1. Politics of Education
1.1. Intellectual
1.1.1. Teach the basic skills
1.1.1.1. Reading
1.1.1.2. Math
1.1.1.3. Science
1.2. Political
1.2.1. Show patriotism
1.2.2. Prepare them to participate in democracies
1.2.3. Teach basic Laws of Society
1.3. Social
1.3.1. Help solve social problems
1.3.2. Socialize children into different roles of society
1.3.3. Socialization is key to stability in society and later in life.
1.4. Economic
1.4.1. Prepare students for later occupation roles
1.4.2. Effectively allocate students into the division of labor
1.5. The role of the school
1.5.1. Conservative Perspective
1.5.1.1. Students receive both educational and social development.
1.5.1.2. Students are trained and socialized into adult roles in order to maintain social order.
1.5.1.3. Culture is transmitted through teaching.
1.5.1.4. Succession is left up to the student.
1.6. Explanations of unequal perspectives
1.6.1. Conservative
1.6.1.1. All children are given the same opportunity to succeed. It is left up to them if they want to succeed or fail.
1.6.1.2. Teachers give students the resources they need in order for them to succeed.
1.7. Definition of Educational Problems
1.7.1. Radical
1.7.1.1. The education system has failed many people by being judgmental. By doing so they have deprived them of their education.
1.7.1.2. The curriculum leaves out a lot of traditions from different cultures as well as history.
2. The Philosophy of Education
2.1. Pragmatism
2.1.1. Generic notions
2.1.1.1. Proposed that education starts with the needs and interests of the child in the classroom- Dewey
2.1.1.2. Employ project method or group learning
2.1.1.3. "Dewey's progressive methodology rested on the notion that children were active, organic beings, growing and changing, and required a course of study that would reflect their particular stage of development."
2.1.2. Key researchers
2.1.2.1. George Sanders Pierce
2.1.2.2. William James
2.1.2.3. John Dewey
2.1.3. goal of education
2.1.3.1. Dewey stressed the importance of the school where ideas can be implemented, challenged, and restructured with the goal of providing students with the knowledge of how to improve the social order.
2.1.3.2. Schools should balance the needs of society and community on one hand and the needs of people in the other.
2.1.3.3. Schools have to play a key in creating a modern form on cohesion by socializing diverse groups into a cohesive community.
2.1.4. role of teachers
2.1.4.1. Student centered learning
2.1.4.2. Teacher is no longer the person from which all knowledge comes from.
2.1.4.3. Teacher offers guidance, serves as questioner, and facilitator.
2.1.5. method of instruction
2.1.5.1. Children learn both individually and in groups.
2.1.5.2. They learn by asking questions about what they know
2.1.5.3. Formal instruction was left behind.
2.1.5.4. Informal seating was used to encourage working in groups.
2.1.6. curriculum
2.1.6.1. Integrated curriculum
2.1.6.2. Curriculum changed as the social order changed as well as student interests and needs.
2.1.6.3. Dewey was against traditional subject matter and in favor of child centered curriculum.
3. History of Education
3.1. The Rise of the Common School
3.1.1. 1820-1860
3.1.2. Pre-war generation schools were not properly functioning.
3.1.3. The majority of Americans were illiterate.
3.1.4. Horace Mann of Massachusetts led the free public education. He lobbied for a state board of education.
3.1.5. The first normal school was established in Lexington, Massachusetts in 1839.
3.1.6. He argued for free public elementary schools.
3.2. The Democratic -Liberal School
3.2.1. Providing equality of opportunity for all
3.2.2. Educational history in the U.S. involved growth of opportunity and purpose.
3.2.3. More students from diverse backgrounds went for longer periods.
3.2.4. The evolution of the nation's schools have been flawed.
4. The Sociology of Education
4.1. Functionalism
4.1.1. Functional sociologists begin with an image of society that focuses on interdependence.
4.1.2. Tend to assume the normal state in society and that conflict represents a breakdown of shared values
4.1.3. Schools socialize students into appropriate values, and sort students based on ability.
4.2. Conflict theory
4.2.1. Not all believe that society is held together by shared values.
4.2.2. The glue of society is economic, political, cultural, and military.
4.3. Interactionalism
4.3.1. Primarily critiques and extensions of the functional and conflict perspectives.
4.3.2. Functional and conflict perspectives are abstract and focus on structure and process with very little level of analysis.
4.3.3. Basil Bernstein examined how speech reflects students' social class background.
4.3.3.1. Students from working-class are at a disadvantage in a middle-class school.
4.3.3.2. Interactional analysis links language with educational process and outcomes.
4.4. Knowledge and Attitudes
4.4.1. Sociologists of education disagree about the relative importance of schooling in terms of what knowledge and attitudes young people acquire in school
4.4.2. The higher the social class background the higher the achievement level.
4.4.3. Differences between schools in terms of academic programs and policies do make differences in student learning.
4.4.4. Differences in schools are directly related to differences in student outcomes. Ron Edmonds was the pioneer of the effective schools movement.
4.4.5. Heyns found that students who went to summer school and studied during the summer made greater gains in knowledge than those who did not.
4.5. Employment
4.5.1. In 1986, 54% of the 8 million college graduates actually entered professional and technical jobs.
4.5.2. Most research shows that the amount of education is only weakly related to job performance.
4.5.3. People learn how to do their job by doing them.
4.5.4. In 2011, high school graduates earned $32,552; college graduates earned $53,976.
4.5.5. Women earned less than men.
4.5.6. Getting a college and professional degree is important for earning more money, but education alone does not fully explain the difference in income levels.
4.6. Teacher Behavior
4.6.1. Teachers have a huge impact on student learning and behavior.
4.6.2. Teachers have as many as 1,000 interpersonal contacts each day with children in their classrooms.
4.6.3. Teachers' expectations of students were found to directly influence student achievement.
4.6.4. Persell found that when teachers demand more from their students and praise them more, they learned more.
4.6.5. Many teachers have lower expectations for minority and working-class students.
4.7. Inside the Schools
4.7.1. School structure influences student outcome.
4.7.2. Larger schools can offer more facilities to students but may restrain initiative.
4.7.3. Smaller schools may allow more student and teacher freedom but also lack resources.
4.7.4. In 2000, 47 percent of public high school students took a college prep course of study. 10 percent took vocational program, and 43 percent in a general program.
4.7.5. Almost all students in private schools are enrolled in an academic curriculum.
4.8. Student Peer Groups and Alienation
4.8.1. Stinchcombe found that students in vocational programs were the students most likely to join a rebellious subculture.
4.8.2. School violence is increasing because teachers are underpaid and classes are too large.
4.8.3. There are four major types of college students: careerists, intellectuals, strivers, and unconnected.
4.8.3.1. Careerists - middle- upperclass, won few academic hours, lost confident during college
4.8.3.2. intellectuals- highly educated families, politically involved, earned many academic hours
4.8.3.3. Strivers- working class background, worked hard, did not have a high GPA, graduated with a real sense of accomplishment
4.8.3.4. unconnected- came from all backgrounds, participated in few extracurricular activities, least satisfied with college experience
4.8.4. Student culture plays an important role in shaping student's educational experience.
5. Schools as Organizations
5.1. State Senator
5.1.1. Richard Shelby
5.1.2. Jefferson Sessions
5.2. House of Representatives
5.2.1. Composed of 105 members
5.3. State Superintendent
5.3.1. Michael Sentance
5.4. Representative on state school board
5.4.1. Composed of 9 members
5.4.2. Governor Bentley
5.4.3. Michael Sentance
5.4.4. Jeffrey Newman
5.4.5. Yvette Richardson
5.4.6. Matthew Brown
5.4.7. Betty Peters
5.4.8. Stephanie Bell
5.4.9. Ella Bell
5.4.10. Cynthia McCarty
5.4.11. Mary Scott Hunter
5.5. local superintendent
5.5.1. Limestone County
5.5.1.1. Dr. Tom Sisk
5.5.2. Athens City
5.5.2.1. Trey Holladay
5.6. local school board
5.6.1. Limestone County
5.6.1.1. Charles Shoulder
5.6.1.2. Marty Adams
5.6.1.3. Bradley Young
5.6.1.4. Earl Glaze
5.6.1.5. Bret McGill
5.6.1.6. Edward Winter
5.6.1.7. Anthony Hilliard
5.6.2. Athens City
5.6.2.1. Russell Johnson
5.6.2.2. Beverly Malone
5.6.2.3. Chris Paysinger
5.6.2.4. Jennifer Manville
5.6.2.5. James Lucas
5.6.2.6. Scott Henry
5.6.2.7. Tim Greene
5.7. Elements of change within school processes and school cultures
5.7.1. Schools are separate organizations
5.7.1.1. They have a defined population.
5.7.1.2. They can clearly define political structure.
5.7.1.3. They represent the next generation of social relationships.
5.7.1.4. They are pervaded by a "we feeling."
5.7.1.5. They have a culture of their own.
5.7.2. Four Elements of change
5.7.2.1. Conflict is a part of change.
5.7.2.2. New behaviors have to be learned.
5.7.2.3. Team building must include the whole school.
5.7.2.4. Process and content are intertwined.
6. Curriculum & Pedagogy
6.1. Social Efficiency Curriculum
6.1.1. also called pedagogical progressivism
6.1.2. stresses the relationship between schooling and adult activities
6.1.3. curriculum is tailored to prepare students for roles in society
6.1.4. Roles are based off of race, gender, and class.
6.1.5. Intelligence and reading tests are given at Elementary Levels.
6.1.6. Standardized tests place secondary students in the post graduation world of work or the college they should attend.
6.2. Nimetic
6.2.1. relies on lecture or presentation as main form of communication
6.2.2. involves the relationship between the teacher and the student
6.2.3. Education is processed between the two.
6.2.4. Stresses the importance of the teaching and assessment process
6.2.5. emphasis of measurable goals and objectives are central components of the educational program
6.3. Transformative
6.3.1. sets of assumptions about the teaching and learning process
6.3.2. defines the function of education more broadly and more ambiguously
6.3.3. purpose of education is to change the student intellectually, creatively, spiritually, and emotionally
6.3.4. transformative educators do not see the transmission of knowledge as the only component of education
6.3.5. Provide a more multi-dimensional theory of teaching
7. Equality of Opportunity
7.1. Class
7.1.1. Education is extremely expensive.
7.1.2. The longer a student stays in school, the more likely they will need parental financial support.
7.1.3. The number of books in a family's home is related to the academic achievement of the children.
7.1.4. There is a direct correlation between parental income and children's performance on achievement tests.
7.1.5. Children from working class and underclass families are more likely to underachieve, drop out and resist the curriculum.
7.2. Race
7.2.1. Race has a direct impact on how much education one will achieve.
7.2.2. Hispanics have a higher drop out rate than any other race at 17.6 percent.
7.2.3. In the Uniter States, minority students receive fewer educational opportunities than white students.
7.3. Gender
7.3.1. Women are rated as better students than men.
7.3.2. Females are less likely to drop out of school than males, and are more likely to have a higher level of reading proficiency.
7.3.3. Males do better in math than females.
7.3.4. Males score higher on SATs than females.
7.4. Coleman Study 1982
7.4.1. High School Achievement
7.4.1.1. Differences between public and Catholic schools are significant, the terms in learning and negligible.
7.4.1.2. Public and private schools have found that private schools do better when it comes to low income students.
7.4.1.3. Catholic schools seem to advantage low income students.
7.4.1.4. They also becoming more elite and like suburban public schools.
7.4.2. Equality of Educational Opportunity
7.4.2.1. Schools are related to race and socioeconomic background, but race and class has a greater effect on the student.
7.4.2.2. Race and socioeconomic status are responsible for gaps in students learning.
7.4.2.3. Education reform must focus on eliminating segregation that remains in the school systems.
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. Cultural deprivation theory
8.1.1. Working class and nonwhite families often lack the resources which makes them at a huge disadvantage as far as school comes.
8.1.2. The culture of poverty eschews delayed gratification for immediate reward.
8.1.3. This results in educationally disadvantaged students who achieve poorly because they have not been raised to acquire the skills and dispositions required for achievement.
8.1.4. Relative failure of many of the compensatory education programs that were based on its assumptions about why disadvantaged children have lower levels of achievement.
8.1.5. Compensatory Programs have not improved significantly the academic performance of disadvantaged students.
8.2. School Financing
8.2.1. The vast differences in funding between affluent and poor districts called for equalization in school financing.
8.2.2. Public schools are funded through local, state, and federal taxes.
8.2.3. The more the property taxes are, the more money goes to the schools.
8.2.4. Property taxes are based on the value of the property in the local community.
8.3. Effective School Research
8.3.1. A climate of high expectations for the student.
8.3.2. Strong and effective leadership within the school.
8.3.3. Accountability
8.3.4. Monitoring of student learning
8.3.5. Instructional time on task
8.3.6. Flexibility
8.4. Curriculum and Ability Grouping
8.4.1. Different groups of students in the same schools perform differently.
8.4.2. In elementary school, students are divided into reading groups based on teacher recommendations, test scores, and occasionally race, class , or gender.
8.4.3. In secondary school, students are divided by ability and curriculum, with different groups of students receiving different types of education.
8.4.4. Tracking is viewed as an important mechanism by which students are separated based on ability.
8.5. Gender and Schooling
8.5.1. Men and women see the world differently.
8.5.2. "The Next Great Moment in History Is Theirs" argued that differences between men and women are cultural, not biological, and that women deserve equality in both public and private.
8.5.3. Schooling often limits the educational opportunities and life chances of women in a number of ways.
8.5.4. Boys and girls are socialized differently through a variety of school processes.
9. Educational Reform
9.1. School-Business Partnerships
9.1.1. During the 1980s, business leaders became concerned that the nation's schools were not producing the kinds of graduates they needed.
9.1.2. In 1991, the Committee to Support Philadelphia Public Schools pledged management assistance and training to the Philadelphia School District to restructure and implement a site based management plan.
9.1.3. The city promised that by 1995 it would raise the test scores of its graduates and improve grade promotion rates.
9.1.4. In the 1980s, only 1.5 percent of corporate giving was to the public schools.
9.1.5. School-business partnerships have attracted considerable media attention, but there is little convincing evidence that they have improved schools.
9.2. Teacher Quality
9.2.1. NCLB's requirement that all schools have highly qualified teachers in every classroom highlighted the problem of unqualified teachers.
9.2.2. Most teachers meet the highly qualified standards of NCLB, but a high number of teachers are not qualified in the particular subjects they teach.
9.2.3. At a secondary level, about one fifth of classes in each of the core subjects are taught by teachers who do not hold a teaching certificate in the subject taught.
9.2.4. Principals often find it easier to hire unqualified teachers than qualified ones, and the absence of status and professionalism, and poor working conditions in teaching leads to high drop out rates in the first five years of teaching.
9.3. Harlem Children's Zone
9.3.1. It is more common for educated parents to read to their children when they are younger, and encourage them to read as they grow older.
9.3.2. White parents typically spend more time educating their children at home, while black parents are more likely to sit a child in front of a television.
9.3.3. Canada started a "Baby College" where African American teachers teach individuals how to have academic conversations with children as well as how to have a healthy home environment and acceptable forms of discipline.
9.3.4. Baby College even purchases items that parents need and cannot afford.
9.4. Connecting School, Community, and Societal Reforms
9.4.1. Successful school reform must be based on:
9.4.1.1. 1. leadership as the driver for change
9.4.1.2. 2. parent-community ties
9.4.1.3. 3. professional capacity
9.4.1.4. 4. student- centered learning climate
9.4.1.5. 5. instructional guidance
9.4.2. Linda Darling- Hammond outlines five key elements needed to reform education.
9.4.2.1. 1. meaningful learning goals
9.4.2.2. 2. intelligent, reciprocal accountability systems
9.4.2.3. 3. equitable and adequate resources
9.4.2.4. 4. strong professional standards and supports
9.4.2.5. 5. schools organized for student and teacher learning