1. 6. Schools as Organizations
1.1. My School Governance
1.1.1. State Senator : Richard Shelby
1.1.2. Representative : Mo Brooks
1.1.3. Superintendent : Matt Akin
1.1.4. Board of Ed. District 3 : Elisa Ferrell
1.2. Elements of Change Within Schools
1.2.1. Conflict - allow problems to surface, school restructuring
1.2.2. New Learned Behaviors - change requires new relationships, behaviors, and techniques
1.2.3. Team Building - on-going attention to relationships, shared decision making
1.2.4. Relating Process and Content - The process a team uses in going about its work is as important as the content of educational changes it attempts.
2. 7. Curriculum and Pedagogy
2.1. Curriculum Theory : Developmentalist
2.1.1. Focuses on the needs and interests of the student
2.1.2. Inspired by Dewey's and Piaget's developmental findings
2.1.3. Stresses the importance of relating school to life experiences
2.1.4. Teacher is a facilitator of student growth
2.2. Dominant Traditions of Teaching
2.2.1. Mimetic - Viewpoint that the purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students. Commonly uses the didactic method (relies on lecture and presentation)
2.2.2. Transformative - Defines the function of education more broadly. Proponents believe the purpose of education is to change the student in some meaningful way. Student becomes an integral part of the learning process.
3. 8. Equality of Opportunity
3.1. Impact on Educational Outcomes
3.1.1. Class - Directly related to achievement and educational attainment. Correlation between parental income and children's performance on achievement tests. Challenges equality of opportunity.
3.1.2. Race - US society still highly stratified by race. Minority students receive fewer and inferior educational opportunities than white students.
3.1.3. Gender - Females less likely to drop out of school than males. Discrimination against females occupationally and socially-- related to educational attainment for women?
3.2. The Coleman Study (1982)
3.2.1. Differences that exist between public and private schools: Statistically significant, but in terms of significant differences in learning, results are negligible. Private schools advantage low-income minority students, but are becoming more elite and may stray from serving low-income students.
3.2.2. Where an individual goes to school is often related to race and socioeconomic background. Racial and socioeconomic composition of a school has a greater effect on student achievement than an individual's race and class.
4. 9. Educational Inequality
4.1. Cultural Deprivation Theory
4.1.1. Program Development ie Head Start - Preschool Intervention program designed to help educationally and economically disadvantaged students- based on the assumption that because of the cultural and familial deprivation faced by poor students, the schools must provide an environment that makes up for lost time.
4.1.2. The Poor has a deprived culture - does not value hard work or initiative. Does not view schooling as a means to social mobility. Results in educationally disadvantaged students who achieve poorly because they were not raised to acquire the skills needed for academic achievement.
4.2. School-centered Explanations
4.2.1. School Financing - Present reliance on local property taxes and state aid has not reduced inequalities of financing. Thus, children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds do not receive equality of opportunity. There is a disagreement over the extent to which school financing affects unequal academic achievement, but it is clear that school factors other than financing have an important impact on achievement.
4.2.2. Effective School Research - If students from the same racial and socioeconomic backgrounds attending different schools within the same community perform at significantly different rates, then something within the schools themselves must be affecting performance.
4.2.3. Between-School Differences - Schools affect educational outcomes, independent of extra-school factors. There are significant differences between the culture and climate of schools in lower socioeconomic and higher socioeconomic communities.
4.2.4. Within-School Differences - Homogeneous grouping can result in unequal education for different groups. Education in the US assumes that students in lower tracks are not capable of doing academic work and schools do not offer them academically challenging curriculum.
5. 10. Educational Reform
5.1. School-Based Reforms
5.1.1. School Choice - Provides an opportunity for students to choose a school based on their desires and needs. Advocates want federal funds to be used toward vouchers- allowing students to use those funds to attend the school of their choice. School choice can potentially lead to serious problems in our public education system.
5.1.2. Teacher Quality - Out-of-field teaching (teachers being assigned to teach subjects which do not match their training or education) becomes a problem. Problems in staffing less to do with teacher shortages and more to do with organizational issues. Principals of low-income schools often find it easier to hire unqualified teachers than qualified ones.
5.1.3. School-to-Work Programs - Provide students with relevant education allowing students to explore different careers. Provide structured training and work-based learning experiences. Establish industry-standard benchmarks
5.2. Societal, Community, Economic, and Political Reforms
5.2.1. State Intervention - include state takeover as ultimate accountability measures. Authorize action on the basis of poor academic performance. State takeovers lead to advantages and disadvantages. For example, takeover can help create a healthy environment in which the local community can address a school district's problems, but the very concept of state takeover suggests that local communities lack the capacity to operate effective public schools.
5.2.2. Full Service Community Schools - focus on meeting students' and their families educational, physical, psychological, and social needs in a coordinated and collaborative fashion between school and community services. Schools serve as community centers within neighborhoods.
6. 2. Politics of Education
6.1. Purposes of Education
6.1.1. Intellectual
6.1.2. Political
6.1.3. Social
6.1.4. Economic
6.2. The Conservative Perspective
6.2.1. Role of the School: Essential to both economic productivity and social stability.
6.2.2. Unequal Performance: Individuals/ Groups rise and fall on their own intelligence. Achievement is based on hard work and sacrifice.
6.2.3. Educational Problems: Decline of standards, cultural literacy, values or of civilization, authority
7. 3. History of U.S. Education
7.1. Reform Movement: Education for Women
7.1.1. 1821: Troy Female Seminary- Sought to deliver an education to females that was similar to males
7.1.2. 1856: University of Iowa- First state university to admit women
7.1.3. 1865: Vassar College- First women's college
7.2. Historical Interpretation of U.S. Education: The Democratic-Liberal School
7.2.1. Involves progressive evolution of a school system committed to providing equality of opportunity
7.2.2. Must continue to move closer to equality and excellence, without sacrificing one or the other too dramatically
8. 4. Sociology of Education
8.1. Theoretical Perspective: Relation Between School and Society
8.1.1. Functional Theories
8.1.1.1. Educational reform is supposed to create structures, programs, and curricula that are technically advanced, rational, and encourage social unity
8.1.1.2. Interdependence of social system
8.1.1.3. View society as a kind of machine, one part articulates with another to produce energy required to make society work
8.1.2. Conflict Theories
8.1.2.1. Glue of society is economic, political, cultural, and military power
8.1.2.2. Don't see relation between school and society as unproblematic or straightforward
8.1.2.3. Emphasize Struggle
8.1.3. Interactional Theories
8.1.3.1. Primarily critiques and extensions of functional and conflict
8.1.3.2. Attempt to make the commonplace strange by turning on their heads everyday taken-for-granted behaviors and interactions
8.2. Effects of Schooling on Individuals
8.2.1. Employment: Students that graduate from college have greater employment opportunities. College grads will also receive a higher starting income than those without higher-ed degrees.
8.2.2. Teacher Behavior: Teachers set standards for students and influence students self-esteem and sense of efficacy. When teachers demand more of their students and praise them more, students learn more and have a higher self esteem.
8.2.3. Student Peer Groups and Alienation: Students cultures play an important role in shaping students' educational experiences. Student subcultures- careerists, intellectuals, strivers, and unconnected
8.2.4. Inadequate Schools: differences between schools and school systems reinforce existing inequalities.
8.2.5. Gender: Gender gap in academic achievement. The consequences of certain school policies and processes may reproduce these gender inequalities.
9. 5. Philosophy of Education
9.1. Pragmatism
9.1.1. Generic Notations: Influenced by the theory of evolution and by an 18th century optimistic belief in progress.
9.1.2. Key Researchers: George Sanders Pierce, William James, John Dewey
9.1.3. Goal of Education: Growth, social order, integrate children into a democratic society
9.1.4. Role of Teacher: Assumes the peripheral position of facilitator
9.1.5. Methods of Instruction: Problem solving, inquiry method, individualized study
9.1.6. Curriculum: Integrated, expanding environments. Curriculum changes as the social order changes and as children's needs and interests change.