EducationEducationEducationEducation

Education Attainment and Achievement

• Today, ever-greater proportions of American students are finishing high school and going on to college

• The gap of educational attainment between blacks and whites has narrowed considerably since the turn of the century

• In 2005, 85 percent of Americans over age 25 had completed four years of high school or more.

• But that proportion was 80 percent for Blacks and 57 percent for Latinos.

• It is argued that higher dropout rates among minority students are caused by the fact that they do not receive enough help at home (cultural disadvantage argument)

• Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) indicates that schoolchildren in Asia perform better academically than those in the U.S.

• A 1992 study in performance on standardized tests between students in the USA and Asia, confirmed that school children in Asia perform better academically than do those in the U.S.

• By the 5th grade, the U.S. students had fallen quite far behind their Asian counterparts

• A different study found that U.S. colleges, especially community colleges, do a better job of preparing students for a changing labor market than do other institutions of higher education in the other nations studied

Declining Standards• The level of educational knowledge is not

increasing • The Third International Mathematics and

Science study in 1997 ranked American eighth graders 28th in mathematics and 17th in science

• This poor standing is attributed both to Americas low academic expectations and to the shorter school year

• The average school year in the US is 180 days, compared to 210 days in Germany and 244 days in Japan

Grade Inflation - Common practice of giving higher grades for less work than in the past

• Some introductory textbooks now are routinely dumbed down to a tenth-grade or lower reading level

Education and Equality: The Issue of Equal Access• American society is based on the premise that

everyone should have the right to an education

»Equality through education• There is a lot of criticism that not all students

have access to the same quality education»Especially true for central-city

minority children»Urban and suburban divide in

educational access and resources

Educational Inequality

• The schools attended by lower-class children often have lower budgets and weaker academic programs than other schools due to the fact that most schools are financed with property taxes

• Tax dollars pay for public education, but the federal government provides only about 8 percent of needed school revenues

• Several states have had legal challenges to their system of school finance, and fourteen state supreme courts have ruled the existing systems unconstitutional and ordered basic reforms.

Black Students• The lower level of educational attainment of

African-Americans early on can be attributed to:

1. The Great Depression and the high rate of African-American unemployment

2. Residential and educational segregation and the under-funding of African-American schools

• Black females have college graduation rates that approach those of white males, but black male

graduation rates are not showing similar increases

Hispanic Students• Factors behind lower educational attainment

among Hispanic students»Language barrier»De facto segregation in poor school

districts

• Bilingual/bicultural education as a solution to improving the educational attainment of Hispanics

• Bilingual education programs have been controversial

• Critics favor English immersion-based programs for non-English speaking students

• Critics argue it is a more effective approach to prepare non-English students to compete effectively in America

Asians• Some Asian groups have done extremely well

and now have a higher level of education than European Americans

• Nearly 9 out of 10 of those over 25 have completed high school, and almost half of young adults have at least a college degree.

• Asians are twice as likely as whites to graduate from college.

Sociological Perspectives on Education

• Functionalists stress stability and consensus and how education meets the needs of society

• Conflict theorists emphasize how schools reproduce inequalities in society

• Interactionists point out how interaction and labels shape education

Functionalist Approaches

• Functionalist perspective – problems in the educational system are a symptom of social disorganization

»Schools are geared to educate students from stable homes and families

»Educational problems involve deviance from accepted norms of achievement

»Education as meeting the needs of a changing culture and economy

Conflict Approaches• Conflict perspective - views the problems

in education as stemming from the inequalities in society

• Conflict view has two themes• Marxian

»Focus is on reducing inequalities»Schools reflect the values of the

dominant group

Conflict Approaches• Conflict view has two themes• Non-Marxian

»Value-conflict approach »Intergroup conflict over

defending one’s educational interests

Interactionist Approaches• Interactionists focus on how schools label

students and the impact this has on education and achievement

»Achievers»Underachievers»Slackers»Rebels

• How teacher expectations influence student achievement

Table 11-1 (p. 357)Table 11-1 (p. 357)Perspectives on Perspectives on

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Table 11-1 (p. 357)Table 11-1 (p. 357)Perspectives on Perspectives on

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School Reform: Problems of

Institutional Change• Primary source of resistance to educational

change has been educational institutions• Schools have become large bureaucratic

organizations with their own independent educational goals

• Schools as Bureaucracies• Bureaucratization of education has resulted in

an increase in organizational size and complexity

»Large administrative staffs• Bureaucratization as led to an elaborate

system of authority within educational organizations

• The push for National Standards in Education is leading to educational uniformity

Politics and Social Policy• Educational Conservatism and Back to

Basics• The Fight Over National Standards• Under the Bush administration there has been

a push for the establishment of National Standards for Education

Politics and Social Policy

• Educational Conservatism and Back to Basics

• Opponents view the establishment of National Standards will hamper local efforts to achieve educational excellence

»Stifle change and creativity• The federal No Child Left Behind Act places

heavy stress on achieving its goals through standardized tests in the primary grades

• This legislation was inspired by what was called the “Texas Miracle”

School Reform: Problems of Institutional Change

• Classroom and School Size• The push for fewer students in a class

»Smaller classes is related to increased achievement

»Over 80 percent of teachers and administrators feel that a class size of 17 produces the best result in student achievement

• School size and student performance»Students perform better in

smaller schools

School Reform: Problems of Institutional Change

• School Choice• Voucher system - families are given an

educational voucher(allowance) to use in choosing a school to send their children to

• Charter schools - specialized schools for students

• Homeschoolers are students whose parents report that their children are taught at home rather than in a public or private school.

• Students who are homeschooled perform as well, if not better, on average than those graduating from public schools.

Preschool Programs• Head Start has grown in significance as

an effective early-educational program»Low-income children are

eligible for the program• Children in Head Start are:

»More likely to complete school»Lower rate of juvenile problems

Preschool Programs• Perry Preschool Project- an early

intervention program in Michigan• Results of the Perry Project• 1. Preschool children in the program

showed improved cognitive performance• 2. Improved scholastic performance

throughout schooling• 3. Increased high school graduation rate

Preschool Programs• Results of the Perry Project• 4. Showed lower rates of crime and

delinquency• 5. Lower rates of use of welfare• 6. Lower rates of teenage pregnancy

Desegregation• Pressures and policies to desegregate

schools have come from the courts»Supreme court case in 1954

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas

• The Brown decision showed that Segregation had negative effects on African-American children

• In 1980, the pace of desegregation slowed

Desegregation• In 1991 the Supreme Court ruled in an

Oklahoma city decision that schools could cease to bus students if the school District could show it has taken all practical steps to desegregate the schools

• Problems related to school integration exist in cities and suburbs and will continue to exist without further policies and strategies to desegregate schools

School Reform: Problems of Institutional Change

• The Technological Fix• The technological fix to problems is related

to American belief in the value of technology»Often apply technology to the

solution of problems• Network computer is viewed as a techno-fix

for education• Computers in the class room

School Reform: Problems of Institutional Change

• The Technological Fix• Only two in ten teachers use computers

daily with their students• Computer gap between the haves and

have not

School Violence• Current sources of school violence are:• 1. Lack of parental supervision• 2. Violence in the media• 3. Availability of guns• 4. Harassment of students by other students• 5. Influence of outside groups• 6. Low self-esteem brought on by social

isolation

School Violence• Solutions to school violence• Increase teacher authority in schools• Metal detectors and security guards