more, students learned more and felt better about themselves.
7.2.5. 5: Student Peer Groups and Alienation: In most schools, the student culture idealizes athletic ability, looks and that detached style that indicates "coolness." In a sense, the adult culture of the teachers and administrators is in conflict with the student culture. This conflict can lead to alienation and even violence.
8. Curriculum and Pedagogy
8.1. Developmentalist Curriculum
8.1.1. Related to the needs and interests of the student rather than the needs of society.
8.1.2. Stresses the importance of relating schooling to the life experiences of each child in a way that would make education come alive in a meaningful manner.
9. Educational Reform
9.1. School Based Reforms
9.1.1. Teacher Education: A response to the initial debates concerning the failure of the schools. If schools were not working properly, then teachers and teaching had to be looked at critically. By 1986, at least 5 major reports outlined major problems in teacher education and the professional lives of teachers and proposed a large scale overhaul of the system that prepares teachers.
9.1.2. Teacher Quality: At the secondary level, about one-fifth of classes in each of the core academic subjects are taught by teachers who do not hold a certificate in the subject taught. Also, the problems with staffing urban schools have less to do with teacher shortages and more with organizational issues inside the schools. Principals often find it easier to hire unqualified teachers than qualified ones.