EDTHP 115 4/14/03 •

Announcement from Dr. Gerald LeTendre

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This week: Equality, Equity, and Excellence

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Today: The Educational System of the U.S.: Promises, Purposes, Opportunities, and Practices Dana Mitra – Youth Voice in Educational Policy & Reform – read her piece in CR

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Next week: Desegregation

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Sean Reardon on Monday – read Orfield in CR

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Eyes on the Prize on Wednesday Civil Rights Movement – Education as part of the

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Final week:

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Instruction and Instructional Leadership:

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the role of the teacher

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How do we improve the Curriculum and Instructional Practices?

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How do we provide and “Equal Educational Opportunity”?

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Are there good examples anywhere?

The Educational System of the U.S.: Promises, Purposes, Opportunities, and Practices

• Adair, Deil-Amen, Pong, Kornhaber • The Educational System of the U.S.

• Challenges and Concerns • Strategies for changing/improving education (and addressing concerns) • Other important aspects of the system: courts, congress, etc.

Adair, Deil-Amen, Pong, Kornhaber

• What were some common elements among these talks?

• Why thinking about equity and democracy and schooling is importantz; and how we might be failing at it.

• Reminder about American education, the other, mainstream, nostalgia, etc.

• That’s why read Dewey, Giroux, Hannity—we’ve become too used to thinking of education as a private good. What does it mean to think of it as a common good? What if we had to create a system for all children, our own included? What’s the fairest way to educate children, to fund education?

• Why have we studied all this other stuff?

The School System of the U.S.

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Remember plans of Jefferson, Webster, & Rush Consider the successes of the Common School Reform Era …

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and the promise of a common education for all children Reflect on the structures and practices that reformers in the Progressive Era put in place

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led to near universal education …

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but also deeply flawed What are some of the common traits of Americans in regard to education

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We want a “democratic” education (but the definitions vary)

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We want a quality education We tend to place a great many (too many?) responsibilities on schools

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We like innovation We all have thoughts on what American schools should provide

School System of the U.S.

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What problems might this list of responsibilities lead to? How does the system cope with demands?

What does the system look like now?

Challenges and Concerns

• What is the purpose of this structure?

• What have been some of the barriers and obstacles to educational improvement, at the individual or group level? • The problems of politics and bureaucracy • What are those forces? • Is our system “a mess”?

Challenges and Concerns

• How social scientists have explained?

– Teacher problem? Student behavior problem? Student ability problem? Social problem? Systemic problem?

– Reasons for low achievement among low income students (Chap. 11, pp. 339-350) – Obstacles in the classroom (Chap. 11, p. 345-350) – Resistance by students – Low expectations by teachers and others – The lack of linkages, proper preparation, and information (Regina Deil-Amen)

Challenges and Concerns (con’t.)

• But … what have been some ways to address faults, problems, inequities?

• We’ve talked about some school reforms, some ways that educators in the past and present have attempted to improve education: student learning, efficiency, courses • What have been some of the basic strategies?

Strategies for Improvement & Change 1. Change or expand the opportunities for access

• • • Common Schools Progressive Era Civil Rights Era

2. Improve or change the curriculum

• Common Curriculum • Differentiated Curriculum • Standards

3. Develop new instructional practices

Strategies (con’t.)

4. Bring new actors/agencies into the system – either directly or indirectly a) State Government b) Federal Government i. The federal courts ii. Executive Branch (President, Department of Education) iii. Congress

5. Accountability

1. Testing 2. Threats 1. closure, reconstitution, firing 2.

For students: you won’t graduate (is this fair without opportunity to learn standards?

6. Finance – attempts to equalize funding, new forms of taxation, etc.

Strategies (con’t.) •

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Alter or reform society – attack other related problems universal health care, universal child care, increase minimum wage, etc.

• 8. Change incentives or rewards (for teachers, students, schools) What IS motivation behind doing well?

9. Tinker with the system – Add new responsibilities, mandates, courses or coursework 10. Fundamentally restructure and reorganize the school or the system 1. Vouchers 2. Charter Schools 3. Split schools: manual training vs. general for all 4. Schools within schools