1. Educational Reform
1.1. School Based Reforms:
1.1.1. 1) School-Business Partnerships: These include scholarships for poor students or programs where businesses "adopt" schools.
1.1.2. 2) School-to-Work Programs: School-business partnerships became incorporated into this. Intent of this was to extend students that were not planning on going to college, a vocational training instead, and to stress the importance of work-based learning.
1.2. Societal, Community, Political Reforms: This is basically a state takeover, and the basis is of poor academic performance, others refer to district governance and management as well as academics.
2. Equality of Opportunity
2.1. Class: Students from different social classes experience education differently. Education is expensive. Wealthier families are more apt to expect their child to stay in school and finish, while lower income families may not. Also, wealthier families can afford to send their child to school to finish.
2.1.1. Race: Race has a direct impact on how much education a student will receive. Minorities underachieve compared to whites. Minorities do not receive the same educational opportunities as whites do.
2.1.1.1. Gender: An individual's gender is directly related to ones educational attainment. Women are rated as better students, but do not receive the same level of education as men. Women are also less likely to drop out of school.
2.2. Coleman Study 1892:
2.2.1. Response 1: What Coleman saw as significant, others saw as insignificant. In terms of learning, the results are negligible.
2.2.2. Response 2: Where an individual goes to school is often related to race and socioeconomic background, but the racial and socioeconomic composition of a school has greater effect on student achievement than an individual's race and class.
3. Sociological Perspectives
3.1. Functionalism Theory:
3.1.1. Education in all societies is critical to creating the moral unity that is necessary for social cohesion and harmony.
3.1.1.1. Moral values are the foundation of society- Durkheim.
3.2. Schooling on individuals:
3.2.1. 1. Knowledge and Attitudes:
3.2.1.1. Higher the social background of a student, the higher the achievement level. This applies to a student who is not from a high social background, but attends that of the school that mostly is. More years of schooling leads to greater knowledge and social participation.
3.2.2. 2. Employment:
3.2.2.1. Most students believe that graduating from college leads to higher employment opportunities, and research backs this idea.
3.2.3. 3. Teacher behavior:
3.2.3.1. Teachers are models for students and they set standards and influence students self esteem and sense of efficacy.
3.2.4. 4. Student peer groups and alienation:
3.2.4.1. Student cultures play an important role in shaping students' educational experiences.
3.2.5. 5. Tracking:
3.2.5.1. Higher tracks receive more teaching and actual learning activities, while lower tracks do not. This has critical impact on the students.
4. Philosophy of Education
4.1. Pragmatism:
4.1.1. This is a philosophy that encourages people to find processes that work in order to achieve their desired ends.
4.1.1.1. Pragmatists are action oriented, grounded, and pose questions.
4.1.2. Generic Notions:
4.1.2.1. Attainment of a better society through education. Children could learn skills the traditional way from books, as well as experientially.
4.1.3. Goal of Education:
4.1.3.1. Primary role of education was growth, and growth leading to more growth.
4.1.4. Role of the Teacher:
4.1.4.1. The teacher assumes the peripheral position of facilitator. The teacher will encourage, suggest, question, and help plan.
4.1.5. Methods of Instruction:
4.1.5.1. Students to learn individually and in groups.
4.1.5.2. Students should pose questions about what they want to know.
4.1.5.3. Problem-solving or inquiry method.
4.1.6. Curriculum:
4.1.6.1. Core curriculum or an integrated curriculum.
4.1.7. Key Researchers:
4.1.7.1. George Sanders Pierce (1839-1914), William James (1842-1910), and John Dewey (1859-1952). *However, there are European philosophers from earlier periods who might also fall into the classification of pragmatists: Frances Bacon, John Locke, and Jean-Jaques Rousseau.
5. Schools As Organizations
5.1. Tim Melson- State Senator. Robby Parker- Superintendent. Ranae Bartlett, Mr. Tim Holtcamp, Connie Cox Spears, David Hergenroeder, Luis Javier Ferrer - School Board Members.
5.2. Key Elements of Change
5.2.1. Conflict: To democratize schools it must allow hidden problems and disagreements to surface. Staff must be prepared to resolve conflict.
5.2.2. New Behaviors: New behaviors must be learned. Learning techniques of communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution.
5.2.3. Team building: Team building must extend to the entire school, and there must be no exclusiveness, or "resistance to change" will happen instead.
5.2.4. Process and content: The process the group uses to go about it is just as important as the content. This allows trust and openness.
6. Politics of Education
6.1. The four purposes of education:
6.1.1. 1. Intellectual: The intellectual purposes of education is to teach basic cognitive skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics, and to help students obtain skills to analyze and evaluate things.
6.1.2. 2. Political: The political purpose of education is to help prepare citizens and to teach basic laws as a society.
6.1.3. 3. Social: The social purpose of education is to help solve social problems, and to ensure social cohesion.
6.1.4. 4. Economic: The economic purpose of education is to prepare students for later occupations.
6.2. The Role of the School:
6.2.1. The role of the school takes into three unique perspectives. These three perspectives are conservative, liberal, and radical.
6.2.1.1. The conservative perspective: This perspective sees the role of the school as one that provides educational training to ensure that the most talented and hard working individuals receive the necessary tools to be successful.
6.2.1.2. The liberal perspective: This perspective wants to ensure that all students have the opportunity to be successful. This perspective sees education as balancing the needs of society.
6.2.1.3. The radical perspective: This perspective sees the role of education is to serve the interests of economic wealth and power. The radical perspective argues that schools produce inequality in the U.S.
7. History of U.S. Education
7.1. Post World War II Equity Era: 1945-1980
7.1.1. In the Post World War II era, they were concerned with expanding opportunities to the post-secondary level.
7.1.2. During this era they were dedicated to finding ways to more opportunities and equal educational outcomes for all levels of education.
7.2. Historical interpretation of U.S education:
7.2.1. Educational history in the U.S. involved both the expansion of opportunity and purpose.
7.2.1.1. More students from diverse backgrounds went to school for longer periods of times, the goals of education became more diverse and social goals becoming more important.
7.2.1.2. This stems from the Democratic-liberals and Lawrence A. Cremin, who wrote a three volume history of the U.S. education during the 1980's.
8. Curriculum & Pedagogy
8.1. Develop-mentalist curriculum: the needs and interests of students instead of the needs and interests of society. This is student centered learning, and the needs and interests of the child at each developmental stage.
8.2. Two Dominant Teaching Traditions:
8.2.1. Mimetic: based on the viewpoint that the purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students. Based on the assumption that the educational process involves the relationship between the teacher and the student.
8.2.2. Transformative: The purpose of education is to change the student in some meaningful way, including intellectually, creatively, spiritually, and emotionally. Transmission of knowledge is not the only form of education viewed in this tradition, but more of a multidimensional theory of teaching.
9. Educational Inequality
9.1. Cultural Deprivation Theory: Suggests that working-class and nonwhite families often lack the cultural resources and are at a significant disadvantage. Also, that the poor have a derived culture; one that lacks the same values of the middle class.
9.2. School-Centered Explanations:
9.2.1. 1) School Financing: Local property taxes are a significant source of school funding. Property taxes are higher in affluent communities, so affluent communities are able to provide more than poorer communities.
9.2.2. 2) Effective School Research: Research was taking away from schools and teachers and placing it on communities and families. Differences between good and bad schools, and good and incompetent teachers.
9.2.3. 3) Between School Differences: The type of schooling responds directly to the type of social class in the school.
9.2.4. 4) Within School Differences: Tracking by ability or curriculum tracking in schools is an important component in U.S. schools and often tells why certain groups of students perform so widely different in the same school.