1. Progressive and Traditional: This movement focuses not only on the process of education but on its goals. The 20th century revolved between progressive and traditional visions of schooling. "Traditionalists believed in knowledge-centered education, a traditional subject-centered curriculum, teacher-centered education, discipline and authority, and the defense of academic standards in the name of excellence." On the other hand, "progressives believed in experiential education, a curriculum that responded to both the needs of students and the times, child-centered education, freedom and individualism, and the relativism of academic standards in the name of equity." (pg 74)
2. The Philosophy of Education
2.1. Pragmatism: is a philosophy that encourages people to find processes that work in order to achieve their desired ends. (pg 186)
2.1.1. Generic Notions
2.1.1.1. This was the attainment of a better society through education, where the children could learn skills from the books and experimentally. It would enable them to work productively in a democratic society. "proposed that educators start with the needs and interest 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." Vital components of democratic living was advocated by freedom and responsibility. (pg. 187-188)
2.1.2. Key Researchers
2.1.2.1. The founders of this school of thought were George Sanders Peirce, William James and John Dewey. There were also European philosophers from earlier times that can be credited with this theory, Frances Bacon, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. (pg 186)
2.1.3. Role of Teacher
2.1.3.1. "The teacher encourages, offers suggestions, questions and helps plan and implement courses of study. The teacher also writes curriculum and must have a command of several disciplines in order to create and implement curriculum." (pg 189)
2.1.4. Method of Instruction
2.1.4.1. Dewey suggested that students can learn in different ways. They can learn individually or working in groups. He believed in teaching by posing questions about what the students wanted to know ."Children could converse quietly with one another, could stand up and stretch if they warranted and could pursue independent study or group work." (pg 189)
2.1.5. Goal of Education
2.1.5.1. John Dewey, "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." (pg. 188)
2.1.6. Currirculum
2.1.6.1. "A particular subject matter under investigation by students would yield problems to be solved using math, science, history, reading, writing, music, art, wood or metal working cooking and sewing-all the academic and vocational disciplines in an integrated, interconnected way." (pg 190)
3. History of U.S. Education
3.1. Reform Movement
3.2. Historical Interpretation
3.2.1. The Democratic-Liberal School: "Democratic-liberals believe that the history of U.S. education involves the progressive evolution, albeit flawed, of a school system committed to providing equality of opportunity for all." As more students from diverse backgrounds went to school for longer periods of time, the goals of education became more and more diverse, with social goals often becoming as or more important than intellectual goals. Democratic-liberals believe that the U.S. education system must continue to move closer to each, without sacrificing one or the other. (pg 83)
4. The Sociology of Education
4.1. Relationship between School and Society
4.1.1. Theoretical Perspectives: "Sociologist usually begin their studies with an overall picture of how society looks in its most basic form." Schools play a major role in determining who will get ahead in society and who will not. (pg 117)
4.1.1.1. Functionalism: interdependence of the social system; these researchers often examine how well the parts are integrated with each other. "While Durkhiem recognized that education had taken different forms at different times and places, he believed that education, in virtually all societies, was of critical importance in creating the moral unity necessary for social cohesion and harmony." Moral values were the foundation of society. (pg 117-118)
4.1.1.2. Conflict Theory: "conflict sociologists do not see the relation between school and society as problematic or straightforward. Whereas functionalists emphasize cohesion in explaining social order, conflict sociologist emphasize struggle," Max Weber believed that different classes alone could not capture the complex ways human beings form hierarchies and belief systems that make these hierarchies seem just and inevitable. (pg 118-120)
4.1.1.3. Interactionalism: "Interactional theories about relation of school and society are primarily critiques and extensions of the functional and conflict perspectives." (pg 120)
4.2. Five Effects of Schooling on Individuals
4.2.1. Knowledge and Attitude
4.2.1.1. Education is related to individuals' sense of well-being and self-esteem. It is typically found that the higher the social class background of a student, the higher their achievement level will be. Differences between schools in terms of their academic programs and policies make a difference in student learning. In recent research, public and private schools are compares. The results show that in schools where students are compelled to take academic subjects and where there is consistent disciple, student achievement goes up. (pg 121)
4.2.2. Employment
4.2.2.1. Research has shown that the level of education was essentially unrelated to job performances. Although, Academic credentials do help individuals to obtain higher status jobs early in their careers, possession of a college degree is significantly related to higher income. (pg 122)
4.2.3. Teacher Behavior
4.2.3.1. "Clearly, teachers are models for students and, as instructional leaders, teachers set standards for students and influence student self-esteem and sense of efficacy." A teacher's expectations of students were found to directly influence student achievement. The labels that teachers apply to their students can influence their performance. "Self-fulfilling prophecy" says that a teacher's expectation plays a major role in encouraging or discouraging students to work to their full potential. (pg 124)
4.2.4. Tracking
4.2.4.1. Tracking refers to the placement of students in curricular programs based on the student's abilities and inclinations. Track placement directly affects cognitive development. (pg 126-127)
4.2.5. De Facto Segregation
4.2.5.1. De Facto Segregation is another way that schools reinforce inequalities, particularly racial and ethnic inequalities. The evidence on school choice indicates that it has often resulted in segregated rather than integrated schools. (pg 127)
5. The Politics of Education
5.1. Four Purposes of Education
5.1.1. The Intellectual Purpose:
5.1.1.1. "Is to teach basic cognitive skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics; to transmit specific knowledge and to help students acquire higher-order thinking skills such as analysis, evaluation and synthesis." (pg 22)
5.1.2. The Political Purpose:
5.1.2.1. "Is to inculcate allegiance to the existing political order; to prepare citizens who will participate in this political order; to help assimilate diverse cultural groups into a common political order; and to teach children the basic laws of the society." (pg 22)
5.1.3. The Social Purpose:
5.1.3.1. "Is to help solve social problems; to work as one of many institutions, such as the family and the church to ensure social cohesion; and to socialize children into the various roles, behaviors, and values of the society." (pg 22)
5.1.4. The Economic Purposes:
5.1.4.1. " Is to prepare students for their later occupational roles and to select, train and allocate individuals into the division of labor. The degree to which schools directly prepare students for work varies from society to society, but most schools have at least an indirect role in this process." (pg 22)
5.2. Perspective
5.2.1. Traditional and Progressive Visions of Education: "Traditional visions tend to 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. Progressive visions tend to view the schools as central to solving social problems, as a vehicle for upward mobility, as essential to the development of individual potential, and as an integral part of a democratic society." (pg 26)
5.2.1.1. Role of the School: "The role of the school is a central focus of each of the perspectives and is at the heart of their differing analyses." The basic role of the school is directly concerned with the aims, purposes, and functions of education in a society. (pg 27)
5.2.1.2. Explanantions of Unequal Performance: The school system is designed to allow individuals the opportunity to succeed. If they do not, it may be caused by a deficient in some manner or because they are members of a group that is deficient. (pg 29)
5.2.1.3. Definition of Educational Problems: The conservative, liberal and radical perspective all have different views when it comes to the definition of educational problems. "These are all significant issues, the ways in which each perspective addresses specific educational problems at the close of the 20th century, and consequently how each sees solution to these, is of the utmost importance." Conservatives perspective argues the decline of standards, cultural literacy, values or civilization and authority. (pg 29)
6. Schools as Organizations
6.1. Major Stakeholders in my district
6.1.1. State Senator: Larry Stutts
6.1.2. House of Representatives: Ken Johnson
6.1.3. State Superintendent: Michael Sentance
6.1.4. State School Board: Governor Robert Bentley, Jeffery Newman, Matthew S. Brown, J.D, Stephanie Bell and Cynthia Sanders McCarty, Ph.D.
6.1.5. Local Superintendent: Gary Williams
6.1.6. Local School Board: Ralton Baker, Shannon Oliver, Terry Welborn, Pat Cochran and Mike Shewbart
6.2. Elements of Change
6.2.1. Conflict: conflict is a necessary part of change. Efforts to democratize schools do not create conflicts, but they allow previously hidden problems, issues and disagreements to surface. Staff involvement in school restructuring must be prepared to elicit, manage and resolve conflicts. p.232
6.2.2. New Behaviors: New behaviors must be learned. Because change requires new relationships and behaviors, the change process must include building communication and trust, enabling leadership and initiative to emerge and learning techniques of communication, collaboration and conflict resolution. p.232
6.2.3. Team Building: must extend to the entire school. Shared decision making must consciously work out and give on-going attention to relationships within the rest of the school's staff. Otherwise, issues of exclusiveness and imagined elitism may surface, and perceived "resistance to change" will persist. p.232
6.2.4. Process and content: are interrelated. The process a team uses in going about its work is as important as the content of educational changes it attempts, The substance of a project often depends upon the degree of trust and openness built up within the team and between the team and the school. At the same time, the usefulness and the visibility of the project will influence future commitments from and the relationships among the staff and others involved. p.232
7. Curriculum & Pedagogy
7.1. The developmentalist curriculum: is related to the needs and interests of the students rather than the needs of society. This curriculum is student-centered and is concerned with relating the curriculum to the needs and interests of each child at particular developmental stages. It is important to relate schooling to the life experiences of each child in a way that could make education come alive in a meaningful manner. The teacher is not a transmitter of knowledge but is facilitator of student growth. p.284
7.2. Two Dominant Traditions of Teaching
7.2.1. Mimetic Tradition: is based on a viewpoint that the purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students. The best way of performing this method is the didactic method. This method that commonly relies on the lecture or presentation as the main form of communication. The mimetic tradition stresses the importance of rational sequencing in the teaching process and assessment of the learning process a clear statement of learning goals and a clear means to assess whether students have acquired them. p.296-297
7.2.2. Transformative Tradition: rests on a different set of assumptions about the teaching and learning process. This tradition believes that the purpose of education is to change the student in some meaningful way. This could be intellectually, creatively, spiritually and emotionally. p.297
8. Equality of Opportunity
8.1. Race: An individual's race has a direct impact on how much education he or she is likely to achieve. Testing scores have seen lower levels of proficiency are reflected by the fact that minorities have, on average, lower SAT scores than white students. Minority students receive fewer and inferior educational opportunities than white students. Minorities do not receive the same educational opportunities as whites, and their rewards for educational opportunities as whites, and their rewards for educational attainment are significantly less. p.342-343
8.2. Impact on Education
8.2.1. Class: Students in different social classes have different kinds of educational experiences. Families from the upper class ad the middle class are also more likely to expect their children to finish school, whereas working-class and underclass families often have lower levels of expectation for their children. Teachers have been found to think more highly of middle-class and upper middle-class children than they do of working -class and underclass children because working-class and underclass children do not speak middle-class English. This leads to labeling children by there abilities and their social background. Children from working class and underclass families are more likely to underachieve, drop outs and resist teh curriculum of the school. p. 342
8.2.2. Gender: An individual's gender was directly related to his or her educational attainment . Even though women are often rated as being better students than men, in the past they were less likely to attain the same level of education. In mathematics, males outperform females. Males are more likely to score higher on SATs than females. In the last 20 years, gender differences between men and women, in educational purposes, have been lowered. p.343
8.3. The Coleman Study
8.3.1. Studies have been shown that compared public schools and private schools have also found that private schools seem to do it better. Private schools seem to have certain organizational characteristics that are related to students outcomes. p. 368
8.3.2. Where an student goes to school is often related to their race and socioeconomic background. The racial and socioeconomic composition of a socioeconomic composition of a school has a greater effect on student achievement than an individual's race and class. Some argue that school segregation based on race and socioeconmic status and within school interactions dominated by middle-class values are largely responsible for gaps in student achievement. Education reform must fcus on eliminating the high level of segegation that remains in the United States' education system and that schools must bring an end to tracking systems and biases that favor white and middle-class students. p.269
9. Educational Inequality
9.1. Cultural Deprivation Theory
9.1.1. Cultural deprivation theory suggest that working-class and nonwhite families often lack the cultural resources, such as books and other educational stimuli, and thus arrive at school at a significant disadvantage. Cultural deprivation theorist assert that the poor have a deprived culture, one that lacks the value system of middle-class culture. p. 423
9.1.2. Cultural deprivation theory concerned the relative failure of many of the compensatoy education programs that were based on its assumptions about why disadvantaged children have lower levels of achievement than more advantaged children. p.423
9.2. School-Centered Explanations
9.2.1. School Financing: public schools are financed through a combination from local, state and federal taxes.
9.2.2. Effective School Research: if a student differences are more important than school differences, then teachers cannot be blamed for the lower academic performance of nonwhite and working-class students. p.431
10. Educational Reform
10.1. School Finance Reforms
10.1.1. In 1998, the state was required to have preschool programs for all three and four year old, whole school reform, full day for kindergartners. p. 539
10.2. Full Service and Community Schools
10.2.1. 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. p. 539