1. Schools as Organizations
1.1. District Stakeholders
1.1.1. Representative: Robert B. Aderholt
1.1.2. State Senate: Paul Bussman
1.1.3. State Superintendent: Michael Sentance
1.1.4. State School Board Representative: Jeffrey Newman
1.1.5. Superintendent: Johnny Yates
1.1.6. Local School Board: Shannon Terry
1.2. Elements of Change within School Processes & Cultures
1.2.1. With schools being so political, effecting change is very difficult. Schools have developed cultures that can be seen as stagnant. Changing these cultures requires lots of patience, time, and effort.
2. Curriculum & Pedagogy
2.1. Curriculum Theory
2.1.1. Social Efficiency: This curriculum has a pragmatic approach. It is based on the idea that students differ, so their schooling should differ. Students that have different needs should receive different types of schooling.
2.2. Dominant Traditions of Teaching
2.2.1. Mimetic Tradition: This tradition is rooted in the belief that education's purpose is to pass on specific knowledge to students. The main form of communication related to this tradition is through lecture or presentation.
2.2.2. Transformative Tradition: This tradition is rooted in the belief that education's purpose is to change students in a meaningful way. This change can occur intellectually, creatively, spiritually, and/or emotionally. The student is an integral part of the learning progress.
3. Equality of Oppurtunity
3.1. Educational Outcomes
3.1.1. Class: Educational experiences differ based on students' social class. These experiences depend on income, family expectations, family language, and peer groups.
3.1.2. Race: Educational achievement is directly impacted by an individual's race. Educational opportunities differ for minority groups. These students are not given the same educational opportunities as white students are.
3.1.3. Gender: Women are discriminated against occupationally and socially.
3.2. Coleman Study: 1982
3.2.1. Response #1: "The differences that do exist between public and Catholic schools are significant, but in terms of significant differences in learning, the results are negligible" (Sadovnik, Cookson, & Semel, 2013).
3.2.2. Response #2: "The racial and socioeconomic composition of a school has a greater effect on students' achievement than an individual's race or class" (Sadovnik, Cookson, & Semel, 2013). Education reform must focus on eliminating segregation within the education system.
4. Educational Inequality
4.1. Cultural Deprivation Theory
4.1.1. Cultural deprivation theory suggested that non-white families that are within the working class often lack cultural resources such as books and other education stimuli. This causes them to be at a disadvantage when they arrive at school.
4.1.2. Cultural deprivation causes students to be educationally disadvantaged. Also, it causes them to lack achievement. This is a result of these students not having been raised to obtain the skills and dispositions required for the academic achievement that is expected of them.
4.2. School Centered Explanations
4.2.1. School Financing: Inequalities of financing is present despite the effort of property taxes and state aid. This causes children from a low socioeconomic status to receive inequality of educational opportunities.
4.2.2. Effective School Research: This suggested that school centered processes help explain why various groups of students show unequal educational achievement.
4.2.3. Gender and School: Schooling limits educational opportunities and life chances of women by having curriculum materials that portray women's and men's roles in stereotypical ways, having a curriculum that limits women's history, and having an organization that reinforces gender roles and gender inequality.
4.2.4. Curriculum and Ability Grouping: Differences in tracks show the variation of academic achievement of students within various tracks.
5. Educational Reform
5.1. School Based Reforms
5.1.1. School-Business Partnerships: These partnerships have drawn attention. However, there isn't much evidence that shows that they have improved schools or that they will address the problems that the field of education is facing.
5.1.2. Privatization: Corporations see the education industry as a profitable market (for profit schools being managed by corporations). However, the success of these types of reforms have varied.
5.2. Societal, Economic, Economic, & Political Reforms
5.2.1. Full Service and Community Schools: These schools aim to prevent and support problems within at-risk neighborhoods. They provide services such as adult education, health clinics, tutoring services, and much more.
5.2.2. School Finance Reforms: These reforms must have the potential to improve schools for low-income and minority students, as well as, address factors outside of school that effect educational inequalities. These include income, housing, and school-community clinics.
6. Politics of Education
6.1. Purposes of Education
6.1.1. 1. Intellectual Purposes
6.1.1.1. First, these purposes include teaching basic cognitive skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics. Second, these purposes include transmitting specific knowledge including knowledge relating to literature, history, and other subjects. Lastly, these purposes include helping students acquire higher-order thinking skills such as analysis and evaluation.
6.1.2. 2. Political Purposes
6.1.2.1. Political purposes of schooling are to instill allegiance to the political order, prepare citizens who will participate in the political order, to help assimilate diverse cultural groups into a common political order, and to teach students the basic laws of society.
6.1.3. 3. Social Purposes
6.1.3.1. The social purposes are to help students solve social problems, to work as one of many institutions to ensure social cohesion, and to socialize children into roles, behaviors, and values of society.
6.1.4. 4. Economic Purposes
6.1.4.1. These purposes prepare students for their later occupational roles and to select, train, and allocate individuals into the division of labor.
6.2. Perspective
6.2.1. 1. The Role of the School
6.2.1.1. Liberal Perspective: In line with liberal beliefs, it stresses the school's role in providing the necessary education to ensure all students have an equal opportunity to succeed in society. Also, this perspective teaches children to respect cultural diversity so that they understand and fit into a diverse society.
6.2.2. 2. Explanations of Unequal Educational Performance
6.2.2.1. Neo-liberal Perspective: This perspective believes that educational success or failure is a result of individual effort rather than of social and economic factors. The only factors outside of individual responsibility for educational success includes school quality.
6.2.3. 3. Definition of Educational Problems
6.2.3.1. Conservative Perspective: One problem addressed by this perspective is the lowered academic standards and reduced educational quality. Another problem addressed is the schools loss of traditional disciplinary function.
7. History of U.S. Education
7.1. Influential Reform Movement
7.1.1. Progressive Movement / Reformers
7.1.1.1. The Progressive Movement brought about social and political reform in education. Change within the movement was brought about due to philosophers and psychologists. The changes implemented by these people had a huge influence on education. One philosopher was John Dewey. Dewey advocated active learning. The role of experience in education was emphasized by him. G. Stanley Hall suggested that instruction be individualized. This is known as child-centered reform. Edward L. Thorndike believed that schools could positively change students. He implied that to achieve this, the methods of pedagogy could be scientifically determined. This is known as social engineering reform. These led to the thought that students could be educated on abilities. Also, that the students experiences at school could prepare them for life. One main component of this movement was that it opened access to secondary education.
7.2. Historical Interpretation of Education
7.2.1. The Democratic-Liberal Interpretation
7.2.1.1. This perspective views history of education as involving a school system that has been bound to providing equal opportunity for all. Historians suggest that reformers attempted to expand opportunities in education to diverse groups of people. In other words, they believe that these reformers opened U.S. education to all people. This view tends to see the history of U.S. education in an optimistic way.
8. Sociological Perspectives
8.1. Theoretical Perspectives
8.1.1. Functionalism
8.1.1.1. Functional theories stress interdependence. They examines how well parts (school and society) are integrated. They suggest that school and society relate to one another. One theorists believed that education was a critical aspect in creating a moral society. Also, these theories suggest that components of education should encourage social unity.
8.1.2. Conflict Theories
8.1.2.1. These theories relate to the belief that dominate groups can inflict their will on other groups. Theorists within this group emphasize struggle in explaining social order. Emphasis is placed on inequality and unequal distribution. Regarding education, sociologists within this category analyze schools from the point of view of status competition.
8.1.3. Interactionalism
8.1.3.1. These theories relate to schools on an everyday level. They place an emphasis on analyzing from an interactional point of view. One sociologist suggested that the structural and interactional aspects of the education system reflect each other. Analyzing interactional aspects allows social inferences to be made.
8.2. Effects of Schooling on Individuals
8.2.1. Knowledge and Attitudes
8.2.1.1. Student learning can be affected by the academic policies and programs within their school. These can vary from school to school. Differences in schools directly relate to differences in student achievement. Also, education received relates to a student's self-esteem.
8.2.2. Teacher Behavior
8.2.2.1. Teachers sere as models for their students. They set standards for their students. They are influential in students' self-esteem. Their expectations can have a direct effect on student achievement.
8.2.3. Student Peer Groups and Alienation
8.2.3.1. Student cultures play an important role shaping experiences of a student. Schools are influential in developing cultures and traditions. Schools socialize students and, in return, reproduce society.
8.2.4. Inadequate Schools
8.2.4.1. This is a way in which inequalities are reproduced. Differences in schools reinforce inequalities. The education that students receive has a direct effect on their future.
8.2.5. Tracking
8.2.5.1. This has an impact on student mobility. Track placement directly affects cognitive development. Track placement can be wrongly accomplished. It may be based on class or race instead of abilities.
9. Philosophy of Education
9.1. Pragmatism
9.1.1. Generic Notions
9.1.1.1. Children should learn through experiments, books, and traditional information. This enables them to work in a democratic society. Children are active, growing, and changing. They require a course of study that reflect their stage of development. The school should reflect community. This enables them to assume societal roles after graduation.
9.1.2. Goal of Education
9.1.2.1. Education should provide knowledge that improves the social order. School should implement the needs of society / community and the needs of the individual. Schools should bring together diverse groups of people into a democratic community.
9.1.3. Role of the Teacher
9.1.3.1. The teacher is the facilitator within the classroom. The teacher plans and integrates lessons, is an encourager, gives suggestions, and asks questions.
9.1.4. Methods of Instruction
9.1.4.1. A pragmatic classroom includes students involved in independent study and group work.
9.1.5. Curriculum
9.1.5.1. Curriculum is not fixed but can be changed. It can be changed according to students' needs and interests. The curriculum can be core or integrated. The curriculum is integrated in that a subject matter can be integrated in different subject areas.
9.1.6. Key Researchers
9.1.6.1. The founders of this school were George Sanders Peirce, William James, and John Dewey. Other contributors were John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Pragmatism is concentrated around Dewey's work.