1. Politics of Education
1.1. Purposes of Education
1.1.1. 1. The Political: The idea of teaching allegiance to the current political order and to help assimilate groups into a common political belief, and also teach laws of society.
1.1.2. 2. The Economic: The idea that schools are to prepare and teach students for occupations and roles in the working world.
1.1.3. 3. The Intellectual: The idea of teaching students basic cognitive skills such as math, reading, writing, science, history, etc. and to also help them learn to analyze and work through much more difficult problems.
1.1.4. 4. The Social: The idea that schools are to be on of the institutes that helps fix social issues and also teach societal social norms.
1.2. The Conservative View
1.2.1. The role of the schools is to teach students basic skills and to help them prepare to go out into the real world and the workforce and contribute to society.
1.2.2. Explanations of Unequal Performance: The belief that everyone has the ability to thrive and fail.
1.2.3. Definition of Educational Problems: The idea that the government policies and intervention in education has an overall negative effect if left alone.
2. Educational Reform
2.1. School-based Reforms
2.1.1. School-To-Work Programs: Started in the 1990's, it was designed to help students be able to reach their differing goals and to see that there are more options out there fro them. It allowed students to obtain relevant education, skills, and credentials that each individual might would want, instead of having a narrow field available to them.
2.2. School Choice: This reform was that of the allowing of families to decide where the students would go to school, and in doing so started to blur the lines of inequality even more. This idea had the ability to award good schools and punish bad ones by higher attendance and money coming in, but also had the ability to cause a waste of funds and to hurt some who could not afford to attend said schools.
2.3. Societal, community, economic and political reforms
2.3.1. School Finance Reform: This was the change that took place starting in the 1970's that sought to fix the problem of inequality of fund distribution among schools. This took place on both the federal level and state levels in various areas of the country and saw a change in how funds were used in the assistance of student growth. There has been focus on the "basic" educational needs of students, and over time has seen a shift towards a more liberal use of school funds across the board.
2.3.2. State Intervention and Mayoral Control in Local Schools Districts: This reform was that of changes to school accountability to the state and how it effects students. It was said that this reform is extremely controversial to the state and how it effects students. It was said that this reform is extremely controversial in how it was done due to the fact that the control is given over to people who have little knowledge of local schools needs and can be political in nature. The argument can also be made that this reform can have good effects, such as the punishing of bad districts and the reward of good ones, the sharing of knowledge and technologies and the better gathering of students and school data for better research.
3. Curriculum and Pedagogy
3.1. Two Dominant Teaching Traditions
3.1.1. Developmentalist: The idea behind this curriculum is that schools and teachers would adapt the material to each students needs, and would help their growth instead of simply trying to force memorization of some material.
3.1.2. Traditional: The traditional curriculum is based on the idea that the way in which it looks does not matter. The idea behind this viewpoint is great due to the fact that it wants students to understand common knowledge and to be able to go out and do anything that they put their minds to.
3.1.3. Social: The social curriculum is based upon the idea that the things taught in schools should take things a step further and adapt the material to better fit the needs of the students and times in which they live. The idea behind this is that it wants to help each students grow to do what interests them, which causes them to work harder and be the best citizen they can be.
4. Educational Inequality
4.1. Cultural Differences Theories
4.1.1. Ogbu's Theory: This theory argues that African-Americans have adapted over time to the oppression and type-cast, causing them to hit a ceiling in their achievements. The things in which this theory states are at the times hard to see, but the results are lower educational outcomes. The later work also states that they are focused to adapt to the dominant culture and have placed upon them the "burden of acting white". Also, things such as lower income and opportunities for low-income households plays a part in the educational inequalities.
4.1.2. Culture Opposition Theory: This theory takes the stance that minorities and working-class students all reject the common school culture and in doing so cause themselves harm by adopting a culture of anti-school behavior.
4.2. Social Centered Explanation
4.2.1. School Financing: This explanation in that the inequality of money distribution and amounts given to schools has an effect on schools.
4.2.2. Between School Differences: This explanation is that schools have different ways in which they teach and support students, which in turn either helps or hinders said students in their academics. A few examples are how upper-middle class students have access to the best curriculum and technology with smaller class sizes and support groups, while poorer schools are left with outdated materials and overcrowded classes and counselor ratios such as 400:1.
4.2.3. Gender and Schooling: This explanation states that the issues of inequality arise from the fact that for years men and women were not treated equally and could do better or worse depending on what they were. The issues of how in the past the education system was male focused and driven pointed to the issues of leaving women behind, but new studies have also pointed towards the fact that the opposite is starting to become the norm.
5. Equality as Organizations
5.1. Response to Coleman Study
5.1.1. How race, gender and income affect education outcomes: there have been times in our history that being poor, female or person of color has meant that you could not get good education without great difficulty or even at all.
5.1.2. Sociological Response: This response was that of sociologists examining and reexamining Coleman's work, which ended with them basically agreeing with his findings that school organizations has little effect on student outcome.
5.1.3. The Minority Scholars Response: This response was headed by Ron Edmonds, who argued that school organization played a huge part in student outcomes.
6. History of US Education
6.1. Reform Movement
6.1.1. I think the most influential movement in the history of education is the rise of the common school, which took place in 1820-1860. This movement was during the time of the Industrial Revolution and came about because of the increase in population, expansion, and a growing view of the founding father's vision for our country. During this time, people pushed for more schools and opportunities because they realized they lacked chance at higher education.
6.2. Historical Interpretation
6.2.1. In the 1980's, there was a rise in criticism from conservatives about how schools were mediocre due to the democratic-liberal social and political goals in education causing harm to the academics in schools.
7. Philosophy of Education
7.1. Generic Notions: This can be generally described as an action-oriented approach to education that started around the end of the 19th century.
7.2. Key Researchers: The key contributors were John Dewey, Sanders Peirce, William James, John Locke. Frances Bacon, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
7.3. Goal of Education: The main goal could be boiled down to simply be the goal of balancing the needs of the individual on one side, and the needs of society as a whole on the other.
7.4. Role of Teacher: The purpose of the teacher is for them to become more of a guide and helper for the students, meaning that the qualified educator should offer help, make suggestions at times, offer relevant questions, implement courses of study and also plan the curriculum in the class.
7.5. Curriculum: This is to be based off the core disciplines, it should also work to incorporate the students interests and needs while still keeping to a general guide and direction.
7.6. Method of Instruction: This was based off Dewey's idea that children learn in groups as well as an individual and would teach that letting go of the old style of lectures and simple mass memorization was for the better.
8. Sociological Perspectives
8.1. Theoretical Perspectives
8.1.1. Functional Theories: The idea that society is like a machine where every individual is a part of the whole that makes it work. Functional education can be said as the same. Educational reform is to create curriculum and programs designed to be technical, rational, and promoting social unity among all.
8.1.2. Interactionalism Theories: States that are functional and conflict theories are too broad and don't give ideas on what should be done on the everyday, basic level of the educational system.
8.1.3. Conflict Theories: This is the idea that society is held together by a dominant group though the use of powers, such as: military, economic, political, etc. The idea was based off of Karl Marx and tell of class-ism and inequalities in society due to the abuses of powers by the dominant group. It is said that often times schools do not educate their students but they promote the idea of credentials, such as a diploma, that don't really show a lot of achievement, but it does promote inequality in society.
8.2. Five Effects of Schooling on Individuals
8.2.1. 1. Teacher Behavior: The effect a teacher has on a student is rather important and a big factor in education. A teacher is a model, leader, instructor, and much more to many students. An important factor in a student's attitude is also the teachers behavior.
8.2.2. 2. Inside school: Schools differ in size, location, ethic makeup and more. Every school has teachers that are there to teach their students what they need to know.
8.2.3. 3. Knowledge and Attitudes: Schools play a part in a student's attitude. It is my belief that schools have as much of an effect on our attitudes as we let it have on us. People are in terrible situations who choose to still be happy and positive, and I do believe students and teachers could do this in school as well.
8.2.4. 4. Education and Mobility: Most Americans think that education is an equalizer and more education generally leads to more mobile social standing. It is discussed the effects of private schooling versus public schooling. It is said that private school diplomas tend to carry more weight in society than public school diplomas.
8.2.5. 5. Education and Inequality: Inequalities lie in our education, such as sex and race being a hindrance, and that these things can directly affect one's ability to obtain an education.
9. Schools as Organizations
9.1. Goverance
9.1.1. Senators
9.1.2. House of Representatives
9.1.3. State superintendent
9.1.4. State School Board Representative
9.1.5. Local Superintendent
9.1.6. Local School Board