The media (television, newspapers, magazines) periodically deride the state of our schools and education. To help us in our presentation of education as a topic it is worth taking time to list some of the things that either we see as being a problem with education or that others see as being a problem. You should collect your own and others responses to this question and compare them to the discussion that follows here and in the bulletin board exchanges.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of today's public education system?
That is, what do we want education to accomplish? What is the purpose of education in the modern, urban, industrial society?
By now you should all be aware that the two are not necessarily the same. Most of us learn by doing, by actual participation in a variety of activities related to what it is that we are attempting to learn. You do not learn chemistry by simply reading a text book, you learn by mixing different stuff together and seeing what happens. You can do this on your own and you will learn something about chemistry, but it helps to be guided in this learning by someone who already knows something about the process and can show you how to make a bigger BANG or an uglier smell. We do know that hands on participation in the learning process makes what you learn stay with you. When you must struggle to put ideas, concepts and so on together so that they make sense to you, you retain that set of skills and information far better than if it is just handed to you by someone else. It also helps if the things you are learning are relevant to you and your experiences. This seems to be why On-The-Job-Training works so well, it is necessary for you to retain the job!! Of course it also helps if the job is really something you want to do.
I have attempted to do this with this course with the weekly assignments that you turn in. Each is designed to engage you in the discovery of facts and relationships about human communities, to demonstrate the influence of the society upon each of us. Laboratory experiences in psychology, biology, chemistry and physics attempt to do the same thing. However, none of these will have much impact if you do not see them as being relevant to what you are and what you are attempting to be or become.
After the family, formal education is the principal way in which the skills, expectations and rules of the society are passed from one generation to the next. It is through the school that you learn some of the things necessary for understanding who and what we are (history, civics). Schools also provide the foundation for the learning of work skills. This is done both directly and indirectly. Directly schooling teaches us discipline and how to manage time. Indirectly it teaches us about authority and expertise.
(manifest are the explicit activities and goals, latent are the unintended and often hidden ends, goals.) Prepare for adult role performance, pass on ideals of community, produce individuals that 'fit,' these are the explicit and implicit purposes of formal education. These goals may be accomplished through deliberate action (the manifest purpose) and indirectly through the associations and role models that are presented to us as students.
Every teacher follows a curriculum that contains the expressed values of the community. This is especially true of K-12 education where not only the subject matter is clearly stated by the Board of Education, but how it is to be taught. As we shall see members of the community often do not agree as to what these values and norms are or should be taught to students. Sex and sexuality are topics with interesting moral and normative consequences in the public schools. In much of the United States, this controversial topic is not taught. In many European countries it is an integral part of the education of young people. The outcomes of these two approaches to sex and sexuality are quite startling.
It is through the educational system that we learn about our laws, our general sense of what civic responsibility is and how our government works in the ideal or abstract. It is through the courses in history that we learn who the important events and people are and what they represent about our nation and therefore about ourselves. Lincoln is held up to us as the ideal of the self-made person, one who is honest in the extreme. Washington is a devoted father figure and ideal leader of the country, self-sacrificing for the good of the nation. Wars were conducted for the most ideal reasons (the Civil War to free the slaves, WW I to protect democracy from imperialism, WW II to protect us from demagogues and dictators). Expansion across this vast country is the simple realization of our Manifest Destiny. These are the lessons of formal education.
Critics will point out that this formal education is biased and incomplete. I will only remind you that this is the way that education has usually been handled. It is very difficult when we are passing on explicit sets of values and beliefs that we are always completely unbiased. This does not excuse the bias, but it does put you on notice that it exists and that you must take what is taught to you with a grain of salt, including this statement and this class!!
Along with libraries, schools and school teachers maintain and pass on to each of us the collected wisdom and understanding of our society and world. Higher education especially is engaged in the maintenance of the archaic, but important. Note the number of courses that you must take that deal with dead poets, dead but important historical figures, outdated ideas and understandings of the social group, of the physical world. You are exposed to Aristotle and Plato, to Copernicus and Galileo, to Caesar and Henry. You read the works of Wordsworth, of Keats, of Byron and Shelly, and of Shakespeare. You may well ask why. The response is that these people have written important insights into the human condition and experience. We should understand and know them so that we can also participate in these insights, make them part of our own experience.
(interpret, extend what we know and how we use the knowledge, this is often the explicit function of the University).
Schools, colleges and universities are often referred to as a community of scholars, places in which ideas are shared and developed, created. It is here in the educational community that we formally establish groups to develop knew knowledge and pass that new knowledge on to the next generation. This norm or idea is made quite clear in the colloquial "Publish or Perish." This simply means that those of us at the university must conduct publishable research, seek out and share new knowledge or we will simply not be tenured or rehired.
Some of these activities can be carried out in business and in private research institutes set up for that purpose. However, academicians will argue that these institutes are almost always driven by the need to do things 'practical,' to turn a profit. It is only at the pure research universities that the basic understandings of the universe occur. This is a major reason for the continued support of such institutions of learning. It is a part of the mythology that we cannot teach about the frontiers of science and society unless we are actually pushing at those frontiers ourselves.
It is through these efforts that we add to the heritage of our society and civilization.
To the degree that education develops shared values and norms it will contribute to the solidarity and unity of the community. During World War II for example, we sang a number of popular songs at the beginning of each day that exemplified the values of that time. One had the title 'Don't Fence Me In'. Most schools begin the day with a recitation of the pledge of allegiance. When I was in elementary school during the War, we also said a prayer every morning.
These shared experiences reinforce the values and contribute to the solidarity of the larger community. Note that often families will object to the overt teaching of values that are common to the community because they will be seen as undermining the values of the family. This is especially true of anything remotely connected to religious beliefs. Many immigrant families held special after school classes in which the language and other parts of their community beliefs were taught because they saw the public schools undermining their culture. The federal government through the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian schools did exactly this by removing children from tribal control and teaching them 'American' values and English. These children were not allowed to speak their native language or to practice any of the customs and religious beliefs of their tribe. In this way the were to be made a part of the total American community and the tribal differences distinctions to be wiped out.
Latent functions are the unintended consequences of the education process. These are many and varied and depend in part upon who does the defining of these latent functions. Among the more commonly named are:
Think about each of these for a moment -- schools act as a baby sitter for families where both parents are employed or want to be able to do something other than constant child care. As we extend the amount of education required we keep people in school longer and out of the labor force. This has the consequence of reducing the level of unemployment. Since young people are thrown together with members of the opposite sex in a variety of situations it provides an opportunity for them to meet and date. In this way it acts as a marriage market. In the period immediately following the end of WW II, a major reason given by many women as to why they went to college was that of finding a husband. This is less the case today.
I have listed some of the obvious latent functions, you present some and defend them to me and your peers in the class.
Education is a principal factor in contemporary occupational attainment.
Repeated studies have shown that the one most important factor in final occupational attainment is the individual's own educational achievement. A number of factors contribute to both educational and occupational achievement, but education is most important in accounting for the variation in occupational achievement.
Sewell's paradigm showing the flows of influence on occupational attainment.
educational institutions as opportunity structures. Our perception of public education is full of connections of the process to that of employment. We believe that an important purpose of the schooling is preparation for the work place. A criticism often leveled at the public schools is that it has not prepared us for taking on careers and work. When we fall behind the Germans, the Russians or the Japanese in the production of cars, rockets, significant technological innovation we most often see it as a failure of the educational system to prepare people for the work place.
Schools and universities also provide us with a way to move up and out of lower or working class status. If we are willing to work hard enough we can use educational system to develop the skills and knowledge that will permit us to get a 'better' job, a higher paying or higher status job that our parents had. This returns to the idea of the meritocracy put forth by Thomas Jefferson. In much of his writing Jefferson believed in an aristocracy, but it was not to be an aristocracy based on family, rather it was one based on skill and ability. The educational system was to be the structure through which this aristocracy was to be realized. He (and most educators since his time) felt that open, free public education would permit individuals to go as far as their abilities would take them. The best and the brightest would rise to the top, irrespective of the racial and social standing of their parents.
Our public school system is built around exactly this concept. We criticize it because it often fails to live up to this ideal. Take a careful look at some of the common elements in the perceptions of public education you listed when we introduced this topic. You should begin to see a common thread relating to this ideal opportunity structure allowing access to all who are able to go as far as they can.
Ability, family background, social class and in-class performance
Ability (IQ or whatever we wish to call it) gets us started on the way, however, as we move along in the school system, increasingly it is family background and social class standing that predicts how far we will go in the educational system. Well educated parents know the value of education and they make sure their children achieve success in the education system.
Sewell used data from the Wisconsin High School success study to show that up to about the 4th or 5th grade, previous academic achievement and ability is the best predictor of academic performance. After this point, social class becomes a better predictor, by the time kids graduate it becomes the single best predictor of future academic achievement (whether or not they will go on to college and whether they will be successful once they get there).
Why do you think this is the case? what do middle and upper middle class parents do that means their children will be more successful, will fit into the educational system?
-- tracking or channeling of students
Tracking is the sorting of students by ability. The idea behind channeling or tracking is sound. Its purpose is to give attention to the student at a level that will best meet her/his needs. If a student is not doing well in mathematics or reading, then s/he will be placed in a track where more attention will be given to these needs. If a student is particularly advanced, then the track is designed to take advantage of that ability and push the student further along. As part of this tracking effort we find in every major city a high school that was originally designed to be a vocational / technical school. In Denver that school was Manual High School, Portland, Oregon had Benson Polytechnic High School and Girl's Polytechnic School. At Benson boys learned to be electricians, plumbers, carpenters and so on. At Girl's Poly girls learned to cook and sew and took basic business courses such as typing and short hand. Although this strict division has achieved some disfavor in recent educational reform the idea persists. For example, Denver has a Career Education Center near North High School where kids from all over the city go to learn vocational skills they will use immediately after graduating from high school. Our own Auraria campus has similar tracks represented by the vocational technical programs at CCD, the technical programs at Metro and the strictly professional (vocational) programs at UCD (engineering, business).
However the actual outcome of tracking is often disastrous, particularly in the K-12 public schools. Students get locked into a particular track and cannot escape it. Expectations are lowered for the students in the lower tracks, they know it, the teachers know it, their peers know it. The result is these students lose interest in education and learning, they feel they are too dumb to learn and act accordingly. They become disciplinary problems and drop out of school. Since education is often the easiest means to occupational success, this is disastrous for the individual and ultimately for the society as large numbers of young people are wasted.
Again, note that the idea is sound: separate students by ability and teach them according to that ability. If done correctly, it will provide enough challenge for all levels that all will succeed. Unfortunately, in practice it tends to have the opposite effect. The lower tracks instead of getting the better, more stimulating teachers often get the worst, dullest. If they do get the best teachers, the teachers lower their expectations and do not challenge the students to learn and to progress. The assumption is that they cannot master the material.
This is a controversial topic and as you might expect there are many discussions of the topic on the web. The Thomas B Fordham Foundation reviewed the issue of tracking in 1998. I encourage you to look at what they have written and to examine some of the other things they have done about education.
The work of Bill Sewell at Wisconsin and of others such as Blau and Duncan have shown that social class is an important determinant of the desire to go to college. These studies show that independent of measured ability (IQ, intelligence, etc.) the desire to go on to college rises with social class. That is, given a particular level of ability (dumb for example) the higher the class the larger the proportion that say they want to go on to college. Actual attendance is affected equally as much by social class. The numbers who will attend college or universities is quite a bit smaller than the number who say they would like to go (aspiration). Again, within ability level the number is higher the higher the social class of the individual. This is partly due to the cost, but it is also a function of the values and beliefs of the family of different class background.
The net effect of this is that the people who attend institutions such as the University of Colorado at Denver or MSCD are disproportionately middle and upper middle class (in the sense we discussed in Topic 4, not in terms of income as often reported in the newspapers). Dropouts are disproportionately from the lower classes. Attendees at community colleges, especially vocational technical programs, come disproportionately from the lower and working classes.
Since the class structure is to some degree linked to the occupational structure, education reinforces these structures. It is also a way that a significant number of individuals overcome social class background to achieve occupational success.
The educational system turns out to be extremely important in modern societies. Thus the concern we have with it. It is also a very complex system that works in a complex diverse society to meet a variety of goals. As might be expected a number of conditions affect it. Among them size, diversity, and complexity. This takes us to questions such as: How do we learn, under what conditions do we learn? How are we taught in the formal system? How is that system structured to deliver on these goals? What is the structure? Are the goals of parts of the structure consistent with one another? I will attempt to deal with these in the following sections.
Schools, colleges and universities are bureaucracies with their own agendas, their own needs and goals. Sometimes these agendas are not consistent with what we, the community at large, expect. Each constituency in the structure has its agenda as well. Sometimes the agendas intersect, sometimes they work at cross purposes.
Every educational system, school system is composed of or affects a number of different elements: students, parents, teachers and instructors, administrators, the community at large and the businesses of the community.
Let us begin with students -- the principal recipients of educational efforts. What is the relevance of the curriculum to their perceived needs? What vocational opportunities are present in the system? Consider your own expectations and how the school system has met or failed to meet those needs.
To some degree this concern is relevant mostly to high school and college or university students since they can be expected to take a more active role in their own education. Still should they determine the nature of the curriculum? During the 1960s and 70s students did get involved in the setting of curriculums with disastrous results. During that period of time the traditional standards in higher education were overthrown and replaced by a more feel good, do what you like kind of curriculum. Students received degrees with little if any substance and with the application of few standards. We now face a generation of public school teachers who often cannot spell or write and students who come from these schools without these skills.
However, shouldn't students have some say in what the curriculum is, what is taught and for what purpose? Probably, but I would argue that they must also understand the value of the classical educational traditions and subjects. Life is not just work and skills needed to perform on the job. It is an appreciation of philosophy, of religion, of literature, of history and how these relate, perhaps, to the work world. Even if they do not, they still have intrinsic value to the person who would call her or himself educated.
Parents want the schools to provide the basics, the necessary skills for employment without destroying family values and religious beliefs.
The Colorado Alliance for Educational Excellence seems to be an advocate for parents and what they might want from the public school system. Actually the page is an advocate for alternative uses of public funding by parents for their kids education.
Administrators strive to meet standards set by the school board and community within budget they are given. They want to establish flexibility, to move teachers about as demand dictates or if necessary cut them from the payroll. Increasingly they must produce the maximum product with the minimum outlay of tax money, often a contradictory expectation.
The community at large has needs that it (or rather the members) expect to be met. These may be general standards of morality, preparation for traditional civic duty, to be participants in the community without disrupting it, to be obedient and unobtrusive participants in the day to day life of the community. The board attempts to meet these perceived needs. However, the social origins of board members may be quite different from the rest of the community or at least from a large proportion of the community. We can also ask why they choose to serve on the board. Do they have a particular agenda (for example, end busing in Denver or ensure racial balance in the schools). The community members may feel the schools should prepare the kids to fit into society, but at minimum expenditure. This is likely to be particularly true of older people who own large numbers of property and want to minimize their property taxes
Questions will always arise as to which community, whose needs, values? Every modern large community is made up of people from many different racial, religious, class and economic backgrounds. How do we reconcile their need to feel that their community is represented in the school system?
The Altoona, Wisconsin School Board has a web page that provides you with the opportunity to examine the goals and policies of an active school board.
A little closer to home is the Denver Public Schools Web page. Check out their policies and compare them to those of Altoona.
Jefferson County Public School system also has an extensive web page.
You may also want to compare the Cherry Creek School district with the above schools.
There may be other schools in the Denver Metro area, but I was unable to locate them quickly on the web.
The faculty are interested in the subject matter, in the transmission of information, of setting the learning of skills. They may also be interested in recruiting to the profession or the discipline if at the college or university. We (the faculty) are not concerned about costs, about community values except to the degree they may impinge on what we teach. We know what is important and what is not so far as curriculum and skills are concerned, after all we are PROFESSIONALS (and you should definitely not try to do this at home!!) (Spoken tongue in cheek, made necessary by the fact that you cannot see me as I say this!!)
Many times we will hear it said that "those who can, do; those who cannot, teach." I found an op-ed piece by Emily Moore who graduated from Princeton to be very informative on this matter. I have transcribed that article for your perusal.
Take all of these elements and mix thoroughly and you should not be surprised that we do not have a clear understanding of what schools, colleges and universities should or could achieve. Each of the components described above has goals and objectives that are often in direct opposition to other very important components. How to reconcile them? Let the market decide? That is, if it sells then it will continue to be offered? What about standards? Whose standards?
I would expect that the best possible solution would be a diverse mix of kinds of education. However, such a mix will inevitably be expensive since we will have to have schools that offer small personalized education as well as those that mass produce students. Some will use tutorials (one on one instruction), others will use the mass media to deliver the instructional message. And all of these possibilities must be available to those who wish to take advantage of it, just as Thomas Jefferson proposed. (End of sermon)
This notion makes the University a market place of ideas, in which knew ways of thinking, of understanding compete with one another. In this fashion the frontiers of knowledge and our understandings are pushed forward. Every University teacher expects to be able to present his or her ideas in such a context. They also know that they must support and defend these ideas with fact, with logic and so on.
The idea extends to students in the class room as well, the student is there to learn, but also to test his or her own ideas. In the papers you write you are putting together the arguments that support your points. The instructor will present counter arguments, each must weigh the evidence and draw conclusions about the validity of the arguments and positions taken.
It is this value (academic freedom) that is protected by tenure at the university. A member of the faculty earns tenure by publishing, doing research and teaching. those who do this well are given tenure, those who do not are excluded from the university.
Currently this is being called the 'choice system.' Parents are given the option of sending their children to any school in the system where they reside. By moving children around in the school system we will reward the successful schools and punish the poor ones. (that is the theory) Advocates of this system say students should be able to attend any school of their choice that is within reach of their home, if I am in Denver, then my kids should be able to attend any school including those in Cherry Creek District.
****** WHAT ISSUES OR DIFFICULTIES DOES THIS PROPOSAL ADDRESS? WHAT DIFFICULTIES OR ISSUES DOES THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SUCH A SYSTEM CREATE?
Put your suggestions in the discussion thread: Education issues and difficulties addressed.
You have been asked to consider the problems that exist in the public schools today. One of the most widely debated soluctions is that of the 'voucher.' Advocates claim that this will introduce competition among schools and therefore improve them. As you read these articles keep this and the issues that you all raised about public education in mind.
Educational Vouchers: Effectiveness, Choice and Costs. by Henry M Levin, Russell Sage Foundation and Stanford University. December 1996. This is a paper that reviews the literature on vouchers and the impact it has on achievement and on the public schools. It is a good balanced article that should be read with care.
Resources on Minnesota Legislative Issues: Educational Vouchers. This is a reference document prepared by the Minnesota legislative staff to help legislators debate the issue of vouchers. It appears to be balanced and has a bibliography, including links to other sources on the internet.
ACHIEVEMENT EFFECTS OF THE MILWAUKEE VOUCHER PROGRAM. by John F. Witte of the LaFollete Institute. The paper presents his analysis of the Milwaukee Wisconsin choice/voucher program and attempts to answer the question of whether kids in the choice program do better than those who do not get into the program.
Estimating the Costs of an Educational Voucher System. by Henry M. Levin and Cyrus E. Driver, National Center for the Accelerated Schools Project, Stanford University. This paper discusses the costs of an educational voucher, choice system.
What you see here merely scratches the surface of this topic. I found these articles using AltaVista search engine and entering "educational vouchers" including the ". Give it a try and see what else you can find.
Colorado has a number of charter schools as facilitated by the state legislature. The Charter School Project lists these schools, the legislation and other facts about charter schools in Colorado. Use this as a starting point for finding out about charter schools in the state.
The Center for Education Reform is an advocacy agency for charter schools. You will find links on this page explaining what the schools are about.
Education Week on the Web appears to be an advocacy group for Charter Schools. This page discusses the idea of charter schools and makes the case that they are backed by both republicans and democrats. The site seems to be based in California and discusses many issues faced by Californians in their efforts to improve education in the state.
Oregon Public Charter Schools Task Force. This site discusses charter schools and the supporting legislation in Oregon.
As with the preceding topic I used AltaVista site search engine to locate 6,244 citations. I have included only a very small selection here. You should do your own search -- use "charter schools" to generate the list. You might also want to use one of the other search engines such as Snap.com or Lycos. As before, if you find something particularly interesting, please let me know.
Education as I pointed out at the beginning is a complex set of issues. We have barely scratched the surface in this presentation. However, it is an important part of the society as we have shown. Education is preparation for the work world, it is an opportunity structure that leads into to work world (or for some keeps them out of it when it fails). The importance and complexity of the system contributes to the concern we have for it and the energy we devote to protecting, developing and improving it. It seems something that we cannot do without.
| Unit 8: The Family | Unit 9: Religion and Religious Behavior | Unit 10: Politics, Power and the State | Unit 11: Work and Education |
| Topical Outline of Course | |||
Copyright © 1996, 1997 by Richard H. Anderson, the Department of Sociology and the University of Colorado at Denver.
This page last revised: April 10, 2000. Please contact Richard H. Anderson (randerso@carbon.cudenver.edu) if you experience any problems or have comments about these pages.