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Chapter 4 Including Everyone: Who Sometimes Gets Overlooked in School?

Chapter 4 Including Everyone: Who Sometimes Gets Overlooked in School?. Historically Speaking: Who Was Left Out of American Schools?. Prior to the 1960s, many thought that schooling was simply “not for everyone.” Some students received an unequal education: Girls

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Chapter 4 Including Everyone: Who Sometimes Gets Overlooked in School?

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  1. Chapter 4 Including Everyone: Who Sometimes Gets Overlooked in School?

  2. Historically Speaking: Who Was Left Out of American Schools? • Prior to the 1960s, many thought that schooling was simply “not for everyone.” Some students received an unequal education: • Girls • Children who do not speak English • Students with disabilities • Bored or disengaged students • Following the civil rights movement, a growing consensus emerged that “no child should be left behind”

  3. Historically Speaking: Who Was Left Out of American Schools? • High school graduation rates • In 1870, only 2% of students graduated high school • High school was a luxury for a privileged few • High schools became more widespread in the 1920s • By 1970, more than 75% of students graduated high school

  4. What Legal Actions Made School Available for Everyone? • Key civil rights laws changed schooling in America: • Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited racial discrimination • Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibited gender discrimination • Lau v. Nichols 1974 decision made schools provide the same opportunities to English language learners • Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 ensured disabled students a free, appropriate education which met their specific needs

  5. Boys and Girls Together: What Does It Mean for Schools to be Gender Fair? • Before the women’s rights movement, boys were taught skills which provided for economic opportunity while girls primarily learned domestic skills • National Organization of Women (NOW) was founded in 1966 and has gained political clout and importance

  6. Boys and Girls Together: What Does It Mean for Schools to be Gender Fair? • The impact of Title IX • Prohibited gender segregation in all school subjects • Prohibited discriminatory guidance counseling or discrimination against pregnant and parenting teens • Politicians, such as Senator Laxalt, and former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, tried to undermine the legitimacy of the WEEA and Title IX

  7. Boys and Girls Together: What Does It Mean for Schools to be Gender Fair? • Gender equity • Many researchers show that teachers spend more time focused on boys in the classroom • Other researchers are concerned about the disadvantages now facing boys as boys are more likely to drop out and get in trouble at school • Is this a crisis for boys or a closing of the gap between genders?

  8. Learning the Language: What Are the Ongoing Debates Over Bilingual Education? • America: A land of many languages • Bilingual students have been present in American classrooms since the first schools were opened • German language schools opened in Philadelphia as early as 1694 • After the U.S.-Mexican War ended in 1848, many students in the Southwest were taught in both Spanish and English • Japanese language schools were introduced in California early in the 20th century

  9. Learning the Language: What Are the Ongoing Debates Over Bilingual Education? • America: A land of many languages • Criticism of bilingual education has been ongoing since the nineteenth century into the present day • For some, the English language came to define American nationality • Bilingual schooling virtually disappeared through the 1920s and 1930s, and was even a crime in some states as late as the 1970s

  10. Learning the Language: What Are the Ongoing Debates Over Bilingual Education? • America: A land of many languages • Civil rights movement fueled changes and reform to bilingual education • The Supreme Court ruled in the 1974 Lau v. Nichols decision that effective bilingual instruction had to be provided to all students • Some felt after the Lau decision that the newly enforced bilingual education was only another form of segregation

  11. Learning the Language: What Are the Ongoing Debates Over Bilingual Education? • Bilingual instruction versus an English-only curriculum • “English Language Learners” (ELL) programs focus on teaching students to speak English as quickly as possible • Bilingual education focuses on strengthening students’ reading and speaking skills in both English and their native language

  12. What About Me? • Do students today truly have educational equality? Give reasons for your viewpoint.

  13. Special Needs: What is the Best Education for Students with Disabilities? • Special education aims to minimize the impact of the disability while maximizing student opportunities • “Abelism” may explain schools’ trouble of reaching this goal • Abelism: society’s pervasive negative attitude about disability

  14. Special Needs: What is the Best Education for Students with Disabilities? • The legal foundation of special education • Before Congress passed Public Law 94-142 in 1974, many disabled children were excluded from classrooms • Law provided that all children had to be provided a free, appropriate education no matter the disability • Also ensured that parents were to be included in student’s assessment and all decision making

  15. Special Needs: What is the Best Education for Students with Disabilities? • Responding to the mandate • All teachers need a foundation of special education skills for every classroom • Many debate whether special needs students should be actively included in inclusive classrooms or served in separate classes • Growing concern over inappropriate placements–the tendency in some places for special education to be a “dumping ground” for “problem” students

  16. Special Needs: What is the Best Education for Students with Disabilities? • Inclusive classrooms • Classrooms where regular education and special education students are mixed together in the “least restrictive environment” • May save money and provide better socialization for all students • Can be more demanding for teachers if the right support is not in place, such as co-teachers or aides

  17. Reading: “With Boys and Girls in Mind” by Michael Gurian and Kathy Stevens • New brain imaging technology shows differences between how girls and boys think • Girls have more cortical areas devoted to verbal functioning and sensual memory • Boys have a better grasp for abstract and physical-spatial functions • Gurian and Stevens claim that if teachers taught with these differences in mind, it “could profoundly improve education for all students”

  18. Reading: “The Truth About Boys and Girls” by Sara Mead • Disagrees with Gurian and Stevens • Recent press coverage about “boy crisis” is drawn from faulty conclusions • Mead writes, “The real story is not bad news about boys doing worse; it’s good new about girls doing better.” • Overall trends point to the closing gap between girl and boy students, with boy scores staying relatively steady in recent years • Low-achievement among minority and lower-class boy students is indicative of class and race, rather than gender, issues

  19. Reading: “All Languages Welcomed Here” by Orhan Agirdag • Agirdag’s research in Belgium has led him to assert: • “Cultural discontinuity between students’ home-based and school-based experiences can have a negative effect on their academic performance, well-being, and sense of belonging at school” • By incorporating Agirdag’s five suggested practices for promoting plurilingualism and avoiding three common mistakes, teachers can make students feel accepted in the classroom

  20. Reading: “The Case for Structured English Immersion” by Kevin Clark • Three main factors lead schools to implement structured English immersion (SEI) programs • Legislation restricting bilingual education • State assessments are usually conducted in English • Subpopulation of ELL students who plateau with their English skills after a few years • SEI programs are structured around: • 1) teachers maximizing instruction in English • 2) teachers using and teaching English at a level appropriate to the student’s ability • In a SEI program, days are divided into time spent in English language lessons and academic courses taught in English

  21. Reading: “Confronting Abelism” by Thomas Hehir • “Abelism”: society’s pervasive negative attitude about disabilities • Many disabled people are led to believe their disability is something only to be “overcome” • Special education is meant to minimize the impact of the disability and maximize opportunity for students • “Minimizing impact” should not mean to “cure” the disability, but rather to give students the tools to live a full life with the disability • “Maximizing opportunity” means that schools must provide equal opportunities to all students—such as sports and clubs—regardless of the disability

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