Education

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Education

• Soc 340
• 10-1-03

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• Following cartoon introduces all the main players
  for today, as well as Janssons 6 aspects of
  policy strategy.
• What can you identify?

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Supreme Court and vouchers

• http//www.solidarity.com/HKCARTOONS/teachertoons/
  mikevouchers1.html

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Janssons 6 Aspects of Policy Strategy

• 1. Constitutions
• 2. Public policies
• 3. Budget and spending programs
• 4. Court decisions
• 5. Stated or implied objectives
• 6. Rules, Procedures, and Regulations
• 7. (Evaluation)?

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Janssons 6 Aspects of Policy Strategy

• 1. Constitutions
• education is not a federal constitutional right,
  though many state constitutions guarantee it.
• 2. Public policies
• states and localities hold primary responsibility
  for Elementary and Secondary ed policies.
• run by School Districts, separate gvt units
• 14,000 in the US
• some Federal Involvement
• 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act,
  Title 1--Federal aid to low income/SES schools

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Janssons 6 Aspects of Policy Strategy

• 3. Budget and spending programs
• not a large expense for the federal government
• the single largest area of expenditures for the
  states
• (1/3 of state expenditure goes to elementary and
  higher ed)

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(Source Rahm 2004)
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Where an Average School gets its Funds.
(Source Rahm 2004)
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Where would you place Federal Contributions?
(Source Rahm 2004)
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Janssons 6 Aspects of Policy Strategy

• 4. Court decisions
• Cleveland Schools, Supreme Court Case (big man)
• Public for Private Religious Schools
• 5. Stated or implied objectives
• campaign issues Winerip etc.
• No Child Left Behind School Choice
• 6. Rules, Procedures, and Regulations
• the specifics of how districts can and cannot run
  schools. At the center of the cartoon.
• 7. (Evaluation)?
• Baker and Winerip readings

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School Quality Debate

• Declining performance in comparison to other
  nations and domestically, as measured by
  standardized tests.

(Source Rahm 2004)
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• 1900's
• Racial/Class Equality Efforts
• Gvt-University-Private Partnerships
• School Quality Debate

• Current Issues
• Religion and Schools
• Inequalities
• School Quality

• 1600-1700's
• Religious Instruction
• 1700's State Constitutions Established Sparse
  Schools
• 1787 Northwest Ordinance

• 1800's
• More formal, Less under local control
• Socialize Children
• Land-Grant State College System

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Early Schools and Religion

• Protestant founders of the early Colonies
  stressed the importance of all persons being able
  to read the bible.
• Early schools were established primarily to teach
  religion
• Church-State Partnerships were common

(Source Rahm 2004)
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1787 Northwest Ordinance

• Federal Government Required that one section of
  land in each township be set aside for the
  support of education.

(Source Rahm 2004)
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Immigrant Assimilation

• Schools Seen as providing the necessary tools
  for personal achievement.
• Leveling Playing Fields
• Also Created a Unified American Citizenry that
• spoke the same language
• read the same literature
• knew the same history
• honored the same heroes
• respected the same norms

(Source Rahm 2004)
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Functionalist View

• Compulsory Education Does 2 Things

• Transmitting Culture
• --transmits the dominant culture, exposing young
  people to the existing beliefs, norms, and values
  of their culture.
• Promoting Social and Political Integration
• --Education transforms a diverse population into
  a society whose members share a common identity.

Source Schaefer 2004
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Land-Grant And State College System

• Morrill Acts (1862, 1890)
• federal lands given to each state for
  establishment of colleges
• Mission teach agriculture and the mechanic arts
• emphasis on pragmatics, (not classics as taught
  at private universities)
• 1887 Hatch Act- funding based on of farmers in
  state
• 1914 Smith-Lever Act- Cooperative Extension
  Service - disseminate research to agricultural
  stations

(Source Rahm 2004)
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Government-University-Private Partnership

• Morrills Mission of Research, Teaching, and
  Extension (Service/fiduciary responsibility)
  modified.
• Farm population Dropped
• Private Sector Shift from Farming to Industry
• RD for military, international industry
  competitiveness (Commercialization of Research)
• Fiduciary--gt Financial incentive

(Source Rahm 2004)
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Race and Class Inequality

• 1896 Plessy v. Fergueson
• (separate but equal trains schools)
• 1954 Brown v Board of Ed.
• (separate but equal unequal)
• 1971 Busing
• 1960s Affirmative Action,
• 1978 Univ. Calif v. Bakke
• 2003 Univ Michigan

(Source Rahm 2004)
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Conflict Perspective

• Schools as a Contested Site

• Education as an instrument of elite domination.
• Schools seen as reinforcing existing social class
  inequality.
• Convincing subordinate groups of their
  inferiority.

Source Schaefer 2004
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Religion and Schools

• 1947 Everson v. Board of Ed (could use tax to
  bus to Parochial Schools)
• 1962 Engle v. Vitale (non-denominational prayer
  violates separation of church state)
• 2002 Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (Vouchers to
  Parochial Schools constitutional)
• Creationism v Evolution

(Source Rahm 2004)
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School Quality Debate

• Baker Article
• HS since inception in early 1900s both a
  blessing a bane.

(Source Rahm 2004)
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Baker

• Blessing (1900s-50)
• Exemplary World Model
• Rational
• Bureaucratic
• Robust
• Progressive and modern
• Met demands of industrial-urban society

• Bane (post 1950s)
• Broken Institution in Need of Reform
• Social Decline
• Persistent Poverty
• Racial Disparities
• Educational Failure in urban communities
• Looks Weak in Intl Comparison

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(No Transcript)
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• Local funds raised via property taxes --gt
  inequalities.
• Many localities unable to fund solutions.
• Suggests need for national involvement in policy
  response.

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As a Result

• Shift from end of 1970s great opposition to
  Federal involvement in K-12
• Reagan attempted to eliminate the Federal
  Department of Education and return control to
  localities.
• Bush has re-invigorated Federal involvement

(Source Rahm 2004)
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Quality of Schools I

• Bush No Child Left Behind Act 2002
• promised stronger federal government role in k-12
  (increased funding)
• mandates yearly testing in grades 3-8
• provides mechanism for students to transfer out
  of failing schools
• recruitment of more math, science, and special ed
  teachers (via forgiving loans for 5-year teaching
  commitment to poor schools)
• (Drastic Shift from Reagan)

(Source Rahm 2004)
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Quality of Schools II

• 1. Charter Schools
• 2. Pay increases for teachers
• 3. National Qualifications and Testing for
  Teachers
• 4. Testing Student Performance
• 5. Mechanisms to allow parents to move children
  out of failing schools (vouchers) see reading

(Source Rahm 2004)
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Quality of Schools II

• School Choice
• Pro
• current inequality and monopoly
• economically disadvantaged parents
• Con
• collapse of free universal public school system,
  especially if vouchers used for private schools

(Source Rahm 2004)
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• Winerip on Vouchers?
• The Evaluation Component.
• The Importance of Following Scientific Method.
  Replication of research.