1. Politics of Education
1.1. Purposes of Schooling
1.1.1. Intellectual
1.1.1.1. This purpose is to teach basic cognitive skills, to transmit knowledge, and to help students with higher-order thinking skills.
1.1.2. Political
1.1.2.1. This purpose is to inculcate allegiance to the existing political order, to prepare citizens who will participate in this order, to help bring together different cultural groups into a common political order, and to teach children the basic laws of society.
1.1.3. Social
1.1.3.1. This purpose is to help solve social problems, to work as one of many institutions, to ensure social cohesion, and to socialize children into various roles, behaviors, and values of the society.
1.1.4. Economical
1.1.4.1. This purpose to prepare students for their future occupation.
1.2. Perspectives of Education
1.2.1. Conservative
1.2.1.1. Believes that individuals must compete in the social environment to survive, that the role of the school is to provide a competitive environment for the most talented and hard-working students so as to maximize economical and social productivity, that the school should be designed to allow the students a chance to succeed and if they don't then they are deficient in some manner, that the problems in education are the decline of standards, literacy, values, authority. They believe that schools should return to basics, traditional academic curriculum, and introduce accountability measures. They also believe that privatization of schools the answer for reform. Their stance on the American Dream is that things were working fine up until the 60's, why change the competitive classroom the educated those that are capable.
1.2.2. Traditional
1.2.2.1. Hard work individual initiative, family unity
1.2.3. Liberal
1.2.3.1. They are concerned with equality and balancing the productivity of capitalism with the social and economic needs of the people. They believe in training and socializing the function of the school by ensuring that all students have an equal opportunity to succeed in society, that students begin school with different life chances which give some groups an advantage over others which results in underachievement by poor and minority children. They think the focus placed on discipline and authority has limited the role of helping students, that reform would bring quality with equality of opportunity for disadvantage of opportunity, balance traditions with cultural diverse society, set acceptable performance standards, and improve failing schools. The American Dream is along the lines of Social and political rather than economics.
1.2.4. Progressive
1.2.4.1. Solving social problems, development of individuals and democratic society
1.2.5. Radical
1.2.5.1. They suggest that capitalist systems produce fundamental contradictions that will lead to the transformation of socialism, that we should remove inequality for the system, that equal opportunity is an illusion in our current system, that students from lower economical backgrounds are at a disadvantage but that it is not the fault of the system but yet the economy, and that the problems in education are that it promotes inequality of both opportunity and result for the poor and minorities with sexiest, racist, classist, and homophobic policies. They don't believe that education reform alone will solve problems. They think that school decentralization, school-based management, and that teachers should be empowered. They believe that schools have not been successful in providing equal opportunity.
1.2.6. Neo-liberal
1.2.6.1. This is a combination of the conservative and liberal perspectives. They believe we can cut spending for education and get the same results that we have been, that free market solves social problems better than government, they support charter schools, that the results or outcomes for individuals are measured by their own effort, that the state should intervene when schools are failing,
2. History of U.S. Education
2.1. Rise of Common School
2.1.1. Led by Horace Mann pushing for free public education. This showed a concern for stability and social mobility. These beliefs are responsible for the faith and support many people give to U.S. public schools.
2.2. The Radical Revisionist School
2.2.1. While acknowledging educational expansionist, they suggest that this would benefit the elites more than the masses and it did not produce equal opportunity or results.
3. Sociological Perspectives
3.1. Theoretical Perspectives
3.1.1. Functional Theories
3.1.1.1. School and society- Theory that social system of the country is like a machine with each member being a part to contribute to the machine as a whole.
3.1.2. Conflict Theories
3.1.2.1. Schooling and society- When society is not defined by a shared value system but an entity in power imposing their beliefs and values on citizens.
3.1.3. Interactional Theories
3.1.3.1. Schooling and society- Idea that a closer look needs to be taken at the interactions between student-student and student- teacher as well as practices regarding how students are dispersed.
3.2. Effects of Schooling on Individuals
3.2.1. Inadequate Schools
3.2.1.1. Inadequate schools reproduce inequalities. Those attending private and suburban schools get a better educational experience.
3.2.2. Tracking
3.2.2.1. Track placement directly affects cognitive development. Students in higher tracks get better teachers and a better experience than those in the lower tracks.
3.2.3. Teacher Behavior
3.2.3.1. Teachers wear many different hats. Having to do so may lead to what is called role strain were teachers become burned-out. Teachers have a great influence on students' performance by self-fulfilling prophecy. Research has shown that students' success can be directly related to teacher expectations.
3.2.4. Student Peer Groups and Allenation
3.2.4.1. The founders; George Sanders Pierce, William James, and John Dewey. Comes from the word Pragma which means to work. It encourages individuals to find processes that work in order to achieve their desired end. Dewey's form of pragmatism is meant to attain a better society through education through an "embryonic community were kids learn from books and from experiments. He advocated both freedom and responsibility for students since those are vital components of democratic living. His vision of schools was rooted in the social order. Dewey says the role of the school is to integrate children into a democratic society by being the central institution for societal and personal growth. In a progressive classroom the teacher's role is no longer that of an authoritarian, but more like a facilitator. The method of instruction is called problem-solving (or inquiry method) were the students learn by asking a question and find answers together in groups as well as individually. Progressive schools use Dewey's idea of core curriculum. The curriculum changes as the social order and student's interest change.
3.2.4.2. The culture of the staff is in conflict with the student culture which can lead to conflict and alienation. Some believe that the violence in schools is brought about by teachers being underpaid and oversized class sizes, but this cannot be true due to the fact that teachers used to make a lot less and have larder class sizes.There are four major subcultures Careerists, Intellectuals, Strivers, and Unconnected. Student cultures play an important role in shaping students' educational experience.
3.2.5. Employment
3.2.5.1. Research has shown large organizations require high-level of education for managerial jobs, but that the amount of education is weakly related to job performance. Employers expect employees to have formal education, but education does not explain the differences in levels of income.
4. Philosophy of Education
4.1. Pragmatism
5. Schools as Organizations
5.1. Stakeholders
5.1.1. Local - Cullman County Schools
5.1.1.1. Superintendent: Shane Barnette
5.1.1.2. Board Members: Wayne Myrex, Chris Carter, Jason Speele, Kenny Brockman, Heath Allbright, Mike Graves, and Gene Sullins.
5.1.2. State - Alabama
5.1.2.1. Superintendent: Mike Sentance
5.1.2.2. District 6 School Board Representative: Dr. Cynthia Sanders McCarthy
5.1.2.3. District 12 House of Representatives: Corey Harbison
5.1.2.4. Senator: Paul Bussman
5.2. Elements of Change
5.2.1. School Cultures and Processes: -When changing the culture of the school, you have to make the school more learner-centered.This requires more planning and energy on behalf of the teacher. Trust between everyone is essential. -Conflict is necessary. It brings to light problems and issues within a school so that a solution can be found. You can't fix a problem if you do not know it exists. -Communication and trust are vital for creating changed behaviors with a school. -Decision-making must involve the entire school so that everyone shares involvement in the process of change.
6. Curriculum and Pedagogy
6.1. Curriculum Theory
6.1.1. Social Meliorist Curriculum
6.1.1.1. Schools should change society.
6.1.1.2. Schools should at least help solve fundamental problems
6.1.1.3. Curriculum should teach students to think.
6.2. Dominant Traditions of Teaching
6.2.1. Mimetic Tradition
6.2.1.1. based on the transmission of specific knowledge
6.2.1.2. Lecture of main form of communication
6.2.1.3. important for sequencing i teaching process
6.2.2. Transformative Tradition
6.2.2.1. The learner is transformed after learning the content
6.2.2.2. more multi-dimensional theory of teaching
6.2.2.3. reject authoritarian relationship between teacher and student
7. Equality of Opportunity
7.1. Class: Studies have shown a direct correlation between achievement and social class. From parental academic achievement to peer influence, getting labeled by teachers for use of class-based dialect to how many books can be found in the household, class plays a major role in the academic outcome for students.
7.2. Race: Race has been found to have a direct impact on how much education one is to receive. This evidence points to the reason why minorities score lower on the SAT and consequently do not benefit from the same post-secondary opportunities as white students.
7.3. Gender: In the last 20 year gender differences have been reduced to the point that policy makers have come to identify what is known as the "boy problem." Male seem to maintain a hold on the subject of mathematics, but seem to be outdone by females in other subjects. Still yet, there are questions as to why there remains unequal opportunities for females in post-secondary education and occupations.
7.4. Coleman study from 1982
7.4.1. Response One: Jencks found that the estimated yearly increment attributed to Catholic schools was small, stating that the differences may be statistically significant, but the differences in learning are minimal.
7.4.2. Response Two: Other studies, such as Chubb and Moe, discovered that Catholic schools have certain organizational characteristics that are related to student outcomes.
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. Student-Centered Explanations focus on the individual student and their family, peers, and community. Dougherty, Hammack, and Hurn conducted research that supported a difference in educational outcome based on an individual's intelligence and effort. This explanation argues that differences are created by genetics which can be attributed partly to Jensen's work that states that programs geared towards changing social and environmental factors are "doomed to fail" because the root of the problem is genetics, and cultural deprivation popularized in the 60's which exclaims that non-white and working-class families lack the cultural resources to promote academic achievement. Deustch echoed these thoughts with his research in 1964.
8.2. School-Centered Explanations focus on the teachers and their approach, and the administration within a school. These differences are comprised of faculty expectations and leadership, school funding, student monitoring, and flexibility for teachers combined with a great deal of instruction time.
9. Educational Reform
9.1. School Based Reforem
9.1.1. School-Business Partnership-This was formed because of a fear that the US was not providing graduates to revitalize the economy. School-business partnerships were formed but there is little evidence that they have improved schools or the economy.
9.1.2. School-to-Work Programs were worked into the schools in the 1990s. This was intended to put importance on vocational education and non-college-bound students regarding skills for employment and stressed the importance of work based learning. The School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 was signed to help with funding of vocational education. Every state created a school-to-work program.
9.2. Societal, Community, Economic, and Political Reforms
9.2.1. Full Service and Community School
9.2.1.1. These schools focus on not only the whole child but also the whole community. Schools serve as a community center for neighborhoods that are open longer hours to provide services such as adult education, health clinics, recreation facilities, after school programs, mental health series, drug and alcohol programs, job placement and training programs, and tutoring services. These schools were designed to help improve at-risk neighborhoods.
9.2.2. School Finance Reforms
9.2.2.1. This was a reform to equalize urban and suburban school systems by providing additional programs in order to eliminate disadvantages. They did this by implementing supplemental programs, including preschools, renovation facilities, and equalizing funding.