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Wk
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Topic
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Assignment
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| 1 | Introduction/overview
of the Course BCAP Process Student Teaching Process Defining the Teaching Profession |
Orientation Form |
| 2 | The Teaching
Profession The American School |
Schultz: Ch 28,
34, 35, and 37 |
| 3 | Social/Cultural
Foundations The American School |
Schultz:
Ch 9, 10, 11, and 12 Dewey: Progressive Education |
| 4 |
Social/Cultural
Foundations |
Schultz:
Ch 15, 16, 17, and 25 |
| 5 | Purposes
of Schools Purposes of Curriculum Curriculum and Instruction |
Schultz:
Ch 2, 7, 8, and 13 Apple: Reproduction, Contestation, and Curriculum |
| 6 | Organization
of Schools Role of Federal, State, and Local Entities |
Schultz:
Ch 14, 26, 27, and 29 Illich: Deschooling Society In-class reflection paper |
| 7 | Organization
of Schools Students Rights and Responsibilities Public-School Board Meeting Paper |
Schultz:
Ch 4. 6. 9, and 33 Darling-Hammond: Restructuring Schools for Students Success |
| 8 | Organization
of Schools Funding Education |
Schultz:
Ch 22, 23, 24, and 31 Kozol: Savage Inequalities/Amazing Grace In-class reflection paper |
| 9 | The School
Community Schools and the Child Observation and Participation Report |
Schultz:
Ch 1, 3, 5, and 21 Lareau: The Importance of Cultural Capital |
| 10 | Educational
Reforms Effective Classrooms Newspaper File |
Schultz:
Ch 38, 39, and 40 Freire: Pedagogy of the Oppressed |
Acknowledgements: The following sources were extensively used in the development
of this outline and attached notes:
Apple, M. Education and Power
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Segall, W. and Wilson, A. Introduction to Education, Teaching in a Diverse
Society
The American School: 1642 - 1996; Spring, Joel.
Becoming a Teacher
Motivations
Beginning teachers Huberman, Grounauer, and Martu (1993)
found that individuals go into teaching for several reasons, among them: 1.
(Born to teach) Interested in working with children, or they wanted to share
their love of subject matter or knowledge. Their primary motivation was to
help others. 2. Success as educational aide, volunteer, or substitute teacher.
3. They feel that as children they were not taught well, and now they want
to make a difference. 4. They want to control others.
Teaching as a Career
Intrinsic Rewards
1) Allow you to share in your students excitement as
they learn.
2) Ask students to come up with their own list of intrinsic rewards.
Extrinsic Rewards
Salaries and fringe benefits. Tenure and job security. Free time. Freedom
to express creativity. Independence and authority
Stress and Burnout
42% of teachers will leave the profession within the first ten years of teaching.
Of course, a very large number of these stay in the profession as administrators,
resource teachers, consultants, specialists, etc. Most teachers who leave
teach Language arts or Social Studies.
Reasons for leaving include 1. Stress within the classroom, or complications
in their personal lives. 2. Personal problems such as divorce or illness within
the family. Erosion of intrinsic or extrinsic rewards. 3. Burnout
What is Teaching?
Teaching is a profession where you interact daily with children, parents,
and society. Teaching is more than delivering curriculum according to standards,
frameworks, and standardized programs. Teaching is a calling, an art.
Teaching as a Skill/Art
Form
Teaching is more than a structured activity that follows certain prescribed
steps and results in children learning. Teaching is an art that requires teachers
to be willing to extemporize, to experiment using different strategies and
methods. Teaching an as art requires allowing students to share responsibility
for their learning.
The Need for Teachers
There are currently 2.9 million public and non-public school teachers (2.7
million public school teachers). The average age of the classroom teacher
is 40. Three fourths are female; 87% are white, 7% are African American, 4%
are Hispanic, 1% Native American, and 1% Native American. It is projected
that we will need 3.4 million teachers by 2006. However, since education depends
on the state for funding, the need for teachers often clashes with budgetary
realities.
Increasing
Number of Students
There has been a net increase in the number of students. The number of students
will grow from about 53.7 million today to about 54.6 million by 2006. However,
the student-teacher ration has fallen in the last ten years.
Increased Diversity
Although there is increased diversity in the student body, the number of teachers
from minority background has actually decreased. In 1970 more than 12% of
the nations teachers were minorities. By the year 2000 that number was
only 5%, while minority students made up 34% of the student population.
Current
Teaching Force
Characteristics: Overall, 41 percent of teachers at public schools hold a
master's degree, compared with 30 percent at private schools. Public and private
school teachers in the Northeast are more likely to hold master's degrees
than their peers in other regions. Public schools with low minority enrollments
(less than 10 percent) and schools with low percentages of students eligible
for free or reduced-price lunch (less than 15 percent) both have higher percentages
of teachers with master's degrees than those with high minority enrollments
(50 percent or more) and those with high percentages of students eligible
for free or reduced-price lunch (30 percent or more).
Teachers' degree specialization differs for elementary and secondary school
teachers. Among all elementary teachers, 24 percent majored in an academic
subject, 18 percent in a subject area specialization in education, 45 percent
in general education, and 13 percent in some other education specialization
(e.g., special education, curriculum and instruction, or educational administration)
for their graduate or undergraduate degree. Among all secondary teachers,
49 percent majored in an academic subject, 38 percent in a subject area specialization
in education, 7 percent in general education, and 6 percent in some other
education specialization for their graduate or undergraduate.
* In 1993-94, 73 percent of public school teachers were women, 33 percent
were under 40, and 47 percent had a master's degree or above. By comparison,
about 75 percent of the 378,000 full-time and part-time private school teachers
were women. About 42 percent of the private school teachers were under age
40, and 34 percent had a master's or higher degree.
Surpluses
and Shortages
Pupil/Teacher Ratio
* During the 1970s and early 1980s, public school enrollment decreased, while
the number of teachers rose. As a result, the public school pupil/teacher
ratio declined from 22.3 in 1970 to 17.9 in 1985. After 1985, the number of
pupils per teacher continued downward, reaching 17.2 in 1990. The pupil/teacher
ratio was stable during the early 1990s, but began to decline again during
the mid 1990s. However, we need to consider the number of out-of-the-classroom
teachers into this ratio.
* By 2000, the pupil/teacher ratio had decreased to an estimated 16.0. The
pupil/teacher ratio includes teachers for disabled students and other special
teachers, who generally are excluded from class size calculations.
Salary
Trends
* In 1999-2000, most public school districts used a salary schedule to determine
base salaries for teachers, compared to private and public charter schools.
An estimated 96.3 percent of public school districts used a salary schedule.
This contrasts with 65.8 percent of private schools and 62.2 percent of public
charter schools. Of those schools or districts using a salary schedule, public
charter schools offered the highest base salary for teachers with a bachelors
degree and no experience.
The average starting salary for teachers with no experience in public charter
schools that used a salary schedule was $26,977, compared with $25,888 for
public school districts. Private schools offered the lowest base salary, with
teachers with a bachelors degree and no experience earning $20,271 annually.
Teacher Preparation Programs
Preparing to
Be a Teacher
Academic courses
Undergraduate Studies: Liberal
Studies, Ethnic
and Women Studies, or Single Subject pre-credential programs
Professional courses
Cal Poly Pomonas BCAP and
Masters program
Undergraduate Education Experiences
Early Field Experience
Classroom Observations/Participation (TED 105 or TED 405)
Internships
Cal Poly Pomonas Win-Win project
Student
Teaching
Traditional Student Teaching
Emergency Student Teaching
Intern Student Teaching
Preparation Beyond the Classroom
School Administration
Requires administrative
credential/Two levels
School Site
Principal, Assistant principal, coordinators, school site specialist, resource
teacher
School District
Supervisors, Coordinators, Directors, Assistant Superintendent, Superintendents
Educational Specialists
Consultants
Curriculum
Specialists
Effective Teachers
Personal and Professional Characteristics
Tend to be good managers
Have high expectations of themselves and their students
Believe in their own effectiveness
Vary teaching strategies
Handle discipline through prevention
Are usually warm and caring
Are democratic in their approach
Are concerned with
perceptual meanings rather than facts and events
Are comfortable interacting with students and staff
Have a strong grasp of subject matter
Are readily available to students outside class
Tailor their teaching to meet students needs
Are reflective practitioners, open to new learning theories, and classroom
techniques
Are flexible, enthusiastic, and imaginative
Teaching as a Profession
Defining the Profession
A professional is an individual who performs a unique task that sets him apart
from society. This unique task is so important to society, that each individual
agree to follow a special code of ethics, administered by a professional organization.
Unique knowledge
Code
of ethics
The educator strives to help each student realize his or her potential as
a worthy and effective member of society. The educator therefore works to
stimulate the spirit of inquiry, then acquisition of knowledge and understanding,
and the thoughtful formulation of worthy goals.
In fulfillment of the obligation to the student, the educator
1. Shall not unreasonably restrain the student from independent action in
the pursuit of learning
2. Shall not unreasonably deny the students access to varying points
of view
3. Shall not deliberately suppress or distort subject matter relevant to the
students progress
4. Shall make reasonable effort to protect the student from conditions harmful
to learning or to health and safety
5. Shall not intentionally expose the student to embarrassment or disparagement
6. Shall not on the basis of race, color, creed, sex, national origin, mental
status, political or religious beliefs, family, social, or cultural background,
or sexual orientation, unfairly
Exclude any student from participation in any program
Deny benefits to any student
Grant any advantage to any student
7. Shall not use professional relationships with students for private advantage
8. Shall not disclose information about students obtained in the course of
professional service unless disclosure serves a compelling professional purpose,
or is required by law.
Commitment to the Profession
The education profession is vested by the public with a trust and responsibility
requiring the highest ideals of professional service.
In the belief that the quality of the services of the education profession
directly influences the nation and its citizens, the educator shall exert
every effort to raise professional standards, to promote a climate that encourages
the exercise of professional judgment, to achieve conditions that attract
persons worthy of the trust to careers in education, and to assist in preventing
the practice of the profession by unqualified persons.
In fulfillment of the obligation to the profession, the educator
1. Shall not in an application for a professional position deliberately make
a false statement or fail to disclose material fact related to competency
and qualifications.
2. Shall not misrepresent his/her professional qualifications
3. Shall not assist any entry into the profession of a person known to be
unqualified in respect to character, education, or other relevant attribute
4. Shall not knowingly make a false statement concerning the qualifications
of a candidate for a professional position
5. Shall not assist a non educator in the unauthorized practice of teaching
6. Shall not disclose information about colleagues obtained in the course
of professional service, unless disclosure serves a compelling professional
purpose or is required by law.
7. Shall not knowingly make false or malicious statement about a colleague
8. Shall not accept any gratuity, gift, or favor that might impair or appear
to influence professional action
Professionalism
Public Evaluation of Effective
Teachers
Peer Evaluations and Review
Ensuring the Quality of Teachers
Certification/Credentialing
California
Commission on Teaching Credentialing
Teacher preparation Standards
Alternative Certification Programs
District credentialing programs, Intern programs, CalTeach
On December 5, 2002, the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC)
took action to make available to school districts the Individualized Internship
Certificate (IIC), consistent with the requirements of federal legislation,
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB).
This intern option is designed for persons who are serving as teachers of
record, but who are not enrolled in an existing district or university internship
program. This IIC provides an option for those teachers who have demonstrated
subject matter competence, but have portions of their pedagogical preparation
and supervised fieldwork to complete. This certificate is valid for two years,
but participants are encouraged to complete the program in less time whenever
possible.
Professional Standards
Boards
Establish standards of minimum competency
National Board for Professional
Teaching Standards
Provides strong classroom leadership regarding criteria for the certification
of teachers
Professional
Teacher Organizations
Teacher Specialty Organizations
NABE
CABE
American
Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language
American Mathematical Society
Music Teachers National Association
National
Council for the Social Studies
National Science Teachers Association
National
Council of Teachers of English.
National Teachers Unions
Over 70% of the nations 2.9 million public school teachers belong to
teacher unions. NEA has 1,605, 000 active members, while AFT has 600,000 active
members.
Collective
bargaining and the assignment of teachers, teacher compensation
Role of unions in controversial issues such as vouchers, privatization, and
efforts to introduce market-oriented reforms. One of every ten delegates to
democratic conventions is a member of NEA or AFT.
National
Education Association (NEA)
American
Federation of Teachers (AFT)
State and Local Affiliates
In California, affiliates of NEA include CTA,
UTLA, etc.
Non-Public Associations
National Catholic Educational Association
Council
for Jewish Education
National Association of Episcopal Schools
Religious Education Association
University Associations
The Holmes Group Restricted
to Deans of colleges of Education
The National Council for the Accreditation
of Teacher Education
National Professional Associations
Public Perceptions
Elam, Rose, and Gallup (1995) found that more than 66% of all parents would
like at least one of their children to become a teacher. 90% of Americans
said they would be willing to pay increased taxes to improve education for
their children (School bond measures in California). 81% said they would be
willing to spend more tax money in inner city schools. However, public schools
are not held in the same high esteem. Only 2% of respondents gave public schools
an A. 20% graded them between A and B, 50% graded them C, 17% gave them a
D, and 4% gave them an F, although most respondents graded their particular
public school either A or B.
Improving
Working Conditions
Beginning
salary
Pay scales from several districts
Merit
pay
Decision making process
Education in Colonial America
New England Colonies
Unlike the Southern or the Middle Colonies, they were different from England.
They had left England to escape religious persecution, and they sought to
establish better communities than the ones they left behind.
Homogenous Society
They were homogenous in language, religion, and culture. The church and the
state governed jointly through the use of public disapproval, whipping, banishment,
and fines. Conformity in behavior was expected of all people.
Belief that people are basically
evil
Belief that children were born in sin, and that their behavior had to be formed
through corporal punishment
Education as a means to salvation
Elementary schools were established to overcome idleness, and to show people
the way to salvation. They stressed education as a means of ensuring that
children would grow up to be literate, God-fearing, hard-working, frugal,
industrious, and law-abiding adults. The curriculum was narrow, limited and
moralistic. Puritan philosophy literally called for beating the devil out
of the child. Most children were apprenticed, and the minimal instruction
they received was for the purpose of maintaining religious conformity and
the power of existing authority
Massachusetts
Act of 1642
First educational law in this country. It made education of children a responsibility
of the state, with parents responsible for sending their children to school.
1647:
Massachusetts Old Deluder Satan Law
Stated that education was required so children would not fall into the clutches
of Satan. Provided for the financing of teachers salaries, educational
supplies, materials, and setting up of curriculum by local communities.
District Schools
Local Control
Towns of fewer than 50 people were required to support the school in the nearest
town with more than 50 people.
Towns of more than 50 people were required to appoint someone to teach reading
and writing to all the children who wanted to learn.
Towns of more than 100 people were required to have a Latin Grammar school,
to prepare young men for college.
New England Model of School Districts
Supported by local taxes
Education in Colonial America
Southern Colonies
Land Owners and Aristocrats
English System of Education
Southern colonies depended on England for the education of its youth. Girls
were not educated for fear they would take masculine characteristics.
Tutorial Schools
Graduates from Oxford and Cambridge were hired as tutors for children of the
new aristocracy. Boys were taught the elements of Latin, reading, writing,
and theology. Many of these boys later attended some of the best colleges
in England, returning to the colonies to take positions of power and leadership.
Education was not existent for the lower socio-economic classes.
Old Field Schools
Local elementary schools maintained through private support, usually in an
unused field house. Operated only a few months of the year. Curriculum: reading,
writing, and arithmetic.
College
of William and Mary
By the late 1600s the Southern colonies did not want to send their sons
to England to complete their education, so in 1692, they founded the College
of William and Mary, with a typical English curriculum. William and nary introduced
courses in the arts and sciences, experimenting with new teaching methods.
Native
Americans
Refused to work the land for white settlers, forcing white settlers to import
indentured servants and Africans.
Indentured
Servants
Slavery
Settlers brought the first slaves to Virginia in 1619. By 1770, there were
about 150,000 slaves in the US. It was unlawful to educate slaves.
Education in Colonial America
Middle Atlantic Colonies
Ethnic, Religious, Linguistic,
and Cultural Diversity
The Middle colonies did
not have a rigid class structure like the South, or a dominating religious
structure like New England. Some schools were supported by churches, others
were developed by individuals responding to social demands that children learn
a trade.
Intellectual Freedom
Dame Schools
Beginning classes were held in a womans home. Operated only a few months
of the year. Curriculum consisted of basics of the alphabet, some reading,
and prayers.
Quaker
Schools
Offered apprenticeship for teachers. First schools for freed slaves. Reading,
writing, arithmetic, some bookkeeping. Students included the poor, females,
and blacks.
Latin
Grammar Schools
Secondary schools, preparatory for college. Curriculum focused on the classics.
Students were upper-class white males.
Common Schools
Available to the working classes. Reading, writing, arithmetic, navigation,
surveying, and mathematics.
Education, Language, and Culture
Creation of a Dominant Culture
There was major clash between German and English settlers over language usage.
The language used in the schools was thought to be the means by which one
ethnic group could gain supremacy over another. William
Penn actively recruited the oppressed from England, and the European continent.
The original settlement of English Quakers and Anglicans was followed by a
large number of German religious minorities, including Amish and Mennonites.
By 1776, Benjamin Franklin
estimated that the Colonial population of Pennsylvania consisted of one third
Quakers, one-third Germans, and one-third religious minorities from all over
Europe. The English embarked on a policy of cultural Anglicization.
This policy was directed at Germans. In 1727, the Pennsylvania Assembly passed
a law requiring all German males to swear an oath of allegiance to the British
Crown.
Language and Cultural Domination
Proposals to prohibit German printing houses, the publication of German government
documents, and the importing of German books. There were recommendations for
the establishment of English only schools. Benjamin
Franklin was a major proponent of English only schools and opponent of
the expansion of the German culture.
Charity
Schools
Franklin played a significant role on the establishment of Charity Schools,
which were used for Anglicization efforts, although hey were supposed to be
religious institutions for education poor German children. However, the German
community attacked these schools for giving a false picture of German culture.
By 1764, the effort was abandoned as a failure.
The
Academies
The concept of a secular school, free from religious control emerged from
concerns with political freedom and the scientific revolution. Concern with
political freedom was central to the American Revolution, and became embodied
in the Constitution. Academies served the idea that science and politics were
suitable subjects for the curriculum, and that freedom of inquiry should be
encouraged. Some academies were run by individuals, and others by religious
institutions. When the idea of the academies was introduced in the US, it
served as a model for newly established colleges, and for the development
of the high school.
Education as key to Social
Mobility
The Academy movement in America was the result of a desire to provide a more
utilitarian education than classical grammar schools. They provided a useful
education, and transmitted the culture required for entrance into the middle
class. They provided social mobility for the average citizen. They were often
called peoples colleges. The most famous plan for an academy
was advanced by Benjamin Franklin. The institution established to carry out
his plans became the University of Pennsylvania.
The desire for a "utilitarian" education is represented by the following
statement:
it would be well if students could be taught every thing that is useful,
and every thing that is ornamental; but art is long, and their time is short.
It is therefore proposed that they learn those things that are more likely
to be useful and most ornamental. B. Franklin (1749)
Nationalism and Morality
Webster and the Development of a Dominant Culture
Noah Webster constantly combined
efforts to create a dominant culture and build nationalism. Part of his legacy
is a standardized dictionary of the English language, an American version
of the Bible, and his famous spelling book. As a member of the Massachusetts
legislature he worked actively for a state school fund. His efforts initiated
the movement that culminated in Horace
Manns movement for the Common Schools. He believed that, in addition
to teaching reading, and writing, texts should produce good, patriotic Americans,
develop an American language, and create a unified national spirit. He believed
that moral and political values had to be imposed on the child. His spelling
book contained the Federal Catechism, and a moral catechism to teach the moral
values that Webster considered necessary for maintaining order in a republican
society. According to Webster, the foci of education were patriotism, nationalism,
and virtue.
Jefferson
and Natural Aristocracy
Jefferson did not believe that schooling should impose political values, or
mold the virtuous republican citizen. He believed that education should provide
the average citizen with the tools of reading and writing, and that political
beliefs would be formed through the exercise of reason. For Jefferson, the
most important source of political education was the reading of history and
newspapers. He believed that the new republic needed to identify its future
leaders in the early years of their schooling, and provide them with an education
through college. This educated leadership would form a natural aristocracy.
Charity
Schools and Juvenile Reformatories
Charity schools were the first attempt to use the schools as a means of socializing
children into an industrious way of life. Charity schools and reformatories
sought to create good moral character by replacing a weak family structure,
and destroying criminal associations. The New York Free School Society and
other reformers sought to link waywardness with the failure of the family.
The creation of Charity schools created a division between social classes.
The poor attended charity schools, and the better off attended other private
and public institutions. Charity schools also provided the first educational
opportunities for the children of freed slaves, but they failed to provide
for the ever-increasing number of immigrant children. The creation of the
Lancasterian system,
designed to handle large numbers of children in an efficient, inexpensive
manner. Some classes had as many as 450 students, and the system was highly
regimented, with constant activity, designed to instill the values of orderliness
and obedience. The normal day included two hours of classroom instruction,
and four hours of labor in workshops. Then lunch and recreation followed by
four more hours of labor, and then two more hours of classroom instruction.
Religious exercised were given in the early morning and before bedtime.
Institutional change and the American Colleges
Residential colleges were deemed necessary in order to provide a form of family
control over students. Colleges instituted a traditional liberal arts curriculum,
despite demands for a more practical course of studies. There were only nine
colleges before the revolution. Between the Revolutionary War and the Civil
War more than 250 new colleges were established. During the early years all
colleges reflected a social concern for social goals. However, new colleges
came to serve narrow, religious interests. Intense denominational rivalries
led to cheap local colleges that made it easy to obtain a college degree.
Public versus Private Colleges and Schools
The Dartmouth College case,
argued by Daniel Webster, defined
the line between government controlled and private institutions. Marshall
wrote that private colleges are corporations, and a corporation is no more
a state instrument than a natural person exercising the same powers would
be. This meant that a college chartered by the state had the same rights against
government interference, as did an individual. It also meant that if the state
wanted to promote education to serve its own purposes, it would need to create
its own institutions. The same argument applied to institutions of elementary
and secondary education.
The Common School Reform
Ideology of the Common School Movement
Common school reformers believed that education could be used to reduce tensions
between social classes, eliminate crime and poverty, stabilize the political
system, and form patriotic citizens. Education would be the key to the
good society. The ideology of the Common School Reform established the
basic framework, from the 19th Century to the present, fro popular and official
discussions about the goals and purposes of public education in the US.
The spread of the common school ideology was aided by the educational writers
of the Post Revolutionary period such as Noah Webster and Thomas Jefferson,
and by the arguments for social and moral reform made by the leaders of the
Charity school movement. Those who created the ideology of the Common School
worked with the fervor of religious crusaders. In fact, the life of Horace
Mann can be characterized as a constant search for social salvation. He first
adopted the law as the means for social redemption, but turned later to education.
Horace
Manns Middle course
Mann argued that the hope for ridding society of evil actions was not in the
law, but in moral education.
Common political creed, common
morality, non-sectarian religion
It was argued that if children from a variety of religious, social class,
and ethnic backgrounds were educated in common, there would be a decline in
hostility and friction among different groups. Mann argued that the presence
of the Bible in schools provided instruction in the fundamental doctrines
of Christianity without reference to denominational differences, and this
provided the basis for all creeds. In addition to the use of the Bible in
schools, Mann claimed that laws of the state required the teaching of the
basic moral doctrines of Christianity, which he listed as instruction in piety,
justice, love of country, benevolence, sobriety, industry, frugality, chastity,
moderation, and temperance. Within the framework of his reasoning, religious
instruction in the common schools was to be based on a non-sectarian use of
the Bible with the teaching of broad religious principle, common to all Christian
denominations. Children in common schools were to receive a common moral education,
based on the general principles of the Bible, and on common virtues.
Mann used the same argument to define his goals for political education in
the common schools. He proposed that common schools teach only those articles
of republican faith common to all sensible and judicious men, all patriots,
and all genuine republicans. Schools then were expected to teach a common
political creed.
Mann wished to avoid political violence, and violence between social classes.
He was concerned with the creation of deep divisions between the social classes,
caused by the growth of modern industry. Unlike Marx, Mann believed that the
answer to class conflict was a common school education, not revolution by
the working class. Mann believed that the common school would eliminate conflict
by improving the general wealth of society. According to him, investment in
education is a form of capital investment, because it leads to the production
of new wealth, and teaching is a means of developing human capital because
it provides the individual with the intellectual tools for improved labor.
Schools as Instruments of Public Policy
The Common school reform brought about the acceptance of the idea of a direct
linkage between government educational policies and the solving and control
of social, economic, and political problems.
n Creation of State Agencies to Control Local Schools
The common school was to be administered by state and local governments for
the purpose of achieving public goals, such as remedying social, political,
and economic problems. Before the common school period, children did go to
school, but education was provided by a variety of public and private school
organizations. Massachusetts had laws requiring the provision of education.
New York and Pennsylvania supported Charity schools. Other schools passed
laws allowing for the development of schools but did not provide funding.
Most children who had received an education attended private schools. The
main effect of the common school reform was a shift of students from private
to public schools. The Common School reform brought education into the public
goals of the government, and created new forms of school organization. It
established and standardized state systems of education, statewide taxes to
support education, and a minimum of three years of tax supported education
to all white children.
Educational Reform and Multiculturalism
The Common School and the Threat of Cultural Pluralism
In addition to being threatened by African American, and Native American cultures,
Websters dream of a unified national culture was faced in the 1830s
with the problem of Irish immigration. The Common School movement was in part
an attempt to stop the drift towards a multicultural society. President
Jackson completed the removal of Indians west of the Mississippi, and
the government tried to civilize the southern tribes through a system of segregated
schools. There was also widespread fear that Africans and Indians would contaminate
white blood. Many Whites hoped that a common school would assure that the
United States was dominated by a unified Protestant Anglo Saxon culture. Their
public philosophy called for government action to provide schooling that would
be more common, more equal, more dedicated to public policy, and therefore,
more effective in creating cultural and political values centering on Protestantism,
republicanism, and capitalism.
The
Irish Catholics
Stereotypes defining Irish immigrants as savages, and slaves of their
passions developed during the long course of English domination of Ireland.
By the time of the great Irish migration to the United States, English exploitation
of Irish workers had reduced the average Irish family to a life of misery
and famine. By 1845, one million Irish had immigrated to the United State,
to port cities such as Boston and New York. Competing with freed blacks, the
Irish found employment building roads and railroads, working in mines, and
digging canals. Irish workers were considered by other European Americans
as dogs and dray horses, to be worked like other animals.
Protestant Anglo Saxons feared that the drunken Irish, acting
mainly out of passion, rather than reason might destroy the American
Dream. Protestant ministers warned their congregations of the Dangerous
classes, who were inferior in nature, some perhaps only behind us in development.
A lower form consisting of Negroes, Indians, Mexicans, Irish, and the like
The Catholicism of the Irish also bothered Protestants. By the 19th century,
many Protestants believed that the Catholic Church was the church of Satan,
and that the Pope had sent the Irish to undermine Protestant churches. Ironically,
it was the English who forced the Irish to become Catholic, and after England
became protestant, most Irish remained Catholic. The hostility towards Irish
resulted in the Common School never truly being common to all
white children in the 19th century. Catholics were thus forced to establish
their own system of independent parochial schools.
Africans
The ability to attend school created an important difference between enslaved
Africans in Southern states, and freed Africans living in the northern states.
Before the Civil War, slaves in the south were by law denied an education.
Some slaves were given a limited education in skilled occupations, such as
carpentry and mechanics. Despite these laws, by the time of the Civil War,
5% of the slaves had learned to read, sometimes at the risk of their very
lives. The African American culture that emerged from slavery was primarily
based on oral tradition. Although they came from different African cultures,
slaves shared and African heritage, and the culture they created in the context
of slavery. Slaves were forced to create their own modes of social interaction
within the context of domination. The oral tradition developed from this context
of domination reflected an obvious dislike and distrust of whites. Their songs
often portrayed whites as the devil, and slaves as the chosen people.
Although freed Black represented only one percent of the population in the
northern states, whites saw blacks as a threat to white racial purity. Interracial
marriages were banned in New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Illinois.
Discrimination and segregation were rampant in the north.
Freed blacks in the north were able to fight for educational opportunities,
creating a culture of resistance to oppression, focused on literacy, political
action, and judicial solutions. To protect their children from hostility and
racism, blacks asked for a separate system of schools for their children.
The Boston Schools Committee denied their request, but receiving help from
private sources, the parents opened a segregated school. In 1806, the school
committee opened a segregated school. By 1820, Blacks realized that segregated
education was resulting in an inferior education for their children; the school
committee appointed the worst teachers to their school, and the building was
not being maintained. The school committee focused on building a new segregated
school, and assuring that separate schools for black children were equal to
those of whites.
Native Americans
Just as white protestant fears of Irish and blacks assured that the common
school would never be common to all children, the desire for native American
lands resulted in a segregated Indian school system. The creation of a segregated
Native American School system was the result of Thomas McKinneys belief
that if Indians were isolated and properly educated, their cultural conversion
would take place in a generation.
Jackson believed that the civilizing policies of Washington and Jefferson
had failed to educate the tribes, and that they still refused to sell their
ancestral lands. He directed the removal of Indians to lands west of the Mississippi,
arguing the right of white settlers to Indian lands that were not being cultivated.
Indians could only claim lands on which they have made improvements. The key
to fulfilling the humanitarian goals of the removal would be education.
General Winfield Scotts troops removed Indians from their homes, burning
the houses and forcing the families into stockades. Troops and other outlaws
stole the Indians cattle and other livestock. Once in Indian Territory,
the Cherokee tribes established the tribal school systems.
Organizing the Common Schools
The American Teacher
Actualization of the common school dream involved three important steps. The
first was to create a stable, inexpensive teaching force that would uphold
in the classroom the moral ideals of the common school movement.
The Maternal Model of Instruction
This step involved dealing with the complex relationship between the struggle
of women for education and careers, the development of concepts of republican
motherhood and off women as symbols of charity, the inclusion of sex role
differences in the organization of education, and the economic exploitation
of women. The creation of this teaching force began with the pioneering efforts
of women educators to establish the first teacher-training institutions. Common
School reformers aided these efforts because they believed that if the schools
were to teach a common moral and political philosophy, school organization
had to become standardized. The function of women in the Common School system
was to be moral, nurturing, and loving teachers.
The Evolution of the Bureaucratic Model
The supervision of schools became very important. In rural areas, school superintendent
became major figures, riding from school to school, checking on the quality
of instruction, and the adherence of teachers to a standard curriculum. In
urban areas, city superintendent began to take over the functions of school
committees in the supervision and evaluation of teachers and students. As
larger schools replaced the one-room schoolhouse, two new roles began to appear,
principal teacher and assistant teacher. The teaching functions of the principal
teacher were slowly replaced with administrative duties. The emerging hierarchical
system of supervision and administrative control made possible a uniform system
of education.
Female
Teachers
The
subservient status of women was an important factor in creating this hierarchical
system. Hierarchical organization required a division of duties and subordination
to authority. The pattern that emerged form this period was for men to manage
and women to teach. The Boston Board wrote, Women are better teachers
of young children, because of their child-rearing talents. They are endowed
by nature with stronger parental impulses, and this makes the society of children
delightful and turns duty into pleasure.
McGuffey Readers
and the Spirit of Capitalism
McGuffeys readers contained numerous moral lessons designed to teach
appropriate behavior in developing industrial society, with increasing concentrations
of wealth and expanding social divisions between the rich and the poor. The
readers justified the concentration of wealth by portraying the rich as the
stewards of wealth for the poor. The treatment of economic issues in the McGuffeys
readers is premised in the Calvinist concept that wealth is an outward sign
of salvation. Wealth was a sign of Gods blessing and poverty was a sign
of Gods disapproval. Within this economic argument, for the poor to
gain wealth they had be godly, and industrious, and for the rich to continue
being rich, they had to use their wealth in a godly fashion, thus the popularity
of charity.
Expanding the Social Role of Schools
In the late 19th century immigration from southern and eastern Europe, together
with industrialization, urban sprawl created, or worsened a number of social
problems. Crowded ghettoes, inadequate urban services, and a population primarily
used to rural living contributed to unsanitary living conditions and the spread
of disease. Americans also suffered from a sense of alienation, a breakdown
in traditional forms of social control, increased crime, and poverty. The
school was considered the logical institution to prevent these problems by
providing social services, teaching new behaviors, and becoming community
centers.
Social Welfare and the Schools
Nurses, health offices, and showers were added to schools in order to control
the spread of disease. Special instructional programs were introduced to educate
children about sanitary conditions. Americanization
programs were offered as a means of assimilating new immigrant children
into American life and preventing the spread of radical ideologies, such as
Communism. Playgrounds were attached to schools to provide after-school-activities,
hoping to reduce juvenile delinquency. To curb the sense of alienation by
urban living, auditoriums and special facilities for adults were provided
by schools to serve as centers for community activities. The expanded occurred
at a time when racist laws, practices, and court rulings were supporting segregation,
racism, and cultural genocide. Some whites believed that southern and Eastern
Europeans were less intelligent than Western Europeans, and they were not
ready to participate in a republican society. These were the same attitudes
faced by Native Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, and African
Americans.
The
Kindergarten Movement
Kindergartens had originally served the upper classes, but by the 1880s
they were considered a primary educational method of dealing with the problems
of urban poverty. The concept of Kindergarten was introduced in the US by
Karl Schurz and Elizabeth Peabody. The original kindergarten opened in Germany
in 1840 by Freiedrich
Froebel as a method of early childhood education that was to lead the
child from a world concentrated on self to a society of children. It was conceived
as a garden of children to be cultivated in the same manner as plants. Froebel
advocated a model maternal teacher whose method would be passive and protective,
not directive and interfering. The first kindergarten opened in St Louis.
The superintendent of schools analyzed the distribution of children in the
city according to the locality of haunts of vice and inequity,
and decided that the only way to save slum children from corruption was to
get them in school at an earlier age. Harris claimed that kindergartens were
necessary because traditional socializing agencies like the family, church,
and the community had collapsed. The curriculum was intended to redeem the
slum child by teaching moral habits, cleanliness, politeness, obedience, and
self-control. These social goals resulted in the Kindergarten losing its original
emphasis on creative play and self-expression. The American Kindergarten stressed
creating order and discipline.
The Play Movement
One major goal of the play movement was to reduce juvenile crime by providing
parks and playgrounds. This approach to curing urban problems began in the
1880s with the development of sandlots for children. A major result
of this movement was that the school became responsible for after school activities
of urban children. Once again, the goal was to provide a safe alternative
for children, at a time when the home was seen as disappearing, and crime
was increasing everywhere. The first reported school shower opened in a Boston
school to prevent dirtiness and the spread of lice. Teachers objected to this
new responsibility. Playground games and activities were organized by the
schools to produce a sense of team spirit habits of cooperation, and willingness
to follow the rules.
Summer School
Cambridge, Mass., as one of the first cities to propose a summer vacation
school. In n1872, its school committee reported the need for summer school
to prevent a time of idleness, often of crime, with many who are left to roam
the streets. The superintendent saw summer school as an inexpensive form of
police control, saying that if people taught summer schools cost too much,
they needed to see how expensive reform school was.
The schools expanded their social functions and soon became involved in providing
nurses and lunch programs. Much of this changes were the result of the settlement
house movement, which sought to improve conditions among the urban poor.
Social Centers
The use of the school as a social center was viewed as a way of reestablishing
within an urban context a sense of community. It was argued that by opening
its doors a little wider and becoming a social center, the school could bring
in neighborhood life and create the necessary spirit of democracy.
n Education and Assimilation of New Immigrants
In one sense, kindergarten, social centers, playgrounds, and the wider use
of schools were also intended to handle the problems created by immigration
from southern and Eastern Europe. They were part of an effort to Americanize
immigrants. The term Americanize referred to a process of Deculturalization
where immigrant cultures and languages were replaced by Anglo American culture.
One response of schools to the immigrant populations was to offer adult night
classes in English, citizenship, and naturalization.
The Changing American School
The Changing Classroom
The traditional school classroom was designed by CBJ Snyder: rows of desks
bolted to the floor, and facing the blackboard; with 48 permanent desks for
grades 1 4, 45 desks for grades 5 and 6, and 40 for grades 7
12. In New York City, elementary school sizes averaged 50 students, and the
majority of classrooms were designed for little movement.
Herbart
Lesson Plans
The major contribution of the Herbartian
movement was the class lesson plan suitable for any class size or organization.
The lesson plan reflected a conceptualization of education that placed an
emphasis on order and planning, which were necessary to fit the requirements
of large classes. According to Herbart, the best method of instruction is
to present material that is related to a previous interest of the student.
Harberts lesson plan follows five steps; 1) preparation, 2) presentation,
3) comparison and abstraction, 4) generalization or definition, and 5) application.
According to Dewey, Herbarts
theory denies the existence of faculties and emphasizes the unique role of
subject matter in the development of mental and moral abilities. According
to him, education is neither a process of unfolding from within nor is it
a training of faculties resident in mind itself. It is rather the formation
of mind by setting up certain associations or connections of content by means
of a subject matter presented from without. Education proceeds by instruction
taken in a strictly literal sense, a building into the mind from without.
That education is formative of mind is not questioned; but formation here
has a technical meaning dependent upon the idea of something operating from
without.
Herbart denies absolutely the existence of innate faculties. The mind is simply
endowed with the power of producing various qualities in reaction to the various
realities which act upon it.
Herbart's great service lay in taking the work of teaching out of the region
of routine and accident. He brought it into the sphere of conscious method;
it became a conscious business with a definite aim and procedure, instead
of being a compound of casual inspiration and subservience to tradition. Moreover,
everything in teaching and discipline could be specified, instead of our having
to be content with vague and more or less mystic generalities about ultimate
ideals and speculative spiritual symbols. He abolished the notion of ready-made
faculties, which might be trained by exercise upon any sort of material, and
made attention to concrete subject matter, to the content, all-important.
Herbart undoubtedly has had a greater influence in bringing to the front questions
connected with the material of study than any other educational philosopher.
He stated problems of method from the standpoint of their connection with
subject matter: method having to do with the manner and sequence of presenting
new subject matter to insure its proper interaction with old.
Dewey
John Dewey, the greatest educational
philosopher of the period, explained the new social functions of the school
to educators who gathered in 1902 for the Annual Convention of the National
Education. He stated that education must provide a means for bringing people
and their ideas and their beliefs together, in such ways as will lessen friction
and instability, and introduce deeper sympathy and wider understanding. He
argued that using schools as social centers would morally uplift the quality
of urban living by replacing brothels, salons, and dance halls. He also believed
schools to be potential clearinghouses of ideas that would interpret to the
new urban industrial worker the meaning of his place in the modern world.
The school as a social center, Dewey said, must interpret to the worker
the intellectual and social meaning of the work he is engaged; it must reveal
its relations to the life and work of the world.
Pragmatism
and Progressive
Education
John Dewey developed methods
of instruction that would demonstrate to the student the social value and
the interdependence of society. Dewey hoped to achieve these objectives by
developing the students social imagination through cooperative group
activities. He defined social imagination as the habit of mentally constructing
some actual scene of human interaction. He saw social imagination as
the ability to relate isolated ideas to the actual conditions that have given
them their original meaning. He believed that the product of education is
merely information until acted on. Dewey wanted the students to view ethics
in relation to real problems as opposed to abstract principles. The work that
went on in the Laboratory
School was designed to create social interaction among pupils that would
foster efficient learning and good social habits, developing social imagination
by learning to relate ideas inventions, and institutions. Activities were
always associated with their studies. As a requirement of completing their
projects, they also learned reading, writing, and math.
James and Thorndike
Stimulus-response
learning
William James
and Edward
Thorndike were associated with the development of stimulus-response,
or behavioral, concepts of learning. James considered the building of
habits to be the most important function of education, because through controlled
development of habit, social order could be maintained. James extended the
concept of habit into the thought process. As he envisioned the mind, it contains
a steady stream of consciousness, and when confronted with a choice, the individual
selects an action out of that stream of thought. Of course, the individual
is conditioned to attend to particular ideas in the stream of consciousness
in particular situations. James believed that choices are determined by previous
stimulus-response learning. Thorndike developed a pedagogical practice called
connectionism. It refers to the connection, or relationship between stimulus
and response. Thorndike argued that all changes in human intellect are the
result of certain fundamental laws that affect these connections. In some
ways, Thorndike simply justified traditional teaching by making it sound scientific.
His major work, Educational Psychology, published in 1913, set the tone in
education for decades. The classroom of bolted-down desks and large number
of students was more conducive to Thorn dikes stimulus-response, drill,
reward, and measurement methods of instruction then the types of group activities
and socialized instruction advocated by progressive educators.
Progressive
Education
Child centered - equal opportunity to learn
All children need to be allowed to advance as far as their abilities allow
them
Use of imagination and creativity to solve problems
Schools need to cooperate with the community, demonstrate leadership, and
participate in educational research and experimentation
Traditional Education
Regimented by dictatorial teachers
Memorization of facts - Reliance on textbooks
Students are passive participants in the learning process
Students are not allowed to take charge of their education
Out of context - Unrelated to the students lives and realities
Education and Human
Capital
A major argument used by Horace Mann to support the organization of the Common
Schools system was that it would promote economic development. This justification
became very important as vocational education and vocational guidance were
introduced in large scale, and the development of human capital became the
most important goal of schooling.
The High School
Traditionally, the high school was portrayed as an elite institution, serving
only a small minority of students. Parental and student pressure forced high
schools to become an institution that provided credentials and training for
success in the job market. By the late 19th century, high schools began to
adopt a differentiated curriculum to serve different vocational aspirations;
a college preparatory curriculum, a general education curriculum, and vocational
education programs. High schools also added activities such as clubs, student
government, assemblies, organized athletics, and social events. The status
of high schools was uncertain, until the Kalamazoo decision of 1874, which
supported taxation for support of the high schools.
The
Committee of Ten
In 1892, the NEA formed the Committee of Ten on Secondary Schools Studies.
The Committee had to decide whether or not different courses of study should
be offered to students ending their education at the high school level, and
those planning to go on to college. The Committee of Ten recommended against
any differences in the course of study for the two groups, eliminating the
ghost of class education. The committee also created the framework
for uniform requirements for admission to colleges.
The
Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education
In 1913, the NEA organized a commission whose report eventually established
the basic framework of the modern high school. The report, known as Cardinal
Principles of Secondary Education called for a broad program of various courses
of studies. The Commission argued for the creation of the comprehensive high
school, in which all students would come together. Using the rhetoric of social
efficiency, the commission allowed for what it called the two components of
democracy, specialization and unification. The specialized and differentiated
curriculum of the comprehensive high school was to train each student to perform
a task that would benefit society. To compensate for the separation caused
by the differentiated curriculum, the commission proposed three remedies:
The first one emphasized the need for teaching the mother tongue (English),
and Social Studies, the second one called for social mingling through the
organization and administration of the schools, and the last one called for
participation in common activities, such as athletics, social events, an student
government.
Vocational
Education and Guidance
By emphasizing training for specific occupations in publicly supported institutions,
vocational education represented a revolution in the role of schooling. Vocational
education made the development of human capital through training an important
part of the educational system. Vocational guidance became the institutional
mechanism for matching students and educational programs with the needs of
the labor market. Together, vocational education and vocational guidance assumed
the function of promoting industrial efficiency through the proper selection
and training of labor power. A recent history of vocational education argues
that vocational education never fully succeeded training workers for industry.
What vocational education accomplished was to make preparation for jobs the
major function of American high schools.
The Junior High School
One of the major arguments for the establishment of the first junior high
schools was that they would facilitate the vocational guidance of students
and the differentiation of curriculum. One of the major debates about the
junior high school was the degree of differentiation that should be undertaken
with early adolescents. The commission concluded that the junior high school
should be a period of vocational exploration, and pre-vocational counseling,
and that differentiation based on vocational choice should be delayed until
high schools.
Meaning of Equality of Opportunity
A major change occurred between the 19th and 20th centuries in the schools
role in providing equality of opportunity. In the early days of the common
school movement, education was to provide equality of opportunity by giving
everyone a common, or equal education, after which the social race would begin,
with everyone competing for place in the social and economic structure. In
the 20th century, the provision for equality of opportunity was made part
of the school system through vocational guidance and differentiated curriculum.
Students did not receive an equal, or common education, rather they received
different educations based on individual differences.
Education and National Policy
The
War on Poverty
During the 1960s, when the Civil Rights and poverty were national concerns,
the federal government made education part of a national campaign against
poverty. The War on Poverty attempted to eliminate poverty through special
educational programs. The War on Poverty encompassed three major areas of
concern: Unemployed and delinquent youth, disadvantaged students for whom
education did not provide equality of opportunity, and the cycle of poverty.
Poverty among blacks as a set of interdependent causal factors. For instance,
a poor education restricts employment opportunities, which causes a low standard
of living, which leads to poor medical care, diet, housing, and education
for the next generation (Michael
Harringtons The Other America Poverty in the United States).
The expansion of the role of the federal government in education took place
in a climate of strong public sentiment against public schools. Immediately
after World War II, members of the radical right charged that schools had
been infiltrated by Communists. Right wing groups demanded the removal of
Anti-American literature from the schools, and the dismissal of left-leaning
teachers. Congress passed the Economic
Opportunity Act of 1964 and the Elementary
and Secondary Act of 1965 (ESEA). The most important programs of the Economic
Opportunity Act were the Job Corps and Head
Start.
The most important part of the ESEA was Title
I, which provided funds fore improved educational programs for children
designated as educationally deprived.
The
Civil Rights Movement
Civil
Rights Act gave the federal government the responsibility to ensure that
schools were not committing discriminatory acts against minority groups. In
addition to the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s was
a grass roots protest against school segregation and discriminatory educational
policies and practices. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that segregated education
was unconstitutional, but this landmark decision was forcefully enforced by
federal officials and the courts.
School Desegregation
The desegregation
of schools was the result of the struggle of Black and Latino communities
for over 50 years. In 1946, a US District Court ruled in Mendez et al v. Westminster
School District that segregation of Mexicans in California was illegal. The
school desegregation was finally decided by the US Supreme Court in Brown
v. Board of Education of Topeka. This decision did not bring immediate
results because of resistance to the court-ordered desegregation. The frustration
caused by the slow pace of school integration contributed to the growth of
the massive Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. The key
legal issue on the struggle for desegregation was the interpretation of the
14th amendment to the Constitution by the Supreme Court.
And yet, according to Ed Hayward (Schools Becoming More Segregated), American
schools are becoming even more segregated. America's schoolhouses are
filling with more and more black and Hispanic students, but the increase in
diversity has been met with a sharp increase in segregation during the past
decade, according to a Harvard
University study."
The authors of the study said 30 years of school and race data and a see-saw
battle for desegregation predict a future society where whites will have had
little day-to-day interaction with members of other racial groups in school.
White children are growing up in a society that is going to become more than
half minority, and they are almost totally isolated from those minorities,''
said Gary Orfield, a Harvard professor and co-director of The Civil Rights
Project. ``These suburban kids are vastly unprepared for the future, in my
judgment.''
In addition to historic patterns of housing discrimination, the study blames
a decade of court decisions and federal retreat from desegregation work as
the culprits responsible for reversing the gains that made schools in the
South some of the most integrated in the nation by 1988.
There have also been stunning demographic changes - a 5.8 million jump in
the number of blacks and Hispanics in schools and a 5.6 million decline in
whites. Seventy percent of America's black students and more than 33 percent
of Hispanic students attend predominantly minority schools, the study found.
Large percentages of minorities attend schools in poor and distressed neighborhoods.
White students remain the most segregated of all, attending schools where
less than 20 percent of the students are from all other racial and ethnic
groups combined.
While America's suburbs have become more diverse, schools in these areas remain
segregated as well, with minority groups settling in a few selected communities.
The findings are of little surprise to Jean McGuire, director of the Bay State's
longest-running voluntary school desegregation program, Metco, which buses
black and Hispanic city students to suburban schools. ``Get on a bus with
a Metco kid and it hits you, how separate our communities are,'' said McGuire,
who annually fights for state funding for the program that serves 3,350 students
through 36 school districts. ``People have very strong feelings about color.
Almost more than they do about class.''
Compared to the southern and the western regions, the racial breakdown of
students in the Northeast remained relatively stable in the 1990s. For instance,
50.1 percent of black students were in schools with 90 to 100 percent minority
enrollment in 1992. By 1999, that percentage was 50.9 percent, the study found.
The study does not contain any statistics on the Boston metropolitan area,
though it noted that in 1999 Boston's 61,219 students broke down along racial
lines as 48.8 percent black, 26.2 percent Hispanic, 15.6 percent white and
9 percent Asian. In 1999, in the face of a lawsuit and several court rulings,
Boston abandoned race as a factor in its school assignment plan. But the change
has done little to alter the racial balance struck in the district's 130 schools,
said Jack Halloran, senior officer at the city's school assignment office.
``Frankly, it has not changed,'' said Halloran. ``It's the status quo. There
were some schools that were predominantly minority or black before and there
still are. There were schools with high populations of white students and
there still are.''
While the new system placed an emphasis on a student's ``walk zone'', Halloran
said 60 percent of the city's parents choose schools outside of their neighborhoods.
Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll said the state is trying to reach
city and suburban students alike through its landmark 1993 Education Reform
Law - which mandates statewide standards and measures students via the MCAS
exam.
Yet a massive gap between the achievement of white students and their minority
counterparts still exists. ``We haven't made the kind of progress I wish we
had,'' said Driscoll. ``On the other hand, I see great hope in the schools
I've visited in Lawrence and Holyoke. They have poverty, but they have large
numbers of kids and some of these kids are achieving.''
Title
VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Jobs
Corps
Head
Start
Elementary
and Secondary Education Act
Congress passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965. This act
provided funds for public schools for compensatory education. Compensatory
education consisted of a variety of programs aimed at helping children compensate
for the problems created by poverty and poor social environments. The most
extensive of these program is Title
I, which provides funds to schools to remedy academic achievement in students
who are at or below the federal poverty level, and are underachieving in Reading,
language, and/or math.
Title
VII of the ESEA and Bilingual Education
This program provided funds to school to implement programs for English
Learning Students. The program has been eliminated by the Bush administration,
and replace with block grants to the school districts.
Multicultural Education
Education of Minorities
Native Americans
As African Americans were fighting against segregated schooling, Native Americans
were attempting to regain control of the education of their children and restore
their cultural heritage and languages. During the 1940s and 50s,
federal Indian policy was directed at the termination of tribes and reservations.
Termination policies attempted to break up tribal relations by relocating
Indians to urban areas. These efforts met with strong resistance from Indians
and white Civil Rights activists. In 1961, Indian delegates issued a Declaration
of Indian Purpose, calling for the end of the termination policies. Indians
also demanded greater self-determination. Condemning the termination policies,
Kennedy advocated Indian participation in federal decisions affecting them.
One of the results for self-determination resulted in the establishment of
the Rough Rock Demonstration School in Arizona. Indian demands for more bilingual
and bicultural programs were aided by the passage of the Title VII to the
ESEA (Bilingual Education Act). Funds from this Act provided support for bilingual
program in Navajo and English.
The
Indian Self-Determination and Educational Assistance Act provided that,
in local school districts receiving funds for the education of Indian students
that did not have a school board having a majority of Indians, the district
had to establish a separate local committee composed of parents of Indian
students in the school. This committee was given authority over any Indian
education program contracted with the federal government. Further protection
was provided with the passage of the Native
American Languages Act of 1990.
Asian Americans
The
Model Minority (From: "Interrogating Stereotypes:
The Case of the Asian "Model Minority"
by Carlos J. Ovando)
Mainstream society
has characterized Asian Americans as the model minoritysmart,
achievement-oriented, hardworking, respectful, and staunch believers in pulling
yourself up by your bootstraps to achieve the American dream.
At first glance, the model minority stereotype comes across as
a fine compliment to an entire people from Asia who now reside in the United
States. Therein, however, lies the first problem, as the stereotype homogenizes
the Asian American population, masking the diversity within Asian American
communities due to social class, religion, language, ethnicity, migratory
status, length of residence, and education. In her year-long ethnographic
study of a high school, Stacey Lee, for example, discovered that Asian American
students feelings about the model minority stereotype varied
considerably according to which of four groups they defined themselves as
belonging toAsian-identified, Asian American-identified, Korean-identified,
and Asian New Wavers. Asian-identified students were tradition-bound students
who held tenaciously to ancestral sociocultural and linguistic norms and patterns
and tended to conform more often to the model minority stereotype.
Asian American-identified students saw themselves as bicultural. They tended
to critique their cultural positionality along a traditional Asian and Western
continuum. They also tended to question the model minority stereotype
because it did not represent the diversity among Asian students. Not all Asian
students, for example, do well academically (Lee, 1996, p. 67). Further, they
felt that the stereotypes tended to polarize students along academic, social,
and ethnic lines. Korean-identified students in Lees study tended to
set themselves apart from other students of Asian origin, considering themselves
superior both academically and socially. Very conscious of what it takes to
make it in U.S. society, they tended to adapt to the academic, behavioral,
and social patterns of their white peers in high school. Socially, for example,
they tended to emphasize good appearance by purchasing designer clothes.
Asian New Wavers represented counter-cultural behavior patterns. They tended
to present an unconventional persona (e.g., baggy pants, combat boots, dyed
hair) and were more likely to smoke openly, skip classes, and listen to hip-hop
music. In doing so they challenged the notion that all students of Asian ancestry
are model minorities.
Mexican Americans
The Struggle for Educational Equity
(From: The Hispanic Dropout project)
Nearly one in five of our nations Latinos between the ages of 16 and
24 who ever enrolled in a United States school left school without either
a high school diploma or an alternative certificate such as a GED, according
to the most recently available data from the United States Census Bureau.
If we consider all of this nations Latinos, including immigrants who
never enrolled in U.S. schools, the Hispanic dropout rate reaches a staggering
30 percent. While accounting for just 56 percent of all U.S. immigrants, Hispanics
account for nearly 90 percent of all immigrant dropouts.
While the dropout rate for other school-age populations has declined, more
or less steadily, over the last 25 years, the overall Latino dropout rate
started higher and has remained between 30 and 35 percent during that same
time period. As a result, todays dropout rate for Latinos is 2.5 times
the rate for blacks and 3.5 times the rate for white nonHispanics. Moreover,
of Latinos who have ever enrolled in U.S. schools, proportionately more of
them seek alternative high school diplomas than do whites; that is, they may
get high school diplomas, but even Latinos who get diplomas are more likely
to leave school in order to do so.1 The situation is far more serious than
any of these odds and rates suggest because they apply to a rapidly growing
number of our nations students.
As with other students, the odds of school completion rise for Latinos with
gains in factors such as family income and parent education. Nevertheless,
reports and studies document that gaps in school completion rates between
Latinos and non-Latino students remain even after controlling for the social
class background of students, for their language proficiency, and for their
immigrant status. Regardless of your position in society, if you are a Latinostudent,
you are more likely to drop out of school and not earn a diploma than if you
are a non-Hispanic American in a similar position.
According to the United States Census Bureau, Latinos are projected to become
the largest ethnic minority in the United States by the early twenty-first
century. If our country stays on its current path, the low rate of Latino
school completion means that a large segment of the countrys soon-to-be
largest minority group will be underprepared for employment, for making personal
choices, and for engagement in civic life as is required for
this democracy to grow and adapt as the founders intended it to. Dropouts
diminish our democracy, our society, and their own opportunities.
Students...see dropping out as wrong; they see it as representing failure,
a problem. This is of interest because it tells us that these Latino students
(who are still in school) do not want to drop out. This counters the assumption
of many who argue that Latinos are not really very interested in finishing
school. In Rodriguez, C. E. (1992). Student voices: High school students
perspectives on the Latino dropout problem (pp. 89-90). (Report to the Latino
Commission on Educational Reform). New York: Fordham University.
Dropping out is not a random act. According to some observers, school dropout
is the logical outcome of the social forces that limit Latino's roles
in society. Many Latino students live in the nations most economically
distressed areas. They attend overcrowded schools in physical disrepair and
with limited educational materials. They see the devastating effects of their
elders limited employment opportunities and job ceilings. Hispanic students
encounter stereotypes, personal prejudice, and social bias that is often part
of larger anti-immigrant forces in this society. For many Latinos, the United
States does not appear to be a society of opportunities. Not surprisinglyfaced
with evidence of lingering institutional bias against Latinosthese students
figure: The American Dream is not for me. Why bother? And, of course, they
drop out.
The Census reports that because of demographic growth there will be at least
a million more elementary students many of them Latinoin our schools
by the end of the decade. Without quick and concerted intervention, technology,
trade, and changing policy will increase the number of children, many of them
Hispanic, growing in poverty. Without adequate funding that is effectively
usedparticularly in the high-poverty schools attended by many Latino
childrenclasses will become even more overcrowded than we have witnessed
recently, instructional materials will be increasingly out-of-date, and schools
ability to attract and hold effective teachers will decrease.
Although connection between students and their teachers and role models is
important, the number of minority college students entering teaching is declining.
There are shortages of teachers with meaningful proficiency in more than English.
The retirement of the large proportion of current teachers originally hired
to teach the baby boomers will intensify attrition of the teachers with the
most classroom experience. If the same proportion of Latino students is still
dropping out tomorrow, America will have many more dropoutsat a time
when education is crucial for employability.
* Mendez
et al v. Westminster School District (1946). Segregation of Mexican American
children was ruled unconstitutional in California.
* Delgado
v. Bastrop Independent School District (1948). Segregation of Mexican
American children was ruled to be illegal and discriminatory in Texas, because
they were considered Caucasian.
* Rodriguez
v. San Antonio Independent School District. On appeal, the US Supreme
Court ruled that unequal funding of schools did not violate the 14th amendment.
* Cisneros
v. Corpus Christi Independent School District (1970). Mexican Americans
were officially recognized by the federal courts as an identifiable dominated
group in the public schools, because of their language, culture, religion,
and Spanish surnames.
Aristotle
and Realism
Emphasis is on the physical
world, matter is the ultimate reality, and the universe is permanent and enduring.
Change occurs in accordance to the permanent laws of nature
Humans know the truth to the degree they understand natural laws
The purpose of education is to enable the pupil to become an intellectually
well-balanced person
Realism
Classic
Things exist in and of themselves,
outside of the minds of those who observe them.
Absolute and unchanging truth that lies in the natural
laws that govern the universe
Religious
Both matter and spirit have been
created by God
Pragmatism
The biological and social nature of man
Reality amounts to the interaction
of humans with their environment.
The reality of change and adaptation
Change is the most important characteristic
of physical reality, and truth is relative
Humans, endowed with rationality, can understand reality
by dealing with change.
Education focuses on applied knowledge, using ideas as instruments in problem
solving
The relativity of values
Theories
of Education
Perennialism
Perennialism views truth as constant and never changing. Perennialists believe
it is our ability to reason that makes us different from animals.
Essentialism
Essentialism assumes that there is a core of common knowledge all students
need to learn (Hirsch). This core of common knowledge needs to be transmitted
to students in a methodical and orderly manner. This core of common knowledge
and skills is crucial for students, so they can become productive members
of society.
Progressivism
Progressivism is based on pragmatism and is the counterpoint of both Essentialism
and Perennialism. Progressivism emphasizes educating the cognitive, social,
physical, and moral aspects of the student, using what is called the whole
person approach.
Social
Reconstructivism
Social Reconstructivism has two major premises: 1) Society is in constant
need of change, and 2) this social change involves the use of schools. This
concept of change means involving people in making life better that it currently
is. Social Reconstructivists believe that educators should be social activists,
and that the school is an agent for change.
Critical
Pedagogy
Progressivism
Education should be life itself, not just a preparation
for living
Learning should be directly related to
the experiences and interest of the child.
Schools must prepare students to function in a democratic
society.
In order to teach democracy, the
school itself must be democratic.
The teachers role is to advice and facilitate
Education is always in a process of development, a continuous
reconstruction of experience.
Schools should promote students
participation in all educational experiences.
Educators must modify methods and policies in response to
new knowledge and changes in the environment.
Students are nor receptacles,
or buckets, They learn best by doing.
Learning through problem solving, in cooperation
should take precedence over direct instruction
Social
Reconstructivism
A fusion of progressive pedagogy and Marxist ideology
Calls on teachers to become leaders of social change
Criticizes schools for being agents of Social Reproduction
Demands that teachers take charge of the curriculum
Critical
Pedagogy
Stresses the link between knowledge and power
Designed to empower the powerless and transform existing social inequalities
and injustices
Asserts that people are essentially not free in a world full of
contradictions and asymmetries of power and privilege
Asserts that school structures and curricula tend to marginalize poor people
and minorities, and to reproduce the inequalities of society through a hidden
curriculum
Purposes of Education
Confirming Status
Confirming social status means
that education is used to maintain the already existing status of a person
Conferring Status
Conferring social status means
that education improves the social status of the individual
Purposes of Schools
Schools for Social Conservation
Recreate or reproduce society
Advance Moral goals
Schools for Social Change
Promote social change
Empower students
Promote equity
Purposes of the Curriculum
Curriculum for Social Conservation
Designed to make students productive
members of society
Curriculum for Social Change
Breaking the culture of silence
Liberating education
Student/community empowerment
Problem-solving education
The School Curriculum
Stated curriculum
School buildings
Class schedules
Standardized testing
Course descriptions/syllabi
Hidden curriculum
Socialization
Extra-curricular activities
Null curriculum
Curriculum organization
Single Subject
Competency-Based Education
Project-Based
Activity/Child Centered
Core
Humanistic
Instruction
Long Range Goals
Specific Learning Objectives
Learning Styles
Field Dependent
Field Independent
Learning Modalities
Visual Modality
Auditory Modality
Kinesthetic Modality
Tactile Modality
Instruction
Instructional Objectives
Specific Learning Objectives
Learning Styles
Instructional Approaches
Mastery learning
Critical thinking skills
Individualized Learning
Instructional Approaches
Cooperative learning
Cooperative learning helps students learn in non-threatening environments.
Cooperative learning discourages competition, so students do not become winners
and losers.
Inquiry Method
The inquiry method focuses on students investigating problems. It requires
students to take control of their own learning. Classroom teachers empower
students to become active learners who define problems, hypothesize, test,
and draw conclusions.
Teacher Directed Learning
This is the approach most students encounter in their school experience. The
state/district determines the curriculum; the teacher develops lessons and
units to implement this curriculum, and determines its delivery.
Use of Textbooks
Use of Computers and educational software
Tests and Measurements
Student Evaluation
Criterion-based tests
Normative tests (Standardized)
Teacher Evaluation
Administrative evaluations
Peer assessments
Federal Role in Education
Constitutional
Amendments Affecting Education
The Constitution makes no mention of schools and education. However, three
out of the 26 amendments are pertinent to educational governance
First Amendment
Guarantees citizens freedom of speech, religion, and of the press, and the
right to petition the government
n Tenth Amendment
Transfers responsibility for education to each of the states. Each state constitution
has specific stipulations for the provision of education to its students.
Fourteenth Amendment
Guarantees all citizens equal protection and due process. While states have
the responsibility to educate children, they do not have the right to determine
that one child should have a better opportunity to receive an education than
another (Brown v. Board of Education).
Congress
Congress has no constitutional authority to compel schools to teach a specific
curriculum, set mandatory