Chapter 12 Problems in Education

1. Chapter 12 Problems in Education • The Global Context: Cross-cultural Variation In Education • Socioogical Theories of Education • Who Succeeds? The inequality of Educational Attainment • Problems In The American Educational System • Strategies For Action: Trends And Innovations In American Education 

2. Cross-Cultural Variation In Education • Worldwide, over 120 million children do not attend school and over 880 million adults are illiterate. • Expenditures on education in developed countries are 25 times higher than in less developed countries. • In Japan, the school calendar is 40 days longer than in the U.S.

3. Structural-Functional Perspective Education serves important functions: • Instruction • Socialization • Sorting individuals into various statuses • Custodial care

4. Conflict Perspective • Educational institution solidifies class positions and allows the elite to control the masses. • Quality education and educational opportunities are not equally distributed. • Education provides indoctrination into the capitalist ideology.

5. Conflict Perspective Education perpetuates racial inequality: • Gross inequalities between poor districts and middle-and upper-class districts. • Schools in poor districts have inadequate facilities, materials, and personnel. • The richest school districts spend 56% more per pupil than the poorest school districts.

6. Symbolic Interactionist Perspective Concerned with the individual and small-group issues in education: • Teacher-student interactions • Student self-esteem • Self-fulfilling prophecy

7. The Self-fulfilling Prophecy Rosenthal and Jacobson experiment: • Five random elementary school students were labeled as having superior intelligence and ability. • Teachers expected them to do well and treated them in a way that encouraged better school performance.

8. Reasons for Lower Educational Achievement • Low-income parents are less likely to expect their children to go to college. • Low-income parents are less likely to be involved with child’s education. • Low-income parents are often themselves low academic achievers.

9. Gender • 1833: Oberlin college became 1st U.S. College to accept women. • Female students were required to: • Wash the male students clothes. • Clean the male students rooms. • Serve the male students meals.

10. Gender • In 1970, 8.2% of U.S. Women had completed 4 years of college or more. • In 2000, 24% had completed 4 years of college or more.

11. Factors Associated With Higher Performance • Parental education. • Use of scientific equipment. • Reading more and watching television less.

12. Violence in the Schools • Fewer than 1% of school-aged children’s deaths take place on or around school property. • The number of “multiple-victim events” has increased in recent years. • 1/3 of high school students report hearing a classmate threaten to kill someone.

13. Innovations In American Education • Barring students from participating in extracurricular activities if they are failing academic subjects. • Lengthening the school year. • Prohibiting dropouts from obtaining driver’s licenses.

14. Computer Technology in Education • Teenagers define computer courses as the single most important courses they can take. • 1994: 35% of schools and 3% of classrooms had Internet access • 1999: 95% of schools and 63% of classrooms had Internet access. 

15. Private Schools • Primary reason parents send children to private school is religious instruction. • Second reason parents send children to private school is the belief that they are better than public schools. • Research has found few differences between public and private schools.