1. Philosophy of Education
1.1. Generic notions
1.1.1. Philosophers often pose difficult, abstract questions that are not easily answered.
1.1.2. Plato said that "The unchanging realities we can apprehend by the mind only: the senses can show us only transient and imperfect copies of reality."
1.1.3. Plato's thought that education, in particular, was important as a means of moving individuals collectively toward achieving the good. Brighter students would focus in ideas and data collecting would be assigned to the less able.
1.1.4. Since Plato's time, people have seen the state become a major force in determining the system of education and how increasingly the school and tracking, in particular, determining the life chances of students
1.2. Key Researchers
1.2.1. St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.)
1.2.2. Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
1.2.3. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
1.2.4. George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)
1.3. Goal of Education
1.3.1. Educators who subscribe to idealism are interested in the search for the truth through ideas rather than through examination of the false shadowy world of matter, teachers encourage their students to search for truth as individuals.
1.3.2. The discovery of the truth comes responsibility of those who achieve the realization of the truth to enlighten others. Moreover, idealists to the notion that education is transformation: Ideas can change lives.
1.4. Role of Teachers
1.4.1. The teachers responsibility to analyze and discuss ideas with the students so that the students can move to new levels of awareness so that ultimately they can be transformed.
1.4.2. Teachers should deal with abstract notions through the dialectic method but should aim to connect analysis with action as well.
1.4.3. The teacher plays an active role is discussion, posing question, selecting materials, and establishing an environment, all of which ensure the teacher's desired outcome of the discussion.
1.4.4. The teacher should aim to bring out what is already in the students mind. An idealist teacher promotes moral education as a link between ideas and action. Lastly as idealist teacher see themselves as a role model in the classroom, to be looked up to by students.
1.5. Curriculum
1.5.1. Idealist place great importance on the study of classics (literature of past civilizations that illustrated contemporary concerns). All contemporary problems have their roots in the past and can be best be understood by examining how previous individuals dealt with them.
1.5.2. The Great Book curriculum at Saint John's University is a good example of an idealist curriculum. During students 4 years at the university students read, analyze, and apply the ideals of classic works to modern life.
1.5.3. The elementary version of the Great Book curriculum is promoted by people in the private sector and exists in the grass roots movement to institute a core curriculum in elementary and junior high schools throughout the nation.
1.5.4. Many idealist support a back to the basics approach to education, which emphasizes the three R's. This approach was popular among educational conservatives, such as President Reagan's Secretary of Education, William Bennett, in the 1980's.
2. Schools as Organizations
2.1. Governance
2.1.1. Senators
2.1.1.1. The Federal Government has little authority when it comes to public education, a couple of the things that that the Federal Government can do is influence policies that are put into place at the state level and dictate the budget for the public schools of their state.
2.1.2. House of Representatives
2.1.2.1. Much like the information posted in the tab above the Federal Government has little say so in the everyday working of the public schools systems across the country.
2.1.3. State Superintendent
2.1.3.1. As the chain of command goes this representative is the head of command when in comes to education on the state level. This person can set the standards for the state's students, the standards for teachers in the state and the qualifications for perspective teachers and pre-service teachers. This person also sets the state education budget and over sees the state testing and the curriculum for the state.
2.1.4. State School Board Representatives
2.1.4.1. This group of people are the second in command of states education. This group is made up of superintendents from different school systems around the state. These representatives help implement the policies, budgets, and decisions that are made by the State Superintendent. They are also much like Congress and the Senate as they keep the Superintendent in check.
2.1.5. Local Superintendent
2.1.5.1. This person makes decisions for their individual school systems. They enforce for curriculum that is set by the state, the tests that are set by the state and the standards for teachers and students that are set by the state. They can also lobby for new schools and a higher budget for their systems.
2.1.6. Local School Board
2.1.6.1. This group of people work with the local superintendent for make decisions for the school systems. They also approve or deny hires of teachers for the systems.
2.2. Comparison to One country
2.2.1. France
2.2.1.1. In France the school systems are much more centralized than the U.S. Unlike the U.S. systems the French system is split into two public school systems, the one for ordinary students and then one for elite students. The French systems is extememely
2.2.1.2. With the French system being do socially dominated they have created a public school system that only serves the academically and socially elite, the systems have a selective and competitive of elementary, secondary and post secondary schools, the top of this system is the "grandes ecoles" these schools train the most outstanding students to serve in the country's government and produces the intellectual elite of society.
3. Equality of Opportunity
3.1. Educational Achievement & Attainment
3.1.1. 1. Achievement
3.1.1.1. Females achieve higher than males in reading at ages 9, 13, 17 and preform better than males at math at age 9 but the males perform better at math at ages 13, and 17. Females also achieve lower than males in science at age 9, 13,and 17. The gap in reading and math decreased among 13 year old African American, White and Hispanic females from 1973 to 1986 then increased from 1986 to 1999. Although the gap decreased until 1988, since then the gaps have either widened or stayed the same.
3.1.2. 2. Attainment
3.1.2.1. Of both sexes about 92.1% of whites graduate from high school and 33.3% receive a bachelor's degree, while 84% of African Americans graduate from high school and 19.9% receive a bachelor's degree and then 88.8% of Asian Americans graduate from high school and 52.4% receive a bachelor's degree, also 62.7% of Hispanic Americans graduate from high school and 13.9% receive a bachelor's degree.
3.2. Response to the Coleman Study
3.2.1. 1. Round One
3.2.1.1. After the results of the Coleman study were released there were many debates that lead to many studies that in the end substantiated the results that Coleman had found. That the differences in schools has little to do with the outcomes of our students.
3.2.2. 2. Round Two
3.2.2.1. The High School Achievement finding had its focus on the interpretations attached to the magnitude of the findings. Because the finding were up for discussion about wither they meant something or not caused there to be more studies to find out if the difference in Catholic schooling a public schooling was that much different. The study by Jenks (1985) said that the difference was statistically significant but when it comes to learning differences, the results are negligible
3.2.3. 3. Coleman Round Three
3.2.3.1. This response say that where a student attends school is often attributed to their race and socioeconomic standing. but the racial and socioeconomic composition of a school has a greater effect achievement than an individual's race or class.
4. Educational Reform
4.1. School Based Reforms
4.1.1. 1. School Choice, Charter Schools, and Tuition Vouchers
4.1.1.1. Charter Schools: Passage of the first state-legislated charter law in Minnesota in 1991 had spawned enactment of charter laws in 41 states and well as D.C. and Puerto Rico. The movement has produced almost 3,700 charter schools serving 1,076,964 students nationwide. Demand for Charter schools remains high as research shows that 70% of charter schools have waiting lists for admission.
4.1.1.2. Tuition Vouchers: A number of states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida implanted school voucher programs, all of which were challenged in state courts for violating the separation of church and state. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris ruled that the Cleveland, Ohio, voucher program did not violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
4.1.1.3. School Choice: By the late 1980's school choice was at the forefront of educational reform movement. President Reagan and Bush supported choice and one influent White House report enumerated a number of reasons why choice was the right reform for the times. In essence, choice was a panacea that was nonbureaucratic , inexpensive, and fundamentally egalitarian because it allowed market forces to shape school policy rather than subjecting educators to the heavy hand of the educational bureaucracy.
4.1.2. 2. School-Business Partnerships/ School-to-Work Programs
4.1.2.1. School-Business Partnerships: During the 1980's, business leaders became increasingly concerned that the nation's schools were not producing the kinds of graduates necessary for a revitalization of the U.S. economy. Several school-business partnerships were formed, the most notable of which was the Boston Compact begun in 1982. Such partnerships formed in other cities such as Philadelphia.
4.1.2.2. School-to-Work Programs: In the 1990's, school-business partnerships became incorporated into school-to-work programs. The intent was to extend what had been a vocational emphasis to non-college-bound students regarding skills necessary for the successful employment and to stress the importance of work-based learning
4.1.3. 3. Privatization
4.1.3.1. From the 1990's, the traditional distinction between public and private education became blurred with private education companies increasingly becoming involved in public education in a variety of ways. First, for profit companies, such as the Edison Company, took over the management of failing schools and districts, Second, for profit companies, such as Kaplan and Sylvan Learning Centers, have the majority of contracts for supplemental tutoring under NCLB.
4.2. Societal, community, economic, or political reforms
4.2.1. 1. School Finance Refrom
4.2.1.1. Following the Supreme Court 1973 decision in Rodriguez v. San Antonio, which declared there is no constitutional right to an equal education, school finance equity and adequacy advocates litigated at the state level. By 1980, more evidence had been accumulated regarding the inequality of education in urban area and the Education Law Center filed Abbott v. Burke, on behalf of several urban school districts also due to a violation of the "thorough and efficient" clause.
4.2.2. 2. Full Service and Community Schools
4.2.2.1. Another way to attack education inequity is to examine and plan to educate not only the whole child but also the whole community. Dryfoo's model of full service schools, Canada's Harlem Children's Zone, and Newark's Broader Bolder Approach, are three models of community based reforms. Full Service schools focus on meeting students and their families educational, physical, psychological and social needs in a coordinated and collaborative fashion between schools and community services.
4.2.3. 3. Harlem Children's Zone
4.2.3.1. Growing up in the South Bronx and an all black community on Long Island didn't prepare Geoffery Canada for the academic and social challenges he faced at Bowdin College in Maine. As a result, he wanted to ensure that other African-American children were prepared. The aspect of Canada's approach that is unique compared to other philosophies from boarding schools, charities, and social service agencies, is that he wants to leave children where they are, simultaneously changing them and their neighborhood, instead of removing them from their neighborhood.
5. Educational Inequality
5.1. Sociological Explanations of Unequal Achivement
5.1.1. 1. Student Centered
5.1.1.1. Genetic Differences
5.1.1.1.1. Genetic or biological differences explains human behavior because they play a role in the way people behave.
5.1.1.2. Cultural Deprivation Theories
5.1.1.2.1. A claim that students came to school with out the requisite intellectual and social skills necessary for success
5.1.1.3. Cultural Differences Theories
5.1.1.3.1. Says that cultural and family differences between working-class and nonwhite students and white middle class students. Working class and non white students may indeed arrive at school with different cultural dispositions and without the skills and attitudes required by the schools.
5.2. School Centered Explanation
5.2.1. 2. School Financing
5.2.1.1. During his book Jonathan Kozol compared public schools in the affluent suburbs with public schools in the poorer inner cities. After documenting the vast disparity in funding he called for the equalization of public school funding.
5.2.2. 3. Effective School Research
5.2.2.1. If student differences are more important than school differences then teachers cannot be blamed for the lower academic performance of nonwhite and working class students but if school effects are not significant then schools and teachers can do little to have a positive impact.
5.2.3. 4. Between School Differences
5.2.3.1. The effective school research points to how differences in what is often termed "school climate" affects academic performance. Much of this research looked at differences school in inner-city, lower income neighborhoods in order to demonstrate that schools can make a difference in these communities.
5.2.4. 5. Within School differences
5.2.4.1. Not only are there significant in educational achievement between schools but within in the schools as well. The fact that different groups of students in the same schools perform very differently suggests that there may be school characteristics affecting these outcomes.
6. Politics of Education
6.1. Perspective
6.1.1. 1.
6.1.1.1. The Conservative Perspective
6.1.1.1.1. 1. Return to the basics, strengthening of literacy skills, such as reading and writing and other forms of traditional learning
6.1.1.1.2. 2.Return to the traditional academic curriculum , including history, literature and the canons of Western Civilization
6.1.1.1.3. 3. Introduce accountability measures for students and schools, including minimum standards of performance and knowledge-that is, create minimum standards for what students should know and for the skills they should posses at specific grade levels
6.1.1.1.4. 4. Introduce free market mechanisms in the educational marketplace, including tuition tax credits and vouchers for parents who wish to send their children to private schools and public school choice programs,
6.1.2. 2.
6.1.2.1. The Liberal Perspective
6.1.2.1.1. 1. Policies should combine a concern for quality for all students with equality of opportunity for all. This is sometimes referred to as quality with equality.
6.1.2.1.2. 2. Policies should lead to the improvement of failing schools, especially urban schools. Such programs should included school-based management and teacher empowerment (decentralized control of individual schools with teachers having a significant voice in decision making) effective schools programs, and public school choice programs . Whereas liberals support parental choice of public schools, they rarely support conservative proposals for complete privatization, tuition tax credits, and vouchers, as these are seen as threatening public education and creating increasingly unfair advantages for parents who are already economically advantaged.
6.1.2.1.3. 3. Programs should enhance equality of opportunity for disadvantaged groups, including Head Start, affirmative action programs, compensatory higher education programs.
6.1.2.1.4. 4. A curriculum should balance the presentation of the tradition of Western Civilization with the treatment of other groups within the culturally diverse society
6.1.3. 3.
6.1.3.1. The Radical Perspective
6.1.3.1.1. 1. On a general level, radicals do not believe that educational reform alone will solve educational problems, as they see their causes outside the purview of the educational system. Short of what most radicals see is necessary but unrealistic large scale societal change-they support most liberal reform programs as long as they lead to greater equality of education results
6.1.3.1.2. 2. Programs should result in greater democratization of schools-that is, give teachers, parents, and students a greater voice in decision making. Examples of these are teachers empowerment, school-based management, school decentralization, and school-community cooperation efforts.
6.1.3.1.3. 3. Curriculum and teaching methods should involve "critical pedagogy" -that is, radicals support educational programs that enable teachers and students to understand social and educational problems and to see potential solutions.
6.1.3.1.4. 4. Curriculum and teaching methods should be multicultural, antisexist, anticlassist, antihomophobic- that is, radicals support educational programs that include curricular treatment of the diverse groups that comprise U.S. society and that are pedagogically qimed at sensitizing students to classism, racism, sexism, and homophobia.
6.2. Vision
6.2.1. 1.
6.2.1.1. Traditional
6.2.1.1.1. View the schools as necessary to the transmission of the traditional values of U.S. society, such as hard work, family unity, individual initiative and so on.
6.2.1.1.2. Schools should pass on the best of what was and what is.
6.2.2. 2.
6.2.2.1. Progressive
6.2.2.1.1. View the schools as central to solving social problems, as a vehicle for upward mobility, as essential to the development of the individual potential, and as an integral part of a democratic society.
6.2.2.1.2. Believe that schools should be part of the steady progress to make thing better.
6.2.3. 3.
7. History of U.S. Education
7.1. Reform Movement
7.1.1. 1. The Rise of the Common School
7.1.1.1. Many reformist believed that the road to a secular paradise in America was though education
7.1.1.2. Many U.S. students didn't have access to books, and most people in America were illiterate. Many towns did not have to funds to be able to build schools and the towns that did have the funds neglected or evaded their responsibilities.
7.1.2. 2. Opposition to Public Education
7.1.2.1. Many Roman Catholics opposed the view of common school because they thought that schools were dominated by a protestant ethos
7.1.2.2. One of the most common arguments against common schools was the taxation for public schools because it was viewed as unjust.
7.1.3. 3. Education for Women and African-Americans
7.1.3.1. The traditional role of women in the Western Society has been to be the homemaker while the male role is to be the provider.
7.1.3.2. During the 19th and 20th century education for women was considered to be biologically harmful or too stressful, because of this the educational opportunities for women were severely limited.
7.1.3.3. After the Nat Turner revolt in 1831, southerners believed that literacy in African-Americans would bred both insubordination and revolution. Thus the southern states forbid the slave population for learning to read and write, while the northern states allowed literacy the education they received was far behind the main stream public schools
7.2. Historical Interpretation
7.2.1. 1. In the beginning of the U.S. education system many areas did not have the proper funds to be able to support building school buildings and buying to proper books and equipment or being able to pay a teacher to teach the children.
7.2.2. 2. The opposition to public education began as a religious battle between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants and eventually ended with the educational system becoming secular in nature. The next opposition to public schools was how to raise funds for the schools because parents who sent their children to private schools felt as if the did not deserve to have to help pay for a school with their taxes.
7.2.3. 3.
8. Sociological Perspectives
8.1. Relationships between School & Society
8.1.1. 1. Functional Theories
8.1.1.1. Functional sociologist believe in the interdependence of the social system, functionalist view society as a machine where one part interacts with other parts to produce the energy for society to work. Functionalists that consensus is the normal state and that conflict leads to a breakdown in values, they also believe that in a highly integrated society, schools socialize students into the appropriate values and sort and select students based on their abilities.
8.1.1.2. Educational Reform then, from a functional view is supposed to create structures, programs, and curricula that are advanced, rational, and encourage social unity.
8.1.2. 2. Conflict Theories
8.1.2.1. Not all sociologist believe that shared values and peace is what holds society, the conflict theorist believe that society is based on the ability of dominate groups to imposed their will on the lesser groups through force, cooptation, and manipulation. The conflict point of views says that schools are social battlefields, where students struggle against teachers and teachers against administration.
8.1.3. 3. Interactional Theories
8.1.3.1. This theory is primarily critiques and extensions of the functional and conflict perspectives. although this analysis helps with understanding the big picture, macrosociological theories cant provide a snapshot of what are like on a everyday basis. Interactional theorist attempt to make the commonplace strange by turning everyday interactions on its head.
8.2. Three Effects of Schooling on Individuals
8.2.1. 1. Knowledge and Attitudes
8.2.1.1. Sociologists of education disagree strongly about the relative importance of schooling in terms of what knowledge and attitudes young people acquire in school. There are sharp divisions among researchers about how significant school effects are when taking in account students social background. Typically it has been found that higher the social class background for the student, the higher his or her achievement level.
8.2.2. 2. Employment
8.2.2.1. Most students believe that graduating from college will lead to greater employment opportunities. Credential inflation has led to the expectation among employers that their employees will have an ever-increasing amount of formal education. The difference in income for a high school graduate ($32, 552) and a college graduate ($53, 976) suggests that having a college degree can make a lot of difference is the earning capabilities.
8.2.3. 3. Education and Mobility
8.2.3.1. The belief that occupational and social mobility begins at the school door is a critical component of the American ethos. Most Americans believe that education is the great equalizer in the "great status race." There is a group of people that reject education is an equalizer and tend to think that physical hardness, manual labor and a sense of fatalism.
9. Curriculum and Pedagogy
9.1. Historical Curriculum Theory
9.1.1. 1. Humanist Curriculum
9.1.1.1. This theory says that the knowledge of the traditional liberal arts is the cornerstone of creating am educated citizenry and that our purpose as educators is to present to students the best of what has been thought and written. The curriculum traditionally focuses on the Western heritage as the basis for intellectual development.
9.1.1.2. This curriculum was often met with some backlash as some said that the liberal arts should not only focus on the Western culture but teach the students about their own heritage. During the Regan administration the Secretary of Education proposed a curriculum that focused on core subjects that would teach students a common set of worthwhile knowledge and a array of intellectual skills.
9.1.2. 2. Social Efficiency Curriculum
9.1.2.1. This curriculum is a philosophically pragmatist approach developed in the 20th century as democratic response to the development of mass public secondary education. This Curriculum says that instead of the traditional method of testing students to put them on a track, that each individual groups of students with individual needs and aspirations should receive different types of schooling.
9.1.3. 3. Developmentalist Curriculum
9.1.3.1. This curriculum is more focuses on the needs of the students rather than the needs of society. This curriculum being based on Dewey (1902) and developmental psychologists such as Piaget, the process of teaching as well as the content that was being taught are being emphasized. This curriculum is a student centered approach to teaching and tried to relate the content to the needs and interests of each student at each developmental stage.
9.2. Sociological Curriculum Theory
9.2.1. 1. General Functionalist Theory
9.2.1.1. This theory is derived from Emile Durkham in the last 19th and 20th centuries and focuses on combating the social and moral breakdowns initiated by modernization. Because the processes of industrialization, secularization, and urbanization but strains on the bonds between people and the rituals that gave people a sense of community, the theory argues that schools have to teach students to fit into the less cohesive world.
9.2.2. 2. Modern Functionalist theory
9.2.2.1. This theory stressed the role of the schools in preparing students for the increasingly complex roles required in a modern society. This society is described as democratic, meritocratic and expert society by functionalists. In the 20th century the functionalist noticed that schools were going away from teaching isolated facts to teaching the general task of teaching students how learn, the functionalist thought that thought teaching history and literature was less important than teaching students how to learn, a skill vital in an increasingly technocratic society
9.2.3. 3. Conflict Theory
9.2.3.1. This theory says that schools do not teach the liberal arts and attitudes such as tolerance and respect as the functionalist say they do, rather that schools hidden curriculum teaches the attitudes and behaviors required in the workplace and that the formal curriculum represents the dominate cultural interests of society.