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Chapter 16. Education. Chapter Outline. Schooling and Society: Theories of Education Does Schooling Matter? Education and Inequality School Reform. Rise of Education in the U.S.
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Chapter 16 Education
Chapter Outline • Schooling and Society: Theories of Education • Does Schooling Matter? • Education and Inequality • School Reform
Rise of Education in the U.S. • 1900 - education was established by law in all states, excluding a few Southern states, where Black Americans were denied formal education. • 1910 - less than 10% of White 18 year olds in the U.S. graduated from high school. • 1930 - less than half of 18 year olds in the U.S. had attended high school. • 1950 - the number of young adults with a diploma approached 50%.
Functionalist View of Education • Education unifies and stabilizes society. • Serves functions of socialization, occupational training, and social control. • Schools inculcate values needed by society.
Conflict View of Education • Emphasizes the disintegrative and disruptive aspects of education. • Educational level can be used as a tool for discrimination via credentialism. • Schools are hierarchical institutions reflecting conflict and power relations in society.
Symbolic Interactionist View of Education • Focus is on what arises from the operation of the interaction process during the schooling experience. • Teachers expect certain behaviors, good or bad, from students. • Behavior is caused by the expectation instead of being anticipated by it.
Effects of Education • Number of years of formal education has a modest effect on occupation and income. • Direct effect of class origin upon occupation and income, independent of education. • The social class one is born into has a greater effect on later occupation and income than educational attainment.
Criticisms of Standardized Tests • Measure limited ranges of ability, such as quantitative or verbal aptitude, and ignore cognitive abilities such as creativity. • Designed by middle class, white males, and include cultural and gender biases. • Predictive ability - especially for minorities and women - is compromised.
The Bell Curve Debate Two points: • Intelligence is 70% inherited and 30% related to the environment. • Lower classes are less endowed with genes for high intelligence than the upper classes.
Criticism of the Bell Curve • Studies show standardized tests are not as accurate a measure of intelligence: • Of minorities as whites. • Of women as men. • Of individuals of lower status as those of higher status.
Criticism of the Bell Curve • Presumes intelligence is genetically heritable, but there is evidence that environment may have a greater contribution. • Base a between-group conclusion on a within-group estimate of genetic heritability.
Research on Gender and Education Findings from report commissioned by AAUW: • In general, teachers pay less attention to girls and women. • Women lag behind in math and science ability and achievement scores. • Some standardized math and science tests retain gender bias.
Research on Gender and Education • Standardized math tests tend to under-predict women’s actual grades in mathematics. • Teachers tend to treat Black women and White women differently. • Textbooks ignore or stereotype women. • As girls approach adolescence, their self-esteem tends to drop.