Social Foundations

1. SocialFoundations WHAT WE SEE IN THE CLASSROOM IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG 3 MAIN PURPOSES OF SCHOOLING Each must be defined. Do they conflict? Does one dominate? POLITICAL SOCIAL ECONOMIC (see Spring, Chapter 1)

2. What models influence the organizational structure of schools? Spring, Chapter 9, 242 human capital model— competitive, sorting machine (NCLB, high-stakes testing, economic concerns dominate, scripted lessons) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEukqQdzplU&feature=related progressive model— democratic community—(Dewey, Freire, Michie) teachers as professionals, active learning, social justice efforts

3. In today’s climate of high-stakes testing and human capital model, schools like URBAN ACADEMY (Video) • Object to a PRESCRIBED: • Standardized curriculum • Standardized tests • If tests are high-stakes, many teachers object to: • Teaching to the test • Loss of time for applying skills • Loss of time and attention to other parts of the curriculum and social life of school

4. How do we view human potential? Set by nature, so there are natural divisions Or, Set by a broad range of human capacities that are influenced by environment, so there is unlimited potential

5. What skills does it take to play the game of chess? Take 1 minute and write a list. • What judgments about intellectual capacity would you make about students who play at a champion level in state competitions?

6. Why do we need the Illinois Learning Standards? • Core of essential knowledge expected to know and be able to do. • Provides focus for teachers and students • Allows schools to determine time, location, instructional materials • Provides basis for equal opportunity • Provides general consistency among schools • Basis for what will be assessed and also criteria for meaningful accountability • Basis for skills needed by teachers

7. Essential Core KnowledgeWhat are the seven areas of the Illinois Learning Standards?  See Video on Virginia developing history standards (link on homepage) • English and Language Arts, • Mathematics, • Science, • Social Science, • Physical education • Fine Arts, • Foreign Languages  • The applications of learning are • PROBLEM SOLVING • COMMUNICATING • USING TECHNOLOGY • WORKING ON TEAMS • MAKING CONNECTIONS

8. In your view, should this topics be a part of the K-12 history standards? STANDARDS – define ESSENTIAL CORE The study of the holocaust? • http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/ACTIVITY/MiddleSc.htm • http://www.ilholocaustmuseum.org/pages/illinois_holocaust_and_genocide_education_mandate/198.php

9. Illinois State Curriculum Requirement • In November 1987, an outbreak of vandalism directed against Jewish stores and synagogues, prompted Erna I. Gans, Holocaust survivor and President of the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois, to issue a call for action to combat such violence with education in the form of a state mandate. • Gans and other survivors urged legislators to mandate the teaching of the Holocaust as state law.  Eventually, mandating Holocaust education, now known as House Bill 3, passed in both the House and Senate.  Illinois became the first state in the entire country to require the teaching of the Holocaust in all public elementary and high schools, effective January 1, 1990.

10. In 2005, the leadership of the new Illinois Holocaust Museum played a key role in the expansion of the existing Mandate to include the study of other modern genocides, underscoring a universal lesson of the Holocaust that national, ethnic, racial, or religious hatred can overtake any nation or society, leading to calamitous consequences.

11. Political Nature of Knowledge • Who wants evolution taught and why? • Who does not want evolution taught and why?

12. Evolution disclaimer sticker from Cobb County Board of EducationGeorgia SCIENCE STANDARDS

13. CurriculumJust one example of a continuing debate.. • Science Study of Evolution or Study of Intelligent Design?? Texas had USA Today “Texas scraps school anti-evolution requirements” Posted by Doug Stanglin at 08:23 PM/ET, March 27, 2009 in Education, Local news, Nation, Religion/spirituality • The Texas Board of Education has scrapped a 20-year-old requirement that public school students discuss the "strengths and weaknesses" of evolution, the Associated Press and other news outlets report. But the board, in what some in the news media viewed as a compromise, did vote to encourage students to scrutinize "all sides" of scientific theories, the Houston Chroniclereports. It adopted language that says the curriculum will require that students "in all fields of science, analyze, evaluate and critique scientific explanations ... including examining all sides of scientific evidence of those scientific explanations, so as to encourage critical thinking by the student."

14. CurriculumJust one example of a continuing debate.. • Science Standards • Study of Evolution • Study of Intelligent Design?? • What did you learn about evolution in your science classes? See Handout on the Illinois Learning Standards on Science on homepage for a brief summary. • http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/courses/eps201/PDF-NOTES/Evolution%20Illinois.pdf • http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/courses/eps201/

15. Illinois Learning Standards Sample of Science Performance Descriptors on Evolution See information on our Homepage 12A Students who meet the standard know and apply concepts that explain how living things function, adapt, and change. • 1. to examine macro- and micro-evolution in organisms, • comparing and assessing changes in the features or forms of organisms over broad time periods to their adaptive functions and competitive advantages, or • describing how natural selection accounts for diversity of species over many generations. (Link to 11A-B, 12B.) • 3. to compare evolutionary trends between kingdoms and phyla, • exploring natural and applied hybridization, or • explaining the increasing sophistication of body systems correlating embryological, structural, and functional development, or • exploring the impact of environmental factors on these trends. (Link to 11A-B.)

16. No one right answer. No simple recipe for teaching. Schools are complex social institutions. Have numerous GOALS. Many pressures from society. This is the CONTEXT for why. SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS RELIGIONS DOMINANT CULTURE POVERTY BELIEFS VALUES FAMILY SCHOOLS LEGISLATION ECONOMY FEDERAL & STATE LAWS DEMOGRAPHICS

17. Chapter 14 Why teach? Theory of Impact is--- A way to see what your teaching is likely to amount to— • for yourself, • your students, • for society--to improve society (______?______) or more directly to prepare students to address social justice in society (_____?_____). There is no question that one teacher impacts the lives of many students. Teachers think about all 3, but usually one goal usually dominates the choice to become a teacher. Teachers may also change their goals over time.

18. Chapter 14 School and Society: Teaching and Teacher Leadership in the 21st Century Why have you chosen teaching? In the study of schools, we have learned that schools have been marked by tensions between democratic equality versus practices of unequal schooling that has rewarded the already privileged with better resources. Justified by beliefs, norms, assumptions, and values, not a conspiracy so to speak….. So what. What does that mean to me?

19. What do teachers need to succeed? • Knowledge of subject matter • Techniques for teaching • Dispositions to communicate care • Commitment to students (Tozer, 453) Teachers alone cannot end racism, poverty, unemployment (Teaching to change the world..) But teachers can make a difference in the lives of their students. Some schools need radical change in order to serve students well.

20. Tozer Chapter 14 claims that: Teachers are more likely to be effective if they understand their students, including understanding relevant context. Social Foundations study is all about CONTEXT. LEARNING IS Not just a matter of GENES, but CULTURE.

21. What is your theory of impact?“A teacher effects eternity, he can never tell where his influence stops” (Henry Adams, 19th c. teacher) • How to increase your impact? • Collective action (many view teaching as an isolated act) and teacher leadership- • A low performing school can become a high performing school (only with teachers leadership combined with administrative leadership) • And resources adequate to the task

22. Attendance Rates Graduation Rates College Attendance Rates AP participation Special Education Rates Grades Test scores Teacher Mobility Parent satisfaction Student satisfaction Quality of the learning community -climate Discipline Rates Individual Student Progress—pre and post testing How might we define a successful school?Examine these kinds of DATA.

23. How might we define a successful school?How do we measure learning? WE DO NEED MEASUREMENT

24. KEY TAKE-AWAY To answer questions about school policy, you need to consider CONTEXT: history, demographics, social arrangements, learning theories, and geography just to name a few factors. Always CONTEXTUALIZE your analysis of schooling: • WHAT kind of society do we have? • How do we view human capacity? • What social and cultural conditions are important influences on schools? • WHY is this particular school design going to produce the expected results?