1. RECURRING QUESTIONS What are the goals of education?
Who gets to define and prioritize those goals?
How do some goals conflict with others?

2. What are the goals?

3. OBVIOUS (“MANIFEST”) ANSWERS
(from a person’s point of view)
Literacy & Numeracy Skills
Critical and Creative Thinking Skills
21st Century Technological Skill
Happy Well-Rounded Lives w/ Potential Fulfilled
Global Perspectives and Knowledge

4. OBVIOUS (“MANIFEST”) ANSWERS
(from a country’s point of view)
Skilled and Globally Competitive Workforce
Engaged, Knowledgeable, Responsible Citizens

5. OBVIOUS (“MANIFEST”) ANSWERS
(from a country’s point of view)
Skilled and Globally Competitive Workforce
Engaged, Knowledgeable, Responsible Citizens

6. FUNCTIONALISM
Schools serve multiple positive functions:
Teaching norms and values that encourage social order
Training people for jobs in a complex modern economy

7. FUNCTIONALISM CONFLICT THEORY
Schools serve multiple positive functions:
Teaching norms and values that encourage social order maintain inequality
Training people for jobs in a complex modern economy Teaching people to accept their place in the social order

8. CONFLICT THEORY Schooling as an arena of competition between social groups … and as a place for justifying the current social order e.g., Anyon (1980)

10. CONFLICT THEORY Correspondence Theory (e. g
CONFLICT THEORY Correspondence Theory (e.g., Bowles and Gintis) The function of schools is to reproduce the social relations of production … to get workers ready to be workers and bosses ready to be bosses

11. CONFLICT THEORY Credentialism and Signaling Theory Schools don’t teach job skills … they provide credentials; credentials signal social status

12. CONFLICT THEORY Maximally Maintained Inequality Advantaged social groups seek more and more education to maintain their social position; this has the effect of increasing how far people have to go in school

13. CONFLICT THEORY Effectively Maintained Inequality If they can’t get more schooling, advantaged social groups seek more prestigious schooling to maintain their social position

14. OBVIOUS (“MANIFEST”) ANSWERS
(from a country’s point of view)
Skilled and Globally Competitive Workforce
Engaged, Knowledgeable, Responsible Citizens

15. OBVIOUS (“MANIFEST”) ANSWERS
(from a country’s point of view)
Skilled and Globally Competitive Workforce
Engaged, Knowledgeable, Responsible Citizens

16. Percentage of Americans Ineligible to Vote in 2012 Presidential Election
Source: 2012 U.S. General Social Survey

17. Percentage of Americans Voting in 2012 Presidential Election
Source: 2012 U.S. General Social Survey

18. Source: November Current Population Surveys, Voter Supplements

19. VOTING … ONE VIEW Everyone has the right and obligation to vote, so education is crucial for a well-informed electorate. We should education people better so they vote more often and more knowledgably

20. VOTING … ANOTHER VIEW Historically, many groups have been denied the right to vote … so educating them was at least less unnecessary and potentially dangerous.

21. VOTING … ANOTHER VIEW The content of history and civics curricula have been contested … and have tended to reflect the perspectives of those with political and economic power.

22. What are the goals?

23. CULTURAL ASSIMILATION (aka, “Americanization” … especially around language and religion)

25. ASSIMILATION
Schools should teach all students … regardless of their cultural background or home language … to assimilate to mainstream American culture and to primarily speak English.
PLURALISM
Schools should value and maintain students’ unique cultural backgrounds and home languages. Educational practices should be multicultural and multilingual for all students.

28. ASSIMILATION
Schools should teach all students … regardless of their cultural background or home language … to assimilate to mainstream American culture and to primarily speak English.
PLURALISM
Schools should value and maintain students’ unique cultural backgrounds and home languages. Educational practices should be multicultural and multilingual for all students.

29. What are the goals?

30. SOCIAL MOBILITY Overcoming Past Injustices vs Reproducing Social Inequality

31. SOCIAL MOBILITY Overcoming Past Injustices “Education drives economic and other life outcomes. Everyone has an opportunity to succeed in education. Thus, education is a vehicle for overcoming past injustices.”

32. SOCIAL MOBILITY Reproducing Social Inequality “Education drives economic and other life outcomes. Children of advantaged groups are more successful in school. Thus, education is a vehicle for reproducing inequality.”

33. SOCIAL MOBILITY Inequality of Opportunity vs Inequality of Outcomes

34. RECURRING QUESTIONS What are the goals of education?
Who gets to define and prioritize those goals?
How do some goals conflict with others?

36. Trends in Enrollment & Completion

37. Source: Snyder, Thomas Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement

38. Source: Snyder, Thomas Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement

39. Source: Snyder, Thomas Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement

40. Source: Snyder, Thomas Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement

41. Source: Snyder, Thomas Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement

42. Source: Snyder, Thomas Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement

43. Trends in School Inputs

44. Source: Snyder, Thomas Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement

45. Source: Snyder, Thomas Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement

47. Total State Local Federal
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Biennial Survey of Education in the United States, through ; Statistics of State School Systems, and ; Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education, ; and Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey," through (This table was prepared October 2017.)

48. Local
State
Federal
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Biennial Survey of Education in the United States, through ; Statistics of State School Systems, and ; Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education, ; and Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey," through (This table was prepared October 2017.)

49. Trends in Achievement Test Scores

50. Source: National Center for Education Statistics. 2013
Source: National Center for Education Statistics The Nation s Report Card: Trends in Academic Progress NCES Washington, D.C.: Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

51. Source: National Center for Education Statistics. 2013
Source: National Center for Education Statistics The Nation s Report Card: Trends in Academic Progress NCES Washington, D.C.: Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

52. Source: National Center for Education Statistics. 2013
Source: National Center for Education Statistics The Nation s Report Card: Trends in Academic Progress NCES Washington, D.C.: Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

53. Source: National Center for Education Statistics. 2013
Source: National Center for Education Statistics The Nation s Report Card: Trends in Academic Progress NCES Washington, D.C.: Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

54. Source: National Center for Education Statistics. 2013
Source: National Center for Education Statistics The Nation s Report Card: Trends in Academic Progress NCES Washington, D.C.: Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

55. Source: National Center for Education Statistics. 2013
Source: National Center for Education Statistics The Nation s Report Card: Trends in Academic Progress NCES Washington, D.C.: Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

56. Source: National Center for Education Statistics. 2013
Source: National Center for Education Statistics The Nation s Report Card: Trends in Academic Progress NCES Washington, D.C.: Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

57. Source: National Center for Education Statistics. 2013
Source: National Center for Education Statistics The Nation s Report Card: Trends in Academic Progress NCES Washington, D.C.: Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

58. Source: National Center for Education Statistics. 2013
Source: National Center for Education Statistics The Nation s Report Card: Trends in Academic Progress NCES Washington, D.C.: Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.