Social Realities Confronting Todays Schools

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Chapter 4

• Social Realities Confronting Todays Schools

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What are the aims of education today?

• Education for National Goals
• Education for Prosocial Values
• Education for Achievement
• Education for Personal Growth
• Education for Social Change
• Education for Equal Educational Opportunity

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How can schools be described?

• According to their curricula focus-high schools
  can be college prep,vocational or general
• According to organizational structure- a magnet
  school allows students from an entire district to
  attend a schools specialized program( organized
  around specific disciplines such as math or
  science, or performing or visual arts, computers
  etc)

4
Metaphors for schools

• Factories
• Tribes or clans
• Banks
• Gardens
• Prisons
• Families
• Teams

5
Schools maintain the current social class
structure in America

• Schools in effect,preserve the stratification
  within society and maintain the differences
  between the haves and the have- nots
• Working-class school
• Middle-class schools
• Affluent professional schools
• Executive elite school

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Schools are social institutions

• An institution is an organization established by
  society to maintain and improve its way of life
• The school is a reflection of society
• Private,parochial and religious schools se the
  schools as a way to perpetuate heir preferred
  way of life

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Rural,Suburban, and Urban schools

• Schools reflect their location and have
  significantly different cultures
• Rural schools are the focal point for community
  life
• Large suburban or urban schools may provide
  students with more varied experiences, but these
  schools may lack the cohesiveness and community
  focus of rural schools.

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Formal Practices of Schools

• Self-contained classroom
• Open-space
• departmentalization

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Culture of the Classroom

• The manner in which teacher and students
  participate in common activities
• This is influenced by the physical setting (use
  of space, resources)
• Influenced by the social dimensions of the group(
  norms, rules expectations,distribution of power)

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Characteristics of a Successful School

• Strong leadership
• High expectations
• Emphasis on basic skills
• Orderly school environment
• Frequent,systematic evaluation of students
• Sense of purpose
• Collegiality and a sense of community

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Four characteristics of schools that have
successfully restructured

• Focus on student learning
• Students required to think and apply academic
  learning to realistic problems
• Continuous professional growth for teachers
• School receives critical financial, technical and
  political support from outside sources

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Social Problems that affect school and place
students at risk

• Poverty
• Family Stress
• Substance abuse
• Violence and crime
• Teen pregnancy
• Students with HIV/AIDS
• Suicide among children and teens

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What are schools doing to address Societal
Problems

• Intervention Programs
• Peer Counseling
• Full-Service schools
• School-based Interprofessional Case Management
• Compensatory education
• Alternative schools and curricula