1. Essentials of American Education Chapter 6: Using Recent History to Improve Student Learning

2. Agenda Current Educations Issues –Format-What is the issue? What does it relate to EDFS201 community? Discussion of chapter 6. How the past informs the present: 1.( a) Why is the history of education important to us today? (b)In Which way does the knowledge of the history of education help improve students’ learning? 2. What are some of the changes (schools, curriculum and those served by the schools) that have taken place since the introduction of formal education? What are some of the curriculum reforms and why were they implemented? What are the social, political and economic factors that influence curriculum reform? 3. How did/does the federal government influence education? Include Acts and laws that have been passed 4. Who has had to struggle for equal educational opportunities? What kinds of policies have been put in place to help with this struggle? 5. Name 4 theorists and 4 critics who have influenced education. In which ways have these individuals influenced education? Looking forward September 18—Read Chapter 2: Diversity in the society Watch video—Caught in the cross fire –9/18/23: Where Will we be teaching? Diversity in Society. Readings (a) Chapter 2 –(b) Engaged Pedagogy, from bell hooks Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. (from EDFS 201 packet) –(c) Video—Caught in the cross fire. A threaded discussion based on issues raised in/by this video. View video clip #7 too. –Threaded Discussion #1 Due on September 25

3. Learner Outcomes for Chapter 6 After reading and studying Chapter 6, you will be able to: 1.Decide, explain, and defend the degree to which you believe it is possible to know, understand, and profit from the history of education 2.List and detail several of the most important improvements that have been made in the American educational system over the past half century 3.Explain important educational contributions that have been made during the last half century by private schools, the federal government, researchers, teacher organizations, teacher educators, and other groups that have helped to improve U.S. schools 4.List and explain several of the major ideas regarding the history of U.S. education 5.Explain why a knowledge of the history of education is important to educators and how it might be used to improve student learning today

4. Quote Education is a painful, continual, and difficult work to be done by kindness, by watching, by warning, by precept, and by praise, but above all—by love. – John Ruskin

5. Introduction History was regarded as the:  Voice of memory  Witness to experience  Vision of destiny  Story of the decline and fall of previous regimes and hence the lessons of corruption that were to be avoided

6. Major Historical Ideas presented in Chapter 6 1.There has been phenomenal growth in both the size and complexity of U.S. educational establishments in the last half century 2.The current information age has placed tremendous new demands and expectation on our schools and teachers 3.Providing excellent equal educational opportunities to all students continues to be a major, yet unrealized challenge to our society and to our schools 4.An understanding of the history of education is of very practical value in helping contemporary educators to improve student learning

7. THE RAPID GROWTH OF THE EDUCATIONAL ENTERPRISE The single most dramatic change in education over the past half century is the expansion in size of the educational enterprise. Enrollment Growth  Total # of students in US public schools nearly doubled from 1940-1990 Need for more Schools  Cities and suburbs  Increased use of temporary mobile classrooms  Larger classes  Split scheduling  Classes held in gym, hallways, storage closets Need for More Teachers  States lowered teacher certifications requirements  Increased # of students and teachers cost more $

8. SCHOOL DISTRICT CONSOLIDATION A notable administrative trend of this period # of separate school districts was reduced from 177,000 in 1940 to 16,000 in 1980 One Room Schools  School consolidation had educational advantages  necessitated the busing of more students over greater distances DeWalt study  Private one-room school made a modest comeback in 1980’s  attributes growth to Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)  upheld Amish parents’ rights to educate their own children Growth of Busing  # and % of students bused increased from 1940-1980  Estimated 60% of all students are bused to school by about 450,000 school buses

9. Bigger School Budgets  approx. material cost of public education was:  $2 billion in 1940  $5 billion in 1950  $15 billion in 1960  $40 billion in 1970  $97 billion in 1980  $208 billion in 1990

10. GROWTH OF PROGRAMS Circular Growth  result of an accumulation of many smaller events  Example: 1942 the Progressive Education Association’s Eight- Year Study (1932-1940) of thirty high schools  helped to create a climate that was more hospitable to experimentation with school curricula and teaching methodologies  Example: publications on goals of US education (1938, 1944, 1952)  helped to broaden schools curricular offerings

11.  Example: 1958 National Defense Education Act (NDEA)  passed by Congress after Soviet Union launch of Sputnik  government had called on schools for help with this “national defense program”  more federal funding to improve science, math, engineering, foreign language, guidance in schools  curricula emerged: SMSG math, BSCS biology, PSCS physics  1940 curriculum was narrow and was designed primarily for college- bound students  today’s curricula is broader and designed for students of all abilities

12. Growth of Special Education Programs  teachers had little or no training  programs did not exist historically  tried to accommodate as best possible  PL 94-142(mid twentieth century)  programs began to emerge  teachers trained to work with visual impairments, hearing- impaired, behavior disorders, etc.  # of students  310,000 special ed students in 1940  4,641,00 in 1990

13. Asian American Education  WW2 brought about much discrimination against Japanese Americans  Struggled:  to learn English  receive an education  find suitable jobs  Have not received equal educational and employment opportunities  1882- Chinese Exclusion Act  passed by US gov’t  attempted to limit the number of Chinese immigrants

14. Hispanic American Education  # of students has increased dramatically over the past 50 years  Earliest formal schools in North America were started by Spanish missionaries in Mexico and Southwest USA  Hispanic Americans have made significant contributions to education  Cordero- self-taught free black Hispanic  est. early school in Puerto Rico (1810)  helped black children learn who were originally denied formal education b/c of skin color  rich white parents’ children attended the school also

15.  Sanchez- began teaching at 16  taught in 1-room schools  Attended college whenever possible  earned master’s, doctorate  Hispanic American education did not develop as quickly or as well for the majority population  Hispanics have not been afforded equal educational opportunities  Southern and Southwestern USA now have big # of Hispanic American students

16. A DEVLOPING PROFESSION The field of education has taken giant strides toward becoming a profession since World War II. The Increasing Complexity of the Educational Enterprise: Increasing Federal Involvement  the federal gov.’t has played important roles in the development of national educational programs  Vocational Education for National Defense Act (1940’s) was a crash program to prepare workers needed in industry to produce goods for national defense  GI Bill (1944) provided for the education of veterans of World War II  similar bills assisted Korean Conflict veterans  10 million veterans served, overall cost $20 mill.

17. National Science Foundation (1950)  supported scientific research  created to “promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…”  Cooperative Research Program of 1954 authorized US commissioner of education to enter into contracts with universities, colleges, and state education agencies to carry on educational research

18. Categorical Federal Aid (1957)  Federal participation in educational affairs by:  Nat.’l Defense Education Act of 1958  Vocational Education Act of 1963  Manpower Development and Training Act of 1963  Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965  Internat.’l Education Act of 1966  Project Head Start  Nat.’l Teacher Corp  Upward Bound

19. The Struggle for Equal Educational Opportunity  For all children, regardless of race, creed, religion, or sex  Struggle for EEO initiated by African American activism movement  other groups joined (ie women’s rights movement, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans) The Professionalization of Teaching  Formal training is a relatively recent phenomenon  Teacher training programs were developed during the 1 st half of the 20 th c.  Movement included curriculum, teaching methodology, training of school service personnel, in-service teacher training, teacher organizations

20. Continued Importance of Private Schools  Religious nature of education diminished as the publish school system developed  although some Roman Catholic dioceses still operate large school systems (150,000 students)  Chicago Diocese operates the largest Roman Catholic school system Home Schooling  Growing number of parents choose this option  Parents associate public schools with drugs, gangs, smoking and alcohol  Some parents have religious motives  Number of parents home schooling increased by 15% per year in the last decade  Legal Defense Action est. 1.5+ million students home schooled

21. Continuing/Adult Education  Dates back to the past 2 centuries  New immigrants to the country (18 th c.) needed to learn English  factory workers, churches  Chautauqua Movement (1894) at Lake Chautauqua, NY  included correspondence courses, lecture classes, music ed., literary study  Economic Opportunity Act (1964)  provided Adult Basic Education funding to help adults read and write  Other programs developed  job training, parenting skills, allow for high-employment opportunities

22. Evolution of Educational Assessment  Assessment has taken on more importance in the last half-century  James Conant, President, Harvard U. (1933)  influenced by Binet’s mental testing  used SAT to assess a student’s potential for success at Harvard  created ETS (organization for educational assessment)  Many standardized test developed to assess every aspect of education  highly criticized by educators, parents, etc. who question fairness and accuracy  Pressure to develop other tools of assessment  most states have implemented achievement testing sometimes used to evaluate and compare schools (unfair? Unethical?)  Growing # of educators are questioning educational assessment

23. RECENT TRENDS IN EDUCATION  New researchers: Maslow, Havighurst, Bloom, Cronbach, Bruner, McLuhan, Chomsky, Piaget  Progressive Education Association closed  series of White House conferences on children, youth, and education aimed to improve education  US school system was the most scrutinized, analyzed and dissected

24. NEW EMPHASIS IN EDUCATION Education is a painful, continual, and difficult work to be done by kindness, by watching, by warning, by precept, and by praise, but above all—by love. –John Ruskin  New stuff: physical fitness programs, character education projects, a general tightening of educational standards, primary block programs, inter-age groupings, core programs, G/T programs, concern for foreign language, Montessori schools, experimental schools  Social psychologists provided sociometric tools—gave insight to group functioning  Reading specialists & psychologists developed diagnositic instruments for studying LD  Statisticians devised new formulas/designs for controlling/analyzing data with modern computers  New tools for data collection

25. Analysis of Teaching  Attempts to identify the characteristics and teaching styles most closely associated with effective instruction  1950’s more analysis of what actually occurs in teaching instead of what should occur  offered educators highly fruitful insights into teaching and learning  provided usable instruments for further investigation of classroom behavior

26. Teacher Effectiveness  Recent research focuses more closely on instructional patterns of effective teachers  Movement based on the research offers today’s teachers important skills  Today’s teachers learn to be strong leaders who direct classroom activities, maximize use of instructional time, and teach in a clear businesslike manner

27. Sociological Studies  Research on social class, social perceptions, academic achievement  Coleman  showed social relationships of children make a difference in learning  parents and peer groups mold perceptions and regulate the performance of students  gave new direction to schools’ efforts

28. Study of the Learning Process  Educational researchers investigate how students learn  stressed the importance of successful early learning patterns and the problems associated with serious learning deficits  Montessori, Italian doctor  believed that children should be encouraged to teach themselves with manipulative materials  promoted pupil discovery and use of tactile learning materials  Havighurst, professor, U. of Chicago identified developmental tasks that he believed children must master if they are to develop normally  Bruner, of Harvard  postulated a series of developmental steps/stages of children

29. Bloom  wrote Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives and distinguished service professor at the University of Chicago  believed one can predict learning outcomes by assessing 3 factors: 1. Cognitive entry behaviors of a student 2. Affective entry characteristics 3. quality of instruction Skinner  developed behavioral theory—focusing on outward behavior which suggested students could be successfully trained or conditioned to learn anything a teacher desired  break down material into small steps  published The Technology of Teaching

30. Piaget  observed children of different ages  cognitive development—believed that children learn facts, concepts, and principles in four major stages 1. Sensorimotor stage- (birth to 2 yrs.) learns through hands, mouth and eyes 2. Preoperational stage- (2-7 yrs.) learns primarily through language and concepts 3. Concrete operations- (7-11 yrs.) use of more complex concepts such as numbers 4. Formal operations- (11-15 yrs.) use of most sophisticated and abstract learning processes.

31. Educational Critics  Focused on low educational standards  Friedenberg called for alternatives to traditional education  Silberman endorsed open educaiton  Kozol pleaded for equal opportunity

32. Litigation’s Influence on Education  Since 1970, much more litigation in education due to confrontations with school officials and techers  Buckley Amendment of 1974 gave students and parents the right to view official school records  Due process as a right of parents  Legal recourse has become a major modus operandi  legal maneuvering has become a substitute for good faith

33. School Reform  Advocates would claim that there has been more talk about school reform than action  Politicians have not always been willing to provide sufficient funding to improve our schools  Political talk about school reform is often motivated by a desire to cut taxes  Reform in the pasts half-century  small local efforts  statewide mandated efforts  national efforts, usually advocated by fed. Gov.’t and courts

34. Major Educational Events of the Past Century  GI Bill of Rights was single most impt. Educational event of the past century  Segregation of Schools (2 nd impt)  Education for All Handicapped Children Act (3 rd impt.)  Increase in high school graduation percentage  50.8% in 1940  72.4% in 1990

35. Using History to Improve Student Learning  Historical knowledge can be useful to an educator  capitalize on historical educational successes  Some understanding of history helps a person to mature, helps to hearten a person, and helps to set people free.