1. History of U.S. Education
1.1. Reform movements
1.2. The reform that had the most influence on education would be the education for women and African-Americans.
1.3. Ohio opened for women and African-Americans. Although when it came to the education of African-Americans, it took serval more years for them to get the same education that white people were getting because of the Civil war.
1.4. The opening of a school for women and slaves right to an education were both influential instances concerning education,
1.5. Historical interpretation
1.5.1. The Democratic-Liberal historical interpretation of U.S. education is one that is more optimistic.
1.5.2. With every expansion of education came the expansion of students and diversity.
1.5.3. Social goals of the school are becoming as or more important than the intellectual goals of the school.
2. Politics of Education
2.1. Four purposes of education
2.1.1. Intellectual: for students become smarter, develop thinking skills and for students to understand specifics when it comes to math, history, etc.
2.1.2. Political: learn about our country, and a love or respect for our country and how it works.
2.1.3. Social: social skills, learning where you, the student, fit into when it comes to working in groups, and learning to respect/tolerate people who have different views.
2.1.4. Economic: preparing students for their future rolls in society.
2.2. Perspective
2.2.1. The role of the school: (Conservative and Liberal mix) - School is essential to both the economic and social stability and should ensure that ALL students have an opportunity to succeed. - The school should also teach kids to respect cultural difference and show them how they will fit into a very diverse society.
2.2.2. Explanation of unequal performances: (Liberal perspective) - Students come from all different backgrounds, and that does effect how they perform in school. - It our job as a society to try and help these students get to the same level as other students.
2.2.3. Educational Problems: (Conservative and Liberal mix) - school is a place of equal opportunities and a place that shows you more than one perspective of everything. - Don't lower standards or just make subjects more general rather than delving into different sides of it - Raise struggling students to where they need to be and to add more than one view to the curriculum.
3. The Sociology of Education
3.1. Theoretical perspectives
3.1.1. Functionalism: -viewing society as a machine. That interdependence is a main idea, and that moral values are the foundation of a society. -Schools socialize people, educational reforms create structures for students and encourage social unity. Society is held together by shared views and values.
3.1.2. Conflict theories: -Survival of the fittest. Whoever can overcome the weaker link will and then the stronger will force their views and values on them. -Schools are also battlefields were its student against teacher and teacher against the administration and so on and so forth. The things that keep the society going are economic, political, cultural, and military power.
3.1.3. Interactionalism: an extension of both conflict and functionalism but also a critique of them. Interactionalism tries to go deeper and understand the day to day functions in the classroom. It tries to analyze everything to make sure it's right for the students.
3.2. Five effects of schooling
3.2.1. Knowledge and Attitudes: - impact on students because this is how they are learning. -The higher social standing the better they do in school. -More educated people are usually taking part in politics and public affairs.
3.2.2. Teacher behavior: teachers have a major role in students learning. - Teachers expectations of students tend to correspond with how students do in school directly. - what the teacher expects of students is what they will give to the teacher
3.2.3. Students Peer Groups and Alienation: - There can be a conflict between the culture the students create and the culture that the teachers try and create - Students see the "bad" kids as someone that is cool and smart, and this can lead to more problems because the bad kid is being glorified - the culture that students develop can be really damaging or helpful to their development in school, so its important that we, as teachers, try and create a good one.
3.2.4. Inadequate Schools: - some schools today are failing to educate students - Urban education, in particular, is not helping its students get to where they need to be with their education so they can lead normal lives
3.2.5. Tracking: - placing students in curricular programs based on their academic and social needs. - students are placed in certain classrooms because of their race or social class and not by actual need - Students placed in lower trace classroom tend not to be exposed to everything they could be and cognitive development suffers.
4. The Philosophy of Education
4.1. Pragmatism
4.1.1. Generic notion - kids are active, organic beings growing and changing and they needed a type of education that reflected that - educators must start with the needs and interest of the kids
4.1.2. Key research - Pierce, James, and Dewey were the official founders of Pragmatism - Locke, Bacon, Rousseau
4.1.3. Goal of education - knowledge on how to improve social order -- " a lever of social reform" - prepare students for a democratic society - school needed to provide a balance of social, community, and individual needs - students needed grow while they were in school
4.1.4. Role of teacher - the teacher becomes the facilitator - just there to encourage and answer questions - they develop curriculum and have discipline actions in place
4.1.5. Method of instruction - both in groups and individually - no traditional blocks of time - kids can talk to each other and get up and stretch
4.1.6. Curriculum - certain subject matter under investigation by students and would yield a problem and then the students would use math, science, literature, etc. to solve problems - all subjects are interconnected
5. School as Organization
5.1. Major stakeholders
5.1.1. Federal Alabama senators: Richard Shelby Luther Strange
5.1.2. House of Representative: Mo Brooks
5.1.3. State Senator: William L. Holtzclaw
5.1.4. House of Representative: Mac McCutcheon
5.1.5. State superintendent: Ed Richardson
5.1.6. Representative on State School Board: Betty Petters
5.1.7. Local Superintendent: Robby Parker
5.1.8. Local School Board: Nathan Curry Angie Bates Marry Louise Stowe Dave Weis Shere Rucker
5.2. Elements of change
5.2.1. School Process: -separate social organization - political organizations
5.2.2. School Culture: - Culture changes with times - school cultures are vulnerable to disruption - culture is created by political compromise that made that school important
6. Curriculum, Pedagogy, and the Transmission of Knowledge
6.1. Curriculum theory
6.1.1. Developmentalist: -based on kids interest -based on what the kids need -Student centered -flexibility on what is taught and how its taught -makes education come alive to the students -teacher becomes a facilitator
6.2. Traditions of teaching
6.2.1. -Curriculum -Pedagogy
7. Equality of Opportunity
7.1. Impacts of educational outcomes
7.1.1. Class: -Higher and middle class families expect their kids to finish school - but working and lower class families have lower expectations - working and lower class students don't speak middle class English so they are seen as less intelligent - class is directly related to achievement and attainment Race: minority students receive fewer inferior educational opportunities than whites -reward for educational attainment is less than whites Gender: women tend to drop out less than men, and have a higher writing ability -men out score women in math because teachers think that men are better at it than women
7.2. Responses to the Coleman study 18982
7.2.1. 1. Private schools do have a certain organizational benefit to school outcomes but research doesn't prove that it is better than public schooling 2. Ending the segregation in schools is the reason for this educational gap and must end in order to close that gap
8. Explanations of educational Inequality
8.1. Cultural differences theory
8.1.1. 1. Working class and nonwhites students are seen as resisting the dominant culture of the schools: -The dominant culture of the school is the white pro school culture the students often embrace the anti school culture -Nonwhite students are often seen rejecting school and sometimes dropping out. 2. African-American students children do less well in school because they adapt to their oppressed position in the class and caste structure: - there is a job ceiling for African Americans in the US - African American parents and schools teach their kids to accept the fact that they are seen as inferior this encourages lower educational attainment and performance - African American students have to take on the burden of acting white in order to succeed in schools
8.2. School-centered explanation for educational inequality
8.2.1. School Financing: -suburbs schools get more funding then poor districts - schools are funded through property taxes so lower income areas get less money than higher income areas - this can be seen as discriminatory
8.2.2. Effective school research: - there isn't a clear way answer on what makes a school distinctly effective - back-to-basics can work sometimes but other times an alternative way of schooling could be better
8.2.3. Gender and schooling: - gender gap has declined in most recent years - girls usually outperform guys in everything - policy makers have started researching the "boy problem" in the school and how to help them do better in school
8.2.4. Curriculum and Ability Grouping: - tracking can explain the variations of students academic standings - tracking students can be a good thing as long as it doesn't take away the view of - tracking students is seen as emotional or ideological and each view lacks sufficient evidence
9. Educational Reform and School Improvement
9.1. School based reforms
9.1.1. -School-business partnership: businesses partner with schools to try and help motivate students to do well in school - Privatization: when companies take over the management of schools and their districts
9.2. Reforms that impact education
9.2.1. 1. Abbot vs. Burke: Schools in poorer school districts got more money to even the playing field 2. SFRA: removed the Abbot reform but in in place placed a reform that followed students and gave money where their needs were