1. Politics of Education
1.1. Identify and describe the four purposes of education.
1.1.1. 1. Intellectual purpose: to teach the basic cognitive skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics.
1.1.2. 2. Political purpose: to inculcate all allegiance to the existing political order.
1.1.3. 3. Social purpose: to help solve problems; to work to ensure social cohesion, to teach the basic laws of society; sociologist.
1.1.4. 4. Economic purpose: to prepare students for their later occupational roles.
1.2. Choose and describe a perspective for the following: 1) the role of the school; 2) explanations of unequal performance; and 3) definition of educational problems.
1.2.1. 1. The role of the school: The conservative perspective is that the role of the school is to provide the necessary educational to maximize economic and social productivity. The role of the school is essential to both economic productivity and social stability.
1.2.2. 2. Explanations of unequal performance: The conservative perspective is that individuals or groups succeed or fail on their own intelligence and effort. Their achievements are based on hard work and sacrifice.
1.2.3. 3. Definition of educational problems: The conservative perspective is... 1. that schools have lowered academic standards and reduced educational quality, the decline of standards. 2. that schools have watered down the traditional curriculum and thus weakened the school's ability to pass on the heritage of American and Western civilizations to children, the decline of cultural literacy. 3. Schools lost their traditional role of teaching moral standards and values...the decline of values/civilization. 4. Schools lost their traditional disciplinary function and often became chaotic....Decline of authority. 5.schools are stifled by bureaucracy and inefficiency.
2. History of US Education
2.1. 1. Choose and describe a reform movement that you think has had the most influence on education.
2.1.1. The reform movement that has ad the most influence on education, in my opinion, would be the movement to obtain equality of opportunity in our schools. Before one can achieve equality, one has to define equality. To have everything the same for everyone is not equality. The key word would be equality .."of opportunity". To reach this, I feel that the progressive approach would be best. The education needs to be child centered. True equality comes from each child receiving what he/she needs to reach full potential. The potential for each child varies, therefore the road to equality for each child must vary.
2.2. 2. Choose and describe one historical interpretation of U.S. Education.
2.2.1. The Radical-Revisionist historians of education, argue that although the US education has expanded, it is not with entirely good results. They believe that the expansions in education are not beneficial to everyone. They felt that the ones that benefited the most were the "elites." This did not create the equality of opportunity.
3. Sociology Perspectives
3.1. 1.Define each of the theoretical perspectives concerning the relationship between school and society: functionalism, conflict theory, and interactionalism.
3.1.1. 1. Functional sociologists begins with a picture of society that stresses the interdependence of the social system. Functionalist tend to assume that consensus is the normal state and that conflict represents a breakdown of shared values.
3.1.2. 2. Conflict theory is based on the belief that the dominant group has an ability to impose their will on subordinate groups through force, cooptation, and manipulation
3.1.3. 3. Interactional theories about the relation of school and society are primarily critiques and extensions of the functional and conflict perspectives.
3.2. 2.Identify and describe 5 effects of schooling on individuals that you think have the greatest impact on students as explained in the book (there are 10 between pages 121-128).
3.2.1. 1. Knowledge and attitudes...Nobody argues that schools have no impact on student development, but there are sharp divisions among researchers about how significant school effects are, when taking into account students' social class background.
3.2.2. 2. Employment...Research has shown that large organizations, such as corporations, require high levels of education for white-collar, managerial, or administrative jobs.
3.2.3. 3. Education and Mobility... The belief that occupational and social mobility begin at the school house door is a critical component of the American ethos
3.2.4. 4. Teacher Behavior...teachers have a huge impact on student learning and behavior. Teachers are models for students and as instructional leaders, teachers set standards for students and influence self-esteem and sense of efficacy.
3.2.5. 5. Inadequate Schools...The most obvious ways that schools reproduce inequalities is through inadequate schools. Students who attend suburban schools and private schools get a better educational experience than other children.
4. Philosophy of Education
4.1. 1. Describe the particular world view of one of student-centered philosophy of education (pragmatism or existentialism). Include the following information: generic notions key researchers goal of education role of teacher method of instruction curriculum
4.1.1. Pragmatism - Generic notions-Proposed that educators start with the needs and interests of the child in the classroom, allow the child to participate in planning his or her course of study, employ project method or group learning, and depend heavily on experiential learning.
4.1.2. Key Researchers - Emile Durkheim, Lawrence Cremin, Diane Ravitch, and Howard Gardner
4.1.3. Goal of education - The role of the school was to integrate children into not just any type of society but a democratic one. Therefore, Dewey's view of integration is premised on the school as an embryonic democratic society where cooperation and community are desired ends.
4.1.4. Role of the teacher - The teacher assumes the peripheral position of facilitator. The teacher encourages, offers suggestions, questions, and helps plan and implement courses of study.
4.1.5. Method of instruction - Problem solving method. Children could converse quietly with one another, could stand up and stretch if warranted, and could pursue independent study or group work.
4.1.6. Curriculum - an integrated curriculum. A particular subject matter under investigation by students, such as whales, would yield problems to be solved using math, science, history, reading, writing, music, art, wood or metal working, cooking and sewing- all the academic and vocational disciplines in an integrated interconnected way.
5. Schools as Organizations
5.1. the major stakeholders in YOUR district by name (state senators, House of Representatives, state superintendent, representative on state school board, local superintendent, and local school board)
5.1.1. State Senators: Tim Melson
5.1.2. House of Representatives: Phillip Pettus, Lynn Greer, and Marcel Black
5.1.3. State Superintendent: Michael Sentance
5.1.4. Representative on State School Board: Mike Curtis
5.1.5. Local Superintendent: Jennifer Gray
5.1.6. Local School Board: Micheal Stamps, Tim Tubbs, Ronnie Owens, Barbara Cornelius, Daniel Patterson, Jerry Fulmer
5.2. identify and describe the elements of change within school processes and school cultures.
5.2.1. The first element of change is Conflict. Whenever there is change, problems will be discovered. This will lead to conflict when trying to resolve the problem. The second element would be that New behavior must be learned. These behaviors include communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution. The third element is Team building. Without proper relationships within the school staff. issues of exclusiveness and imagined elitism may arise. The fourth element is that process and content are interrelated. The process that a team goes through to reach a goal is as important as the goal they reach. The process to produce the content of a lesson and the content of the lesson are intertwined.
6. Curriculum and Pedagory
6.1. Explain a curriculum theory which you advocate (humanist, social efficiency, developmentalist, or social meliorist).
6.1.1. I believe that the Social Meliorist and the Developmentalist approach to education both have points that I agree with. I do believe that as the developmentalist approach states the students need to have their needs and interest met. They need to be educated in the things that they have an interest. Then as the Social Meliorist says, they should be receiving this education so that they will be able to take a place in society and help to make our society a better place.
6.2. Identify and describe the two dominant traditions of teaching.
6.2.1. The two dominant traditions of teaching are the mimetic and the transformative. The mimetic tradition is based on the view point that the purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students. The best method of this is the didactic method, through lecture or presentations. The second tradition is the transformative. The transformative tradition believes that the purpose of educations is to change the student in some meaningful way, either intellectually, creatively, spiritually, and emotionally.
7. Equality of Opportunity
7.1. Describe how class, race, and gender each impact educational outcomes.
7.1.1. Gender - An individual's gender can have a effect on their educational outcome. In the past the females were not likely to have the same level of education as a male. Today, females are less likely than males to drop out of school. Females are more proficient in reading and males are more advanced in mathematics. The difference in educational outcome between males and females has been reduced.
7.1.2. Class - The different class of students greatly influences their educational success. Students from upper class families often have more opportunities than the students from lower class families. Also sometimes the teachers will favor children from upper class over the children from a lower class.
7.1.3. Race - Despite the efforts for equality, there are still areas where race affects the educational outcome. The high school drop out rate is higher for Hispanics and African Americans than it is for White student. Often the White students have more educational opportunities than the African Americans or the Hispanics.
7.2. What were the two responses to the Coleman Study from 1982?
7.2.1. Jencks and his associates used Coleman's findings to compute the estimated yearly average achievement gained by public and Catholic schools students. There were additional studies that also have found private schools to be more successful than the public schools. Specifically, Catholic schools seem to have more success with the lower income students than the public.
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. Explain the two types of cultural deprivation theory.
8.1.1. The Cultural deprivation theory suggest that working-class and nonwhite families lack the cultural resources such as books and other educational stimuli. Therefore it was believed that these groups often started school at a disadvantage. There were arguments against this saying that this put the success of the schools not on the schools but on the families. It put blame on the victims of poverty for the effects of poverty.
8.2. Describe at least four school-centered explanations for educational inequality.
8.2.1. School Financing - This reasoning for educational inequality was because of the differences in the school funding between affluent and poor districts. Public schools are funded through local and state taxes. More affluent communities have a higher tax revenue and therefore have more to spend on their schools then the more poverty stricken areas.
8.2.2. Effective School Research - There are characteristics of unusually effective schools that help to explain why their students achieve academically. Schools that are effective have a climate of high expectations for students by teachers and administrators....There is strong and effective leadership...there is accountability for students and teachers ...there is monitoring of student learning...and there is a high degree of instructional time on task.
8.2.3. Curriculum and Ability Grouping - starting in elementary students are divided into groups based on teacher recommendation or standardized testing results. These students are often taught at different paces or by different teachers with different expectations. There is debate on where the grouping of these students help or hinder their learning process. It all seems to go back to the expectations that are placed on the students. The more expected, the high the performance level of the students.
8.2.4. Gender and Schooling - Feminists agree that schooling often limits the educational opportunities and life chances of women in a number of ways. 1. Curriculum materials portrays men's and women's roles i stereotypical and traditional ways. 2. The traditional curriculum 'silence women' by omitting significant aspects of women's history and women's lives from discussion. 3. The hidden curriculum reinforces traditional gender roles and expectations through out the classroom organizations, instructional practices, and classroom interactions. 4. schooling often limits the educational opportunities and the life chances of women and reinforces gender roles and gender inequality.
9. Educational Reform
9.1. Describe two school-based reforms (school-based, school-business partnerships, privatization, school-to-work programs, teacher education or teacher quality)
9.1.1. School based reforms include charter schools. Charter schools are public schools that are free from many of the regulations applied to traditional public schools, an dare help accountable for student performance. There is a performance contract that details the school's mission, program, goals, students served, methods of assessment, and ways to measure success.
9.1.2. School-to-work programs - the intent was to extend what had been a vocational emphasis to non-college -bound students regarding skills necessary for successful employment and to stress the importance of work-based learning.The School-to-Work opportunities Act of 1994 provided seed money to states and local partnerships of business, labor, government, education and community organizations to develop school-to-work- systems. Each student was to have....1. Relevant education that allowed student to explore different careers. 2. Skills, obtained from structured training, including necessary skills of particular career as demonstrated in a working environment. 3. Valued credentials,for each career.
9.2. Describe at two societal, economic, community, or political reforms.
9.2.1. Dryfoos's model of full service schools, Canada's Harlem Children's Zone, and Newark's Broader Bolder Approach are tree models of community-based reforms. Community Schools are the plans to education not only the student, but the whole community. Schools service as community centers within neighborhoods that are open for extended hours to provide a multitude of services such as adult education, health clinics, recreation facilities, after school programs, mental health services, drug and alcohol programs, job placement and training programs and tutoring services.
9.2.2. Canada's Harlem Children's Zone is to leave children where they are and to change them and their neighborhood. He does not want to have to pull the students out of their community. They actually provide programs for parents in Harlem before the children are even born in attempt o infuse all knowledge about what to do for their infants and children.