1. Chp. 6- Schools as Organizations
1.1. State board of Education for Alabama
1.1.1. President- Governor Robert J. Bentley
1.1.2. Vice President- Dr. Yvette Richardson
1.1.2.1. President Pro Tem.- Mary Scott Hunter
1.1.2.1.1. Secretary and Executive officer- Michael Sentance
1.2. Alabama state Senators and House of Representatives for Marshall County
1.2.1. Senator- Clay Scofield- Senate District 9
1.2.2. House of Representatives- House District 9- Ed Henry
1.2.2.1. State Superintendent- The current superintendent is Michael Sentance. He was selected by the Alabama Board of Education from a pool of six finalists on August 11, 2016, as the permanent replacement for superintendent Tommy Bice, who stepped down on March 31, 2016, in order to pursue a career in the private sector.
1.3. Arab City Schools
1.3.1. Superintendent- John Mullins
1.3.2. School Board Members- Judy Elrod, BC Maze (Vice President), Wayne Trimble, Susan LeSueur, Chuck Reynolds (President)
1.4. Elements of change within school processes and school cultures
1.4.1. Schools are political organizations in which there are numerous competing interests. Individually, students have little power, but collectively they have a great deal of power in terms of whether they will accept the schools authority. Because schools are so deeply political, effecting change within them is very difficult. Schools as they are now organized, are shaped by a series of inherent contradictions that can develop cultures that are conflictual and even stagnant. Changing the cultures of schools requires patience, skill, and good will.
2. Chp. 8: Equality of Opportunity and Educational Outcomes
2.1. Describe how class, race, and gender impact educational outcomes
2.2. Class
2.2.1. Income has always played an important role in shaping academic success. Those who come from a family of a higher socioeconomic status (SES) are privileged with more opportunities than those of lower SES. Those who come from a higher SES can afford things like better tutors, SAT/ACT prep classes, impressive summer programs, and so on. Parents generally feel more comfortable intervening on behalf of their children to acquire better grades or more qualified teachers. Parents of a higher SES are more willing to donate large sums of money to a certain institution to better improve their child's chances of acceptance, along with other extravagant measures. This creates an unfair advantage and distinct class barrier to those who cannot afford all of these luxuries.
2.3. Race
2.3.1. Racial equity in education means the assignment of students to public schools and within schools without regard to their race. This includes providing students with a full opportunity for participation in all educational programs regardless of their race.
2.4. Gender
2.4.1. Gender inequality in education likely affects education indirectly, through different channels such as by lowering the fertility rate, increasing the life span of the population, and increasing social cohesion. However, one possible channel that has not been widely explored is educational outcomes. Gender inequality in education may have a negative effect on educational outcomes, which in turn will have a negative effect on economic growth. There are many ways in which this might happen. For example, girls who are in a school system with high inequality might believe that since there is inequality in school, there will also be inequality in society as a whole, which would mean that there aren’t many opportunities for them to be successful in life. This would subsequently decrease motivation and performance in school.
2.5. What were the two responses to the Coleman Study from 1982?
2.5.1. The work Public and Private High Schools (1987) written with Hoffer was perceived to threaten the makeup of public schools and to elevate the effectiveness of faith-based (Roman Catholic) schools in the authors' attempt to help inner-city students. Its release brought negative reactions from the more liberal, public school establishment, as well as many of the radical egalitarians who had supported his earlier research on school integration.And a number of researchers, such as Jay Noel in 1982 and Karl Alexander and Aaron Palls in 1985, attacked Coleman's study of differing achievement in Catholic and public high schools. J. Douglas Willms, for example, reanalyzed the High School and Beyond data set and published the results in 1985, having studied 21,772 public and Catholic school students and using data (sophomores and seniors). He determined that "no pervasive Catholic-school effect," was present although "we cannot be certain that the tests were sensitive enough to detect differences between Catholic and public school effects on students' achievement".
3. Chp. 10: Educational Reform and School Improvement
3.1. Two school based reforms:
3.1.1. Intrasectional school choice: Policies include only public schools. The most common form of intrasectional choice plans permit students to attend schools outside of their community school district.
3.1.2. Intradistrict choice: These plans refer to any option available to students within a given public school district. These options range from a choice of curriculum within a particular school to allowing students to attend any school in the district.
3.2. Community and economic reforms:
3.2.1. Community and the standardized test: 1.The goals of education, including non-cognitive goals 2. The anti-social score gap 3. Affirmative action’s evidence of leadership: Bowen-Bok and the ‘four percenters’ 4. Persistence in school, self-confidence, and adult earnings 5. Complementing school curricula with civil rights enforcement 6. Testing integrity, personality, and employability
3.2.2. Economic; closing the social class gap: The goals of education, including non-cognitive goals, The anti-social score gap, Affirmative action’s evidence of leadership: Bowen-Bok and the ‘four per centers’, Persistence in school, self-confidence, and adult earnings Complementing school curricula with civil rights enforcement, and Testing integrity, personality, and employ-ability
4. Chp. 7: Curriculum, Pedagogy, and the Transmission of Knowledge
4.1. Social Meliorist Theory
4.1.1. Social Meliorists believe that education is a tool to reform society and create change of the better. This socialization goal was based on the power of the individual's intelligence, and the ability to improve on intelligence through education. An individual’s future was not predetermined by gender, race, socio-economic status, heredity or any other factors. “The corruption and vice in the cities, the inequalities of race and gender, and the abuse of privilege and power could all be addressed by a curriculum that focused directly on those very issues, thereby raising a new generation equipped to deal effectively with those abuses”. Some critics view this group has goals that are difficult to measure and are a product that has slow results.
4.2. Two dominant traditions of teaching
4.2.1. Transformative tradition- this process of teaching involves not just the didactic transfer of information but the conversation between teacher and student in such a way that the student becomes and integral part of the learning process.
4.2.2. Mimetic tradition- based on the viewpoint that the purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students. This tradition uses the didactic method that commonly relies on the lecture or presentation as the main form of communication.
5. Chp. 9: Explanations of Educational Inequality
5.1. Explain the two types of cultural deprivation theory.
5.1.1. Introduction: Cultural deprivation theorists argue that most of us begin to acquire the basic values, attitudes and skills that are needed for educational success through primary socialization in the family. The basic ‘cultural equipment’ includes things such as language, self discipline and reasoning skills. However according to cultural deprivation theorists, many working-class families fail to socialize their children adequately. These children grow up culturally deprived. They lack the cultural equipment needed to do well at school and so they under-achieve.
5.2. Two types:
5.2.1. Attitude- Fernstein (1998) Underachievement Lack of interest from parents Middle class children more successful because their parents provide them with necessary motivation, discipline and support
5.2.2. Values- Fernstein (1998) Underachievement Lack of interest from parents Middle class children more successful because their parents provide them with necessary motivation, discipline and support.
5.3. Describe at least four school centered explanations for educational inequality.
5.3.1. School Financing: Vast differences in funding between affluent and poor districts. There needs to be equalization in school financing.
5.3.1.1. Effective School Research: If schools' effects are not significant, then schools and, more specifically, teachers can do little to make a positive difference.
5.3.1.1.1. Curriculum and Pedagogic Practices: Schools in middle class communities are more likely to have less authoritarian and more student-centered pedagogic practices and to have a humanistic liberal arts college prep curriculum at the secondary level. Upper-class students are more likely to attend elite private schools, with authoritarian pedagogic practices and a classical-humanistic college prep curriculum at the secondary level.