1. Politics of Education
1.1. Purposes of Education
1.1.1. Intellectual Purpose- Basic cognitive skills needed for students to reach a higher level of thinking.
1.1.2. Political Purpose- The basic laws of society.
1.1.3. Social Purpose- Key of society.
1.1.4. Economic Purpose- Skills needed for to prepare students for their future roles in life.
1.2. Role of the School
1.2.1. Liberal Perspective- believes the role of the school gives each child equal opportunity and teaches students to live in a culturally diverse society.
1.3. Explanations of unequal performance
1.3.1. Conservative Perspective- believes that depending on each individual student determines their own educational performance. If they do not succeed conservatives believe that it is the students issue.
1.4. Educational Problems
1.4.1. Liberal Perspective- As I do not agree with all the views of this perspective. I believe it is the one that is best fit. Schools give children of low socioeconomic background and minority students a smaller educational outcome than others, discipline is very needed still in this day and time but some schools hold small mistakes against students where it should just be a lesson learned.
2. Curriculum & Pedagogy
2.1. Curriculum theory
2.1.1. Humanist- student centered theory that focuses on the students' individual needs, and teacher acts as facilitator
2.2. Dominant Traditions of Teaching
2.2.1. Mimetic- is a repetitive tradition that some teachers follow that requires the students to mimic the way they do the material.
2.2.2. Transformative- is also a repetitive tradition, but it is more focused on the individual learning styles of the student versus requiring each student the complete the material in a certain way.
3. History of U.S. Education
3.1. Reform Movement
3.1.1. Education for Women and African-Americans- This reform has had a major impact on education. Women were pictured as stay-at-home moms, house cleaners, and cooks. By 1800, women were given more opportunity for education. While education for women was on the rise, education for African-Americans was still left behind. While at this time, the law passed that schools were going to be segregated. This had a huge impact on education, and we have come so far today.
3.2. Historical Interpretation
3.2.1. Radical-Revisionist School- Historians include: Michael Katz, Joel Spring, and Clarence Karier. They argue that U.S. ducation expanded for different reasons and with different results. These historians had different views of the reasons of expansion. The radical historians believe that expansion increased stratification of middle-class and poverty stricken students. They all agree that this expansion has not resulted in equality of oppurtunity.
4. Equality of Oppurtunity
4.1. Educational Outcomes
4.1.1. Class- effects educational outcomes because depending on the students' goals school is very expensive especially college. So, in some cases students in low-income homes become disadvantaged because their parents cannot afford to pay for their schooling causing the student to either work and go to school, or go straight into the working field.
4.1.2. Race- according to demographics, African-American and Hispanic-American students have a higher percentage for drop-outs than white students. Also, reading levels for African-American and Hispanic-Americans is lower than white students. This can effect the student entering college, requiring them to work harder to achieve this goal.
4.1.3. Gender- this goes back to Men vs. Women. Women tend to get ahead over men in the classroom, but in the working field men tend to succeed. Also, men tend to reach Math proficiency faster than girls. This can be a big impact on one's education.
4.2. Coleman Study of 1982
4.2.1. What then of Coleman, Hoffer, Kilgore's claim that Catholic schools are educationally superior to public schools? If trivial advantage is what they mean by such a claim, then we suppose we would have to agree. But judged against reasonable benchmarks, there is little basis for this conclusion.
4.2.2. Formal decomposition of the variance attributable to individual background and the social composition of the schools suggests that going to a high-poverty school or highly segregated African American school has a profound effect on a student's achievement outcomes, above and beyond the effect of individual's poverty or minority status. Specifically, both the racial/ethnic and social class composition of a student's school are 1 3/4 times more important than a student's individual race/ethnicity or social class for understanding educational outcomes.
5. Sociological Perspectives
5.1. Theoretical Perspectives
5.1.1. Functionalism- How well each part is integrated with one another.
5.1.2. Conflict Theory- the theory that determines if school and society are problematic.
5.1.3. Interactionalism- is the relation of school and society
5.2. 5 effects of schooling
5.2.1. Knowledge and Attitudes- each student acquires different knowledge and attitude about school. For example, if a student struggles in Math, he/she may create a bad attitude about it and not attain all the information they need.
5.2.2. Education and Mobility- occupational and social mobility.
5.2.3. Teacher Behavior- the way the teacher acts can have a huge impact on the students. The teacher may be stressed because they have to fill many roles, and that can lead to role strain.
5.2.4. Student Peer Groups and Alienation- peer groups may be the "groupings" of athletics vs. kids who do not participate in anything. This can create alienation where a student cannot find where he/she fits in. Leading to struggle in social skills.
5.2.5. Gender- the equality of men and women. The fact that girls start out cognitively ahead of boys and by high-school girls self-esteem is much lower than boys.
6. Educational Inequality
6.1. Cultural differences theory
6.1.1. Ogbu's theory that African-American students deny their own cultural identities to fit in at school they accept "having the burden of acting white"
6.1.2. Bernstein's theory that cultural and class differences are a product of unequal economic system. Schools reward middle class communication code, and not working-class codes.
6.2. Four School Centered explanation
6.2.1. School Financing- funding is available in affluent schools, but in inner city schools there is limited funding. public schools vs private schools as well.
6.2.2. Effective School Research- the finding within school differences in low-income school backgrounds than anything else.
6.2.3. Ability Grouping- placing students in classroom based off of ability
6.2.4. Pedagogic Practices- Bernstein believed that schools in middle-class communities are more likely to have student-centered pedagogic practices, and upper-class are more likely to attend private schools with authoritarian pedagogic practices.
7. Philosophy of Education
7.1. Existentialism
7.1.1. Generic Notions- philosophical movement with important implications for education. Ideas that people are placed on earth alone to decide through the chaos they encounter.
7.1.2. Goal of Education- focus on the needs of each individual.
7.1.3. Role of the Teacher- to understand their life so that they can understand the students lives' to help them achieve their best life.
7.1.4. Methods of Instruction- individuality. Focus on the child individual needs instead of a method style of teaching. Help students understand the world.
7.1.5. Curriculum- heavily based on humanities. Literature, art, drama, and music.
8. Schools as Organiazations
8.1. Major Stakeholders
8.1.1. Federal Alabama Senators- Richard Shelby and Luther Strange
8.1.2. Federal House of Representative- Robert Aderholt
8.1.3. State Senator- Greg Reed
8.1.4. State House of Representative- Connie Rowe
8.1.5. State Superintendent- Michael Sentance
8.1.6. Representative on State School Board- Ella B. Bell
8.1.7. Local Superintendent- Jason Adkins
8.1.8. Members on local school board- Brad Ingle, Jamie Rigsby, Todd Vick, Bill Gilbert, LeeAnn Headrick
8.2. Elements of Change
8.2.1. School processes- include the requirements that the school must follow. Such as, content for classrooms, standards and objectives, and the curriculum.
8.2.2. School cultures- include the environment of the school. Such as the students, teachers, and setup. For example, how the school sets a schedule for the year is apart of the school culture.
9. Educational Reform
9.1. School Based Reform
9.1.1. privatization- distinction between private schools and public schools became a blur.
9.1.2. school-to-work programs gave students the opportunity to go into the working field instead of being college bound.
9.2. Reforms
9.2.1. Harlem Children's Zone- giving African-American children to be prepared for school.
9.2.2. School Finance- funding was needed to serve lower socioeconomic based schools.