2. Connecting School, Community, and Societal Reforms: All of these aspects are needed in order to reduce the achievement gap. Bryk et al., 2010 believes that successful school reform has to be based on essential supports such as: leadership as the driver for change, parent-community ties, professional capacity, student-centered learning climate, and instructional guidance. The supports are needed and hard to implement in high poverty schools, and educational reforms have to include policies targeting the effects of poverty. Darling Hammond believes that society must provide for children's basic needs so they can "focus on their academic work instead of survival". He also states that the U.S. educational system will fail students at a cost to society as a whole if it doesn't provide equal access to educational opportunity and support meaningful learning.
3. Full Service and Community Schools: Full service schools center on meeting students' and their families psychological, social, physical, and educational needs in a collaborative and coordinated way between school and community services. School service as community centers in neighborhoods that have extended hours to provide a variety of services like adult education, health clinics, recreation facilities, after-school programs, mental health services, drug/alcohol programs, job placement and training programs, and tutoring services. Full service schools try to prevent problems and improve at-risk neighborhoods. As far as problems of society as a way to improve public education, there is no evidence to say that full-service schools affect student achievement.
4. Community Reforms
5. Teacher Quality:No Child Left Behind requires that all schools must have highly qualified teachers in every classroom which emphasized the problem of unqualified teachers in urban schools. Although most teachers meet the standards of NCLB, data indicates that a number of classrooms staffed by teachers who aren't qualified in a specific content area other than what they are certified in. At the high school level, about 1/5 of classes in core subjects are taught by educators who are teaching out of their field of certification. Urban schools, especially ones of low income, have more out of field teaching than others. Urban schools with a high number of minority students typically have a larger percentage of novice teachers. Principals find it easier to hire unqualified teachers, and status and professionalism are non-existent, and poor working conditions in teaching lead to higher dropout rates within the first 5 years of teaching. As a result, urban districts are constantly replacing teachers which is many consequences because it takes experience to become an expert teacher. Ingersoll's research believes that programs designed at helping urban school staffing problems at the supply level by providing alternative teacher education programs. Failure to address organizational problems within schools are held accountable for high turnover rates.
6. School-Based Reforms
7. School-Business Partnerships: During the 1980s, many businesses in leadership positions became concerned that schools weren't producing graduates necessary for revitalizing the United States. As a result, several school-business partnerships were created such as the Boston Compact that began in 1982. Partnerships formed in other cities such as the Committee to Support Philadelphia Public Schools that promised management assistance and training to the school district to "restructure and implement a site-based management plan" in 1991. In return, the city vowed that by 1995 it would raise graduate test scores and increase grade promotion rates. Other school-business partnerships include scholarships for low income students to attend college and businesses that "adopt" a school. Unfortunately, this type of reform has decreased drastically since the 1970s. These partnerships have attracted some media attention, but there is a small amount of evidence to say that they have greatly improved schools or that, as a type of reform, school-business partnerships address problems in U.S. education
8. Effective School Research: Coleman and Jencks findings that differences in school resources and quality don't accurately explain why between-school differences in academic achievement is viewed as a mixed blessing by teachers. Jencks's belief was that societal change is necessary to improve schools that may have made educators feel less responsible for problems that were "beyond out of control". The finding that within-school differences are more important than between-school differences caused questions about the argument that children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to poorly because they attend inferior schools.
9. Curriculum and Pedagogic Practices: Bernstein suggested that schools in working-class neighborhoods are more likely to have authoritarian and teacher centered pedagogic practices, and have a vocational or social efficiency curriculum in high school. Schools in middle-class communities are more likely to have less authoritarian and more student-centered practices and have liberal arts college-preparatory classes in public high schools, with authoritarian pedagogic practices and and classical-humanistic college preparatory classes in high school. Here, the type of schooling correlates to the students' social class of students in a particular school, with differences for socializing children from different social class backgrounds to different places in society.
10. Curriculum and Ability Grouping: Curriculum tracking is an essential organizational component of U.S. schooling. Functionalists view tracking as an important tool where children are separated based on ability to to make sure "the best and brightest" students get the type of education necessary to prepare them for society's essential positions. However, teachers and administrators believe that heterogeneous groups are harder to teach and result in "teaching to the middle" which results in leaving students with lower abilities and boring students with higher abilities. Critics like Sadovnik suggest that homogeneous groups result in unequal education for different groups due to school climate, expectations, pedagogic practices, and curriculum. Albert Shanker believes that society assumes that students in lower tracks aren't capable of doing academic work, so schools don't offer them a curriculum that is academically challenging. Shanker suggests that student's can't learn what they haven't been taught, and that they are capable or more than teachers realize. Furthermore, if teachers demanded and expected more, the students would respond accordingly.
11. School Financing: Property values are relatively higher in more affluent communities, which means these communities are able to raise more money for schools through this type of taxation than poorer communities with lower property values. More "wealthy" communities are also able to provide more per-pupil spending. As a result, communities argue that funding based solely on property taxes is discriminatory under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment that denies equality of opportunity.
12. School-Centered Explanations
13. Another theory views working-class and nonwhite children as resistant to schools' dominant culture. Here, cultural norms aren't inferior to middle-class norms, they are just different. Because society and schools demand middle-class cultural norms put these students at a significant disadvantage. Ogbu believes that subordinate groups have little reasons to embrace schooling because they don't believe it will have value to them. Ogbu also argues that this form of resistance may be a form of cultural adaptation to the reality of economic life. However, Asian students often excel in academics because they come to the United States in order to adapt and thrive in the dominant culture. Another reason is because many Asian-Americans come from educated middle-class families of their native country and have the skills needed for academic success. Lastly, Asian family values place a huge role of educational achievement and have very high expectations of their children.
14. Anthropologist John Ogbu argued that black children thrive less in school because they adapt to their class and caste structure position as being oppressed. There is a "job ceiling" because African-American and other minority families and schools teach their children to deal with their life chances rather than have them internalize the values and skills necessary for a job that is will not be open to them. As a result, lower educational accomplishment and performance were present. Cultural differences in the school and working-class culture of non-white children has resulted in change in the school curriculum and pedagogy to better represent cultures of minority students. Bourdieu 's ideas of social and cultural differences also affect educational inequality. More affluent families gave thier children more access to cultural and social experiences , which showed that there are subtle ways social class advantages can reproduce educational inequalities.
15. Cultural Deprivation Theories
16. A student's race and socioeconomic status is related to where they attend school. The race and socioeconomic aspect of the school also has a greater impact on student achievement that student's race or class.
17. When comparing public and private schools, studies have found that private schools "do it better", especially for low-income students. Private schools enforce discipline that is consistent with student achievement.
18. Gender: Historically speaking, gender was directly related to a person's educational attainment. Women were thought to be less likely to attain the same level of education as men. Today, women are more likely to stay in school and have a higher reading level proficiency than males. Teachers assume that females will not do as well in mathematics because because males are more likely to score higher on SATs than females. However, more females are attending colleges than men. Over the past 20 years, educational attainment between males and females has decreased. Men still have an advantage in terms of competing for prestigious academics. Society also still discriminates women in terms of social and occupational areas.
19. Race: Unfortunately, society is still skewed by race. A person's race has a direct influence on how much education they are likely to achieve. Statistically, minorities do not receive the same educational opportunities as Caucasians, and educational rewards for achievement are drastically less.
20. Impacts on Education
21. Class: Students of different social classes experience different educational experiences. Education is expensive. The amount of books in a family's home reflects the academic achievement of its children. Middle-upper middle class students are more likely to speak Standard English. Teachers think highly of middle-class and upper middle-class students verses working class and lower class children. As a result, children are labeled according to their social class instead of their abilities. Peer groups influence students' attitudes towards learning. There is also a direct correlation between parental income and student's achievement test performance. The higher a person's social class, the more likely upper class and upper middle-class students will enroll in college.
22. Dominant Traditions of Teaching
23. Mimetic Tradition: The purpose of education is to transmit particular knowledge to students.The didactic method relies on lectures or presentations as the basis of communication. The educational process involves the teacher/student relationship and education is a way of transferring knowledge from one person to another. Rational sequencing in the teacher process and assessment of learning process are stressed. Measurable goals and assessments are a key component of teacher education programs that attempt to create a "science of teaching" as the key to increasing educational achievement.
24. Transformative Tradition: The purpose of education is to change the student in an intellectual, creative, spiritual, and emotional way. It has a multidimensional theory of teaching that argues that teaching and learning are inextricably connected. The teaching process involves the didactic method as well as teacher/student conversations that help the student become an important part of the learning process. Teaching starts with active student participation that results in some type of growth. It's harder to assess and measure educational outcomes. It also rejects the scientific model of teaching, and favors an artistic view of teaching.
25. The teacher serves as a facilitator of knowledge instead of the transmitter of knowledge.
26. Relates literacy instruction to the developmental stages and experiences of children.
27. Relates school to life experiences of each child to make education "come alive" in a meaningful way.
28. Teaching is student centered and is concerned with relating the curriculum to children's needs/interests ad specific developmental stages; flexibility in what is taught and how it's taught are stressed that emphasize children's individual student's developmental capacities.
29. Comes from Dewey's writings about the relationship between the child and the curriculum, and Piaget's emphasis on the process of teaching and its content.
30. Focuses on the needs/interests of students
31. Developmentalist Curriculum
32. Conservative View: provide necessary educational training to guarantee that the most talented and hard working people get the necessary tools to increase economic and social productivity. We need to socialize children into particular adult roles to keep social order. School's function as of transferring cultural traditions through curriculum. It's crucial to economic productivity and social stability.
33. Interactional Theories: Relation of school and society are critiques and extensions of both functional and conflict perspectives. Functional and conflict theories are abstract, and focus on structure and process at general level of analysis. This theory attempts to take everyday behaviors and interactions of students with students, and students and teachers. Basil Bernstein believed the educational system and interactional as well as structural aspects of the system have to be viewed holistically. He combined class and interactional analysis by connecting language and educational processes and outcomes.
34. Conflict Theories: Social order is based on the ability of dominant groups to force cooperation and manipulation on subordinate groups. They are designed to increase powerful positions by confirming inequality and unequal distribution of materials and cultural goods as part of the biology/history result. They don't see school and society as straightforward or unproblematic. Schools are "battlefields" where children struggle with teachers, teachers with administrators, etc. with reasons like authority/power of the school vs. achievement ideology. Karl Marx founded the conflict theory of sociology of education. He believed that the class system separated owners and workers creating a constant struggle. Eventually, the proletariat would rebel and overthrow the capitalists and create a new society where individuals wouldn't be alienated from their labor. Max Weber thought power relations between subordinated and dominant groups structured society, and class alone didn't put individuals into hierarchies that were inevitable. Political and military power is used by the state without interfering with classes, and an awareness of bureaucracy becomes the main authority in moderns states and ways of thinking shape educational reforms. Willard Waller thought of schools as needing constant equilibrium. Without vigilance, schools would have anarchy because children are forced to go to school. Randall Collins believed educational expansion could be explained by a status group struggle. Educational credentials are status symbols instead of signs of achievement, and education is used by dominant groups to keep advantageous places for themselves and their offspring within occupation and social structures.
35. Functional Theories: Stresses the independence of the social system and how well the "parts" work together. Society is a "machine" where one part works with another to create the energy society needs to work. Emile Durkheim created the sociology of education in the late 18 and early 1900s. He believed that education needs to create moral unity that's crucial for harmony and social cohesion (moral values).
36. Radical Interpretation
37. Starting in the 1960s, historians like Michael Katz, Joel Spring, and Clarence Karier believe the history of U.S. education has expanded success with very different reasons and results.
38. The educational system expanded to meet the needs of the upper class in society who can control the working class, immigrants, and economic efficiency and productivity.
39. Expanded opportunity didn't get egalitarian results as promised. Instead, each period of educational reform had a greater increase in the educational system by scattering the working class, poor, and minority students getting left out.
40. Placement in higher education systems are based more on race and socioeconomic status.
41. Between 1820 and 1860, the U.S. had numerous changes occur at rapid speed. The Industrial Revolution brought about factory systems with new machinery into urban areas, but the the issue of free public education still remained.
42. Horace Mann led this movement by petitioning for a state board of education. Once the Massachusetts legislature established one in 1837, Mann was named the first secretary and kept the role for 11 years.
43. Mann's annual reports became models for public school reforms across the nation, and he established the first "normal school" for training teachers in Lexington, MA in 1839.
44. He suggested that free public education would address the concern for stability and order, as well as social mobility.
45. Considered by conservatives and liberals as one of America's greatest educational reformers.
46. Common School's Influence
47. 4 Purposes of Schooling
48. The Role of the School
49. Liberal View: balancing the needs of society and the the person that's consistent with a democratic and meritocratic society. Citizens participate in decision making where adult status is based off of merit achievement where all citizens get a fair and equal opportunity for social status, economic wealth, and political power.
50. Radical View: Schools need to eliminate inequalities, and perpetuate society be serving economic wealth, political power, and interest. Schools prepare students from different social backgrounds for different roles in the division of economic labor, and equality of opportunity is an illusion.
51. Intellectual: teach basic cognitive skill (reading,writing, and math); transmit specific knowledge (literature, history, sciences, etc.); help students develop higher-order thinking skills.
52. Political: Display patriotism; prepare students who will participate in political society; help experience diverse cultural groups in political society; and teach students the basics of of law and society.
53. Social: help solve social problems; work as one of various institutions to ensure social cohesion; and socialize children to various roles, behaviors, and values of society (this is key in any society).
54. Economic: prepare students for future occupational roles and select, train, and assign individuals into divisions of labor (the degree varies by society, but still has an indirect school role).
55. Politics of Education
56. History of U.S. Education
57. Curriculum and Pedagogy
58. Equality of Opportunity
59. Educational Inequality
60. Educational Reform
61. Willard Waller states that schools are separate social organizations because: 1) There is a consistent population, 2) There is presence of a clearly defined political structure that is influenced by multiple minor processes, 3) They signify the core of a compact social relationship network, 4)They center around a sense of community, and 5) They have their own culture. *School cultures are vulnerable to disruption which is why authority helps maintain order. The culture of the school is the result of political compromise. The principal is the one who often establishes goals for the school, social and academic expectations, and discipline.
62. Sociologist Max Weber (1976) believed that bureaucracies were an attempt to organize and rationalize human behavior to reach specific goals. The expectations of a bureaucracy are harmful to spontaneity and freedom that is necessary for teachers and students to develop both intellectually and personally. Schools are made up of contradictions that form stagnant and conflictual cultures which is why changing school cultures consists of patience, skill, and good will. * Conflict is a crucial part of change. Changing a school culture to be student centered must have time, effort, knowledge, and good will. Changing a school's culture is like "diverting a river as it flows to the sea" as Waller would say. Overall, educators must be at the beginning of educational change.
63. School Processes and Cultures
64. Local School Board: Fred Williams, Dr. Mark McIlwain, Dr. Troy Youngblood, Dr. Darryl Aikerson, Betsy Gardiner, Buddy Whitlock
65. Local Superintendent: Darryl Aikerson
66. State School Board Representative: Robert J. Bentley
67. State Superintendent: Michael Sentance
68. Tuscumbia City School System
69. House of Representatives: Bradley Byrne (District 1),Martha Roby (District 2),Mike Rogers (District 3), Robert Aderholt (District 4), Mo Brooks (District 5), Gary Palmer (District 6), Teri Sewell (District 7)
70. State Senators: Richard Shelby and Luther Strange
71. Role of the Teacher: Teachers facilitate students by providing encouragement, suggestions, answer and pose questions, and help plan and implement the course of study. They write curriculum and have a knowledge of many disciplines to create and implement the curriculum.
72. Methods of Instruction: Tables and chairs are used to group students when needed. Children can talk with their peers quietly, stand and stretch if needed, and can work independently or in a group. Individualized study, problem solving, and project methods are used.
73. Curriculum: A core or integral curriculum is used in this philosophy. Students investigate subject matter that connect with skills in academic and vocational disciplines. Problems are solved by working from the "known to the unknown". The curriculum changes with the child's needs and interests.
74. Goal of Education: Dewey wanted schools to start with social order and serve as a place where ideas could be put into practice, challenged, and reconstructed to meet the goal of students by gaining knowledge of how to improve social order. He tries to balance the school's role by meeting the needs of the children as well as society. He believed that if children learned democratic values at a young age, then this knowledge would transfer over into adulthood. The overall goal of education is growth.
75. Researchers that influenced Dewey include Francis Bacon, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Bacon emphasized life experiences and is considered a pioneer of the pragmatic school. He stressed inductive reasoning that later became the basis of observational methods in educational research. Locke, however, believed that a child's mind was tabula rosa, or a blank slate that gains knowledge through gaining experience of the world through the five senses. Rousseau believed that people were naturally good and society corrupted them. His main emphasis was place on environment and experience.
76. Generic Notions: Based on new psychology and behaviorism from John Dewey's idea of instrumentalism and experimentalism. His child-centered philosophy vied the school as an "embryonic community" where students can learn skills through experimentation, books, and traditional information. Educators use the child's needs and interests to help the child participate in planning their course of study, use project methods and group learning. The course of study meets different stages of development as the student grows giving the child freedom and responsibility . Schools should resemble communities because children will transition into roles of society to keep democracy in order.
77. Tracking: Tracking is supposed to place students in a curriculum program based off of a child's needs and abilities, however, many studies show that tracking has been based on other criteria such as class or race. Children placed in "high ability" tracks have more time doing reading and learning activities, use more valuable materials, and have better teachers, facilities, and extracurricular activities. Students in "lower tracks" are more alienated and have stricter teachers than "high track" students.
78. Student Peer Groups: 4 types of college students exist. Careerists usually come from middle-upper middle-class backgrounds who got few academic honors, lost confidence in college, and weren't motivated intellectually from their experience. Intellectuals primarily come from educated families who studied humanities, politically involved, and received many academic honors. Strivers come from working-class backgrounds, are an ethnic/racial minority, work hard, typically didn't have a high grade point average, but graduate with a feeling of accomplishment. The Unconnected come from all backgrounds, take part in few extracurricular activities, and are the least satisfied with their college experience.
79. Teacher Behavior: A study by Jackson (1968) found that teachers have an estimated 1,000 interpersonal contacts with their students each day.Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) found that there is a direct link between teacher expectations and student achievement which is a form of a "self-fulfilling prophecy". Persell (1977) discovered that students who were praised more learned more and had higher self-esteem with a teacher whose expectations were high, verses one who had low expectations for minority or working-class students. This may be related to academic grade level failure and future dropout rates.
80. Knowledge and Attitudes: Ron Edmonds is known as the pioneer of effective school movements. He concluded that there is a direct link between the differences in schools is related to different student outcomes, schools that focus on academics have higher learning rates, and schools where children are motivated to take academic subjects show that achievement levels increase. Other studies show that the more education one receives, the more likely they are to take part in activities such as reading books, magazines, politics, etc. Education can be linked to individual well-being, self-esteem, and possess greater knowledge and social activities.
81. Inside the Schools: Bigger schools offer students more facilities, but are more bureaucratic and limit initiative, while smaller schools may have more student/teacher freedom, but lack resources. School curriculum expresses culture, but bias and viewpoints can be a factor as to why not all students study the same curriculum. Curriculum placement in schools has a significant impact on the likeliness of students who attend college.
