1. Curriculum and Pedagogy
1.1. The Developmentalist Curriculum
1.1.1. This philosophically progressive approach to teaching was student centered and was concerned with relating the curriculum to the needs and interests of each child at particular developmental stages. The developmental curriculum 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.
1.2. Dominant Traditions of Teaching
1.2.1. The Mimetic Tradition is based on the viewpoint that the purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students.
1.2.2. The Transformative Tradition: Proponents of this tradition believe that that purpose of education is to change the student in some meaningful way, including intellectually, creatively, spiritually, and emotionally.
2. Equality of Opportunity
2.1. Class
2.1.1. Students in different social classes have different kinds of educational experiences. There is a direct correlation between parental income and children's performance on achievement tests, as well as placement in ability groups and curriculum track in high school.
2.2. Race
2.2.1. An individual's race has a direct impact on how much education he or she is likely to achieve. Minority students receive fewer and inferior educational opportunities that white students. Minorities do not receive the same educational opportunities as whites, and their rewards for educational attainment are significantly less.
2.3. Gender
2.3.1. Even thought women are often rated as being better students than men, in the past they were less likely to attain the same level of education. 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. Males do better than females in mathematics.
2.4. Coleman Study
2.4.1. Differences among schools do make a difference. The Coleman findings of 1966 were challenged by the findings of 1982. Coleman and his colleagues argued that private schools were more effective learning environments than public schools because they place more emphasis on academic activities and because private schools enforce discipline in a way that is consistent with student achievement.
2.4.2. The differences that do exist between public and Catholic schools are statistically significant, but in terms of significant differences in learning, the results are negligible.
3. Educational Inequality
3.1. Cultural Deprivation Theory
3.1.1. Cultural deprivation theory, popularized in the 1960s, suggest that working-class and nonwhite families often lack the cultural resources, such as books and other educational stimuli, and thus arrive at school at a significant disadvantage.
3.1.2. Cultural deprivation theorist assert that the poor have a deprived culture-one that lacks the value system of middle-class culture. Middle-class culture values hard work and initiative the delay of immediate gratification for future reward, and the importance of schooling as a means to future success.
3.2. School-Centered Explanations for Educational Inequality
3.2.1. School Financing
3.2.1.1. More affluent communities are able to provide more per-pupil spending than poorer districts, often at a proportionately less burdensome rate than in poorer communities.
3.2.2. Effective School Research
3.2.2.1. Critics argue that the research took the responsibility away from schools and teachers, and placed it on communities and families. Common sense suggested that there were differences between food and bad schools, and between good and incompetent teachers. The finding that within-school differences are as or more significant from lower socioeconomic backgrounds do poorly simply because they attend inferior schools.
3.2.3. School Climate
3.2.3.1. Much of this research looked at differences between school in inner-city, lower socioeconomic neighborhoods in order to demonstrate that schools can make a difference in these communities. Schools do affect educational outcomes at times, independent of extra-school factors.
3.2.4. Curriculum and Ability Grouping
3.2.4.1. Different groups of students in the same schools perform very differently suggests that there may be school characteristics affecting these outcomes. At the elementary school level, students are divided into reading groups and separate classes based on teacher recommendations, standardized test scores, and sometimes characteristics such as race, class, or gender. At the secondary level, students are divided both by ability and curriculum, with different groups of students often receiving considerably different types of education within the same school.
4. Educational Reform
4.1. School Based Reforms
4.1.1. School-to-Work Programs
4.1.1.1. Relevant education, allowing students to explore different careers and see what skills are required in their working environment. Skills, obtained from structured training and work-based learning experiences, including necessary skills of a particular career as demonstrated in a working environment. Valued credentials, establishing industry-standard benchmarks and developing education and training standards that ensure that proper education is received for each career.
4.1.2. Privation
4.1.2.1. The traditional distinction between public and private education became blurred with private education companies increasingly becoming involved in public education in a variety of ways.
4.2. Societal, Community, Economic, and Political Reforms
4.2.1. Dryfoo's Model of Full Service Schools, Canada's Harlem Children's Zone, Newark's broader Bolder Approach
4.2.1.1. Full service schools focus on meeting students' and their families educational, physical, psychological, and social needs in a coordinated and collaborative fashion between school and community services. Schools service as community centers within neighborhoods that are open extended hours to provide a multitude of services such as adult education, health clinics, recreation facilities, afterschool programs, mental health services, drug and alcohol programs, job placement and training programs, and tutoring services.
4.2.2. Consortium for Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago
4.2.2.1. Successful school reform must be based on a number of essential supports such as: 1. leadership as the driver for change 2. parent-community ties; 3. professional capacity; 4. student-centered learning climate; 5. instructional guidance.
5. Schools as Organizations
5.1. Major stakeholders in my district
5.1.1. STATE SENATOR: Paul Bussman
5.1.2. HOUSE OF REPRESENATIVES: Tim Wadsworth
5.1.3. STATE SUPERINTENDENT: Michael Sentance
5.1.4. REPRESENTATIVE ON STATE SCHOOL BOARD: Ralph Williams
5.1.5. LOCAL SUPERINTENDENT: Greg Pendley
5.1.6. LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD: Randy Lee
6. Politics of Education
6.1. Purposes of Education
6.1.1. 1.Intellectual:to help students acquire higher-order thinking skills.
6.1.2. 2. Political: inculcate allegiance to the existing political order.
6.1.3. 3. Social: to help solve social problems, to ensure social cohesion, and to socialize children into the various roles, behaviors, and values of the society
6.1.4. 4. Economic: to prepare students for their later occupational roles.
6.2. The Role of the school is a central focus of each of the perspectives and is at the heart of their different analyses. It is concerned with the aims, purposes, and functions of education in a society.
6.3. Explanations of Unequal Performance
6.3.1. 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.
6.3.2. The liberal perspective argues that individual students or groups of students begin school with different life chances and therefore some groups have more advantages than others. Therefore, society must attempt through policies and programs to equalize the playing field so that students from disadvantaged backgrounds have a better chance.
6.3.3. Radicals believe that students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds begin school with unequal opportunities. They believe that the conditions that result in educational failure are caused by the economic system, not the educational system, and can only be ameliorated by changes in the political economic structure
6.4. Definition of Educational Problems
6.4.1. Conservative
6.4.1.1. Decline of standards
6.4.1.2. Decline of cultural literacy
6.4.1.3. Decline of values or of civilization
6.4.1.4. Decline of authority
6.4.2. Liberal
6.4.2.1. Schools place too much emphasis on discipline and authority, thus limiting their role in helping students develop as individuals.
6.4.2.2. Schools have too often limited the life chances of poor and minority children and therefore the problem of the underachievement by these groups is a critical issue.
6.4.2.3. The differences in quality and climate between urban and suburban schools and between schools with students of low socioeconomic backgrounds and high socioeconomic background is a central problem related to inequalities of results.
6.4.2.4. The traditional curriculum leaves out the diverse cultures of the groups that comprise the pluralistic society
6.4.3. Radical
6.4.3.1. The educational system has failed the poor, minorities, and women through classist, racist, sexist, and homophobic polices.
6.4.3.2. The schools have stifled critical understanding of the problems of American society through a curriculum and teaching practices that promote conformity.
6.4.3.3. The traditional curriculum is classist, racist, sexist, and homophobic and leaves out the cultures, histories, and voices of the oppressed.
6.4.3.4. The educational system promotes inequality of both opportunity and results.
7. History of U.S. Education
7.1. The Struggle for free public education
7.1.1. The struggle for free public education was led by Horace Mann of Massachusetts. Horace Mann lobbied for a state board of education. His annual reports served as models for public school reforms throughout the nation, and partly due to Mann's efforts, the first state normal school was established.
7.2. Democratic-Liberal
7.2.1. Democratic-Liberals believe that the history of U.S. education involves the progressive evolution, albeit flawed, of a school system committed to providing equality of opportunity for all.
8. Sociological Perspectives
8.1. Functionalism
8.1.1. Functionalists view society as a kind of machine, where one part articulates with another to produce the dynamic energy required to make society work. They tend to assume that consensus is the normal state in society and that conflict represents a breakdown of shared values.
8.2. conflict theory
8.2.1. In this view, the glue of society is economic, political, cultural, and military power. Ideologies or intellectual justifications created by the powerful are designed to enhance power.
8.3. interactionalism
8.3.1. Interactional theories attempt to make the commonplace strange by turning on their heads everyday taken for granted behaviors and interactions between students and students, and between students and teachers.
8.4. 5 effects of schooling
8.4.1. Knowledge and Attitudes
8.4.1.1. Research shows schools where students are compelled to take academic subjects and where there is consistent discipline, student achievement levels go up. The amount of time students spend in school is directly related to how much they learn.
8.4.2. Employment
8.4.2.1. Most students believe that graduating from college will lead to greater employment opportunities, and they are right. People learn how to do their jobs by doing them.
8.4.3. Tracking
8.4.3.1. Tracking refers to the placement of students in curricular programs based on students' abilities and inclinations.
8.4.4. Inadequate schools
8.4.4.1. Urban education has failed to educate minority and poor children. Differences between schools and school systems reinforce existing inequalities.
8.4.5. Teacher Behavior
8.4.5.1. Teachers have a huge impact on student learning and behavior. The teachers' expectations play a major role in encouraging or discouraging students to work to their full potential.
9. Philosophy of Education
9.1. Pragmatism
9.1.1. Pragmatism is a philosophy that encourages people to find processes that work in order to achieve their desired ends. Pragmatist are action oriented, experientially grounded, and will generally pose questions such as "what will work to achieve my desired end?
9.1.2. John Dewey, Francis Bacon, and John Locke all research pragmatism.
9.1.3. Goal of Education
9.1.3.1. The importance of the school as a place where ideas can be implemented, challenged, and restructured with the goal of providing students with the knowledge of how to improve the social order.
9.1.4. Role of the teacher
9.1.4.1. The teacher is no longer the authoritarian figure from which all knowledge flows; rather the teacher assumes the peripheral position of facilitator. The teacher encourages, offers suggestions, questions, and helps plan and implement courses of study. The teacher also writes curriculum and must have a command of several disciplines in order to create and implement curriculum.