2.  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!

3.  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”

4.  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

5.  Education – a social institution through which a society’s 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

6.  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 5 th of 27 countries for college participation but 16 th for those that receive college degrees

7.  In December of 2010, a study showed that the US dropped from 15 th to 25 th 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

8.  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 didn’t 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 it’s below 30%)  This could ultimately effect the US economy and social landscape.

9.  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

10.  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

11.  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

12.  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

13.  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

14.  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

15.  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

16.  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

17.  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

18. Manifest and Latent Function Table Manifest Functions – Openly stated functions with intended goals Latent Functions – Hidden, unstated functions with sometimes unintended consequences SocializationCourtship Transmission of CultureSocial Networks Social ControlWorking in Groups Social PlacementCreation of a Generation Gap Cultural InnovationPolitical and Social Integration

19.  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

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

21.  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 one’s 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

22.  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 culture’s values are rewarded

23.  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

24.  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

25.  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

26.  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

27.  Sees education as one way labeling theory is seen in action; that there’s 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 person’s achieved, thus labeling

28.  Labeling has a significant impact on a student’s schooling  Teachers and powerful social groups within the school dole out labels that are adopted by the entire school population

29.  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 101 st 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”

30.  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

31.  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

32. 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 wouldn’t 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.

33.  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

34. 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.

35. 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.

36. 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.

40.  PA Flowchart for Schools  http://paayp.emetric.net/Content/datafiles/PDE%20A YP%20Flowchart.pdf http://paayp.emetric.net/Content/datafiles/PDE%20A YP%20Flowchart.pdf

41.  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

42.  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 can’t 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

43.  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 don’t 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 you’re gone  Performance at some are fantastic and others are lacking

44.  Teacher Training  Many teachers in the US did not major in the area that they teach (8% of US 4 th 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 didn’t 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

45.  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)

46.  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