Ch. 7. Education Flashcards
Gaps in Educational Achievement
Gaps in Educational Achievement – Since the 1960s, educational policy has focused on differences (Gaps) in student achievement across social classes, races, ethnicities, and genders.
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ACHIEVEMENT GAP: The consistent difference in scores on tests of student achievement across different demographic groups.
- Often measured using standardized tests.
Federal educational policy has attempted to reduce the achievement gap, beginning with:
- ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT (ESEA) – Primary piece of federal legislation concerning K–12 education in the US, first passed in 1965, and revised in 2001 as the No Child Left Behind Act.
- NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND (NCLB) – Established a range of reforms mandating uniform standards for all students with the aim of reducing and eventually eliminating the social class and race achievement gap by 2014. It was reauthorized by President Obama in 2015 as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
- RACE TO THE TOP (RTT) – the goal of aiding states in meeting various components of NCLB by offering grants to states to improve student outcomes and close achievement gaps.
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NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS (NAEP): A congressionally mandated set of standardized tests intended to assess the progress of a sample of U.S. students at various grade levels from all demographic groups and parts of the country. Sometimes called the NATION’S REPORT CARD
- These data show significant and persistent gaps in achievement over time, with white and Asian American students posting the highest average scores.
- Inequalities in achievement are also found along social class lines.
Gaps in Educational Attainment
GAPS IN EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT – Many jobs in the United States have minimum education requirements; therefore, educational attainment is an indicator of who is eligible for which jobs
- Racial gaps in educational achievement set the stage for inequalities in college enrollment and eventual completion (attainment).
- Because educational attainment is so highly correlated with income, as well as health and political/civic engagement, it is clear that inequalities in education set the stage for inequalities in other areas of social life.
U.S. Education system: a brief history
U.S. Education system: a brief history –
- A brief history of education in the United States shows that despite the ideal of schools serving as the “great equalizers,” and continual efforts to level the playing field, this history is marked by enduring inequalities in access, funding, and more.
- GREAT EQUALIZER – the idea that education will allow ALL people, regardless of background, to attain great heights with hard work and persistence. (hint: it doesn’t work this way).
- HORACE MANN lobbied for “COMMON SCHOOL MOVEMENT” – an education system that would be universal, free, and nonsectarian – in the 1830s.
- Only 32% of Americans over 25 have a bachelor’s degree.
- U.S. Supreme Court ruled racial segregation to be LEGAL in the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson (as long as facilities were “separate but equal”), it REVERSED this decision with Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.
- Here, the justices unanimously agreed that even if segregated schools have equivalent resources, they would still be guilty of inflicting unconstitutional social and psychological harm on minority students—with segregation inherently marking them as different, and therefore lesser.
- Yet because the Court’s decision lacked a legal enforcement mechanism, few school districts moved to desegregate.
- It was not until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that the government began requiring districts to develop desegregation plans, and used the threat of funding cuts to enforce them.
- Today, DE FACTO SEGREGATION – segregation by choice or preference – has replaced Illegal DE JURE SEGREGATION (Segregation by law) as many white families choose to live in majority-white communities or exit the public school system altogether.
- Whites constitute more than 60% of all school-aged children in the United States, but they make up only about 50% of public school student
- Today, DE FACTO SEGREGATION – segregation by choice or preference – has replaced Illegal DE JURE SEGREGATION (Segregation by law) as many white families choose to live in majority-white communities or exit the public school system altogether.
- It was not until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that the government began requiring districts to develop desegregation plans, and used the threat of funding cuts to enforce them.
- This disparity in resources for local public schools is embedded in the fact that nearly 50% of a school’s budget comes from local property taxes, with higher tax bases in majority-white neighborhoods.
- In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court declared in Plyler v. Doe that undocumented students have the right to free public education in the United States.
- Bilingual Education Act of 1968, the 1974 U.S. Supreme Court decision Lau v. Nichols mandated that schools provide appropriate instruction to English language learners (ELLs).
RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER GAP IN ACHIEVEMENT –
- When it comes to many standardized tests, GPA, high school completion, and college enrollment, girls and young women outperform their male counterparts.
- Many sociologists see the gender gap in education as an issue of socialization and messages about masculinity.
- In his book Learning the Hard Way, Edward Morris (2012) suggests that some boys disengage from school because they see school success as a girl thing, one that requires students to follow rules and develop a mastery of “book smarts.”
- some boys reject academic success as a legitimate basis for identity and instead gain status by asserting an alternative standard of masculinity—one that emphasizes toughness, fighting, and interest in traditionally masculine pursuits like sports, hunting, and fishing.
- Similar processes are evident among black and Latino males—where the gender gap is even larger.
- When black males succeed in school, they risk being labeled gay or effeminate.
- Because these are stigmatized identities, young black men must choose between academic success and masculinity.
- Among the more AFFLUENT, boys and girls go on to college at similar rates
- Where young men perceive legitimate opportunities for adult occupational success and have examples of such success within their families, they are less inclined to disengage from school.
International Comparisons of Education
- The United States scores below average on international tests of math achievement.
- Scores on science and reading literacy are higher, with the United States ranking about 19th and 15th, respectively
- The focus on standardized test scores masks other important educational goals, such as critical thinking and creativity.
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United States has one of the highest child poverty rates highlighting the link between high child poverty rates and low student test scores.
- Individual U.S. states with low poverty rates, such as Massachusetts, have scores that are similar to the highest-achieving nations.
Most countries have a national ministry of education that exerts control from the top-down, as opposed to the localized system of education that exists across the United States, where decisions about funding and curriculum are made at the state or district level.
- Education in the United States tends to be inclusive and undifferentiated, where all students basically receive the same secondary school credential (although variations exist in the quality of education).
- Students in other systems are often placed in different streams or tracks, separating students as gifted and less gifted, or vocationally versus academically inclined. This may result in different types of secondary school diplomas being granted.
GERMANY – While most students attend the same type of school until age 11 (Grundschule), the following year students are sorted into one of five tracks, with the main distinction between them that students can enter higher education
- other tracks prepare students for professional or vocational roles, with separate schools for engineering, skilled manual labor, and business
- a cultural tradition of respect for craftspeople, along with strong union organization, means that students who complete the vocational track often end up in jobs that are well respected and well paid.
FINLAND – Finland has posted some of the highest scores on international assessments of math, science, and reading exams. Even more impressive is the low variation in scores across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups.
- Finland’s education system has focused on high-quality teacher education, equality across the curriculum, and the provision of wraparound services.
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Finland eliminated all forms of tracking and standardized testing and instead ensures that students attain a high level of success through formative evaluation and oral and narrative dialogues between teachers and students.
- One potential barrier to better education in the US is that there are currently too few students enrolling in teacher preparation programs in the United States, perhaps reflecting concerns about the teaching profession having too little respect and autonomy and insufficient salaries.
GHANA – In these nations, poverty, hunger, and corruption are barriers to educational progress.
- As in many countries of the Global South, the education of females lags behind males in Ghana, where the average level of attainment is 8 years for boys but less than 6 for girls
- negative attitudes toward menstruation, and the lack of effective menstrual products (and limited access to bathrooms with running water), hinder the education of women in such countries, as many girls miss up to 1 month of school each year due to their periods.
Sociology of Education
SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION – The study of how individuals and institutions throughout society affect the education system and how the system produces educational outcomes.
- The sociology of education mirrors larger theoretical debates within sociology.
Functionalist Theory and Education
FUNCTIONALIST THEORY – Functionalist sociologists view society as a kind of machine—one in which each component performs a unique job and contributes to the functioning of the whole. With regard to education, it says that Students should be provided with equal “opportunities” to compete for “unequal results”.
- It’s important to note that functionalists do NOT believe that schools within a meritocracy should guarantee equal outcomes; rather, schooling should provide equal opportunity for students to compete for unequal results.
- Talcott Parsons argued that education sets modern society apart from earlier time periods because it establishes a system of MERITOCRACY – a system in which people achieve their social positions based on talent and hard work (i.e., merit), rather than the circumstances of their birth.
- In a well-functioning society, schools socialize students with appropriate values, unify them into a collective whole, and sort them into necessary adult roles – seeking SOCIAL COHESION.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS of Functionalist Theory – See schools as providing equality of opportunity. – but NOT equality of outcomes.
- The JUST SOCIETY is one in which each member has an equal shot at social and economic success, where merit and talent replace the family background as the essential determinants of one’s adult status.
- From this perspective, inequality in pay or status is normal and can be tolerated, as long as these inequalities reflect differences in talent and effort.
- Thus, Functionalism leads to support for educational policies that promote a uniform curriculum, emphasize a common history, shared cultural values, and equality of educational opportunity.
Conflict Theory and Education
CONFLICT THEORY – dominant groups impose their will on subordinate groups. With regard to education, dominant groups who have control over access to education now require greater academic credentials for jobs whose skill requirements remain the same.
- In other words, the argument is that in order to keep the marginalized people out of the good jobs, the dominant group now requires greater education for jobs that have not changed in their skill requirements. This works because the dominant group is the one with the greatest access to educational resources and therefore is the group most likely to benefit from this requirement while filtering out the marginalized group.
- The rise in credential requirements is a result of middle-class professionals’ attempts to raise their status.
- As historically marginalized groups have made gains in their own educational attainment, advantaged groups have pushed for the need for more credentials, once again asserting their advantage.
- Through this competition, basic degree requirements for different jobs spiral ever upwards.
- Thus, conflict theorists see educational institutions as an instrument for perpetuating class differences, rather than a tool for promoting a democratic and meritocratic society.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS of Conflict Theory – Conflict theorists support policies to ensure equality of opportunity, but they go further by also supporting policies meant to reduce inequality of results in and beyond the school.
Interactionist Theory and Education
INTERACTIONIST THEORY – Symbolic Interactionism views the self as socially constructed in relation to social forces and structures. With regard to education, says that schools must get understand the inner workings of schooling in order to understand precisely how schools reproduce inequalities.
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EX: RAYMOND RIST – demonstrates how teacher expectations of students, based on categories like race, class, ethnicity, and gender, affect students’ perceptions of themselves and their achievement.
- He showed how labeling students based on social class resulted in the placement of low-income students in lower-ability reading groups and middle-class students in higher-ability groups, regardless of students’ actual abilities.
- These labels became “life sentences” with profoundly negative effects on the achievement of the low-income students, who remained in low-ability groups throughout their careers.
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These interactional processes of the school resulted in educational inequality mirroring the larger structures of society.
- This is one way that schools reproduce inequality.
- He showed how labeling students based on social class resulted in the placement of low-income students in lower-ability reading groups and middle-class students in higher-ability groups, regardless of students’ actual abilities.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS of Interactionist Theory – Stresses the need to base education policies on a detailed examination of what goes on inside schools and classrooms
- Only when they know the ways that schools perpetuate inequality in education can society work to correct the situation.
Code Theory
CODE THEORY – society reproduces social classes by favoring the systems of communication (codes) of the dominant socioeconomic group.
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CODES – are systems that people use to communicate
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EX: when asked to tell a story based on a set of photographs, working-class boys used primarily pronouns (he, she, it) while middle-class boys used specific nouns (the boys, a woman, a man).
- In order to understand the working-class boys’ stories, one would need the photographs; one would not need the photographs to understand the middle-class boys’ stories.
- The language codes of the working-class boys were RESTRICTED – that is, useful for communicating in situations where context is shared.
- The language codes of the middle-class boys were ELABORATED – containing enough detail and context to be understood more broadly.
- Working-class speech codes are not necessarily worse than middle-class speech codes, rather, they simply reflect the functional context of working-class jobs and family life.
- Likewise, the codes of the middle classes reflect the fact that their jobs require them to communicate across groups and settings.
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EX: when asked to tell a story based on a set of photographs, working-class boys used primarily pronouns (he, she, it) while middle-class boys used specific nouns (the boys, a woman, a man).
- However, the ELABORATED language – the codes of the middle class, are the codes used in formal education.
- Thus, Sociologists argue that this puts low-income students at a disadvantage in the educational setting.
- So the policies to reduce educational inequalities need to provide low-income students access to the dominant modes of communication and advise teachers to become more aware of their own biases in how language functions.
- Thus, Sociologists argue that this puts low-income students at a disadvantage in the educational setting.
CULTURAL CAPITAL THEORY – Pierre Bourdieu’s concept that a range of nonfinancial assets, such as education, physical appearance, and familiarity with various kinds of music, art, and literature, empower individuals to advance in a social group that values these cultural assets.
Theories of Economic, Social, and Cultural Capital
PIERRE BOURDIEU (1930–2002) (conflict approach to understanding how education reproduces inequality) – says that educational gaps are not so much a reflection of differences in ability as differences in cultural styles.
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CULTURAL CAPITAL THEORY asserts that although schools appear to operate neutrally, they actually advantage the cultural styles of the upper and middle classes. Distinguishes three forms of capital to which different groups have unequal access.
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economic (wealth)
- EX: economic capital can purchase better schools and services such as tutoring
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social (networks and connections)
- EX: social capital allows groups to use connections to their advantage
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cultural (personal appearance and forms of knowledge, including music, art, and literature)
- EX: cultural capital is rewarded at school.
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economic (wealth)
- Unlike functionalists, Bourdieu saw these patterns as leading to class domination rather than social cohesion.
- From the conflict perspective, educational policies can reduce inequalities by:
- Providing low-income students with access to the dominant forms of social and cultural capital
- Changing curriculum and pedagogy in ways that acknowledge and counteract these cultural biases.
Institutional Theory
INSTITUTIONAL THEORY – schools are global institutions and have developed similarly across the world since the 19th century
- Says educational expansion is NOT driven primarily by the needs of the labor market; instead, mass schooling is the result of society’s support for a modern society.
- A fundamental set of beliefs has influenced the development of mass schooling, including the idea that all children should be educated.
- Access to schooling should not be limited by social, economic, or racial status.
Feminist Theory
FEMINIST THEORY – supports policies aimed at providing equality of opportunity for women and reducing gender-based inequalities of educational achievement.
- In Western industrialized countries, these policies have helped reduce or eliminate the gender gap in education.
- Female students have higher grades and levels of education than men
- But they still lag behind in STEM fields.
Student-Centered Explanations for Educational Inequality
STUDENT CENTERED EXPLANATIONS – Explanations for educational inequalities that focus on factors outside the school, such as the family, the community, the culture of the group, the peer group, and the individual student.
- Landmark publication Equality of Educational Opportunity (1966), said differences among students have a greater impact on educational performance than do differences among schools.
- Based on this work, known as the COLEMAN REPORT, – students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds did less well in school because of characteristics of the students themselves, their families, their neighborhoods and communities, their cultures, and perhaps even their genetic makeup.
- These student-centered explanations became dominant in the 1960s and 1970s, and persist today, even though they are politically charged.
GENETIC DIFFERENCE THEORY** – The **discredited concept that differences in educational performance between working-class and nonwhite students and their middle- and upper-class and white counterparts are due to genetic differences in intelligence.
CULTURAL DEPRIVATION THEORY – working-class, poor, and nonwhite families often lack cultural resources, such as books and other educational stimuli, and thus arrive at school at a significant disadvantage
- SUMMER LEARNING LOSS – suggests that less-advantaged students lose upwards of 2 months of learning during the summer, in large part because they do not have age-appropriate reading materials at home.
- Language socialization, and how parents talk to children—whether they talk a lot or a little, use questions or directives – is another aspect of students’ home culture that advantages some students and disadvantages others at school
CULTURAL DIFFERENCE THEORIES – cultural and family differences distinguish white middle-class students from working-class and nonwhite students, who may arrive at school without the skills and attitudes required for success.
- They do not see this as a deficiency, just as a reflection of the additional challenges minorities face.
- The cultural styles that students have been raised with clash with the cultural expectations that govern the educational system, resulting in educational struggles.
- Scholars have connected the “underachievement” of some Hispanic students to cultural clashes between home and school.
- EX: Hispanic immigrants may view kids who go off to college as abandoning their families.
School-Centered Explanations
SCHOOL CENTERED EXPLANATIONS – Explanations for educational inequalities that focus on factors within the school, such as teachers and teaching methods, curriculum, ability grouping and curriculum tracking, school climate, and teacher expectations.
EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS MOVEMENT – A movement for school improvement based on the concept that effective schools have certain characteristics (such as effective leadership, accountability, and high expectations of teachers and administrators) that help explain why their students achieve academically despite disadvantaged backgrounds.
- One element of the Effective Schools Movement is SMALL-SCHOOLS MOVEMENT – Following on research that points to benefits associated with small schools, including greater interest in school activities, higher achievement levels, and more social equality.
Between-School Differences
BETWEEN-SCHOOL DIFFERENCES – Conflict theorists argue that schools serving working-class students feature curriculum and instruction that emphasize rule-following and respect for authority. Lessons focus on memorization of facts and completion of worksheets, rather than activities involving analysis or interpretation.
- In contrast, schools serving economically privileged children emphasize independence, creativity, and critical thinking.
- Students in those schools are taught to see themselves as creators of knowledge, whereas their less-privileged peers are socialized to see themselves as passive recipients of facts, whose opinions matter little.
