Public Showing Tomorrow of Film: Waiting for Superman Wednesday, Jan. 26, 5 and 7:30 PM, ART Theater in Champaign

This film will be discussed in Unit 2. I will show short clips, and I will also host an optional viewing of the entire film.

Some sections will view the film as a discussion section assignment.

Optional viewing for lecture students:Wednesday, March 16, 7- PM, Room 2 Education

This Week, 1-25, 1-27  Tozer Chapter 1 pages 1-12 Friedman, and Neumann 

First I will complete slides on Purposes of Schools (Arends et al.) from Thursday’s class. See those slides.

Educate students for:

CONTINUITY Continue traditions Which ones?

IMPROVING SOCIETY

MEET CHALLENGES Unknown future, lifelong learning

Tozer Chapter 1 “Understanding School and Society”

Schools reflect the larger society.

Schools serve society’s needs.

The study of social foundations equips teachers to make sense of classroom situations by understanding the larger social context.

A major goal of schooling is to prepare citizens for life in a democracy.

Citizens who can think critically about the degree to which society is democratic and who can participate in overcoming its undemocratic aspects.

Most distinctive feature of liberal democracy:

Citizens need to have virtues that combine to create the ability and willingness to question political authority and to engage in public debate (public reasonableness rather than self-interest, persuasion, compromise).

“consent of the governed” “whose voice is heard?”

How do we define what it means to be a citizen?

1. Equal Citizenship is essentially a matter of ensuring that everyone is treated as a full and equal member of society (participate and enjoy life)

2. WITH SAME TYPES of RIGHTS: Civil (freedoms & rights to live, enjoy, move, and express in society), Political (vote, have a voice, a variety of interests are considered in some way), and Social (access to services like schooling, health, social security).

3. ROLE OF A STATE Need a liberal democratic state to protect rights.

Liberal Democratic States avoid:

Manipulation Indoctrination Propaganda Deception Threats Force

In a democracy, there should be social systems that provide voice, equality, and freedom to all people.

Tozer Chapter 1 “Understanding School and Society”

Social theory—interpretation or explanation, make sense of social phenomena, answer the questions of how and why. Theory shapes practice.

Schooling—learning that takes place in school--curricular subject matter and extra-curricular activities. Also a “hidden curriculum” provides indirect

messages about norms and behaviors (through practices, relationships, policies, time management, authority structures).

How are these terms different?

Education—all learning in life—involves some training, but also reason, intellect, intuition, creativity, caring, wisdom, judgment –a process or set of experiences that allows humans to “create” themselves---to exercise your freedom to make choices in your life, to choose from a wide range of possibilities in life. FREEING OR LIBERATING EFFECT

Training—predictable behavior and skills, memorization, it prepares you for special social or economic roles.

Indoctrinate--

CONTEXTUAL YOUR ANALYSISANALYTIC FRAMEWORK (Tozer, 9-11)PE and Ideology explains why, what, how

SCHOOLS Reflect, are embedded in, express society

IDEOLOGY(ideas of the culture) Explains and Justifies Life(norms)

Shared beliefsShared valuesGroups differ

POLITICAL ECONOMY(material components of the culture)Institutions and Practices: Social Economic Political Schools Demographics

POLITICS OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS .

In Little Village, in Chicago, their high school was very old and extremely overcrowded. The district promised the community a new high school to replace the old high school that was originally built in 1894 and last renovated in 1929.

However, over a 3-year period, 2 other new schools were built in adjacent areas (serving wealthier communities), but not the high school promised for Little Village. Why was the promise to build a school in Little Village broken? What should residents do?

This is a story of power structures, distribution of resources, geography, demographics, priorities of public schooling, and ideology.

Read all footnotes in Friedman’s article. Defines Plus and Minus Schools and

Program for Figure 1.

“Contested Space” by Friedman For Exam 1, one question will require you to

use the Analytic Framework to answer questions about this situation.

Be ready to contribute during Thursday’s Lecture. Make a list of P-E, ideological, and school forces in Chicago from the Friedman article that led to CPS not to build a new school in Little Village as promised.

SCHOOLSDistrict Policies and priorities, the 2 New Schools, Farragut Academy

IDEOLOGY

Explains and Justifies Life(norms)

Shared beliefsShared valuesGroups differ

POLITICAL ECONOMY in Chicago 2001

Social (Urban life in Chicago, community organizations, class status, race/ethnicity)

Economic

Political (Mayor, power relations)

Demographics (LV)

Chicago Public School (CPS)

How were limited resources distributed in the district?

How did CPS reveal its priorities?

What attitude toward educational outcomes for Little Village students was revealed by CPS facilities manager Tim Martin in a community meeting?

How were plus and minus schools distributed in the district? (see figure 1, text, and footnote 1)

For the 2 schools built first, what kind of schools were they? (see table 2, text)

What kind of school was Farragut Academy? (see table 2)

The Politics of Public Schools in ChicagoStory of the Hunger Strike

3 New High Schools are promised 2 High Schools are built, where and why? The District tells LV there is no more money. Community leaders meet with the District and send

letters to the Mayor, meet with City officials over a 2 year period

Community is told to go to the Illinois State legislature for special funding

Then the Community was offered a small amount of $ to renovate old high school

What should the community do? What would your parents do?

What would your parents do?

Community Action: PTA, meetings, meet with principal, gain media attention, gain support of entire community

Political: write and meet with political leaders, protest the District leaders, elect new board members (in Chicago trustees are appointed by the Mayor), write Congress persons, write representatives, make it an election issue, hold political rallies, sit-ins and marches

Economic: stop paying taxes, raise your own taxes, try to raise private funds, send children to private school, look to philanthropic organizations for money, ask local businesses to support schools, move to another community

What is the reasoning behind where new schools were built?

Table 1 (Friedman) Data on North Park, Near North Park, and Little Village (2000 Census) Population, poverty rates, median income

Table 2 (Friedman) School Data (2005) Attendance Rate, Graduation Rate,

Achievement, AP scores, Racial demographics of the 3 schools

Data on Chicago Public School Students

90% are Hispanic and African-American 85.6% of students from low-income families 19.9% of Illinois public school students

attend CPS 13.7% are limited-English-proficient 94.0% attendance rate for elementary schools 86.0% attendance rate for high schools

Per pupil operating expenditures as of FY05-06 $9,758 operating expenditure per pupil $6,875 per capita tuition

In 2001, 14 people mounted a hunger strike

The hunger strike lasted 19 days

Community got district to build the school

Community remained involved in school design

Who were some of the key players?

Did the struggles end with the building of the new school? (Friedman, impact of Ren10, boundaries, name of school)

CPS CEO Paul VallesMayor Richard DaleyValles resigned 2 months later

New CPS CEOArne Duncan

Little Village High School4 small schools in one locationMulticultural Arts, Infinity,World Languages andSocial Justice

Our MissionThe Little Village Lawndale High School is a reality because of the principles of social justice. Our belief in self-determination inspired a community to act on its convictions to affirm its right to a quality education.

Through a system of support, guidance, and accountability our students will graduate high school, be prepared for college and implement a post secondary plan. Our students will cherish and preserve their ethnic and cultural identity, will serve and determine the future of our community, and will have a passion for peace, justice and the dignity of all people.

SOCIAL JUSTICE HIGH SCHOOL CHICAGO

Our Vision

The purpose of the school of social justice is to assure that all students become critical thinkers through a curriculum that is rigorous, innovative, and implemented through meaningful school relationships.

Project based and problem based learning that addresses real world issues through the lenses of race, gender, culture, economic equity, peace, justice, and the environment will be the catalyst for developing our curriculum.

Service learning will be the center of our curriculum. Our community and the city will be our classroom. All learning will be relevant to the lives of our students.

We will increase student learning and achievement by building on what our students know and utilize their everyday experiences in order to build the excellence of basic skills and literacy.

The professional community composed of administrators, teachers, students, parents and other community members will learn together and from one another.