Chapter 17 Education

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Chapter 17Education
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Section 1 Introduction to Education

• Education begins as an informal process where an
  infant watches others and imitates them
• As a child grows, the educational process becomes
  more formal play dates and pre-school
• Grade school academic lessons become the focus
  of education
• It is much more than simply learning facts!

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• The education system socializes us to our society
• We learn cultural expectations and norms which
  are reinforced by our teachers, textbooks and
  classmates
• This can be an issue with students that are not
  part of the dominant culture
• Learning multiplication tables as well as taking
  turns and saying please and thank you

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• Schools can be agents of change
• Teaching students to think outside of the family
  norms
• Can broaden horizons and help break the cycles of
  poverty and racism
• Schools can also be criticized
• Not producing the test results and numbers
• Letting students slip through the cracks
• Letting students drop out
• Sociologists understand education to be both a
  social problem and social solution

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Section 2 Education around the world

• Education a social institution through which a
  societys children are taught basic academic
  knowledge, learning skills and social norms
• Every nation in the world is has some form,
  although they vary widely
• Wealth of a nation has a lot to do with how much
  money is spent on education
• Worldwide educational inequality is a social
  concern for many countries, including the US

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• There are many differences in international
  educational systems besides financial
• The value placed on education
• The amount of time devoted to it
• The distribution of education within a country
• Examples
• 220 school days in South Korea compared to 180 in
  the US
• US ranks 5th of 27 countries for college
  participation but 16th for those that receive
  college degrees

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• In December of 2010, a study showed that the US
  dropped from 15th to 25th in rankings for science
  and math. Shanghai, Finland, Hong Kong and
  Singapore led the world
• Why? They had clearly established standards for
  education with clear goals for the students
• They recruited the top 5 to 10 percent of
  university students that graduated with education
  degrees

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• Social Factors
• Another study attributed 20 of the performance
  differences and the United States low ranking
  due to differences in social background
• Money and quality teachers are not distributed
  equally in the US
• Access to limited resources didnt affect
  students in Shanghai or Singapore (where 70 of
  those who achieved at a higher level than
  expected due to their social background) like
  they do in the US (where its below 30)
• This could ultimately effect the US economy and
  social landscape.

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Section 2.1 Formal and Informal education

• Formal education learning of academic facts and
  concepts through formal curriculum
• US educational system is considered a right and
  responsibility for all citizens
• Focuses on formal education, with curricula and
  testing designed to ensure that students learn
  the facts and concepts that society believes are
  basic knowledge

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• Informal education learning about cultural
  values, norms and expected behaviors by
  participating in society
• Occurs both in the formal education system and at
  home
• Starts with parents, relatives, and others in the
  community
• Learning to dress for different occasions,
  performing regular life routines like shopping
  for and preparing foods, personal hygiene

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• Cultural transmission the way that people come
  to learn the values, beliefs and social norms of
  their culture
• Both formal and informal education include this
• Students learn cultural aspects of modern history
  in a US History classroom and at the same time
  learn the cultural norm for asking a classmate
  out on a date through passing notes and whispered
  conversations

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Section 2.2 Access to Education

• A big concern that is universal is the idea that
  education is universal access to education that
  everyone has an equal ability to participate in
  an educational system
• Can be difficult based on class or gender, race
  and disability
• Supported in the United States through federal
  and state governments covering the cost of free,
  public education
• Issues then evolve out of school budgets and
  taxes on the national, state and community levels

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Section 3 Theoretical Perspectives on education

• Functionalists believes that education equips
  people to perform different functional roles in
  society
• Conflict theorists view education as a means of
  widening the gap in social inequality
• Feminist theorists point to evidence that
  sexism in education continues to prevent women
  from achieving a full measure of social equality
• Symbolic interactionists study the dynamics of
  the classroom, the interactions between students
  and teachers, and how those affect everyday life

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Section 3.1 Functionalism

• Functionalism view education as one of the more
  important social institutions in society
• Feel education contributes 2 kinds of functions
• Manifest (primary) intended and visible
  functions of education
• Latent (secondary) hidden and unintended
  functions

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• Manifest functions
• Socialization starts in pre-school and
  kindergarten
• Students taught to practice various societal
  roles
• How to get along and become prepared for adult
  economic roles
• Learning the rules and norms of society as a
  whole
• Used to learn just the dominant culture
• Now because of our diversity, they learn a
  variety of cultural norms
• Social control a core value of the US
• Teach conformity to law and respect for authority
• Respect to teachers and administrators helps them
  navigate through the school enviroment

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• Also prepares students to enter the workplace and
  world at large where they will be subjected to
  people who hold authority over them
• Fulfillment of this function rests with educators
  and instructors/aides who are with the students
  all day
• Social placement major methods used by people
  for upward social mobility
• College and graduate schools are viewed as
  vehicles for moving students closer to careers
  that will give them financial freedom and
  security
• Increases student motivation (especially in
  college)
• Can be dependent on specific courses

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• Latent Functions
• Things that go on in school that has little to do
  with formal education
• Courtship/dating
• Social networks
• Becoming easier to maintain with sites like
  Facebook and LinkedIn
• The ability to work within small groups
• Transferable to the workplace
• May not be learned in a homeschool setting
• Learning about social issues
• More at the college level social and political
  advocacy, tolerance for other viewpoints

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• Manifest and Latent Function Table

Manifest Functions Openly stated functions with intended goals Latent Functions Hidden, unstated functions with sometimes unintended consequences
Socialization Courtship
Transmission of Culture Social Networks
Social Control Working in Groups
Social Placement Creation of a Generation Gap
Cultural Innovation Political and Social Integration
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• Functionalist recognize other ways that schools
  educate and enculturate students
• Teaching individualism the valuing of the
  individual over the value of the groups or
  society as a whole
• Japan and China teach the good of the group over
  the rights of the individual the US teaches that
  the highest rewards go to the best individual in
  academics and athletics
• Foster self-esteem
• Japan focuses on fostering social esteem, the
  group over the individual
• Prepares students for competition in life
• Teaching patriotism

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• Most recently, school have taken over some
  traditional family functions
• Teaching human sexuality
• Budgeting
• Job applications and resumes

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Section 3.2 Conflict Theory

• Conflict theorists do not believe that schools
  reduce social inequality
• They believe it reinforces and perpetuates them
  as they arise from class, gender, race and
  ethnicity
• View education serving a more negative role
• Educational systems preserve the status quo and
  push people of lower status into obedience
• Fulfillment of ones education is closely linked
  to social class
• Students of lower socioeconomic status are not
  afforded the same opportunities as those students
  of high status, regardless of their academic
  ability or desire to learn

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• They may lack motivation, guidance or support at
  home
• Be without the proper tools at home internet,
  computer, printer
• Goes hand in hand with the traditional curriculum
  that is more easily understood and completed by
  students of higher social classes
• Leads to social class reproduction
• Cultural capital cultural knowledge that serves
  as currency to help one navigate a culture
• More cultural capital is found with upper and
  middle social classes than within families of
  lower
• Educational systems thus maintain a cycle in
  which the dominant cultures values are rewarded

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• Instruction and tests cater to the dominant
  culture, leaving others to struggle to identify
  values and competencies outside their class
• SAT tests do they measure natural intelligence
  or cultural ability?
• The cycle of rewarding those that possess
  cultural capital is also found in hidden
  curriculum (nonacademic knowledge that one learns
  through informal learning and cultural
  transmission)
• Reinforces the positions of those with higher
  cultural capital and bestows status unequally
• Tracking a formalized sorting system that
  places students on tracks
• Perpetuates inequalities
• Leads to self-fulfilling prophecies where
  students live up or down to teacher/societal
  expectations

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• Schools play the role of training working class
  students to accept and retain their position as
  lower members of society
• This role is fulfilled through the disparity of
  resources available to students in richer and
  poorer neighborhoods as well as through testing
• IQ tests, like the SAT tests, are attacked as
  being biased, testing cultural knowledge rather
  than actual intelligence
• Another way that education does not provide
  opportunities but instead maintain an established
  configuration of power

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Section 3.3 Feminist Theory

• Aims to understand the mechanisms and roots of
  gender inequality in education and their social
  repercussions
• Educational systems are characterized by unequal
  treatment and opportunity for women
• Almost 2/3 of the 862,000,000 illiterate people
  are women
• In America, women have been granted (albeit a
  little late) entry to the public education system
• Title IX of the Education Amendments in 1972
  prevents discrimination on the basis of sex in US
  education programs
• Runs education, as well as, sports

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• Post-education gender disparity between what male
  and female graduates earn
• A May 2011 study showed men made 5000 more than
  women on average
• Women made .77 cents to every male 1
• Trends among salaries of professionals in
  virtually all industries
• The capacity for women to achieve equal rights
  are directly correlated to their opportunities
  for education

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Section 3.5 Symbolic Interactionism

• Sees education as one way labeling theory is seen
  in action that theres a direct correlation to
  those who are in power and those who are labeled
• Low standardized test scores or poor performance
  often lead to a student being labeled a low
  achiever can create a self-fulfilling prophecy
• Credentialism embodies the emphasis on
  certificates or degrees to show a person has a
  certain skill, has attained a certain level of
  education or met certain job qualifications
• Serve as a symbol of what a persons achieved,
  thus labeling

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• Labeling has a significant impact on a students
  schooling
• Teachers and powerful social groups within the
  school dole out labels that are adopted by the
  entire school population

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Section 4 Issues in Education

• Equal Education
• 1954 Brown v. Board of Education (Topeka, Kansas)
• State laws that established separate schools for
  black and white students (under the idea of
  separate but equal) were unequal and
  unconstitutional
• 1957, Arkansas, the governor used the state
  National Guard to prevent black students from
  entering Little Rock Central High School
• President Eisenhower sent in members of the 101st
  Airborne Division to uphold the students right to
  enter the school
• 1963, Alabama, governor George Wallace stood in
  the doorway of the University of Alabama to keep
  2 black students from entering to enroll in
  school said Wallace segregation now,
  segregation tomorrow, segregation forever

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• President Kennedy sent in the Alabama National
  Guard to apply his order
• Still remains a gap in the equality of education
  that all races and ethnicities receive
• Students from wealthy families and those of lower
  socioeconomic status do not receive the same
  opportunities
• The public school system today is mandated to
  accept and retain all students regardless of
  race, religion, social class, etc, and are held
  accountable to equitable per-student spending
• Private schools are usually only accessible to
  students from high-income families and schools in
  more affluent areas tend to enjoy access to
  greater resources and better opportunities
• Some key predictors for student performance
  include socioeconomic status and family
  background

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• Children from families of lower socioeconomic
  status tend to enter school with learning
  deficits they struggle to overcome
• Coleman Report of 1966
• There is a great divide in the performance of
  white students from affluent backgrounds and
  their non-white, less affluent counterparts.
• Head Start
• The Coleman Report brought 2 major changes to
  education Head Start and busing
• Head Start is a federal program that is designed
  to give low-income students an opportunity to
  make up the pre-school deficit
• Provides academic-centered preschool to students
  of low socioeconomic status

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• Busing
• Less successful than Head Start, subject to
  controversy
• Courts were ordering some school districts
  throughout the country (to further desegregate
  education) to bring students to schools (they
  normally wouldnt attend) outside their
  neighborhoods to bring racial diversity into
  balance
• Met with lots of public resistance, both sides
  were dissatisfied with white students traveling
  to inner city schools and minority students being
  transported to schools in the suburbs.

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• No Child Left Behind
• 2001, Bush administration, requires states to
  test students in designated grades
• Results of the tests determine eligibility to
  receive federal funding
• Schools that do not meet the standards set by the
  Act run the risk of having their funding cut
• Far more negative than positive, according to
  sociologists and teachers, one size fits all does
  not apply to education
• Designed to raise expectations and knowledge to
  compete with the rest of the world in education
  and in turn, with jobs
• Schools must meet AYP

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• What are the measures for School AYP?
• Attendance or Graduation Rate
• The Attendance goal is 90, or a target of any
  improvement from the previous year.
• Attendance applies to schools that do not have a
  high school graduating class, and the rate is
  based on the entire school.
• The Graduation Rate measure has a goal of 85, or
  a 10 reduction of the difference between the
  previous year's graduation rate and 85.
• The Graduation Rate applies to schools that have
  a high school graduating class and every
  measurable subgroup. Graduates are the number of
  students graduating in four years with a regular
  diploma. Cohort is described as first time
  entering 9th graders four years earlier plus
  transfers in over four years minus transfers
  out over four years. The graduation rate for any
  year is the number of graduates divided by the
  cohort for that year multiplied by 100.

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• Achieving Proficiency (Academic Performance)
• The PA state goals for this school year (2011-12)
  are 78 of students scoring at Proficient or
  higher in Mathematics and 81 of students scoring
  at Proficient or higher in Reading.
• In 2013, these goals will increase to 89 of
  students scoring at Proficient or higher in
  Mathematics and 91 of students scoring at
  Proficient or higher in Reading.
• These percentages will increase gradually until
  the year 2014 when the goal will be set at 100
  of students scoring at Proficient or higher in
  Mathematics and Reading.
• NCLB allows schools to meet their performance
  measure by "Safe Harbor". Safe Harbor states that
  if a school achieves a 10 decrease of students
  who scored below Proficient from the previous
  year, it meets the AYP target for performance.
• The performance rate is based on only those
  students enrolled for the full academic year
  (enrolled as of October 1, 2011), who completed
  the test, and who are not first year "English
  Language Learners" students.

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• Taking the Test (Test Participation)
• At least 95 of students overall and within each
  subgroup must take the test.
• The participation rate is based on those students
  enrolled as of the last day of the assessment
  window (March 30, 2012), regardless of whether or
  not those students were enrolled for a full
  academic year.

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• PA Flowchart for Schools
• http//paayp.emetric.net/Content/datafiles/PDE20A
  YP20Flowchart.pdf

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• Teaching to the test
• NCLB Act has led to a social phenomenon known as
  teaching to the test where a curriculum focuses
  on equipping students to succeed on standardized
  tests to the detriment of broader educational
  goals and concepts of learning
• 2 approaches to classroom education
• Teachers impart knowledge that students are
  obligated to absorb (lecture, memorization, lower
  level thinking skills)
• Student centered learning that seeks to teaching
  students problem solving abilities and learning
  skills (higher level thinking skills)
• The first only equips students to spit back out
  the facts, while the second fosters lifelong
  learning and transferable work skills

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• Bilingual Education
• Attempts to give equal opportunity to minority
  students through offering instruction in
  languages other than English
• (Mandated by the federal government in 1968)
• Argued by supporters that all students deserve
  equal opportunities in education (opportunities
  that some cant access without instruction in
  their native language)
• Argued by opponents that the need for English
  fluency in everyday life and the professional
  world and thus they need to learn the language
  also an extra, unnecessary expense for the school
  districts

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• Charter Schools
• Self-governing public schools with signed
  agreements with state governments to improve
  students when poor performance is revealed on
  tests required by NCLB
• The same rules that apply to regular schools
  dont necessarily apply to charters they make
  agreements to achieve specific results
• Part of the public school system, free to attend,
  some have lotteries for positions while others
  pick and choose
• Some specialize in specific fields like the arts
  and sciences
• Most are at-will employers for teachers, make the
  grade and standards, you keep your job, if not
  youre gone
• Performance at some are fantastic and others are
  lacking

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• Teacher Training
• Many teachers in the US did not major in the area
  that they teach (8 of US 4th grade math teachers
  majored or minored in math, compared to 48 in
  Singapore)
• Students in disadvantaged schools are 77 more
  likely to be educated by a teacher who didnt
  specialize in the subject matter than students in
  affluent areas
• Offers the debate of where teacher training and
  education lies pedagogy and effective strategies
  vs. subject matter teaching degrees vs. degrees
  in the subject matter

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• Social Promotion
• Passing students to the next grade regardless of
  their meeting standards for that grade
• Affirmative Action
• Relating to the admittance of college students
• Rising Student Loan Debt
• Debts of students average 25,250 upon graduation
• Jobs are scarce
• 1 in 7 student loans are in default, about 52
  billion
• 39 million student borrowers carry approximately
  1,000,000,000,000 in federal student debt (not
  including private loans)

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• Home Schooling
• Students being educated in their homes, usually
  by a parent
• Provides great opportunity for student-centered
  learning while not having to deal with the
  negatives in school environments parents know
  their children best
• Opponents say that students miss out on social
  development that takes place education is a
  complex task and requires a degree
• 50 of homeschoolers cite the belief that they
  can give a better education, just under 40 cite
  religion as a reason
• There have been consensus agreements on
  evaluating the success or lack of success in
  homeschooling