1. Schools as Organizations
1.1. Major Stakeholders in Shelby County
1.1.1. State Senators
1.1.1.1. Jefferson Sessions
1.1.1.2. Richard Shelby
1.1.2. House of Reps
1.1.3. state superintendent
1.1.3.1. Tommy Bice
1.1.4. representative on state school board
1.1.4.1. Governor Robert J. Bentley
1.1.5. local superintendent
1.1.5.1. Dorsey E. Hopson
1.1.6. local on school board
1.1.6.1. Chris Caldwell- District 1
1.1.6.2. Teresa Jones-District 2
1.1.6.3. Stephanine P. Love- District 3
1.1.6.4. Kevin D. Woods- District 4
1.1.7. This educational system is a large wealthy one. The majority of this system is made up up of wealthy upperclass males.
2. Sociological Perspectives
2.1. Three effects of schooling on individuals
2.1.1. Teacher Behavior
2.1.1.1. Teachers have a huge impact on student learning and student behavior
2.1.1.2. In a study conducted by Rosenthal and Jacobson teachers expectations of students were found to directly influence student achievement.
2.1.1.3. Labels that teachers apply to students can affect their performance
2.1.1.4. This form of Self fulfilling prophecy indicates that teachers expectations play a major role in encouraging or discouraging students to work to their full potential
2.1.1.5. Persell (1977) found that when teachers demand more from their students and praised them more , students learned more and felt better about themselves
2.1.1.6. Teachers should not be scapegoated for society problems
2.1.2. Gender
2.1.2.1. Men and women do not share equality in the US society.
2.1.2.2. Men are paid more than women
2.1.2.3. It is said that women have lower self esteem, as teachers we want to change this for the students
2.1.2.4. In schools most teachers are females, where most administrators are males
2.1.2.5. Traditionally textbooks have been biased against women
2.1.2.6. Schools are active organizational agents in recreating gender equalites
2.1.3. Employment
2.1.3.1. Most of the time graduating from college will lead to greater employment opportunities
2.1.3.2. In 1986, about 54 percent of the 8 million college graduates in the United States entered professional and technical jobs.
2.1.3.3. Large organizations require high levels of education for white collar, managerial, or administrative jobs.
2.1.3.4. Most research has shown that the amount of education is only weakly related to job performance
2.1.3.5. The economic and social worth of a academic credential can not be fully measured by examining its effects on job performance because academic credentials help individuals to obtain higher status jobs early in their careers, possession of a college degree.
2.1.3.6. According to some research young african american males who are highly educated earn as much as their white counterparts.
3. Philosophy of Education
3.1. Pragmatism
3.1.1. This is viewed as an American philosophy that was discovered later on
3.1.2. The Fonunders of the school are George Pierce, William James, and John Dewy
3.1.2.1. However there are are European philosophers from earlier periods that might also be classified as pragmatist, such as Frances Bacon, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
3.1.2.2. GOAL OF EDUCATION: Dweys vision of school was rooted in the social order; he did not see ideas as separate from social conditions. He viewed the role of the school within the larger societal conditions as just a part.
3.1.2.3. ROLE OF THE TEACHER: The teacher is no longer the teacher is no longer the authoritarian figure where all knowledge flows; rather ,the teacher assumes the peripheral position of the facilitator. The teacher encourages, asks questions, offers suggestions, and helps plan implement courses of study.
3.1.2.4. METHODS OF INSTRUCTION:
3.1.2.4.1. Dewey proposed that children learn both individually and in groups.
3.1.2.4.2. He believed that children should start their mode of inquiry by posing questions about what they want to know
3.1.2.4.3. Today, we refer to this method as problem solving or inquiry method
3.1.2.5. CURRICULUM
3.1.2.5.1. Generally follow Dewey's notion of a core curriculum, or an integrated curriculum.
3.1.2.5.2. Educators are not wedded to a fixed curriculum either; rather, curriculum changes as the social order changes and as childrens interests oand needs
4. Politics of Education
4.1. Conservative Perspective
4.1.1. Its origins applied to the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin.
4.1.2. From this point of view, individuals and groups must compete in the social environment in order to survive.
4.1.3. Human process is dependent on individual initiative and drive.
4.1.4. Another feature is the belief that the free market of capitalism is both the most economically productive economic system and the system that is most respectful of human needs.
4.1.5. The conservative views of social problems places its primary emphasis on the individual and suggests that the individuals have the capacity to earn or not earn their place within a market economy.
4.1.6. Ronald Reagan represented the view point.
4.2. Traditional Vision of Education
4.2.1. Traditional visions tend to view the schools as necessary to the transmission of the traditional values of the U.S. society.
4.2.2. Traditionalist believe that the schools should pass on the best of what was and what is.
4.2.3. School is a preparation for life
4.2.4. Teachers are a source of information and authority
4.2.5. Parents are outsiders and not involved
4.2.6. Knowledge is absorbed through lectures, worksheets, and texts.
4.2.7. Instruction is linear and largely based on correct answers.
4.2.8. Skills are taught discretely and are viewed as goals.
4.2.9. Success is competitively based, derived from recall and memory, and specific to a time/place.
5. History of U.S. Education
5.1. The Age of Reform: The rise of the common school
5.1.1. This is a period from 1820-1860 that historians say an large amount of changes took place
5.1.2. The industrial revolution, which began in the textile industry in England, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and brought its factory system with its new machinery in urban areas.
5.1.3. By 1828, when Andrew Jackson was elected president all men (except slaves and emotionally disturbed persons) had obtained the right to vote.
5.1.4. The struggle for free public education was led by Horace Mann of Massachusetts.
5.1.4.1. Mann created the state board of in education in 1837.
5.1.4.2. He became its first secretary, an office he occupied for 11 years
5.1.5. By 1820 the movement of education for women in the US was making important inroads
5.1.6. In 1821, Emma Hart Willard opened the Troy Seminary
5.1.6.1. In Troy, New York
5.1.6.2. female Seminary
5.1.6.3. studies were math, science, history, and geography
5.2. The Democratic-Liberal School
5.2.1. Demoractic liberals believed that the history of U.S. education involves the progressive evolution
5.2.2. Lawrence A. Cremin , Ellawood Cubberly, Merle Curti have portrayed the Common School Era as a victory for democratic movements
5.2.3. These three people also believed that this is the first step of opening US education to all
5.2.4. Lawrence, in his three volume history of U.S. education and study in the progressive era, portrays the evolution of U.S. education in terms of two related processes: popularization and multitudinous
5.2.5. Cremin wrote a book called "Popular Education and its Discontents"
5.2.6. Historians such as Cremin do not see equity and excellence as inevitability irreconcilable, but rather as tensions between the two, resulting in necessary compromises.
5.2.7. Democratic liberals believed that the U.S. educational system must continue to move closer to each, without sacrificing one or the other too dramatically
6. Curriculum and Pedagogy
6.1. Curriculum Theory
6.1.1. The progressive reform movement
6.1.1.1. Began in the late 1870s with the work o Francis Parker but most identified with John Dewey
6.1.1.2. The book The School and Society is often credited with starting the movement
6.1.1.3. Dewey described curriculum as "a map, a summary, an arranged and orderly view of previous experiences, serves as a guide to future experience
6.1.1.4. Tyler Rationale Theory
6.1.1.4.1. 1. What educational purposes should the school seek to attain?
6.1.1.4.2. 2. What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain these purposes?
6.1.1.4.3. How can these educational experiences be effectively organized?
6.1.1.4.4. How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained?
6.2. sociological curriculum theory
6.2.1. The Herbartians
6.2.1.1. organized the Herbert club later called the National Herbart Society
6.2.1.2. Based on the thoughts of Johann Frederich Herbart
6.2.1.3. Herbert believed that "the mere memorizing of isolated facts, which had characterized school instruction for ages, had little value of either educational or moral ends
7. Equality of Opportunity
7.1. Students with special needs
7.1.1. Parents argued that their children were not treated as an individual
7.1.2. In 1975, Congress passed the Education of all Handicapped Children Law
7.1.2.1. Included these 6 principles
7.1.2.1.1. 1. the right of access to public education programs
7.1.2.1.2. 2. the individualization of services
7.1.2.1.3. 3. the principle of " least restrictive environment"
7.1.2.1.4. 4. the scope of broadened services to be provided by the schools and a set of procedures for determining them
7.1.2.1.5. 5. the general guidelines for identifying disability
7.1.2.1.6. 6. the principles of primary state and local responsiblites
7.1.3. In the late 1980s, critics of special education pushed the regular education initiative
7.1.4. Today the field of education still remains a conflict
7.1.5. What is needed is a flexible system that provides appropriate placements for students with special needs
7.2. The Collman Study
7.2.1. In finally terms this study shows that differences among schools do make a difference
7.2.2. many of these beliefs are still at debate
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. One sociological explanation of unequal achievement
8.1.1. Functionalist
8.1.1.1. They believe that the role of schools is to provide a fair and meritocratic selection process for sorting out the best and brightest individuals.
8.1.1.2. The vision of just society is one where individual talent and hard work based on universal principles of evaluation are more important than ascriptive characteristics based on particularistic methods of evaluation
8.1.1.3. Expect that the schooling process will produce unequal results
8.1.1.4. Believe that unequal educational outcomes are the result, in part, of unequal, educational opportunities
8.1.1.5. It is imperative to understand the sources of educational inequality so as to ensure the elimination of structural barriers to educational success and to provide all groups a fair chance to compete in the educational marketplace
8.1.1.6. Both Functionalist and conflict theorist agree that understanding educational inequality is a difficult task
8.2. One school centered explanation
8.2.1. School financing
8.2.1.1. Jonathan Kozol compared public schools in affluent suburbs with public schools in poor inner cites.
8.2.1.1.1. He documented the vast differences in funding between affluent and poor districts and called for equalization in school financing
8.2.1.2. As data indicated significant differences between affluent suburban and poorer urban districts remain, with New York City schools receiving less than $21,00o per student
8.2.1.3. Public schools are financed through a combination of revenues from local, state, and federal sources
8.2.1.4. The majority of funds come from state a local taxes, with local property taxes a significant source
8.2.1.5. Property taxes are based off of value of property in local communities and therefore is a proportional tax
8.2.1.6. This unequal funding has been the subject of considerable legal attack by communities that argue that funding based on local property taxes is discriminatory under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and denies equality of opportunity
9. Education Reform
9.1. Charter Schools
9.1.1. state legislated charter law in Minnesota in 1991 has spawned enactment of charter laws in 41 states
9.1.2. The movement has produced nearly 3,700 charter schools nationwide
9.1.3. States are responding to this demand by authorizing more charters and amending charter laws to accommodate the desire for growth, while other states without charter laws consider their enactment
9.1.4. Charter schools are public schools that are free from many of the relations applied to traditional public schools
9.1.5. A charter school is paid for with tax dollars and must open to all students in the school district
9.1.6. Proponents of charter schools have long argued that they provide a more effective and efficient alternative for low income children
9.2. School Finance Reforms
9.2.1. Following the Supreme Courts decision which declared there is no constitutional right to an equal education.
9.2.2. The court ruled in 1990, stating that more funding was needed to serve the children in the poorer school districts
9.2.3. In 1998, the state was required to implement a package of supplemental programs, including preschool, as well as a plan to renovate urban school facilities
9.2.4. Other supplemental programs included social services, increased security, a technology alternative education, school-to-work, after-school, and summer school programs.
9.2.5. In 2009, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled as constitutional a new funding formula, SFRA
9.2.6. Thus eliminated the Abbott remedies and implemented a formula for allocating funding to all districts based on students needs