EDUCATION

1
EDUCATION

• By
• Amanda, Anna, Joshua, Mike, Choul, Colton, Tony,
  Melissa and Colter

2
Characteristics of Education in the United States

• Education in U.S. society is conservative
• Schools teach to preserve the culture, not to
  transform it
• Creativity and a questioning attitude are
  curtailed in school

3
Cont

• Children are taught to compete individually
  rather than work cooperatively for common goals

4
Mass Education

• U.S. democratic society requires an educations
  citizenry
• School problems are related to the lack of
  student interest

5
Local Control of Education

• The bulk of money and control for education comes
  from local communities.
• Whether the tax base is strong or weak has a
  pronounced effect on the quality of education.
• Alternate types of schooling.

6
cont

• Lack of common curriculum consequences
• 1. Wide variation is the preparation in
  students
• 2. Families move on the average of once every
  five years, large numbers of students find the
  requirements of their new schools different,
  sometimes very different.

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Facts

• Families with school-age children decline from
  45 of the U.S. population in 1950 to 33 in 2000
  which increases the ever-greater likely hood of
  the defeat of school issues.
• Another problem of local control is the lack of
  curriculum standardization across the nations
  15,367 school districts and 50 states.

8
Competitive Nature of U.S. Education

• Competition extends to all school activities
• Grading is comparison of individuals
• Teachers make up games to encourage competition.

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Sifting and Sorting Function of School

• The lower the class, the shorter the ride.

10
Preoccupation with Order and Control

• Activities begin and end on a timetable, not in
  accordance with the degree of interest shown or
  whether students have mastered the subject.
• The school authorities belief in order is one
  reason for this dedication to rules,
• Teachers are rated not on their ability to get
  pupils to learn but, rather on the degree to
  which their classrooms are quiet and orderly.

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Education and Inequality

• Children in poorest families
• Test scores relate to poverty
• Minorities

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Median Annual Income For Full-time Workers by
Educational Attainment for People 25 Years Old
and Over by Race and Hispanic Origin, 2000
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Poverty and Achievement in Denver Schools
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Fourth Graders at or above Grade Level in Reading
and Math
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Financing Public Education

• Private and public schools receive funds from
  three governmental sources.
• 10 Federal Government
• 40 State
• 50 property taxes in districts with in the state
• Unequal funding

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Family Economic Resources

• Poor families
• SAT scores
• Health benefits
• Early development
• School and Education
• Parents

17
Higher Education and Stratification

• Cost of college
• Low income students
• Rich get richer
• Most prestigious schools have the most resources
• Community college

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Curriculum

• U.S. schools are more related to middle or upper
  class.
• English may be a second language for many Latino
  and Asian students
• Teaching methods

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Segregation

• Schools are segregated by
• Social class
• Race
• Neighborhoods
• And within school

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Tracking and Teachers Expectations

• Tracking of students and their needs
• Lower tracks are discouraged in their potential
• Upper tracks develop feelings of superiority
• Low-track are tracked to fail
• Low income families are placed in the lowest track

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Reforming the Financing of Education

• There must be a commitment to a free education
  for all students
• Typically children must pay for their supplies
  textbooks, laboratory fees, locker rental,
  admission to plays, athletic events, insurance,
  transportation, meals, equipment for
  extracurricular activities
• These costs take a large portion of poor families
  budgets and increase pressure to withdrawal their
  children from school
• If education was absolutely free to all children
  communities could reduce dropout rates among the
  poor

22
cont

• Poor pay taxes to subsidize college students
  costs, yet their children are likely to find the
  costs of a higher education prohibitive
• College attendance by the children of the poor
  and even the not so poor are more and more
  unlikely because costs are so high
• An important way to produce equal opportunity is
  to provide a free college education to all who
  qualify - elimination of tuition, allowance for
  books, grants and loans for students who need to
  pay for living expenses
• The federal government should engage in four
  programs to promote equal opportunity for the
  disadvantaged (1) Provide national education
  standards, a national curriculum, and national
  tests. (2) Government spends federal monies
  unequally to equalize differences among the
  states. (3) Encourage states to distribute their
  funds to eliminate or minimize disparities
  between rich and poor districts. (4) Government
  must increase its funding for programs such as
  Headstart and must continue such compensatory
  programs through kindergarten and first grade

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Universal Preschool Programs

• The most important variable affecting school
  performance is not race but socioeconomic status
• Children from poorer families tend to do worse in
  school than children from wealthier families
• If children from lower class homes are to succeed
  in middle class schools they must have special
  help to equalize their chances
• California has initiated a program for all
  youngsters from kindergarten through the third
  grade which aims at having every youngster
  reading and writing computing and excited about
  school by the age of eight
• Californias results show children from schools
  in lower class areas are gaining faster than are
  those in other schools
• The program is expensive but the costs will be
  offset by great reductions in expenditures for
  remedial work older students

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Reducing Class and School Size

• Smaller class size
• Achieve higher grades
• Better high school graduation rates
• More likely to attend college
• Black-White academic narrowed 38 percent
• Smaller School Size
• Less risky behavior
• Greater class intimacy improving performance
• Greater attendance and lower drop out rates

25
Attracting and Retaining Excellent Teachers

• Academic achievement is based on great teachers
• The single most important factor in raising
  academic performance in poor schools appears to
  be the presence of experienced, competent and
  caring teachers. Disadvantaged youths currently
  are taught be the least prepared and most
  transient in the system. Devising incentives for
  recruiting and maintaining highly qualified
  teachers and for retraining existing staff in
  high poverty schools should be the top priority
  of those serious about raising standards.(Orfield
  and Wald, 200040)

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Extending the School Day and Year

• More time spent in school
• The U.S. devotes the shortest amount of time time
  to teaching its children of any advanced nation
• The summer break is especially harmful to
  minority and poor kids. They enter the first
  grade half a year behind upper income children
  but fall 2.5 years behind by the end of the fifth
  grade. Almost all of this gap can be traced to
  summer vacations, when lower income kids were
  treading water and upper income kids were forging
  ahead.(Symonds,200176)

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Holding Educators Accountable

• The pressure of No Child Left Behind
• Encouraging drop-out
• Better Teachers for the poor and minority

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Reforming the Educational Philosophy of Schools

• Schools mimic society
• Suppressing the natural curiosity of children
• Meeting societies requirements
• Treating children like miniature adults

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Ten Point Education Agenda For Every Child

• Operate from the premise that all children can
  learn and perform at high levels
• Ensure that every child enters school ready to
  learn and to succeed
• Set measurable and appropriate standards for
  success
• Empower teachers and principals
• Invest in quality teaching

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Ten Point cont

• Provide every child with facilities that support
  learning and state-of-the-art tools
• Ensure adequate resources to make all of the
  above a reality
• Involve the entire community
• Engage the public in the school reform debate
• Address every one of the above elements

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Restructuring Society

• Equality opportunity is truly the goal, education
  cannot be accomplish alone

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Key Terms

• Cultural deprivation- erroneous assumption that
  some groups are handicapped by a so-called
  inferior culture
• Tracking- ability grouping in schools
• Stigma- powerful negative social label that
  effects a persons social identity and
  self-concept
• Student subculture- members of the disadvantage
  band together in a group with values and
  behaviors antagonistic toward school