1. Philosophy of Education
1.1. Realism - is a philosophy of education that believes education should help individuals understand and apply the principles of science to problem-solve and find solutions to problems that occur in the world today
1.1.1. Goal of Education
1.1.1.1. Help individuals understand and then apply principles of science
1.1.1.2. Prepare individuals that will help solve the problems plaguing the world
1.1.1.3. Education is meant to teach students the basic disciplines
1.1.2. Role of the Teacher
1.1.2.1. Enable students to learn objective methods of evaluating pieces of art, music, poetry, and literature
1.1.2.2. Be knowledgeable in the basic academic disciplines and transmit these disciplines to their students
1.1.2.3. Transmit knowledge to students necassary for the continuance of human life
1.1.2.4. Clearly and consistently present ideas to students
1.1.3. Methods of Instruction
1.1.3.1. Lecture as a method of instruction to give students knowledge
1.1.3.2. Q & A through lecture
1.1.3.3. Objective criteria for judging the value of artistic and literary works
1.1.3.4. Competency-based assessment
1.1.4. Curriculum
1.1.4.1. Consists of the basics: science, math, reading, writing and humanities
1.1.4.2. Curriculum consists of a body of knowledge that's essential for students to master in order to be a functioning part of society
1.1.4.3. Curriculum should consists of specific knowledge that helps students better understand their culture.
1.2. Realism is based on Aristotle's belief that only through studying the material world was it possible for an individual to clarify or develop ideas.
2. Schools as Organizations
2.1. Professionalization
2.1.1. The teaching profession differs from most professions in a sense that teachers have "one big client" which they have to keep happy for business and to keep their income
2.1.2. Teachers are in a way given space to work independently but at the same time they are expected to meet numerous requirements, wear many hats, and always keep things under control in the classroom
2.2. The nature of Teaching
2.2.1. Teaching is an influential profession where teachers are expected to get underpaid to work 60 hour work weeks. A teacher may come in contacts with over 100 students each and everyday while wearing multiple hats of different responsibilities in hopes of having a positive effect on these young peoples lives
2.2.1.1. "Hats" are also known as responsibilities or roles that a teacher may have to perform. In addition to an being an educator a teacher may have to be a friend, counselor, mentor, decision maker, or planner at any given time and the list goes on and on.
2.2.1.2. The teaching field is a complex career where teachers are asked to be innovative and knowledgable experts in a profession that research still have a lot to discover in terms of what methods of learning and teaching work for all. Teachers have to be dynamic.
2.3. Governance
2.3.1. In the U.S. each of the 50 states act as independent school systems
2.3.2. Most U.S. public school are paid for by taxes which results in taxpayers having a larger stake in having their voices heard on topic within the schools within their district
3. Curriculum and Pedagogy
3.1. Cardinal Principles - Edward F. Thorndike
3.1.1. for educators these principles helped to resolve the difficulty of education students who were not college bound
3.1.2. Main goals of secondary education
3.2. Approaches to Curriculum
3.2.1. My approach - Traditional approach - to curriculum views the curriculum as a body of knowledge and it looks to focus on the different ways this body of knowledge can be transmitted to the students and assessed
3.2.2. Current approach - focuses more on designing the curriculum around the goals and objectives of the students and on how to assess these areas in term of student learning.
3.2.3. 4 Types of Curriculum
3.2.3.1. Humanist Curriculum - based from idealist philosophy, supports the idea that the purpose of education is to present to students the best of information that has already been thought or written.
3.2.3.2. Developmentalist curriculum - based on progressive educational practices, focuses more on the needs and interests of each individual child at each stage of developmental stage.
3.2.3.3. Socially efficiency curriculum - believes that different groups of students which different sets of needs and goals should receive different types of schooling
3.2.3.3.1. I like the ideas of socially efficiency curriculum because I believe it can be more useful to individuals as they grow to become effective members of society
3.2.3.4. Social meliorist curriculum - based on the social reconstructionist theory, believes that all schools should work to change society through education and help solve the fundamental social problems
3.3. Major Stakeholders in Huntsville School District
3.3.1. Alabama State Senators
3.3.1.1. Richard C. Shelbey and Jeff Sessions
3.3.2. House of Representative for Huntsville District
3.3.2.1. Mo Brooks
3.3.3. Tommy Bice - Alabama State Superintendent
3.3.4. Local Superintendent - Mary Scott Hunter
3.3.5. Huntsville City School Board Members - Mrs. Elisa Ferrell, Mr. Walker McGinnis, Mr. Mike Cullbreath, Mrs. Laurie McCaulley, Mrs. Beth Wilder
3.4. Pedagogic Practice
3.4.1. Transformative - believes the purpose of education is to change the student in some meaningful way, including intellectually, creatively, spiritually, and emotionally.
3.4.1.1. transmission of knowledge not the only component of education but also multidimensional theory of teaching. Believes that the relationship between teacher and student and teaching and learning are inextricably linked
4. Equality of Opportunity
4.1. Attainment and achievement of African Americans
4.1.1. Since 1988 achievement gaps between Blacks and Hispanics has increase compared to whites
4.1.1.1. Some say this may be a result of drug abuse in the 80s
4.1.1.2. Whites perform consistently better in reading and math compared to Blacks and Hispanics dating all the way back to the 70s
4.1.2. In reading and math blacks are hispanics perform relatively close in terms of performance
4.1.3. At the Start of Kindergarten Blacks read at a noticeably lower reading percentile
4.1.4. In addition to entering K5 at a lower reading level, statistics show that students from lower socioeconomic groups perform in a lower percentile. Blacks are also more present in the lower socioeconomic classes.
4.1.5. 92.1% of Whites graduate high school compared to 84% of Blacks
4.1.6. 33.3% of Whites complete a bachelor's degree compared to 19.9% of Blacks
5. Educational Inequality
5.1. Explanation of Education Inequality
5.1.1. Functionalists believe that unequal educational outcomes are the result of unequal educational opportunities.
5.1.2. Cultural Deprivation Theories supports the idea that the working class and nonwhite families lacks the cultural resources and educational stimuli which causes these individuals to begin school at a significant disadvantage
5.1.3. Cultural Difference Theories believe that there are cultural and family differences between certain races and social economics groups that arrive to school without the proper skills and attitudes due to being an oppressed minority.
5.1.3.1. I believe that goes in line with the labeling theory. Individuals are told they are "not smart" and those individuals believe that to be true.
5.1.4. School-Centered Explanations Theories which are due to within-school differences play a vital role in performance issues.
5.1.4.1. School financing creates difference; more wealthy communities are able to produce more per-pupil spending than poorer schools.
5.1.4.2. Coleman Report - argued that differences among the groups of students had a greater impact on educational performance than school differences
5.1.4.3. within-school differences
6. Politics of Education
6.1. As of right now I believe my perspective is a liberal. I again with most of the view of the conservatives that you get what you earn, but I think that there are people in society that genuinely need assistance to have a chance to make it in society. The setback is that some people not try to work for themselves and freeload.
6.2. **The specific purposes of schooling are intellectual, political, social, and economic.
6.3. Conservative Perspective looks at social evolution as a process that enables the strongest individuals and/or groups to survive, and at human and social eve lotion as adaption to changes in the environment.
6.3.1. Individuals and groups must compete in the social environment in order to survive, and human progress is dependent on individual initiative and drive.
6.3.2. Sees the role of schools as providing the necessary educational training to ensure that the most talented and hard-working individuals receive the tools necessary to max economic and social productivity.
6.4. Liberal Perspective insists that government involvement in the economic, political, and social arenas is necessary to ensure fair treatment of all citizens and to ensure a healthy economy.
6.4.1. New Deal Era of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
6.4.2. Believes in equality of opportunity, it stresses the school's role in providing the necessary education to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to succeed in society.
6.5. Radical Perspective does not believe that free market capitalism is the best form of economic organization, but rather believes that democratic socialism is a fair political-economic system.
6.5.1. belief that social problems such as poverty and the educational problems of the poorest citizens are harmful to capitalism and cannot be solved under the present economic system.
6.5.2. the schools role is to perpetuate the society and to serve the interests of those with economic wealth and political power.
6.6. Traditional visions -view the schools as necessary to the transmission of the traditional values of U.S. society, such as hard work, family unity, individual initiative, and so on
6.7. Progressive visions - view the schools as central to solving social problems, as a vehicle for upward mobility, as essential to the development of individual potential, and as an integral part of a democratic society.
7. History of U.S. Education
7.1. The Progressive Movement - This movement occurred during the early 1900s, and insisted on government regulation of industry and commerce and government regulation and conservation of the nation's natural resources. I think this movement was important because it implemented the idea of preparing students for life, and leaders like John Dewey whose ideas had a great impact. With the largest number of immigrants to the United States around this period reformers looked at education and schools as a means of preserving and promoting democracy within the new social order.
7.2. John Dewey (1859 - 1952) -
7.2.1. advocated the creation of curriculum that would allow for the child's interests and developmental level while introducing the child to "the point of departure from which the child can trace and follow the progress of mankind in history"
7.2.2. believed that the result of education was growth.
7.2.3. school was that form of community life in which all theses agencies are concentrated that will be most effective in bringing the child to share in the inherited resources of race, and to use his own powers for social ends
7.2.4. active learning - the child's needs and interests should; experience in education and introduced the notion of teacher as facilitator of learning rather than the font from which all knowledge flows.
7.3. Committee of Ten
7.3.1. argued that the purpose of secondary education was to prepare students for "the duties of life"
7.3.2. proposed five model curriculum including classical and modern languages, English, math, history, and science
7.3.3. formed by the National Education Association
7.4. The Democratic-Liberal School
7.4.1. believe that the history of U.S. education involves the progressive evolution of school system committed to providing equality of opportunity for all.
7.4.2. suggest that each period of education expansion involved the attempts of liberal reformers to expand educational opps. to larger segments of the population and to reject the conservative view of schools as elite institutions for the meritorious
7.5. Radical-Revisionists School
7.5.1. argue that the history of U.S. education is the story of expanded success for very different reasons and with very different results
7.5.2. believe that the education system expanded to meet the needs of the elites in society for the control of the working class and immigrants, and for economics efficiency and productivity
7.5.3. suggest that expanded opportunity did not translate into more egalitarian results
7.6. Conservative Perspectivies
8. Sociological Perspectives
8.1. Theoretical Perspectives - an integration of all known principles, laws, and information pertaining to a specific area of study
8.1.1. Functional Theories - view society as a kind of machine, where one part articulates with another to produce the dynamic energy required to make society work.
8.1.1.1. in a highly integrated, well-fuctioning society, schools socialize students into the appropriate values, and sort and select, students according to their abilities.
8.1.1.2. Education reform is supposed to create structures, programs, and curricula that are technically advanced, rational, and encourage social unity.
8.2. Effects of schooling
8.2.1. I believe that there is truth to the attitudes that students have toward education play a key role in the amount of know they attain
8.2.1.1. research shows that academically oriented schools do produce higher rates of learning.
8.2.1.2. schools where students are compelled to take academic subjects and where there is consistent discipline, student
8.2.2. I also believe education leads to greater mobility and opens doors for individuals to enter.
8.2.2.1. Most people learn how to do their jobs by doing them, not necessarily through education but I do believe education gives individuals better credentials/qualifications for jobs and careers.
9. Educational Reform
9.1. Wonderful teachers alone can't fix school problems, good teachers in ineffective schools are limited in what they can accomplish
9.2. Education Reform from the 1980s to 2012
9.2.1. A Nation at Risk, 1983
9.2.2. No Child Left Behind - placed accountability as the most important aspect of reducing the achievement gap.
9.2.3. Race to the Top - primary goal is to aid states in meeting the various components of NCLB.
9.2.4. 1st wave reform stresses
9.2.4.1. need to attain the goals of excellence and equity
9.2.4.2. clarify educational goals
9.2.4.3. recruit, train, and keep more academically able teachers to improve teaching quality
9.2.4.4. develop common core curriculum
9.2.5. 2nd wave reform stresses
9.2.5.1. parents should have more choice in the public school their child attends
9.2.5.2. the nation, states, and local districts need reports cards to keep better track of student performance
9.2.5.3. bette use of technology
9.2.6. Charter Schools - control their own curriculum, instruction, staffing, budget, internal organization, calendar