1. Politics of Education
1.1. Conservative
1.1.1. Traditionalist
1.1.1.1. Believe that the schools should pass on the best of what was and what is.
1.1.2. Argue that individual students 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.
1.1.3. Believe the role of schools is to provide necessary educational training to ensure that hard working individuals receive the tools they need for success.
1.1.4. Believe in back to basics, a return to traditional curriculum, and accountability for students and schools.
1.1.5. Believe educational problems stem from a decline of standards, decline of cultural literacy, decline of values, and decline of authority.
1.1.6. Conservative School Ideology
1.1.7. *School is a preparation for life.
1.1.8. *Learners are passive absorbers of information and authority.
1.1.9. *Teachers are sources of information and authority.
1.1.10. *Decision-making is centrally based and administratively delivered.
1.1.11. *Learning is linear, with factual accumulation and skill mastery.
1.1.12. *Knowledge is absorbed through lectures, worksheets, and texts.
1.1.13. *Disciplines, usually math and language, are separated.
1.1.14. *Assessment is norm-referenced,external, and graded.
1.1.15. *Success is competitively based, derived from recall and memory, and specific to a time/place.
1.1.16. *Intelligence is a measure of linguistic and logical/mathematical abilities.
1.2. Liberal
1.2.1. Progressive/Liberal Schooling Ideology
1.2.2. *School is a part of life.
1.2.3. *Learners are active participants, problem solvers, and planners.
1.2.4. *Teachers are facilitators, guides who foster thinking.
1.2.5. *Decision-making is shared by all constituent groups.
1.2.6. *Learning is spiral, with depth and breadth as goals.
1.2.7. *Knowledge is constructed through play,direct experience, and social interaction.
1.2.8. *Instruction is related to central questions and inquiry, often generated by the students.
1.2.9. *Disciplines are integrated as students make connections.
1.2.10. *Assessment is bench marked, had many forms, and is progress-oriented.
1.2.11. *Intelligence is recognized as varied, includes the arts, and is measured in real-life problem-solving.
1.3. Radical
1.4. Neo-Liberal
1.5. The Purpose of Education
1.5.1. The specific purposes of education are intellectual, political, social, and economic.
1.5.1.1. The Intellectual purposes of education are to teach basic cognitive skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics; to transmit specific knowledge; and to help students acquire higher-order thinking skills such as analysis, evaluation, and synthesis.
1.5.1.2. The Political purposes of education are to inculcate allegiance to the existing political order (patriotism); to prepare citizens who will participate in this political order; to help assimilate diverse cultural groups into a common political order; and to teach students the basic laws of the society.
1.5.1.3. The Social purposes of education are to help solve social problems; to work as one of many institutions, such as family and the church to ensure social cohesion; and to socialize students into their various roles, behaviors, and the values of the society.
1.5.1.4. The Economic purposes of education are to prepare students for their later occupational roles and to select, train, and allocate individuals into the division of labor.
2. History of U.S. Education
2.1. 1785 and 1787: Land Ordinance Act, Northwest Ordinance
2.1.1. This ordinance set aside what was known as Section Sixteen in every township in the new Western Territory for the maintenance of public schools.
2.1.2. Education is necessary to become a good citizen and to have a strong government.
2.2. 1821: First public high school in the U.S., Boston English, opens.
2.3. 1827: Massachusetts passed a law making all grades of public school open to all pupils free of charge.
2.4. 1837: Horace Mann becomes Secretary to the Massachusetts Board of Education, ushering in the Common School Era of compulsory primary education.
2.5. 1855: The first Kindergarten was established in the U.S. in Watertown, Wisconsin by Margarethe Schurz.
2.5.1. Kindergarten was created to help children of poverty and who had special needs.
2.6. 1896: Plessy vs. Ferguson
2.6.1. The U.S. Supreme Court rules that separate but equal facilities are constitutional.
2.6.2. Justice John Marshall Harlan argued that the Constitution is color-blind and that all citizens are equal before the law.
2.7. 1954: Brown vs. The Topeka Board of Education
2.7.1. Repealed Plessy vs. Ferguson
2.7.2. The U.S. Supreme Court rules that separate but equal schools for black and white children is unconstitutional.
2.7.2.1. Court ruling was the starting point of the civil rights movement.
2.8. 1972: Title IX - Prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex.
2.9. 1975: Individuals with Disabilities Act is passed.
2.9.1. This ensured that all students have access to equal educational opportunities regardless of disabilities.
2.10. 1983: A Nation at Risk
2.10.1. Belief that the nation's schools were failing and falling farther behind other nations.
2.10.2. This urges a broad curriculum and stronger standards and expectations.
2.11. 2002: No Child Left Behind Act
2.11.1. This was signed by George W. Bush.
2.11.2. To ensure that students in every public school achieve important learning goals while being educated in safe classrooms by well-prepared teachers.
2.11.3. Requires schools to close academic gaps between economically advantaged students and students who are from different economic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds as well as students with disabilities.
3. Sociological Perspectives
3.1. 1977: Education and Inequality by Caroline Hodges Persell
3.1.1. She modeled the relationship between school and society through four interrelated levels of sociological analysis.
3.1.1.1. The societal level includes the most general structures of a society, including its political and economic systems, its level of development, and its system of social stratification.
3.1.1.2. The institutional level includes a society's major institutions, such as family, school, churches and synagogues, business and government, and the media, all which play an important role in socialization.
3.1.1.3. The interpersonal level includes the processes, symbols, and interactions, that occur within such institutional settings.
3.1.1.4. The intrapsychic level includes individual thoughts, beliefs, values, and feelings, which are to a large degree shaped by the society's institutions and interactions.
3.2. Functional Theories
3.2.1. View society as a kind of machine, where one part articulates with another part to produce the energy required to make society work.
3.3. Interactional Theories
3.3.1. 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.
3.4. Conflict Theories
3.4.1. Believe that society is not held together by shared values alone, but on the ability of dominant groups to impose their will on subordinate groups.
3.4.2. The glue of society is economic, political, cultural, and military power.
3.5. The Weberian Approach
3.5.1. Founded by sociologist Max Weber.
3.5.2. Believed that class differences could not capture the complex ways human beings form hierarchies and belief systems that make these hierarchies seem just and inevitable.
3.6. Effects of Schooling on Individuals
3.6.1. Knowledge and Attittudes: The better attitude a person has, the more likely they will learn and succeed in life.
3.6.2. Employment: Graduating from college will lead to greater employment opportunities.
3.6.3. Education and Mobility: Teacher play a major role in a student's life. A teacher's attitude and role impact on how a student will act.
3.7. *Sociology is simply a method for bringing social aspirations and fears into focus by forcing people to ask sharp and analytic questions about the societies and cultures in which they live.
3.8. *Social Capital is the social networks and connections.
3.9. *Cultural Capital is the knowledge and experiences that are related to subjects such as art, music, and literature.
4. Philosophy of Education
4.1. Idealism
4.1.1. Perennialism
4.1.1.1. Place great importance on the study of classics (i.e., great literature of past civilizations that illustrated contemporary concerns).
4.1.1.2. A classroom of an idealist is teacher led.
4.2. Realism
4.2.1. Essentialism
4.2.1.1. Curriculum focuses on the basics: science and math, reading and writing, and the humanities.
4.2.1.2. A classroom of a realist is teacher led with direct instruction.
4.2.1.3. Theorists of realism are E.D. Hirsch and William Bagley.
4.2.1.4. Traditional approach to education.
4.3. Syllogism - a kind of logical argument that applies to deductive reasoning.
4.3.1. Tabula rasa - chafed the notion of priori ideas, stating that the mind was a blank page.
4.3.2. Empirical point of view - based on observation or experience.
4.4. Pragmatism
4.4.1. Progressivism
4.4.1.1. Learn by doing.
4.4.1.1.1. Children learn both individually and in groups.
4.4.1.1.2. Based on experimentation and scientific inquiry.
4.4.1.2. Student led classroom.
4.4.1.2.1. Needs and interests of the child in the classroom.
4.4.1.2.2. Allow the child to participate in planning his or her course of study.
4.4.1.3. Theorists are John Dewey and Nel Noddings.
4.4.2. Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that began in the United States around 1870.
4.5. Existentialism and Phenomenology
4.5.1. Theorists are Maxine Greene and A.S. Neill.
4.5.2. Each student determines the pace and direction of their learning.
4.5.2.1. Literature, art, music, and drama are important subjects to existentialists and phenomenologists.
4.5.2.2. Believe in exposing students at early ages to problems as well as possibilities, and to the horrors as well as accomplishments humankind is capable of producing.
4.5.3. Student led classroom.
4.6. Neo-Marxism
4.6.1. Theorists are George S. Counts and Paulo Freire.
4.6.2. Social Reconstructionism
4.6.2.1. Integrated study of academic subjects around socially meaningful actions.
4.6.2.1.1. Instruction based on authentic learning activities that both instruct students and help society.
4.6.2.1.2. Create intelligent problem solvers.
4.6.2.2. Student led classroom.
5. Schools as Organization
5.1. The schools that an individual attends shape not only his or her life chances but his or her perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors.
5.1.1. To understand education, one must look beyond the classroom itself and the interaction between teachers and students to the larger world where different interest groups compete with each other in terms of ideology, finances, and power.
5.2. School processes - the way in which school cultures are created and maintained.
5.3. Decentralized School System - each state maintains its autonomy, authority, and responsibility regarding education.
5.4. Sociologist Max Weber suggested that bureaucracies are an attempt to rationalize and organize human behavior in order to achieve certain goals.
5.5. According to Willard Waller, a educational sociologist, schools are separate social organizations because:
5.5.1. They have a definite population.
5.5.2. They have a clearly defined political structure, arising from the mode of social interaction characteristics of the school, and influenced by numerous minor processes of interaction.
5.5.3. They represent the nexus of a compact network of social relationships.
5.5.4. They are pervaded by a "we feeling".
5.5.5. They have a culture that is definitely their own.
5.6. The No Child Left Behind Law mandates that states require all teachers to be highly qualified. The 3 qualifications are:
5.6.1. A college degree.
5.6.2. Full certification or licensure.
5.6.3. Demonstrable content knowledge in the subject they're teaching.
5.7. Lauderdale County Schools
5.7.1. Superintendent: Jennifer Gray
5.7.2. School board members
5.7.2.1. Chad Holden
5.7.2.2. Ronnie Owens
5.7.2.3. Daniel Patterson
5.7.2.4. Barbara Cornelius
5.7.2.5. Jerry Fulmer
6. Curriculum and Pedagogy
6.1. What Do the Schools Teach?
6.1.1. Traditional Approaches to the Curriculum
6.1.1.1. View the curriculum as objective bodies of knowledge and examine the ways in which this knowledge may be designed, taught, and evaluated.
6.1.2. Traditions in Pedagogic Practices
6.1.2.1. Views the purpose of education as having the ability to change each student in a meaningful way, including intellectually, creatively, spiritually, and emotionally.
6.2. The 4 Types of Curriculum
6.2.1. Humanist Curriculum
6.2.1.1. Reflects the idealist philosophy that knowledge of the traditional liberal arts is the cornerstone of an educated citizenry and that the purpose of education is to present to students the best of what has been thought and written.
6.2.2. Social Efficiency Curriculum
6.2.2.1. A philosophically pragmatist approach developed in the early 20th century as a putatively democratic response to the development of mass public secondary education.
6.2.3. Developmental Curriculum
6.2.3.1. Related to the needs and interests of the student rather than the needs of society.
6.2.4. Social Meliorist Curriculum
6.2.4.1. Based on the social reconstructionist theory that schools should work to solve fundamental social problems.
6.3. The Sociology of the Curriculum
6.3.1. Conflict Theory
6.3.2. Functionalist Theory
6.4. What does a curriculum include?
6.4.1. Specific learning standards
6.4.2. Lessons
6.4.3. Assignments
6.4.4. Materials used to organize and teach a particular course
6.5. A curriculum refers to the lessons and academic content taught in a school or in a specific course or program.
6.6. Hidden Curriculum - includes what is taught to students through implicit rules and messages, as well as through what is left out of the formal curriculum.
6.7. Null Curriculum - includes what is not taught.
7. Equality of Opportunity
7.1. Social Stratification
7.1.1. A hierarchical configuration of families who have differential access to whatever is of value in the society at a given point and over time, primarily because of social variables.
7.2. Three Basic Forms of Social Stratification
7.2.1. 1) Caste Stratification - occurs in agrarian societies where social level is defined in terms of some strict ascriptive criteria such as race and/or religious worth.
7.2.2. 2) Estate Stratification - occurs in agrarian societies where social level is defined in terms of the hierarchy of family worth.
7.2.3. 3) Class Stratification - occurs in industrial societies that define social level in terms of a hierarchy of differential achievement by individuals, especially in economic pursuits.
7.3. The National Center for Education Statistics
7.3.1. The Condition of Education - provides important statistical data on a variety of educational issues.
7.4. The Coleman Study (1966)
7.4.1. Titled "Equality of educational Opportunity" fueled debate about academic achievement and the effect of schools on student achievement. The report was commonly presented as evidence that school funding has little effect on student achievement.
7.4.2. The report indicated that student background and socioeconomic status were more important in determining educational outcomes of a student than the school itself.
7.4.3. Further research by Coleman indicated that the initial findings of the report oversimplified the issues that impact student achievement. It was found that schools do play a significant role in student achievement. The quality of teachers, learning materials, and school facilities do have a major impact on student learning.
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. Explanations of Unequal Educational Achievement
8.1.1. Functionalists Theorists
8.1.1.1. Believe that the role of schools is to provide a fair and meritocratic selection process for sorting out the best and brightest individuals, regardless of family background.
8.1.1.2. The functionalist vision of a just society is one where individual talent and hard work based on universal principles of evaluation.
8.1.1.3. Expect that the schooling process will produce unequal results, but these results ought to be based on individual differences between students, not on group differences.
8.1.2. Conflict Theorists
8.1.2.1. Believe that the role of schooling is to reproduce instead of eliminate inequality.
8.1.3. Interactionist Theory
8.1.3.1. Suggests that one must understand how people within institutions (such as families or schools) interact on a daily basis in order to comprehend the factors explaining academic success and failure.
8.2. Student-Centered Explanations
8.2.1. Genetic Differences
8.2.1.1. Most controversial student-centered explanation.
8.2.1.2. The argument that unequal educational performance by working-class and non-white students is due to genetic differences intelligence was offered by psychologist Arthur Jensen.
8.2.1.2.1. He indicated that compensatory programs were doomed to failure because they were aimed at changing social and environmental factors.
8.2.2. Cultural Deprivation Theory
8.2.2.1. Popularized in the 1960s.
8.2.2.2. Suggests that working-class and non-white families often lack the cultural resources (such as books and other educational stimuli) and thus arrive at school at a significant disadvantage.
8.2.3. Cultural Difference Theories
8.2.3.1. First Theory: Argues that African American children do less well in school because they adapt to their oppressed position in the class.
8.2.3.2. Second Theory: Sees working-class and non-white students as resisting the dominant culture of the schools.
8.2.3.3. Characteristics of Effective Teachers
8.2.3.3.1. Strong academic skills.
8.2.3.3.2. Teaching within the individual's field of expertise.
8.2.3.3.3. At least 3 years' of teaching experience.
8.2.3.3.4. Participation in high-quality professional development programs.
8.2.3.4. Third Theory: Asian Americans possess family values that place enormous emphasis on educational achievement and have high expectations for their children.
8.3. School-Centered Explanations
8.3.1. School Financing
8.3.2. School Climate
8.3.3. Pedagogic Practices
8.3.4. Effective vs. Ineffective Schools
8.3.4.1. Characteristics of Effective Schools
8.3.4.1.1. A climate of high expectations for students by teachers and administrators.
8.3.4.1.2. Strong and effective leadership by principal or school head.
8.3.4.1.3. Accountability processes for students and teachers.
8.3.4.1.4. The monitoring of student learning.
8.3.4.1.5. A high degree of instructional time on task (where teachers spend a great deal of their time teaching and students spend a great deal of time learning).
8.3.4.1.6. Flexibility for teachers and administrators to experiment and adapt to new situations and problems.
9. Educational Reform
9.1. Two Specific Waves of Reform
9.1.1. The first wave were concerned primarily with the issues of accountability and achievement.
9.1.1.1. Many states increased graduation requirements, toughened curriculum mandates, and increased the use of standardized test scores to measure students achievement.
9.1.1.2. Highly centralized at the state level.
9.1.2. The second wave was targeted at the structure and processes of the schools themselves, placing far more control in the hands of local schools, teachers, and communities.
9.1.2.1. More decentralized to the local and school levels.
9.2. Approaches to Reform
9.2.1. The first approach is the neo-liberal approach which stresses the independent power of schools in eliminating the achievement gap for low-income students.
9.2.1.1. Represented by the Educational Equity Project.
9.2.2. The second approach stresses that school level reform alone is necessary but insufficient, and that societal and community level reforms are necessary.
9.2.2.1. Represented by the Broader Bolder Approach.
9.3. School-Based Reforms
9.3.1. School Choice
9.3.2. Charter Schools
9.3.3. Tutition Vouchers
9.4. The Carnegie Report
9.4.1. Outlined major problems in teacher education and the professional lives of teachers, and proposed a large scale overhaul of the system that prepares teachers.
9.4.2. Suggested that improvements in teacher education were necessary preconditions for improvements in education.
9.4.3. The debate revolved around three major points:
9.4.3.1. 1) The perceived lack of rigor and intellectual demands in teacher education programs.
9.4.3.2. 2) The need to attract and retain competent teacher candidates.
9.4.3.3. 3) The necessity to reorganize the academic and professional components of teacher education programs at both the baccalaureate and post-baccalaureate levels.
9.5. 5 Key Factors That Define Successful Schools
9.5.1. 1) High expectations for all students, and staff acceptance of responsibility for student learning.
9.5.2. 2) Instructional leadership on the part of the principal.
9.5.3. 3) A safe and orderly environment conducive to learning.
9.5.4. 4) A clear and focused mission concerning instructional goals shared by the staff.
9.5.5. 5) Frequent monitoring of student progress.
9.6. 5 Characteristics of Effective Schools
9.6.1. 1) School leadership that provides direction, guidance, and support.
9.6.2. 2) School goals that are clearly identified, communicated, and enacted.
9.6.3. 3) A school faculty that collectively takes responsibility for student learning.
9.6.4. 4) School discipline that establishes an orderly atmosphere conductive to learning.
9.6.5. 5) School academic organization and climate that challenges and supports students toward higher achievement.