1. Politics of Education
1.1. Conservative
1.1.1. developed by William Graham Sumner
1.1.2. compete to survive
1.1.3. most economically system
1.1.4. most respectful system
1.1.5. individuals has their rights to earn a place in the market
1.1.6. origins in the Nineteenth Century
1.2. Traditional
1.2.1. hard work
1.2.2. family unity
1.2.3. individual initiative
1.2.4. schools should pass on the best
1.2.5. schools are necessary to the U.S. values
2. History of U.S. Education
2.1. Age of Reform: The Rise of the Common School
2.1.1. period from 1820-1860
2.1.2. free public education led by Horace Mann of Massachusetts
2.1.3. first state normal school, established in 1839 in Lexington, Massachusetts
2.1.4. Opposition to public education
2.1.5. Education for Women and African- Americans on the rise
2.1.6. 1821, Emma Hart Willard opened the Troy Seminary in Troy, New York
2.2. The Democratic- Liberal School
2.2.1. providing equality of opportunity for all
2.2.2. progressive evolution
2.2.3. albeit flawed
2.2.4. goals of education became more diverse
2.2.5. students from diverse backgrounds went to school for longer periods of time
2.2.6. social goals more important than intellectual ones
3. Sociological Perspectives
3.1. Theoretical Perspectives
3.1.1. Functional Theories
3.1.2. interdependence of the social system
3.1.3. Conflict Theories
3.1.4. dominating groups based on manipulation
3.1.5. Interactional Theories
3.1.6. based on critique an extensions of the functional and conflict perspectives
3.2. Effects of Schooling on Individuals
3.2.1. Knowledge and Attitudes
3.2.2. more schooling leads to more knowledge
3.2.3. Employment
3.2.4. graduating from college will lead to greater opportunities
3.2.5. Gender
3.2.6. Men are paid more than women
4. Philosophy of Education
4.1. Existentialism and Phenomenology
4.1.1. Modern Philosophy
4.1.2. Lives of individuals people must create themselves and make their own meaning
4.1.3. They should focus on their needs individually and their goals individually
4.1.4. Teachers must take risk; expose themselves to resistant students and work to help their students to be "wide awake"
4.1.5. Personal method of instruction, they believe every child has a different learning style
4.1.6. Curriculum is biased on humanities, "Wide awakeness" it also focuses on art, drama, and music its for the personal interaction
5. Schools as Organizations
5.1. Major Stakeholders in Marshall County District by name
5.1.1. Alabama State Senator - Lieutenant Kay Ivey President and Presiding Officer, Del Marsh President Pro- Tempore, D. Patrick Harris Secretary of State
5.1.2. House Of Representative: Mike Hubbard Speaker of the house, Victor Gaston Pro Tempore Speaker of the house, Jeffery Woodard Clerk of the house
5.1.3. State of Alabama Superintendent- Tommy Bice
5.1.4. Representatives on the State School Board: Robert Bentley President of the board, Jeff Newman as Vice President , Dr Yvette Richardson as President Pro Tem
5.1.5. Local Superintendent: Dr. Cindy Wigley
5.1.6. Local School Board: Mr.Bill Aaron President ,Dr. Vince Edmonds Vice President, Mr. Terry Kennamer Board Member, Mr. Mark Rains Board Member, Mr. Tony Simmons Board Member
5.2. Comparison of another countries educational system Japan
5.2.1. Few school systems are as complex as the United States
5.2.2. Most other countries education systems are not as inclusive.
5.2.3. Its highly competitive educational system
5.2.4. Japanese parents have a high standard for education
5.2.5. not only do students attend traditional schools they also attend a secondary school which is more like a tutoring service
5.2.6. Japanese have always placed a high value on moral education
6. Curriculum and Pedagogy
6.1. Developmentalist Curriculum
6.1.1. Needs and Interests of students rather than the needs of the society
6.1.2. The curriculum emanated from Dewey's writing and from Piaget.
6.1.3. Student centered and met the needs of each child through each developmental stage
6.1.4. This curriculum was flexible as to what was taught to each child
6.1.5. It was most prominent in the private schools
6.1.6. The romantic progressivism based most of it education on this form of curriculum
6.2. Social Meliorist Curriculum
6.2.1. It was known as the philosophically social reconstructionist (the radical wing of progressive education), it was developed in 1930
6.2.2. George Counts and Harold Rugg was two of the most influential men to this curriculum
6.2.3. They thought that this curriculum would help solve societal problems, or could possibly change the society itself
6.2.4. It is the precursor for the Contemporary Critical Curriculum
6.2.5. It is believed that this curriculum would help solve fundamental problems
6.2.6. Public high schools had a strong social curriculum to academic and vocational subjects
7. Equality of Opportunity
7.1. Students with Special Needs
7.1.1. 1975, Education of All Handicapped Children Law was passed (EHA)
7.1.2. 1996 the law was reauthorized as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
7.1.3. The EHA provided significant increases in the quality of services for children with disabilities
7.1.4. In the late 1980's critics of special education pushed the regular education initiative (REI) which meant mainstreaming children with disabilities into the regular classes
7.1.5. The increasing disability students are due to over-labeling per the disability studies
7.1.6. Neuro and cognitive scientist think that the reason more students are diagnosed with special education is due to better testing and diagnosis
7.2. Coleman Study 1966 Round One
7.2.1. Despite the nations best intentions difference among schools are not powerful predictors of differences in student outcomes
7.2.2. Where an individual goes to school has little effect on his or her cognitive growth or educational mobility
7.2.3. This seems to be the case where the data and common sense separate
7.2.4. The road to equality of opportunity does not go through the schoolhouse door
7.2.5. According to the book if the student body had such a major effect on student learning then the policy implications are clear that poor students should go to school with middle class students in order to equalize their educational opportunities
7.2.6. From a researchers point of view these studies were not significant,
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. Explanations of Unequal Educational Achievements
8.1.1. They believe that the role of schools it to provide a fair and selection process for sorting out the best and brightest individuals, regardless of family background
8.1.2. They believe that the school processing will produce unequal rights, but these rights should be on individual differences not groups
8.1.3. They also believe that individual talent and hard work based on universal principles are more important than particulist methods of evaluation
8.1.4. They focus on the attempts to provide equality of opportunity and to ensure a meritocratic system
8.1.5. they believe that understanding educational inequality is a difficult task
8.1.6. They believe that unequal educational outcomes are the result of unequal educational opportunities
8.2. Students- centered Explanations
8.2.1. biological explanations of human behavior are limited
8.2.2. 1960 and 1970's conventional liberal wisdom was far to simple and solutions was to complex
8.2.3. Equality of Educational Opportunity argued that the school differences was not the explanation for lower education
8.2.4. within- school difference does not count out that schools affect educational inequality
8.2.5. Genetic differences is among these stating that's between the working class and non white students is due to genetic differences
8.2.6. Cultural differences say that there are different differences between various different cultures
9. Educational Reform
9.1. Charter Schools
9.1.1. the first charter schools was spawned off a charter law in Minnesota in 1991 which now in 41 states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico
9.1.2. the charter movement has produced nearly 3700 charter school and serve 1,076,964 kids nationwide
9.1.3. Charter schools are public schools that are free from many of the regulations that are applied to many traditional schools
9.1.4. a charter school is paid for through the tax dollars and must be open to all students in the districts
9.1.5. the charter schools are suppose to be monitored and audited by there progression
9.1.6. If a charter school fails to meet the provisions of its charter it can loose its funding and be forced to shut down
9.2. Community
9.2.1. Do not educate just the child educate the community
9.2.2. The 3 different models of community based reforms are: Dryfoo's, Canada's Harlem Children's Zone, and Newark's Broader Bolder Approach
9.2.3. In the Dryfoo's Model schools serve as a community center as open for extended hours to do adult education, health clinics, rec facilities, after school programs, mental health services, drug and alcohol programs,
9.2.4. These type of community reforms are to target and improve at- risk neighborhoods
9.2.5. There is no known evidence that full service schools effect student achievement
9.2.6. The Harlem children's zone is a "no excuses" school zone which raises the bar for high expectations on the students achievements