Foundations of Education

1. History of U.S. Education

1.1. Historical Interpretation

1.1.1. Democratic-Liberal School:  They believe that the US education system must continue to try to make equality and excellence both possible without compromising one or the other. They want to be able to make everything equal for all students, but they want all students to be able to excel academically for all levels.

1.2. Reform Movement

1.2.1. Common School Movement- This reform movement established free public elementary and high schools. This meant that any gender, race, ethnicity, and class could attend school. This reform movement helped move society forward.

1.2.1.1. Horace Mann is one of America's famous educational reformers. He believed two things: the school can change the social order of the country and education can promote the social mobility that our country needs to progress forward.

2. Sociological Perspectives

2.1. Theoretical Perspectives

2.1.1. Functional Theory

2.1.1.1. Education helps students gain morals and values that can be used in society. Schools helps prepare and socialize students to work in a successful society. Functionalists want cohesion between school and society.

2.1.1.1.1. One person who helped develop this theory is Emile Durkheim in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

2.1.2. Conflict Theory

2.1.2.1. Conflict socialist believe that schools are similar to a battlefield. For example, students battle against the teachers and the teachers battle against the administration. They are basically battling the higher authority of the school and the achievement ideology (to sort students according to their ability level instead of their social status in the economy;hides the power of the school in order to show the related power of the larger society)

2.1.2.1.1. One person who put forth an effort in making this theory well-known is Karl Marx. He founded the conflict school in the sociology of education.

2.1.3. Interactional Theory

2.1.3.1. This theory basically fixes anything that did not work in the Functional and Conflict theory, and it puts the two theories together into one. This may be considered the "big picture," but it shows how students and teachers interact on an everyday level.

2.1.3.1.1. Basil Bernstein is one theorist that argues about different aspects of the educational system needs to be viewed as a whole. It does not need to viewed by one single part and perspective.

2.2. 5 Effects of Schooling on Individuals

2.2.1. Employment

2.2.1.1. Most students go to college to receive a better job opportunity. Most corporations require high leveled of education for administrative positions. Higher education not only means a better job opportunity, but it also means a better income.

2.2.2. Teacher Behavior

2.2.2.1. Students are greatly impacted by their teachers. They take on many roles in a classroom. This makes them a superhero to some students because they not only are their teacher, but they could also be the only person who gives them a hug or smiles at them all day. Teachers also push their students to do the best that they can do. Teachers want to see everyone in their classroom succeed.

2.2.3. Education and Inequality

2.2.3.1. A family's social class affects a child's education. People are quick to judge a child based on their parent's income, what type of house they live in, and even by the color of their skin or their gender. Each child needs to have an equal chance at being successful. What their parents do or their ethnicity has nothing to do with the brain in a child. Every child can succeed if they are given a chance.

2.2.4. Inadequate schools

2.2.4.1. Some schools are not being fair when it comes to educating poor and minority children. All children deserve to have a proper education. Some schools are not educating their students to the fullest extent. This is causing students to enter the real world and not being able to have a fully productive and fulfilling life.

2.2.5. Gender

2.2.5.1. Gender discrimination is one of the top inequalities in my opinion. Men and women are not considered equal in society. A man and woman could have the same job and started on the same day, but the man would be paid more than the woman. Schools are trying to close the gap of the discrimination. Over the years the men have started to exceed in science and mathematics, while the females exceed in language arts and social studies.

3. Philosophy of Education

3.1. Pragmatism

3.1.1. Also known as Progressive

3.1.2. Generic Notion:  Children are constantly growing and changing. Dewey felt as if there should be a course of study that reflects these developmental stages. His ideas were founded on psychology, the philosophy of pragmatism, and behaviorism, while being influenced by the theory of evolution. He believed that society could become better if the education was bettered.

3.1.3. Key Researchers: Three researchers that helped with this thought were Sanders Peirce, WIlliam James, and John Dewey. We mostly associate John Dewey to Pragmatism over anyone else.

3.1.4. Goal of Education: The main goal of Pragmatism is growth. A school should be where a child can implement, challenge, and reconstruct ideas. The students should be provided with the knowledge on how to improve social order.

3.1.5. Role of Teacher: The role of the teacher is t be the facilitator, guider, and encourager. He/She is not the authoritarian teacher.

3.1.6. Method of Instruction: Children learn in many ways, such as individually and in groups.

3.1.7. Curriculum: Pragmatists generally use integrated curriculum. This is also referred to as core curriculum.

4. Schools as Organizations

4.1. Stakeholders in Madison County, Alabama

4.1.1. Alabama State Senator: Richard Shelby and Jefferson Sessions

4.1.2. Alabama House of Representatives: Bradley Byrne, Martha Roby, Mike D. Rogers, Robert Aderholt, Mo Brooks, Gary Palmer, Terri Sewell

4.1.3. Alabama State Superintendent: Michael Sentance

4.1.4. Representative on state school board: Mary Scott Hunter

4.1.5. Local Superintendent: Matt Massey

4.1.6. Local School Board: Nathan Curry, Angie Bates, Mary Louise Stowe, Dave Weis, and Shere Rucker

4.2. Elements of change within school processes and school cultures

4.2.1. Changing the school culture to make it a learner-centered school takes patience.The school has to change as a whole, not just a specific classroom. Teachers and Staff have to be on-board with the change that the classrooms and school will endure.

4.2.2. When undergoing change, conflict is necessary Staff involvement is necessary.

4.2.3. Team building must take place throughout the school. If someone has an idea, the staff must respect their idea and see if they think it will work in the school.

4.2.4. Process and content are interrelated. When a school is undergoing change, they need to establish trust within each other that the school is doing what they believe is best for its students.

4.2.5. New behaviors must be learned Change requires a new type of behavior and relationship, a new type of communication skill, and learning techniques of collaboration and resolving any conflicts that may arise..

5. Equality of Opportunity

5.1. educational outcomes

5.1.1. Race

5.1.1.1. It is hard to have a definite line of separation of race and class when it comes to education. Minorities seem to have fewer educational opportunities than the majority. This could be related to minorities having lower testing scores. The testing scores directly affects their admission into a college, which directly affects the amount of scholarships that the minority race receives.

5.1.2. Gender

5.1.2.1. Males have a higher test score on the SAT and in the subject area of mathematics. More women are going to college than men are and they are less likely to drop out .As the years have passed, the gender difference between males and females has reduced drastically.

5.1.3. Class

5.1.3.1. College is very expensive. If you are a working-class or lower-class family, money can be hard to come by causing the student not to stay in school because they have to work to support themselves. If you are a middle-class or upper-class family, the student is expected to finish college because they can afford it.

5.2. Responses to the Coleman Study of 1982

5.2.1. 1. Private schools have a more effective learning environment than public schools do due to their disciplinary actions and academic activities. Private schools demand more from their students when it comes to academics than public schools do.

5.2.2. The socioeconomic composition of a school has more of an effect on students than an individual's race and class. Education systems need to focus on removing such high levels of segregation in schools. It does not matter what race you are or what social-class a student is found in, it is what is in the child's brain that defines their learning capabilities.

6. Politics of Education

6.1. Perspectives

6.1.1. The Role of the School

6.1.1.1. Conservative Perspective

6.1.1.1.1. The conservatives believe that the dedicated students who are hard-working have the necessary tools to maximize the economic and social productivity in life. They believe schools mold children into the adults that society need for the maintenance of social order. Conservatives believe that the school shapes economic productivity and social stability. They also believe that cultural traditions should be taught not only through actions, but through the curriculum.

6.1.2. Explanations of Unequal Educational Performance

6.1.2.1. Radical Perspective

6.1.2.1.1. Radicals believe that students who come from a lower economic background have an unequal opportunity as students who come from a higher economic background. They also think that failure is not the education system, but rather the economic system.

6.1.3. Definition of Educational Problems

6.1.3.1. To teach basic cognitive skills, to transmit basic knowledge, and to help students obtain higher-order thinking skills

6.1.3.2. Liberal Perspective

6.1.3.2.1. Liberals believe that the school system is leaving out diverse cultures by not teaching students about it. They also believe that the schools are focusing too much on discipline rather than helping the students. Liberals believe that quality of the urban school vs the suburban school and low economic background vs high economic background relates to many inequality issues.

6.2. Purposes of Education

6.2.1. Intellectual Purpose

6.2.2. Political Purpose

6.2.3. Social Purpose

6.2.3.1. To instill loyalty to political order, to prepare students to vote in democracies, to teach students the basic laws of the governed society, and to understand different cultures in a political manner.

6.2.3.2. To help solve social problems; to work together to ensure social unity, to mold students by socializing them into many values, roles, and behaviors seen in society

6.2.4. Economic Purpose

6.2.4.1. To further prepare students for the real world and to mold students into the workforce labor.

7. Curriculum and Pedagogy

7.1. 2 Dominant Traditions of Teaching

7.1.1. Transformative Tradition

7.1.1.1. The goal of the educational system is to change the student in their ways of thinking, their emotions, what they believe in spiritually, and how they view creativity. This tradition believes that teaching and learning are inseparable.

7.1.2. Mimetic Tradition

7.1.2.1. The purpose of the educational system was to convey a particular piece of knowledge to the students by using the didactic method. This tradition is based on the teacher relaying information to the student by having measurable goals and objectives when learning.

7.2. Curriculum Theory

7.2.1. Social Efficiency Curriculum

7.2.1.1. This theory believes that all students are not the same. Each child does not think the same, therefor they should have different types of schooling to accommodate all students. The school system is transformed to help students with where they could end up in our diverse culture of work places. This was known as distortion of Dewey's beliefs of a progressive vision..

8. Educational Inequality

8.1. Cultural Deprivation Theory

8.1.1. Theory 1

8.1.1.1. Non-white families and the working class did not have the resources that other had. These families were at a disadvantage when it came to their child's education. The poor culture has a major disadvantage when it comes to learning.

8.1.2. Theory 2

8.1.2.1. Non-white students and the working class do not accept the white- middle class culture. They embrace academic success solely on the culture they were raised in. Head Start was started up during this theory to help working class and non-white students achieve their education goals.

8.2. School-Centered Explanations for Educational Inequalities

8.2.1. School Financing

8.2.1.1. Public schools receive the majority of their funding through taxes than from revenues from local, state and federal sources. Property tax is a significant sources for the school financing. The more people the have houses in an area, the more money the school will receive. This means more money will be available due to the taxes being higher, therefor more money will be spent on each student to make sure they receive the best education they can possibly have,

8.2.2. Gender and Schooling

8.2.2.1. Men and women are viewed differently when in school. Women believe that they do not have equal rights in school, so they now have feminist scholarships, The differences are cultural. Feminist started a movement called the Feminist Movement to test unequal treatment of women in multiple parts of society. This movement also wanted to do more than help women in schools, but it also wanted to change the attitude of how people perceive women in the world.

8.2.3. Effective School Research

8.2.3.1. This concern arose when non-white and working-class students have an unequal educational experience. The school-differences are less important than the student-differences because the student-differences allow the teachers to not be blamed if their test scores are lower than those who are not classified in the working-class or non-whites. Teachers can do little to help improve the situation if the school-differences are not important.

8.2.4. Within-School Differences: Curriculum and Ability Grouping

8.2.4.1. There is a difference in the education achievement in students between different schools and inside of the school. Different types of students perform differently from each other. Tracking seems to be an ongoing debate, but being able to see where the students performance level and placing those students together could benefit their grades. Being able to move at a faster rate could benefit some students and moving at a slow, but steady rate will help others.

9. Educational Reform

9.1. Two School-Based Reforms

9.1.1. Privatization

9.1.1.1. Private education companies hire for-profit companies to take over management of schools that are failing. They also hired for-profit companies to help with supplemental tutoring under NCLB.

9.1.2. School-Business Partnerships

9.1.2.1. In the 1980's, business leaders became really concerned with the education systems because they are not producing people who will help the US economy. Over the past 10 years, entrepreneurs have contributed significantly to education reform. Media has seen the school-business partnerships but there is little known knowledge that there has been an improvement in the schools.

9.2. Reforms

9.2.1. Community Reforms: Full Service and Community Schools

9.2.1.1. The best way to attack education inequity is by getting the whole community involved and aware of what is happening. Having a full-service school to help prevent problems is one way to help improve at-risk neighborhoods. This school is to help students and families with educations, social, physical, and psychological needs.

9.2.2. Political Reform: Mayoral Control in Local School Districs

9.2.2.1. High-minority schools usually have less money to spend in order to help their students' education. A reform to help this has been mayoral control of urban districts. It has been argued that mayoral control helps lead to effective management and budgets. It is also known to increase student achievement.