1. Ch. 6 Schools as Organizations
1.1. Alabama State Board of Education- Governor Robert Bentley (President)
1.2. State Superintendent
1.2.1. Michael Sentence
1.3. Local State Superintendent
1.3.1. Matthew Allen Massey
1.4. State Senators
1.4.1. Arthur Orr
1.4.2. Bill Holtzelaw
1.5. House of Representatives
1.5.1. Mike Ball
1.5.2. Mac McCutcheon
1.6. Al State Board of Education member Mary Scott Hunter (District 8)
1.7. Four Elements of Change within school processes and school cultures
1.7.1. Conflict
1.7.1.1. a necessary part of change
1.7.1.2. efforts to democratize schools do not cause conflict but allow previously hidden problems, issues, and disagreements to surface
1.7.1.3. staff involvement must be prepared to elicit, manage, and resolve conflicts
1.7.2. New behaviors
1.7.2.1. change requires new relationships and behaviors
1.7.2.2. change process must include building communication and trust, enabling leadership and initiative to emerge, learning techniques of communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution
1.7.3. Team building
1.7.3.1. must extend to the entire school
1.7.3.2. shared decision making must consciously work out and give on-going attention to relationships within the rest of school staff
1.7.4. Process and content
1.7.4.1. interrelated
1.7.4.2. the process a team uses to in going about its work is as important as the content of educational changes it attempts
1.7.4.3. substance of a project often depends upon the degree of trust and openness built up within the team and between the team and school
1.7.4.4. the usefulness and visibility of the project will influence future commitments from the relationships among the staff and others involved
2. Ch. 7 Curriculum and Pedagogy
2.1. Curriculum Theory
2.1.1. Developmentalist Curriculum
2.1.1.1. related to the needs and interest of the student rather than the needs of society
2.1.1.2. originates from John Dewey's writing in relation to the relationship between the child and the curriculum
2.1.1.3. emphasized the process of teaching as well as its content
2.1.1.4. student-centered
2.1.1.5. concerned with relating the curriculum to the needs and interest of each child at particular developmental stages
2.1.1.6. stressed flexibility in both what was taught and how it was taught
2.1.1.7. emphasis on the development of each student's individual capacities
2.1.1.8. stressed the importance of relating schooling to the life experiences of each child in a way that would make education come alive in a meaningful manner
2.1.1.9. teacher from this perspective, was not a transmitter of knowledge but more so a facilitator of student growth
2.2. The two dominate traditions of teaching
2.2.1. mimetic tradition
2.2.1.1. based on viewpoint that purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students
2.2.1.2. best method for this is considered to be the didactic method--commonly relies on the lecture or presentation as main form of communication
2.2.1.3. educational process involves the relationship between the knower (teacher) and the learner (student) and that education is a process of transferring information from one to the other
2.2.1.4. based on the belief that the student does not possess what the teacher has
2.2.1.5. stresses the importance of rational sequencing in the teaching process and assessment of the learning process
2.2.2. transformative tradition
2.2.2.1. believes the purpose of education is to change the student in some meaningful way including intellectually, creatively, spiritually, and emotionally
2.2.2.2. these educators do not see the transmission of knowledge as the only component of education, thus providing a more multidimensional theory of teaching
2.2.2.3. they reject the authoritarian relationship between teacher and student
2.2.2.4. argue that teaching and learning are linked
2.2.2.5. processs of teaching involves not just the didactic transfer of information but the conversation between teacher and student in a way that the student becomes a part of the learning process
2.2.2.6. believes all teaching begins with the active participation of the student and results in some form of growth
2.2.2.7. views teaching as artistic endeavor
3. Ch. 8 Equality of Opportunity
3.1. How class, gender, and race are impacting educational outcomes
3.1.1. Class
3.1.1.1. Students in different social classes have different kinds of different kinds of educational experiences
3.1.1.2. education is extremely expensive
3.1.1.3. The longer a student stays in school, the more likely she or she will need parental financial support.
3.1.1.3.1. This situation favors wealthier families
3.1.1.3.2. Families from upper and middle class are more likely to expect their children to finish school
3.1.1.3.3. Working class and underclass families often have lower levels of expectations for their children
3.1.1.4. class is directly related to achievement and to educational attainment
3.1.1.5. Represents challenge to those who believe in equality of opportunity
3.1.2. Gender
3.1.2.1. Historically, an individual's gender was directly related to his or her educational attainment
3.1.2.2. Today, females are less likely to drop out of school than males and are more likely to have a higher level of reading proficiency than males
3.1.2.3. The one area males outperform females is in mathematics proficiency
3.1.2.4. males are more likely to score higher on the SAT's than females
3.1.2.5. more women are now attending post-secondary institutions than men
3.1.2.6. There is little doubt that society discriminates against women occupationally and socially
3.1.3. Race
3.1.3.1. U.S society is still highly stratified by race
3.1.3.2. An individual's race has direct impact on how much education he or she is likely to achieve
3.1.3.3. Lower levels of proficiency are reflected by the fact that minorities have (on average) lower SAT scores than white students
3.1.3.4. It is extremely difficult to separate race from class
3.1.3.5. In a society as segregated as the U.S. it is not surprising that minority students receive fewer and inferior educational opportunities than white students
3.1.3.6. Minorities do not receive the same educational opportunities as whites, and their rewards for educational attainment are significantly less
3.2. Sociologist James Coleman received an extremely large grant to study the relationship between the organizational characteristics of schools and student achievement.
3.2.1. The motivation behind this grant was to demonstrate that African American students and white students had fundamentally different school experiences (1966)
3.2.1.1. Coleman and his associates found that when they compared the average test scores of public school and private school sophomores, there was not one subject in which public school students scored higher than private school students
3.2.1.2. Private school students outperformed public school students sometimes by a wide margin
3.2.1.3. Differences among schools do make a difference
3.2.1.4. Private schools were more effective learning environments than public schools because they placed more emphasis on academic activities and because private schools enforce discipline in a way that is consistent with student achievement
4. Ch. 9 Educational Inequality
4.1. Cultural Deprivation Theory
4.1.1. Suggests that working-class and nonwhite families often lack the cultural resources, such as books and other education stimuli, and thus arrive at school at a significant disadvantage.
4.1.2. Concerned that the relative failure of many of the compensatory education programs that were based on its assumptions about why disadvantaged children have lower levels of achievement than more advantaged children.
4.2. School-Centered Explanations of Educational Inequality
4.2.1. School Financing
4.2.1.1. Jonathan Kozol documented the vast differences in funding between affluent and poor disctricts, and called for equalization
4.2.1.2. Public Schools are financed through a combination of revenues from local, state, and federal sources
4.2.1.2.1. The majority of funds comes from state and local taxes. Local property taxes are a significant source.
4.2.1.3. More affluent communities are able to provide more per pupil spending than poorer districts (often at a less burdensome rate than in poorer communities.
4.2.1.4. The use of federal aid to equalize school funding is a controversial topic.
4.2.1.4.1. Proponents argue that this aid has occurred historically, as in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
4.2.1.4.2. Critics believe that under the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, that education is a state and local matter and that federal financing would threaten local decision-making.
4.2.2. Effective School Research
4.2.2.1. Research of Coleman and Jencks shows that differences in school resources and quality do not adequately explain between-school differences in academic achievement
4.2.2.2. If student differences are more important than school differences, then teachers cannot be blamed for the lower academic performance of nonwhite and working-class students.
4.2.2.3. If schools' effects are not significant, then schools and teachers can do little to make a positive difference.
4.2.2.4. Suggests that there are school-centered processes that help to explain unequal education achievement by different groups of students
4.2.2.5. Has attracted much support from policy makers and is often cited in the educational reform literature as the key to school improvement
4.2.3. Within-School Differences: Curriculum and Ability Grouping
4.2.3.1. There is significant differences in education achievement within schools
4.2.3.2. The fact that different groups of students in the same schools preform very differently suggests that there may be school characteristics affecting these outcomes
4.2.3.3. Most of the debate concerning tracking is emotional and ideological
4.2.3.4. Tracking has a significant effect on educational attainment at both elementary and secondary levels
4.2.4. Gender and Schooling
4.2.4.1. Feminists agree that schooling often limits the opportunities and life chances of women
4.2.4.2. Curriculum materials portray men's and women's roles often in stereotypical and traditional ways
4.2.4.3. The traditional curriculum "silences women"
4.2.4.4. The hidden curriculum reinforces traditional gender roles and expectations through classroom organization, instructional practices, and classroom interactions
4.2.4.5. Feminists argue that school organization, curriculum, and pedagogic practices need to be changed to address more adequately the needs of females.
5. Ch. 10 Educational Reform
5.1. Describe two school-based reforms
5.1.1. Teacher Education
5.1.1.1. The emergence and development of teacher education as an educational problem was a response to the initial debates concerning the failure of the schools
5.1.1.2. If the schools were not working properly, then teachers and teaching had to be examined critically
5.1.1.3. The Carnegie Report called or sweeping changes in educational policy
5.1.1.3.1. Included: restructuring of schools and the teaching profession, the elimination of the undergraduate education major, the recruitment of minorities into the teaching profession, and the increase of standards in teacher education
5.1.1.4. The Holmes group avoided explicit political-economic goals, but focused on the relationship between university-based teacher education, the professional lives of teachers, and the structure of the schools themselves
5.1.2. Teacher Quality
5.1.2.1. How to recruit and retain high quality teachers is among the most important problems in American education.
5.1.2.2. NCLB's requirement that all schools have highly qualifies teachers in every classroom highlighted the problems of unqualified teachers in urban schools
5.1.2.3. date indicated that a significant number of classrooms staffed by teachers who are not highly qualified in the particular subject they teach (out-of-field teaching)
5.1.2.4. Principals often find it is easier to hire unqualified teachers rather than qualified ones, and in the absence of status and professionalism, and poor working conditions lead to high dropout rates in the first 5 years of teaching
5.1.2.5. school improvement reformers have stressed the existence of teacher tenure and seniority based transfers and layoff provisions in union contracts as primary factor in preventing and improvement in teacher quality
6. Ch. 2 Politics of Education
6.1. Intellectual Purposes of schooling
6.1.1. To teach basic cognitive skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics
6.1.2. To transmit specific knowledge (literature, history, the sciences, etc.)
6.1.3. To help students acquire higher-order thinking skills such as analysis, evaluation, and synthesis.
6.2. Political Purposes of schooling
6.2.1. To inculcate allegiance to the existing political order (patriotism)
6.2.2. To prepare citizens who will participate in this political order
6.2.3. To help assimilate diverse cultural groups into a common political order
6.2.4. To teach children the basic laws of the society
6.3. Social Purposes of schooling
6.3.1. To help students solve social problems
6.3.2. To work as one of many institutions (such as the family and the church)
6.3.3. To ensure social cohesion
6.3.4. To socialize children into the various roles, behaviors and values of the society ( also known as socialization, a key ingredient to the stability of any society)
6.4. Economic Purposes of schooling
6.4.1. To prepare students for their later occupational roles
6.4.2. To select, train, and allocate individuals into the division of labor
6.5. The Conservative Perspective looks at social evolution as a process that enables the strongest individuals/groups to survive, and looks at human and social evolution as adaptation to changes in the environment.
6.5.1. Sees the role of the school as providing the necessary educational training to ensure that the most talented and hard-working individuals receive the tools necessary to maximize economic and social productivity
6.5.2. Conservatives argue that individuals or groups of students rise and fall on their own intelligence, hard work and initiative, and that achievement is based on hard work and sacrifice. (Designed to allow individuals the opportunity to succeed)
6.5.3. The Conservative perspective on Educational Problems argues the following points:
6.5.3.1. Decline of standards
6.5.3.2. Decline of cultural literacy
6.5.3.3. Decline of values or of civilization
6.5.3.4. Decline of authority
7. Ch. 3 History of Education
7.1. Reform Movement: The Post-World War 2 Equity Era 1945-1980
7.1.1. The debate about the goals of education (academic and social) and whether or not all children should receive the same education remained an important one.
7.1.2. The demand for the expanding of educational opportunity became the most prominent feature of educational reform.
7.1.3. Concerned with expanding opportunities to the post-secondary level
7.1.4. Witnessed the continuation of the processes that defined the development of the comprehensive high school
7.1.5. Focuses not only on the process of education but it's goals.
7.1.5.1. Questions about the type of education children should receive and whether or not all children should receive the same education
7.1.6. Question of equity versus excellence
7.1.7. Cycles of Reform
7.1.7.1. Progressive vision
7.1.7.1.1. believed in experiential education
7.1.7.1.2. believed in a curriculum that responded to both the needs of students and the times
7.1.7.1.3. child-centered education
7.1.7.1.4. freedom and individualism
7.1.7.1.5. relativism of academic standards in the name of equity
7.1.7.2. Traditional vision
7.1.7.2.1. knowledge-centered education
7.1.7.2.2. traditional subject-centered cirriculum
7.1.7.2.3. teacher-centered education
7.1.7.2.4. discipline and authority
7.1.7.2.5. defense of academic standards in the name of academic excellence
7.1.8. Equality of Opportunity
7.1.8.1. Americans have expected their schools to solve social, political, and economic problems
7.1.8.1.1. have placed on the schools "all kinds of millennial hopes and expectations (Cremin 1990)
7.1.8.2. issue of educational opportunity became an important one
7.1.8.3. G.I. Bill of Rights
7.1.8.3.1. "the most ambitious venture in mass higher education that had ever been attempted by any society" Ravitch (1983)
7.1.8.3.2. evidence suggests a refreshing opening of the elite postsecondary education system
7.2. Historical Interpretation of U.S. Education
7.2.1. Conservative Prospective
7.2.1.1. had an implicit historical critique of the schools
7.2.1.2. argued that U.S. students knew very little
7.2.1.3. U.S. schools were mediocre
7.2.1.3.1. conservative critics such as Bennett, Finn Jr., Ravitch, and Bloom all pointed to the failure of so-called progressive education to fulfill it's lofty social goals without sacrificing academic quality
8. Ch. 4 Sociological Perspectives
8.1. Theoretical perspectives concerning the relationship between school and society
8.1.1. Functionalism
8.1.1.1. provides a picture of society that stresses the interdependence of the social system
8.1.1.2. View society as some kind of machine
8.1.1.3. Emile Durkham (1858-1917)
8.1.1.3.1. virtually invented the sociology of education in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
8.1.1.3.2. recognized that education had taken different forms at different times and places
8.1.1.3.3. believed that education in all societies was of critical importance in creating the moral unity necessary for social cohesion and harmony
8.1.1.3.4. moral values were the foundation of society
8.1.1.4. tend to assume that consensus is the normal state in society and that conflict represents a breakdown of shared values
8.1.2. Conflict Theory
8.1.2.1. the glue of society is economic, political, cultural, and military power
8.1.2.2. emphasizes struggle
8.1.2.3. do not see the relation between school and society as unproblematic or straightforward
8.1.2.4. offers important insight about the relation between school and society
8.1.3. Interactionalism
8.1.3.1. these theories are primarily critiques and extensions of the functional and conflict perspectives
8.1.3.2. the critique arises from the observation that functional and conflict theories are very abstract
8.1.3.3. emphasize structure and process at a very general level of analysis
8.1.3.4. attempt to make the commonplace strange by turning on their heads every-day taken for granted behaviors and interactions between students and students, and students and teachers.
8.2. The Five Effects of Schooling on Individuals
8.2.1. Knowledge and Attitudes
8.2.1.1. Ron Edmonds was considered the pioneer of the effective schools movement
8.2.1.1.1. demonstrates that academically oriented schools do produce higher rates of learning
8.2.1.2. in schools where students are compelled to take academic subjects and where there is consistent discipline, student achievement levels go up
8.2.1.3. research has indicated that the more education individuals receive, the more likely they are to read newspapers, book, and magazines, and to take part in political and public affairs
8.2.2. Teacher Behavior
8.2.2.1. has a huge impact on student learning and behavior
8.2.2.2. teachers are models for students and are instructional leaders
8.2.2.3. sets standards for students and influence student self-esteem and sense of efficiency
8.2.2.4. in a study, teachers' expectations of students were found to directly influence student achievement
8.2.2.5. expectations play a major role in encouraging or discouraging students to work to their fullest potential
8.2.2.6. Persell (1977) discovered that when teachers demanded more from their students and praised them more, students learned more and felt better about themselves
8.2.3. Employment
8.2.3.1. most students believe that graduating from college with increase their opportunities for employment
8.2.3.2. large organizations like corporations require high levels of education for certain jobs
8.2.3.3. academic credentials help individuals to obtain higher-status jobs early in their careers
8.2.3.4. possession of a college degree is significantly related to a higher income
8.2.4. Student Peer Groups and Alienation
8.2.4.1. the student culture idealizes athletic ability, looks, and that detached style that indicates "coolness"
8.2.4.1.1. being bad is misconstrued as being tough and smart
8.2.4.2. the adult culture of teachers and administrators is in conflict with the student culture
8.2.4.2.1. this can lead to alienation and possibly violence
8.2.4.2.2. some argue that school violence is increasing because teachers are underpaid and the classes are too large
8.2.4.3. student subcultures are still considered important after high school
8.2.4.3.1. there are four major types of college students
8.2.4.4. student cultures play an important role in shaping students' educational experiences
8.2.5. Tracking
8.2.5.1. refers to the placement of students in curricular programs based on students' abilities and inclinations
8.2.5.2. often based on other criteria such as race or class
8.2.5.3. Studies have shown that students places in "high-ability" tracks spend more time on actual teaching and learning activities
9. Ch. 5 Philosophy of Education
9.1. Generic Notions
9.1.1. Founded on the new psychology, behaviorism, and the philosophy of pragmatism
9.1.2. The attainment of a better society in education
9.1.3. Proposed that educators start with the needs and interests in the classroom
9.1.4. Allowing the child to participate in planning his or her course of study
9.1.5. Dewey advocated both freedom and responsibility for students since those are both vital components of democratic living
9.2. Key Researchers
9.2.1. John Dewey (1859-1952)
9.2.1.1. Considered to be the founder/father of Progressivism
9.2.1.2. Saw the world as dynamic and developing
9.2.1.3. Viewed the schools as vehicles for improving and changing society
9.2.1.4. His form of pragmatism was founded on the new psychology, behaviorism, and philosophy of pragmatism
9.2.1.5. He proposed that educators start with the needs and interests of the child in the classroom
9.3. Goal of Education
9.3.1. rooted in social order
9.3.2. should function as preparation for life in a democratic society
9.3.3. schools should balance the needs of society and community on one hand and the needs of the individual on the other
9.3.4. primary goal was growth
9.4. Role of Teacher
9.4.1. assumes the peripheral position of facilitator
9.4.2. encourages, offers suggestions, questions and helps plan and implement course of study
9.4.3. writes curriculum and must have a command of several disciplines in order to create and implement curriculum
9.5. Methods of Instruction
9.5.1. proposed that children learn both individually and in groups
9.5.2. problem-solving or inquiry method
9.5.3. formal instruction was abandoned
9.5.4. going about learning in nontraditional yet natural ways
9.6. Curriculum
9.6.1. Followed Dewey's notion of a core curriculum
9.6.1.1. integrated curriculum
9.6.1.2. all the academic and vocational disciplines would be used in an integrated, interconnected way
9.6.2. not wedded to a specific curriculum
9.6.3. curriculum changes as the social order changes and as children's needs and interests change