1. Schools as Organizations
1.1. Major Stakeholders
1.1.1. State Senators
1.1.1.1. Luther Strange, Richard Shelby
1.1.2. House Representatives
1.1.2.1. Mike Rogers, Martha Roby, Robert Aderholt, Gary Palmer, Terry Sewell, Mo Brooks, Bradley Byrne
1.1.3. State Superintendent
1.1.3.1. Michael Sentance
1.1.4. State School Board Representatives
1.1.4.1. Jeff Newman, Stephanie Bell, Ella Bell, Jackie Zeigler
1.1.5. Local Superintendent
1.1.5.1. Limestone County: Dr. Tom Sisk
1.1.6. Local School Board
1.1.6.1. Limestone County: Earl Glaze, Charles Shoulders, Bret McGill, Ronald Christ, Edward Winter, Bradley Young, Anthony Hilliard
1.2. School Processes and School Cultures
1.2.1. Elements of Change
1.2.1.1. *Conflict is a natural part of a schools effort to democratize education and identify hidden problems, issues, and disagreements among stakeholders. It is the staffs responsibility to resolve such issues.
1.2.1.2. *New behaviors are required for change to occur. The process of change requires building trust, enabling leadership, and learning techniques of communication.
1.2.1.3. *Team building must include the whole school in decision making, otherwise elitism may surface and prevent change from occurring.
1.2.1.4. *Process and Content are equally important in creating educational change. The substance and usefulness of a project depends greatly on the relationships between staff and others involved.
2. Curriculum & Pedagogy
2.1. Humanist Curriculum
2.1.1. *Purpose of education is to present students with the best of what has been thought of and written.
2.1.2. *Traditional liberal arts is the cornerstone of education.
2.1.3. *Traditionally, curriculum focused on Western heritage and perspectives.
2.2. Traditions of Teaching
2.2.1. Mimetic Tradition
2.2.1.1. *The transmission of specific language is the purpose of education.
2.2.1.2. *The didactic method relies on lectures or presentations as the main form of communication.
2.2.1.3. *The educational process involves the relationship between student and teacher and the transmission of knowledge from one to the other.
2.2.2. Transformative Tradition
2.2.2.1. *Purpose of education is to change the student in a meaningful way, including intellectually, creatively, spiritually, and emotionally.
2.2.2.2. *Views transmission of knowledge through a multi-dimensional theory of teaching.
2.2.2.3. *Process of teaching places greater importance on the conversations between student and teacher where the student becomes an active participant in their own learning.
3. Equality of Opportunity
3.1. Educational Outcomes
3.1.1. Class
3.1.1.1. *Culturally, schools represent the upper and middle class who are able to pay for their children's education and who have higher standards.
3.1.1.2. *The negative effects of labeling working class children as lower achievers has a significant impact on their attitudes and educational outcomes.
3.1.1.3. *There is a direct correlation between parental income and their children's perfomance.
3.1.2. Race
3.1.2.1. *Has a direct impact on student achievement.
3.1.2.2. *Minority students receive fewer and inferior educational opportunities than white students.
3.1.2.3. *Minority students have lower reading proficiency and higher drop-out rates than white students.
3.1.3. Gender
3.1.3.1. *Historically, educational opportunities were directly related to gender.
3.1.3.2. *Women who were often rated as being better students than men, were not receiving the same level of education than men.
3.1.3.3. *Although educational opportunities based on gender have been reduced in the last couple decades, women are still being discriminated against both occupationally and socially.
3.2. Coleman Study from 1982
3.2.1. Response #1
3.2.1.1. *The difference in student achievement between public schools and private schools has proved statistically significant, but the differences in learning were found to be insignificant.
3.2.1.2. *Research suggests that Catholic schools benefit low income students especially from urban communities.
3.2.1.3. *Studies suggest Catholic schools are becoming more elite like suburban public schools.
3.2.2. Response #2
3.2.2.1. *Race and socioeconomic background is directly related to where an individual attends school, which in turn influences student achievement.
3.2.2.2. *Borman and Dowling argue that "race and class are predictors of academic success" (pg. 369).
3.2.2.3. *Education reform must focus on ending biases favoring white and middle class students.
4. Educational Inequality
4.1. Culture Deprivation Theories
4.1.1. Culture of Poverty
4.1.1.1. *Lacks the value system of middle class culture.
4.1.1.2. *Working class families are educationally disadvantaged due to the fact that they have not been raised to acquire the skills necessary for satisfactory student achievement.
4.1.1.3. *Educational programs such as Project Head Start are aimed at preschool intervention for economically disadvantaged students.
4.1.2. Culture of Power
4.1.2.1. *Nonwhite families lack cultural resources (books, educational stimuli), necessary for academic success.
4.1.2.2. *Policy-makers implemented programs directed toward the family environment of nonwhite students, not at the schools.
4.1.2.3. *These educational programs provide nonwhite students with the means for social mobility.
4.2. School-Centered Explanations for Educational Inequality
4.2.1. *The majority of funds for financing schools come from state and local taxes, with the most significant being from local property taxes. Because property values are much higher in more affluent communities, they are able to raise more money for schools.
4.2.2. *There is much debate among teachers and researchers concerning the effects of tracking and ability grouping for students. Many concerns focus on the lower expectations directed at different groups of students and the inequalities from separating groups of students.
4.2.3. *Schooling often limits educational opportunities and life chances for women. In many cases, school curriculum stereotypes the traditional role of women. Feminists call for a more gender-fair curriculum that addresses equal opportunity and which meets the needs of females.
4.2.4. *Differences in school climates have shown to affect academic performance. Schools in higher socioeconomic communities achieve at higher levels than those of lower socioeconomic schools, due in large part by providing positive school climates conducive to academic achievement.
5. Educational Reform
5.1. School-Based Reforms
5.1.1. School-Business Partnerships
5.1.1.1. *Due to the growing concern that our nation's schools weren't producing graduates ready to help revitalize the U.S economy, many school-business partnerships were established.
5.1.1.2. *Many of these school-business partnerships provided scholarships for poor students to attend college.
5.1.1.3. *Although these partnerships attracted much media attention, there is very little evidence that schools have significantly improved.
5.1.2. School-to-Work Programs
5.1.2.1. *School-business partnerships became incorporated into school-to-work programs in the 1990's.
5.1.2.2. *The goal was to place more emphasis on providing vocational skills and work-based learning for non-college-bound students.
5.1.2.3. *Unfortunately, many school-to-work programs fell short in adequately providing these students with the skills they needed in bridging school to work.
5.2. School Finance Reform
5.2.1. *Due to the disadvantages within poorer school districts, in 1990 the court ruled more funding was needed for additional programs.
5.2.2. *Programs included social services, increased security, after-school programs, summer-school programs, and technology education.
5.3. Community-Based Reform
5.3.1. *Community-based reforms are aimed at improving the whole community, not just the student.
5.3.2. *Schools act as community centers that provide many important services, including adult education, health clinics, etc., which are designed to improve at-risk neighborhoods.
6. Politics of Education
6.1. Four Purposes of Education
6.2. *Intellectual purpose is to teach content knowledge and basic cognitive skills required for high-order thinking skills such as analysis and evaluation.
6.3. *Political purpose is to prepare citizens to participate in political democracies, encourage patriotism to the existing order, assimilate cultural groups into mainstream society, and teach citizens the basic laws of society.
6.4. *Social purpose is to socialize children into various roles, behaviors, and values of the society. To help solve social problems within our society.
6.5. *Economic purpose is to prepare and train students for their chosen occupational roles.
6.6. The Conservative Perspective
6.6.1. *The conservative perspective views the role of the school as providing educational training to ensure the most talented individuals get the tools they need to maximize productivity. The school's function is to transmit cultural traditions through curriculum to ensure and maintain social order.
6.6.2. *Conservatives believe achievement is based on hard work and sacrifice and students rise and fall on their own intelligence, hard work and initiative. The school system is designed to allow students the opportunity to succeed, but if they fail it is because as an individual they are deficient.
6.6.3. *From the conservative perspective the definition of educational problems include the decline of standards, cultural literacy, values or of civilization, authority, and schools being crippled by bureaucracy.
7. History of U.S. Education
7.1. Progressive Reform Movement
7.1.1. *The progressive reform movement of the 1960's challenged the traditional views of education. The Free-Speech movement shifted schooling away from the product to the process of learning. The Civil Rights movement emphasized equity issues. Protesters at universities and colleges across the country called for critique of U.S. society by all students and linked failures in schools to problems in society.
7.2. Democratic-Liberal School
7.2.1. *Democratic-liberals believe that the history of U.S. education involves the progressive evolution of a flawed system providing equal opportunity for all. Democratic-liberals reject the conservative view of schools as elitists and only meant for the privileged.
8. Sociological Perspectives
8.1. Effects of Schooling
8.1.1. Employment
8.1.1.1. *Strong correlation between graduating from college and greater employment opportunities.
8.1.1.2. *Although employers expect various amounts of education, much research indicates a weak relationship between amount of education and job performance.
8.1.1.3. *So, an education is required for a quality job but the skills learned are not necessarily the skills needed.
8.1.2. Education and Mobility
8.1.2.1. *Most Americans believe more education leads to greater social and economic mobility.
8.1.2.2. *Both the amount of education and where you get your education is important.
8.1.2.3. *Merit and privilege contributes to opportunity.
8.1.3. Knowledge and Attitudes
8.1.3.1. *Research shows the importance of differences in schools in determining student achievement.
8.1.3.2. *Many argue the importance of social class in determining student achievement.
8.1.3.3. *Academically oriented schools produce higher rates of learning.
8.1.4. Peer Groups and Alienation
8.1.4.1. *Schools develop cultures, traditions, and restraints that influence who work and study within them.
8.1.4.2. *Stinchcombe (1964) found that students in vocational programs toward low-paying jobs were more likely to join subculture groups.
8.1.4.3. *In this way schools reproduce society.
8.1.5. Teacher Behavior
8.1.5.1. *Teachers have a significant impact on student behavior and learning.
8.1.5.2. *Teachers have many roles that sometimes are not compatible.
8.1.5.3. *Have the same expectations for all students regardless of culture, beliefs, race, etc.
8.2. Theoretical Perspective
8.3. Functionalism
8.3.1. *Importance of the interdependence of the social system.
8.3.2. *Each part of society contributes to the whole.
8.3.3. *Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) education is important in creating moral unity.
8.4. Conflict Theory
8.4.1. *Social order is based on the ability of dominant groups to control subordinate groups.
8.4.2. *Schools are viewed as battlefields where struggles and power relations are commonplace.
8.4.3. *Karl Marx (1818-1883) founder of the conflict school in the sociology of education.
8.5. Interactionalism
8.5.1. *Critiques and questions other perspectives based on their abstract views of society.
8.5.2. *Questions what's commonplace in schools.
8.5.3. *Unlike other perspectives, focuses on everyday occurrences and not the big picture.
9. Philosophy of Education
9.1. Existentialism
9.2. Generic Notions
9.2.1. *Individuals are alone and must make sense out of a chaotic world.
9.2.2. *Individuals have a great deal of freedom in their choices.
9.2.3. *Appreciate questions as to how their concerns impact the lives of individuals.
9.3. Key Researchers
9.3.1. *Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
9.3.2. *Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
9.3.3. *Jean Paul Sarte (1905-1986)
9.4. Goals of Education
9.4.1. *Education should focus on the cognitive and emotional needs of the individual.
9.4.2. *Stresses the importance of education on individuality.
9.4.3. *Through education the individual is liberated from a chaotic world.
9.5. Role of the Teacher
9.5.1. *To understand both themselves and their students "lived worlds" in order to provide the best "lived worlds" for their students.
9.5.2. *The teacher must take risks in order to fully open themselves to their students.
9.5.3. *Introspection is important in enabling students to choose and act in their choices.
9.6. Methods of Instruction
9.6.1. *Recognize students have different learning styles.
9.6.2. *It's up to the teacher to identify what works for each student.
9.6.3. *Teachers help students understand the world around them through question, generating activities, and working together.
9.7. Curriculum
9.7.1. *Centered around the humanities.
9.7.2. *Literature evoke responses.
9.7.3. *Students are exposed to and respond to both problems and possibilities.