1. Chapter 16
Education

2. Chapter Outline An Overview of Education
Education in Historical-Global Perspective
Sociological Perspectives on Education
Inequality Among Elementary and Secondary Schools

3. Chapter Outline Problems Within Elementary and Secondary Schools
Opportunities and Challenges in Colleges and Universities
Future Issues and Trends in Education

4. An Overview Of Education
Education is the social institution responsible for the systematic transmission of knowledge, skills, and cultural values within a formally organized structure.
As a social institution, education imparts values, beliefs, and knowledge considered essential to the social reproduction of individual personalities and entire cultures.

5. How Much Do You Know About U.S. Education?
True or False
As compared with other developed nations, the United States has the highest ratio of university students per 100,000 people in the general population.

6. How Much Do You Know About U.S. Education?
False
Canada has the most university students (7,197) per 100,000 population. The United States is second, with 5,653 students per 100,000 population, followed by New Zealand (4,232) and South Korea (4,208) (Ash, 2003).

7. How Much Do You Know About U.S. Education?
True or False
Public education in the United States dates back more than 150 years.

8. How Much Do You Know About U.S. Education?
True.
As far back as 1848, free public education was believed to be important in the United States because of the high rates of immigration and the demand for literacy so that the country would have an informed citizenry that could function in a democracy.

9. Cultural Transmission
The process by which children and recent immigrants become acquainted with the dominant cultural beliefs, values, norms, and accumulated knowledge of a society - occurs through informal and formal education.

10. Question
Education is an influential force for which of the following reasons?
To impart values
To influence beliefs
To impart essential knowledge
All of these choices

11. Answer: d
Education is an influential force for the following reasons: to impart values, to influence beliefs and to impart essential knowledge.

12. Informal Education in Preliterate Societies
Preliterate societies existed before the invention of reading and writing.
People in these societies acquire knowledge and skills through informal education - learning that occurs in a spontaneous, unplanned way.
Parents and other members of the group provide information about how to gather food, find shelter, make weapons and tools, and get along with others.

13. Formal Education
Learning that takes place within an academic which has a planned instructional process and teachers who convey specific knowledge, skills, and thinking processes to students.
Mass education refers to providing free, public schooling for wide segments of a nation’s population.

14. Trends In International Math and Science Study (Times)
Country
Math
Science
Singapore
605
578
Korea, Republic of
589
558
Hong Kong SAR
586
556
Chinese Taipei
585
571
Japan
570
552
Netherlands
536
Hungary
529
543
Russian Federation
508
514

15. Trends In International Math and Science Study (Times)
Country
Math
Science
Slovak Republic
508
517
Latvia
512
Australia
505
527
United States
504
Sweden
496
524
Israel
466
488
Jordan
424
Chile
387
413
South Africa
264
244

16. Question
______________ societies existed before the invention of reading and writing.
preliterate
uneducated
illiterate
agrarian

17. Answer: a
Preliterate societies existed before the invention of reading and writing.

18. Sociological Perspectives on Education
Functionalists suggest that education contributes to the maintenance of society and provides opportunity for upward social mobility.
Conflict theorists argue that education perpetuates social inequality.
Symbolic interactionists focus on classroom dynamics and the effect of self-concept on grades and aspirations.

19. Manifest Functions of Education
Socialization
Transmission of culture
Social control
Social placement
Change and innovation

20. Latent Functions of Education
Restricting some activities.
Matchmaking and production of social networks.
Creating a generation gap.

21. Conflict Perspective
Education reproduces existing class relationships.
Unequal funding is a source of inequality in education.
Access to colleges and universities is determined not only by academic record but also by the ability to pay.

22. Cultural Capital and Class Reproduction
According to the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, students come to school with different amounts of cultural capital.
socially approved dress and manners, knowledge about books, art, music
The educational system teaches and reinforces values that sustain the elite’s position in society.

23. Tracking and Social Inequality
Tracking is the practice of assigning students to specific groups based on their test scores, previous grades, or other criteria.
Conflict theorists believe tracking affects educational performance and overall academic accomplishments.

24. The Hidden Curriculum
A study of five elementary schools in different communities found:
Schools for working-class students emphasize procedures and rote memorization.
Schools for middle-class students stress the processes involved in getting the right answer.

25. The Hidden Curriculum
Schools for affluent students focus on activities in which students express their own ideas.
Schools for students from elite families work to develop critical thinking skills, applying abstract principles to problem solving.

26. Credentialism
A process of social selection in which class advantage and social status are linked to the possession of academic qualifications.
Credentialism is closely related to meritocracy, a social system in which status is assumed to be acquired through individual ability and effort.

27. Symbolic Interactionist Perspective
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy- students perform according to expectations of teachers.
Girls learn to attribute success to effort.
Boys learn to attribute success to intelligence.

28. Question
_____ functions are hidden, unstated, and sometimes unintended consequences of activities within an organization or institution.
Manifest
Dormant
Latent
Covert

29. Answer: a
Manifest functions are hidden, unstated, and sometimes unintended consequences of activities within an organization or institution.

30. Question
According to the _____ perspective, the hidden curriculum affects working class and poverty level students more than it does students from middle and upper income families.
functionalist
conflict
symbolic-interactionist
feminist

31. Answer: b
According to the conflict perspective, the hidden curriculum affects working class and poverty level students more than it does students from middle and upper income families.

32. Question
Rate yourself on academic ability compared with the average person your age.
Highest 10 percent
Above average
Average
Below average
Bottom 10 percent

33. Inequality in Public Schools Versus Private Schools
Enrollment in U.S. elementary and secondary education totals 53 million, this is projected to increase to over 55 million by 2020.
Almost 90% of U.S. students are educated in public schools.
About 9.5% of students are educated in low-tuition private schools, primarily Catholic schools.
Only 1.5% of all students attend private schools with tuition of more than $5,000 a year.

34. How Are U.S. Public Schools Funded?
47% - State government
47% - Local government
6% federal government

35. Per-Capita Public Elementary and Secondary Spending by State

36. Question
Do you think the amount spend on improving the nation's education system is:
Too little
Just right
Too much

37. GSS National Data Party Democrat Independent Republican Too little 76%
70.2%
64.7%
Just right
21.2 25
26.4
Too much
2.8
4.8 9

38. Educational Achievement of Persons 25 and Over

39. Dropping Out
About 10% of people between the ages of fourteen and twenty-four have left school before earning a high school diploma.
Dropout Rates:
Latinos/(Hispanics) %
African Americans %
non-Hispanic whites - 9.2%

40. Question How far do you intend to go in school? Two years of college
Four years of college
Master's degree
Professional degree (law, medicine, dentistry)
Ph.D.

41. Academic Rank and Tenure Status by Race/Ethnicity and Sex

42. Affirmative Action
Policies to promote equal opportunity for people deemed to have been excluded from equality on the basis of race or ethnicity.
Critics assert that this amounts to reverse discrimination, a situation in which a person who is better qualified is denied opportunity a result of a person receiving preferential treatment due to affirmative action.

43. Functional Illiteracy
The inability to read and/or write at the skill level necessary for carrying out everyday tasks.
It is estimated that 56% of adult Latinas/os are functionally illiterate in English, compared with 44% of adult African Americans and 16% of adult (non-Latino/a) whites.
Today, 15 to 20% of people who have graduated from high school cannot read at the sixth-grade level.

44. Nations With The Lowest Literacy Rates
Country
Literacy Rate
Niger
15%
Burkina Faso
22%
Mali
31%
Sierre Leone
Afghanistan
Ethiopia
36%
Guinea
Senegal
38%

45. Quick Quiz

46. 1. According to the cultural capital model:
going to school a student will be taught by teachers one's own culture.
children with less cultural capital coming into school will have fewer opportunities for succeeding.
children with less cultural capital coming into school will catch up with the rest of the nation.
going to school provides one with the necessities of one's culture.

47. Answer: b
According to the cultural capital model children with less cultural capital coming into school will have fewer opportunities for succeeding.

48. 2. The assignment of students to specific courses and educational programs based on their test scores, previous grades, or both is called:
positioning
assessment
placement
tracking

49. Answer: d
The assignment of students to specific courses and educational programs based on their test scores, previous grades, or both is called tracking

50. 3. Learning that occurs in a spontaneous and unplanned way is:
vicarious learning
latent learning
informal education
hidden curriculum

51. Answer: c
Learning that occurs in a spontaneous and unplanned way is informal education.

52. 4. According to some analysts, schools teach girls that they are less important than boys. This is an example of:
meritocracy
the hidden curriculum
credentialism
affirmative action

53. Answer: b
According to some analysts, schools teach girls that they are less important than boys. This is an example of the hidden curriculum.

54. 5. Most funding for public elementary and secondary schools in the United States comes from:
U.S. savings bonds
federal taxes
lotteries
state and local property taxes

55. Answer: d
Most funding for public elementary and secondary schools in the United States comes from state and local property taxes.