1. Chapter 2: The Politics of Education
1.1. Perspective
1.1.1. The Conservative
1.1.1.1. "The Conservative Perspective sees the role of school as providing the necessary educational training to ensure that the ost talented and hard-working individuals receive the tools necessary to maximize economic and social productivity."
1.1.2. The Liberal
1.1.2.1. "The Liberal Perspective, while also stressing the training and socializing function of the school, sees these aims a little differently. In line with the liberal belief in equality of opportunity, it stresses the school's role in providing the necessary education to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to succeed in society."
1.1.3. The Radical
1.1.3.1. "Although radicals believe schools ought to eliminate inequalities, they argue that schools currently reproduce the unequal economic conditions of the capitalist economy and socialize individuals to accept the legitimacy of the society."
1.2. Vision
1.2.1. Traditional
1.2.1.1. "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."
1.2.2. Progressive
1.2.2.1. "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 party."
2. Chapter 1: The Limits and Promises of Education
3. Chapter 4: The Sociology of Education
3.1. Theories
3.1.1. Functional Theories
3.1.1.1. "Functional sociologists begin with a picture of society that stresses the interdependence of the social system; these researchers often examine how well the parts are integrated with each other."
3.1.2. Conflict Theories
3.1.2.1. "Some sociologists argue that the social order is not based on some collective agreement, but on the ability of dominant groups to impose their will on subordinate groups through force, cooperation, and manipulation."
3.1.3. Interactional Theories
3.1.3.1. "Interactional theories of school and society primarily critiques and extensions of functional and conflict perspectives."
3.2. Effects
3.2.1. Knowledge and Attitudes
3.2.1.1. "It may be suprising to learn that sociologists of education disagree strongly about the relative importance of schooling in terms of what knowledge and attitudes young people acquire in school."
3.2.2. Employment
3.2.2.1. "Most students believe that graduating college will lead to greater employment opportunities, and they are right."
3.2.3. Education and Mobility
3.2.3.1. "The belief that occupational and social mobility begin at the schoolhouse door is a critical component of the American ethos."
3.2.4. Teacher Behavior
3.2.4.1. "It may be obvious, but teachers have a huge impact on student learning and behavior."
4. Chapter 3: The History of Education
4.1. Eras of Education
4.1.1. The Colonial Era
4.1.1.1. The Age of Reform: "Historians point to the period from 1820 to 1860 in the U.S. as one in which enormous changes took place with unprecedented speed."
4.1.2. The Post-World War II Equity Era
4.1.2.1. "During the post-WWII period, the patterns emerged during the Progressive Era were continued . First, debate about the goals of education and whether all children should receive the same education remained an important one. Second, the demand for the expansion of educational opportunity became perhaps the most important prominent feature of educational reform."
4.1.3. The Standard Era
4.1.3.1. "By the late 1970s, conservative critics began to react to the educational reform of the 1960s and 1970s. They argued that liberal reforms in pedagogy and curriculum, and in the arena of educational opportunity had resulted in the decline of authority and standards."
4.2. Educational Reform
4.2.1. Public Education
4.2.1.1. "Not all groups subscribed to the idea of the common school. The same arguments made today by people without children or people who send their children to private schools in opposition to public support of schools were articulated against the common school Horace Mann envisioned."
4.2.2. Equality of Opportunity
4.2.2.1. Education for Women
4.2.2.1.1. "By the middle of the nineteenth century, however, a significant number of girls attended elementary schools and many were admitted to private academies, which functioned as secondary schools."
4.2.2.2. Education for African Americans
4.2.2.2.1. "In 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment to the constitution was ratified, giving gull citizenship to ex-slaves. It's equal protection clause, however has been applied to important legal decisions regarding education."
5. Chapter 5: The Philosophy of Education
5.1. Philosophies
5.1.1. Idealism
5.1.1.1. "We begin out discussion of particular schools of philosophy that have influenced educational thought with idealism, the first systematic philosophy in Western thought."
5.1.2. Realism
5.1.2.1. "Realism is a philosophy that follows in the same historical tradition as idealism. Realism is associated with both Plato and Aristotle, although philosophers tend to view Aristotle as the leading proponent of realism."
5.1.3. Pragmatism
5.1.3.1. Pragmatism is generally viewed as an American philosophy that developed in the later part of the nineteenth century."
5.1.4. Existentialism and Phenomenology
5.1.4.1. "Although its roots can be traced back to the Bible, as a philosophy that has relevance to education, one may date exsistance as beginning with tbe nineteenth century."
6. Chapter 6: Schools are Organizations and Teachers Professionalization
6.1. The Structure of U.S. Education
6.1.1. Governance
6.1.1.1. "When the Constitution of the U.S. was written, its authors indicated that those powers that were not mentioned explicitly as belonging to the federal government were retained by individual states."
6.1.2. Size and Degree of Centralization
6.1.2.1. "It is estimated that more than 55 million youngsters are enrolled in kindergarten through the twelfth grade and that the cost of education these children is over $650 billion annually."
6.1.3. Student Composition
6.1.3.1. "In 2010, 53.5 percent of the students in primary and secondary public schools were white. This percentage, however, masks a great deal of variation in terms of racial composition between states and school districts."
6.1.4. Private Schools
6.1.4.1. "Private schools tend to attract students from families that are relatively affluent and have a commitment to education."
6.2. Teachers, Teaching, and Professionalization
6.2.1. Who Become Teachers?
6.2.1.1. In 2008, 75.2 percent of all public school teachers in the U.S. were women. Their median was age 46; 73.1 percent were married, 13.2 percent were single, and 13.8 percent were widowed, divorced or separated."
6.2.2. The Nature of Teaching
6.2.2.1. "Few professors are as demanding as teaching. Teachers must be skilled in so many areas of technical expertise and human relations."
6.2.3. Teacher Professionalization
6.2.3.1. Sociologist Dan Lortie (1975) argues that teaching, particularly elementary school teaching, is on;y partially professionalized."
7. Chapter 7: Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Transmission of Knowledge
7.1. Curriculum
7.1.1. The Politics of the Curriculum
7.1.1.1. "The politics of curriculum analyzes the struggles over different conceptions of what should be taught."
7.1.2. The Stratification of the Curriculum
7.1.2.1. "Curriculum Stratification usually at the secondary school level, is not the only form of differentiation the U.S. schools."
7.1.3. Curriculum Theory and Practice
7.1.3.1. "For the most of tbe twentieth century, the field of curriculum studies was concerned with relating the study of curriculum to classroom practice."
7.2. Pedagogy
7.2.1. Pedagogic Practices
7.2.1.1. "As students, you are aware that how something is taught is as important as, and at times more important than, the content."
7.2.2. The Philosophies of Teaching
7.2.2.1. "He (Philip Jackson) suggested that there have been different views about teaching-some see it as an art or craft while others see it as a scientific enterprise with distinct and testable methodological principles."
8. Chapter 8: Equality of Oppurtunity and Educational Outcomes
8.1. Oppurtunity
8.1.1. Race
8.1.1.1. "Among 16-24 year-olds, for instance, 5.2 percent of white students drop out of school, whereas 9.3 percent of Aferican-American students and 17.9 percent of Hispanic-American students are likely to drop out of school."
8.1.2. Class
8.1.2.1. "For instance, education is extremely expensive. The longer a student stays in school, the more likely he of she needs parental financial support."
8.1.3. Gender
8.1.3.1. "Even through women are often rated as being better students than men, in the past they were less likely to attain the same level of education."
9. Chapter 9: Explanations of Educational Inequality
9.1. Student-Centered Explanations
9.1.1. "In the 1960s, sociologists of education interested in educational inequality often worked from a set of liberal political and policy assumptions about why students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds often did less well in school the students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds."
9.2. School-Centered Explanations
9.2.1. "Although their (Coleman & Jenks) research questioned the conventional wisdom that between-school differences are the key factor in that schools have significant effects on students."
10. Chapter 10: Educational Reform and School Improvement
10.1. Reform
10.1.1. Essential to Reform
10.1.1.1. 1. The need to attain the twin goals pf excellence and equity.
10.1.1.2. 2. The need to clarify educational goals, under burdening schools from responsibilities they cannot or should not fill.
10.1.1.3. 3. The need to develop a common core curriculum (not unlike the standard college-bound curriculum) with few or no electives, little or no curricular differentiation, but only pedagogical differentiation.
10.1.1.4. 4. The need to eliminate tracking programs so that students could tackle the common core courses in a common curriculum in different ways.
10.1.1.5. 5. The need for major changes in vocational education: in the student populations served, the curricula provided, and the sites of such education if offered.
10.1.1.6. 6. The need for education to teach about technology, including computer literacy, and to become involved in the technological revolution.
10.1.1.7. 7. The need to "increase both the duration and intensity of academic learning," lengthening the school day and the school year.
10.1.1.8. 8. The need to recuit, train , and retain more academically able teachers, to improve the quality of teaching, and to upgrade the professional working life of teachers.
10.1.1.9. 9. The need to redefine the principal's role and put the "principal squarely in charge of educational quality in each school."
10.1.1.10. 10. The need to forge new partnerships between corporations, business, and the schools.
10.2. Improvement
10.2.1. No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
10.2.1.1. The Np Child Left Behind Act is a landmark and controversial piece of legislation that had far-reaching consequences for education in the U.S.