1. Education
Chapter 14

2. After studying this chapter, you should be able to do the following:
Describe the manifest and latent functions of education.
Explain the nature of education from the conflict theory view.
Explain the causes and effects of racial segregation in the public schools.
Identify issues related to students who speak English as a second language.
Discuss the extent to which high-school dropouts are a social problem.
Discuss the issue of standardized testing.

3. Education
Lester Frank Ward, the first president of the American Sociological Society believed:
The main purpose of education was to equalize society.
The source of inequality was the unequal distribution of knowledge.
The main purpose of education was to equalize society by diffusing knowledge to all.

4. Functionalists Conflict theorists
Stress the importance of education in socializing the young, transmitting the culture, and developing skills.
Conflict theorists
Note that education preserves social class distinctions, maintains social control, and promotes inequality.

5. Education: A Functionalist View
What social needs does our education system meet?
What are its tasks and goals?

6. Education has several manifest and Latent functions
Socialization
Cultural Transmission
Academic Skills
Innovation
Child Care
Postponing Job Hunting

7. Socialization
There is a need for the formal educational system to extend the socialization process that starts in the family

8. Cultural Transmission
Major portions of society’s knowledge are passed from one generation to the next.

9. Academic Skills
What are some academic skills that children pick up in school?

10. Innovation
Primary task of educational institutions is to transmit society’s knowledge, and part of that knowledge consists of the means by which new knowledge is to be sought.
Learning how to think independently and creatively is probably one of the most valuable tools the educational institution can transmit.

11. Child Care
One latent function of many public schools is to provide child care outside the nuclear family.

12. Postponing Job Hunting
More and more young American adults are choosing to continue their education after graduating from high school.

13. Adults Age 25 and Older with High School and Bachelor’s Degree
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2007
24.5
34.3
41.1
52.3
66.5
75.2
80.4
84.5
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2007
4.6
6.2
7.7
10.7
16.2
20.3
24.4
27.5

14. The Conflict Theory View
Social Control Screening and Allocation:
Tracking
The Credentialized Society

15. Social Control
This has led conflict theorists and others to conclude that the most important lessons learned in school are not those listed in the formal curriculum but, rather, involve a hidden curriculum.

16. The hidden curriculum refers to the social attitudes and values taught in school that prepare children to accept the requirements of adult life and to fit into the social, political, and economic statuses the society provides.

17. Screening and Allocation: Tracking
If the purpose of education is educate and train why do screening and tracking exist?
What is your opinion about college entrance exams?
The most common argument against tracking notes that tracking fosters race and class segregation.

18. The most common argument against tracking notes that tracking fosters race and class segregation.
Do you agree?

19. The Credentialized Society
A degree or certificate has become necessary to perform a vast variety of jobs.
credential may not necessarily cause the recipient to perform the job better.

20. Issues in American Education
Unequal Access to Education Students Who Speak English as a Second Language
High-School Dropouts
Violence in the Schools
Home Schooling
Standardized Testing
Gender Bias in the Classroom
The Gifted

21. Unequal Access to Education
Browns VS the Board of Education
Financial Aide

22. Students Who Speak English as a Second Language
The Department of Education reports that 6.3 million children aged 5 to 17, or 14%, speak a language other than English at home. Another 3.2 million elementary and secondary school students are classified as having limited English proficiency.

23. High-School Dropouts
Dropping out of high school affects not only those who leave school, but also society in general, due to the following reasons:
Dropouts pay less in taxes, because of their lower earnings
Dropouts increase the demand for social services including welfare, medical assistance, and unemployment compensation.
Dropouts are less likely to vote.
Dropouts have poorer health.
Half of all state prison inmates did not complete high school.

24. Median Income by Education Level
Male Female
High School Dropout
$27,180
$20,341
High School
$37,632
$27,477
Some College or Associate’s Degree
$46,562
$34,745
Bachelor’s Degree
$65,011
$47,333
Advanced Degree
$88,840
$61,228

25. Violence in the Schools
Eighteen percent of students in grades 9–12 in 2007 reported they had carried a weapon anywhere, and 6 percent reported they had carried a weapon on school property during the previous 30 days

26. Home Schooling
Do you believe that children who are home schooled receive the same quality of education as those who attend school?

27. There are three main reasons why parents choose to home school :
Concerned about the school environment
Provide religious or moral instruction
Others are dissatisfied with the academic instruction available at the available schools

28. Standardized Testing
Much criticism has been leveled at standardized tests.
The testing services say the tests merely try to chart, scientifically and objectively, different levels of mental achievement and aptitude.
The critics assert that the tests are invalid academically and biased against minorities.

29. Average SAT Scores, 1995-2005 Year Math V erbal Writing 1995 506 504
1996
508
505
1997
511
1998
512
1999
2000
514
2001
2002
516
2003
519
507
2004
518
2008
520
2006
503
497
2007
515
502
494

30. Gender Bias in the Classroom
Who is at greater risk of failing in our schools these days—girls or boys ?

31. The Gifted
Ellen Winner (1996) has proposed that gifted children have three atypical traits
Precociousness-–gifted children begin early to master some domain
Nonconformity, an insistence on doing things according to their own specific rules
A rage to master, or a desire to know everything there is to know about a subject.