1. Politics of Education
1.1. Four Purposes of Education
1.1.1. The intellectual purpose is used to teach basic cognitive skills such as reading, writing, & mathematics. Also, to transmit specific knowledge & help students acquire higher-order thinking skills.
1.1.2. The political purpose helps to teach students the basic laws of the society, educate students on how to exercise their rights within the political order, & show students what it means to be patriotic.
1.1.3. The social purpose is to help students solve their social issues. This should help to provide social cohesion.
1.1.4. The economic purpose will prepare students for the career path they choose after they finish school.
1.2. Conservative Perspective
1.2.1. The Role of the School
1.2.1.1. Views the role of school as an integral part to both economic and social stability.
1.2.1.2. Believe school provides the essential educational training for the most talented and hard-working students to thrive.
1.2.1.3. Sees that schools socialize children into adult roles necessary to maintain social order.
1.2.1.4. Every student should have to answer for their own work. Individual effort and merit should be rewarded.
1.2.2. Explanations of Unequal Performance
1.2.2.1. Students should succeed or fail by their own account. If hard work, initiative, and intelligence are applied by a student they should thrive. Get out what you put into it theory.
1.2.3. Definition of Educational Problems
1.2.3.1. Schools lowered standards of academics due to liberal and radical demands for greater equality. Conservatives refer to this as the decline of standards.
1.2.3.2. Conservatives refer to the decline of cultural literacy as when schools watered down the curriculum traditionally taught and weakened school's abilities to carry on the heritage of American and Western civilizations to students. This was due to radical and liberal demands for multicultural education.
1.2.3.3. The traditional role of teaching morals and values got lost because of liberals and radicals pushing for cultural relativism. Conservatives call this the decline of values or of civilization.
1.2.3.4. Conservatives believe in discipline but liberal and radical pushed for individuality and freedom. Schools lost disciplinary function and students became disrespectful. Also known as, the decline of authority.
1.2.3.5. Bureaucracy and inefficiency run rampant in school as they are state controlled and immune from the laws of a competitive free market.
2. History of U.S. Education
2.1. Equality of Opportunity Reform
2.1.1. After WWII the GI Bill of Rights made it possible for servicemen and women to pursue higher education. This bill was an important building block to the post WWII education expansion. After this precedent was set the next issue was to make education available to the poor and disadvantaged, and also for minorities. In the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson the court ruled in separate but equal doctrine but things were not equal for African-Americans. The big turn around was the decision in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education which ruled state-imposed segregation of schools was unconstitutional. After the Civil Rights Movement, many colleges and universities began adopting an open door enrollment policy. This helped expand education to most everyone that sought after it.
2.2. The Democratic-Liberal School
2.2.1. Democratic Liberals believe the history of U.S. education involves the progressive evolution of a school system that provides equality of opportunity for all. Some historians such as Ellwood Cubberly see the Common School Era as a win for the democratic movement and the beginning step of opening U.S. education to everybody. Democratic-liberals also believed that educational history involved the expansion of opportunity and purpose. This was represented by more students from diverse backgrounds went to school for longer amounts of time, goals of education became more diverse, and social goals became almost as or more important than intellectual goals. Democratic-liberals believe that the U.S. educational system needs to continue to move closer to the ideas of equality and excellence without sacrificing one or the other too much.
3. Sociological Perspectives
3.1. Theoretical Perspectives
3.1.1. Functionalism views society as a machine, with one part working with another part to make the energy required to make society work. In a well-functioning society schools socialize students into certain values, and sort and select students according to ability. Educational reform is supposed to be used to create structure, programs, and curricula that encourages social unity.
3.1.2. Conflict theory is a direct connection between schools and society but until society is changed there will be little or no hope for real school reform. Also, the status group struggle or educational credentials that are status symbols instead of actual achievement. Willard Waller showed schools to be on the verge of anarchy due to students being forced to go to school. Other theorists share Waller's ideals that school is oppressive and demeaning.
3.1.3. Interactionalism is actually a critique and expansion of the functional and conflict theory outlooks. Interactional theories turn conventional things upside down especially when it comes to interactions between students, and between student-teacher interactions. Questions the status quo of teaching in society. By examining the interactional aspect of school life people are less inclined to create theories that are logical, but without meaningful content.
3.2. 5 Effects of Schooling on Individuals
3.2.1. Employment opportunities are greater for people coming out of college. High level jobs require high level education and completing this education will provide students with a better career. Only drawback is schools do not provide significant job skills. The only way to get those skills is by actually doing the job.
3.2.2. Teacher Behavior can have a major impact on the students they teach. Being a teacher means being a role model and setting an example for students to follow. If teachers have lower expectations for students then the students are not going to care about school, which in case, might cause the student to dropout.
3.2.3. Inadequate Schools create inequalities for students in urban areas. Schools in these areas reinforce existing inequalities. Students that attend suburban and private schools have a better educational experience than those in urban schools.
3.2.4. Gender might show students that men are more important than women in the workforce. Men are usually paid more than women for the same job, and women have fewer job opportunities than men. Most administrators are men, and most teachers are female. Girl students are expected to be on best behavior while boy students get more teacher attention whether they act good or bad. Also, society does not help with the idea of gender discrimination.
3.2.5. Student Peer Groups and Alienation throw students into a certain group based upon how they act or seem to be. An intellectual might be labeled a "nerd" while an athletic person might be considered a jock. Labels can be damaging to students ego and might even lead to school violence. Student's cultures are important for shaping educational experiences.
4. Philosophy of Education
4.1. Pragmatism
4.1.1. Generic notions of pragmatism included instrumentalism and experimentalism. John Dewey's notion of methodology was based on the fact that children were active, organic beings, growing, and changing, therefore, they required a course of study that reflected their growing needs and help their development. The key researchers of this philosophy were George Sanders Peirce, William James, John Dewey, Frances Bacon, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Bacon, Locke, and Rousseau were European philosophers from earlier periods that were also labeled pragmatists. The goal of education for pragmatists was that school should be a place where ideas can be implemented, challenged, and reconstructed. Also, they thought school should provide students with knowledge of how to improve the social order. Pragmatists believe school should function as preparation for life in a democratic society. The role of the teacher in pragmatism is dialed back from being the authority figure to being a facilitator that encourages, offers suggestions, questions, and helps plan the courses of study. The method of instruction strayed from formal instruction by cutting out traditional specific discipline instruction. The furniture in the classroom was changed for tables and chair that could be moved and grouped as needed. Also, pragmatists believed that students should ask the questions about things they would want to know. Individualized study, problem solving, and the project method replaced rote memorization of traditional schools. Pragmatists, John Dewey in particular, believed that an integrated curriculum was the most effective means to balance out traditional disciplines, and the needs and interests of the students. Furthermore, this progressive idea used all academic and vocational disciplines in an unified way. The pragmatists saw curriculum changes as a way to maintain children's interests, and to fit children's changing needs.
5. School as Organizations
5.1. Federal Alabama Senators & Representative
5.1.1. Senators: Richard Shelby-R & Doug Jones-D, Representative: Robert Aderholt-R
5.2. State Senator & Representative
5.2.1. Senator: Steve Livingston-R Distr. 8, Representative: Nathaniel Ledbetter-R Distr. 24
5.3. State Superintendent & State School Board Representative
5.3.1. Superintendent: Michael Sentance, Representative: Mary Scott Hunter Distr. 8
5.4. Local Superintendent & School Board Members
5.4.1. Dekalb Co. Superintendent: Dr. Jason Barnett, Dekalb Co. School Board: Jeff Williams, Randy Peppers, Robert Elliott, Mark Richards, Matt G. Sharp
5.5. Elements of Change
5.5.1. Patience, skill, and good will are requirements for changes within school's processes and cultures. Bringing conflict to the forefront is a way to resolve hidden problems, issues, and disagreements. Involving school's staffs to restructure schools prepares the staff to elicit, manage, and resolve conflicts. Learning new behaviors will build communication and trust, enable leadership and initiative to emerge, and learning techniques of communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution. To prevent the idea of exclusiveness and imagined elitism, team building must be extended to the entire school. With shared decision making perceived "resistance to change" will go away, and help school staff's relationships.
6. Curriculum & Pedagogy
6.1. The Developmentalist Curriculum
6.1.1. Derived from Dewey's writings that is related to the relationship between the student and the curriculum. This approach is student centered and is concerned about the needs of each student at certain developmental stages. This curriculum is flexible in what was taught and how it was taught. Also, stressed the importance of relating school to each student's life experiences to make their education become more meaningful. The teacher was not as much a facilitator of knowledge, but more of a facilitator of a student's growth.
6.2. Dominant Traditions of Teaching
6.2.1. The mimetic tradition is based on that the purpose of education is to give specific knowledge to students. It relies on lecturing as the main form of communication. This tradition has the assumption that the educational process is transferring information from the knower (teacher) to the learner (student). Measurable goals are the central component of many teacher education programs as an attempt to make teaching a science which is viewed as the key to improving educational achievement.
6.2.2. The transformative tradition believes in transforming the student in a meaningful way such as intellectually, creatively, spiritually, and emotionally. Transformative educators do not see the transmission of knowledge as the only way of teaching, and provide a more multidimensional way of teaching. A transformative teacher does not believe in the authoritarian relationship between the teacher and the student.
7. Equality of Opportunity
7.1. Class
7.1.1. Families from the upper and middle class expect their children to finish school, and have the means financially to provide support their children's educational needs. Working-class and underclass families have lower levels of expectation for their children. Teachers have been found to think more highly of middle-class and upper middle-class students than they do of working-class and underclass students. Students from the lower classes are more likely to drop out, underachieve, or resent the curriculum of the school. By this, social class and level of what a student can attain are high related.
7.2. Race
7.2.1. Minority students receive fewer and more inferior educational opportunities than white students do. 89% of white students will be able to read at an intermediate level, but only 66% of African-American students have reached that level, and only 70% of Hispanic students are able to read and comprehend at that level. Which is why minorities have lower SAT scores, therefore limiting the colleges they can attend, on average.
7.3. Gender
7.3.1. Women are usually rated as better students than men, but in the past women were less likely to receive the same level of education as men. Women are less likely to drop out of school than men, and usually have a higher level of reading than men. Males typically fare better than females in mathematical performance, but some teachers assume that females will not do as well as their male counterparts in math. Some believe that men get preferential treatment when it comes to attaining academic rewards.
7.4. 1982 Coleman Study
7.4.1. One response was that even though the study showed that private schools outperformed public schools in every subject there is no evidence to prove that private schools are better than public schools. Judge against reasonable benchmarks , there is little or not basis for such a conclusion. The second response to this study was that where a student attends school is often connected to their race and socioeconomic background, but the racial and socioeconomic composition of a school has a greater effect on the student's achievement than the student's race and class. Also, within this response was the belief that school interactions are dominated by middle-class values are mainly responsible for gaps in student achievement. Reform must focus on eliminating segregation and biases that favor white and middle-class students.
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. Cultural Differences Theory
8.1.1. 1. Some researchers argue that African-American students do poorly in school because they give in to their oppressed position in the class structure. Anthropologist John Ogbu argued that there is a "job-ceiling" for African-Americans and that African-American families and schools socialize their students to deal with the inferior life chances instead of encouraging them to accept those values and skills necessary for positions that will not be open for them.
8.1.2. 2. Working-class and nonwhite students resist the dominant culture of what schools offer. This is to say that students reject the white middle-class structure of academic success and embrace a different culture that is opposed to the culture of schooling as it currently exists. This resistance results in dropping out of school and embracing the workforce sooner to jobs that they feel like are more on their level such as working at a factory.
8.2. School-Centered Explanations
8.2.1. 1. School financing is a major issue for poor school districts, and a equalization is needed between poor and affluent districts. Public schools are financed through revenues from local, state, and federal sources. Local property taxes are the main source of funding. Affluent districts are capable of providing a more per-pupil spending allowance than poorer districts.
8.2.2. 2. School resources make a difference in how students achieve in the classroom. The differences in upper-middle class schools and lower class schools are outlined by characteristics such as the monitoring of student learning and accountability of student learning.
8.2.3. 3. School climates, where the school is more conducive to the students, help in positive achievement. A student in an inner city school setting is likely to experience a different curriculum, pedagogic practices, and expectations than that of a suburban middle-class school. The middle class school will be more likely to groom their students a little more and care more than that of an inner city school. Some inner city schools just look to survive each class day without an incident of some sort, and not really focusing on the educational practices needed to provide students with the opportunities they need.
8.2.4. 4. Schools play a role in reproducing gender inequalities. Feminists argue that school organization, curriculum, and pedagogic practices need to be changed to address the needs of females more adequately. They conclude that by adolescence females receive an education that devalues their inner voice and their opportunities are limited. Females face more problems of educational opportunities in a coeducational institution.
9. Educational Reform
9.1. School-Based Reforms
9.1.1. School-business partnerships were formed to enure that schools were producing graduates necessary for revitalization of the U.S. economy. Some partnerships include scholarship opportunities for poor students to attend college. But there is little or no evidence to show that these partnerships have improved schools fundamentally.
9.1.2. Teacher quality is one of the biggest problems in education. Placing a teacher in a subject they are not trained to teach is called out-of-field teaching, which may in turn make a highly qualified teacher unqualified in that subject. Urban schools usually have larger percentages of novice or beginner teachers. Programs that are geared toward solving urban school staffing issues allows college graduates with majors in their teaching field to enter teaching without traditional certification from a college teacher education program.
9.2. Reforms that Impact Education
9.2.1. State intervention is a result of holding school districts responsible for their actions. State regulations include state certification of school personnel, statewide testing, and state monitoring of local fiscal, management, and educational practices.
9.2.2. Full Service and Community Schools are a way to help with educational inequalities. Full service schools focus more on meeting a students' and their families educational, physical, psychological, and social needs in a coordinated and collaborative way between school and community services. Schools serve as community centers that have extended hours to provide multiple services such as health clinics and recreation facilities. These schools are aimed to improve at-risk neighborhoods and support them.