Education

Affirmative Action

A policy designed to redress past discrimination against women and minority groups through measures to improve their economic and educational opportunities

Coleman Report (1966)

-money per student didn't increase educational attainment -education increases income -socialization: hidden curriculum -obvious stuff: functional literacy/numeracy -school resources had no effect on student achievement 1. Family background and peers did -plateau at doctorate

Brown v. Board of Education

1954 - The Supreme Court overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, declared that racially segregated facilities are inherently unequal and ordered all public schools desegregated.

Inclusion

Educating a child with special education needs full-time in the regular classroom.

Mills v. Board of Education of the District of Columbia

This case was brought on the behalf of seven school-age children with special needs who argued that the school board was denying their access to free public education. The school board maintained that the children's "exceptional" needs, which included mental retardation and mental illness, precluded their right to be educated for free in a public school setting. The board argued that the cost of educating these children would be too expensive and that the children would therefore have to remain at home without access to education.

universal access

This term refers to people's equal ability to participate in an education system. On a world level, access might be more difficult for certain groups based on class or gender (as was the case in the United States earlier in the nation's history, a dynamic we still struggle to overcome).

tracking

a formalized sorting system that places students on "tracks" (advanced versus low achievers) that perpetuate inequalities. While educators may believe that students do better in tracked classes because they are with students of similar ability and may have access to more individual attention from teachers, conflict theorists feel that tracking leads to self-fulfilling prophecies in which students live up (or down) to teacher and societal expectations

social placement

a function of education-funneling people into a society's various positions

busing

achieving racial balance by transporting students to schools across neighborhood boundaries

sorting

classifying students based on academic merit or potential

Formal education

describes the learning of academic facts and concepts through a formal curriculum. Arising from the tutelage of ancient Greek thinkers, centuries of scholars have examined topics through formalized methods of learning. Education in earlier times was only available to the higher classes; they had the means for access to scholarly materials, plus the luxury of leisure time that could be used for learning.

Head Start program

developed to give lowincome students an opportunity to make up the preschool deficit discussed in Coleman's findings. The program provides academic-centered preschool to students of low socioeconomic status.

Credentialism

embodies the emphasis on certificates or degrees to show that a person has a certain skill, has attained a certain level of education, or has met certain job qualifications. These certificates or degrees serve as a symbol of what a person has achieved, and allows the labeling of that individual.

teaching to the test

instruction that is driven by the requirements or characteristics of a test rather than the needs of students or the substance of a particular subject

mainstreaming

integrating students with disabilities or special needs into the overall educational program

Common Core

is a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy (ELA). These learning goals outline what a student should know and be able to do at the end of each grade."

Education

is a social institution through which a society's children are taught basic academic knowledge, learning skills, and cultural norms. Every nation in the world is equipped with some form of education system, though those systems vary greatly. The major factors that affect education systems are the resources and money that are utilized to support those systems in different nations

Social promotion

passing students on to the next level even though they have not mastered basic materials

charter schools

public schools run by private entities to give parents greater control over their children's education

No Child Left Behind Act (2001)

requires states to test students in designated grades. The results of those tests determine eligibility to receive federal funding. Schools that do not meet the standards set by the Act run the risk of having their funding cut. Sociologists and teachers alike have contended that the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act is far more negative than positive, arguing that a "one size fits all" concept cannot apply to education.

latent functions of education

restricting some activities, matchmaking and production of social networks, creating a generation gap

manifest functions of education

socialization, transmission of culture, multicultural education, social control, social placement, change and innovation

hidden curriculum

the informal and unofficial aspects of culture that children are taught in school refers to the type of nonacademic knowledge that students learn through informal learning and cultural transmission. This hidden curriculum reinforces the positions of those with higher cultural capital and serves to bestow status unequally.

cultural capital

the symbolic and interactional resources that people use to their advantage in various situations

Cultural transmission

the way people come to learn the values, beliefs, and social norms of their culture. Both informal and formal education include cultural transmission. For example, a student will learn about cultural aspects of modern history in a U.S. History classroom. In that same classroom, the student might learn the cultural norm for asking a classmate out on a date through passing notes and whispered conversations.