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Education

© Robert J. Atkins, Ph.D.

© Robert J. Atkins, Ph.D.

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How does your family income effect your attending college?

As family income increases, the share of children going to college goes up.

SAT scores

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Is it worth going to college?

A high school diploma and a college degree both raise personal income.

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Japan vs America

JapanEntrance based on personal ability

demonstrated on achievement tests

AmericaPractical and job relatedEveryone can attend

Do you remember?

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Are families with higher income more apt to have children go to college?

As education increases, what happens to income?

What is the difference between the American and Japanese educational systems?

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What are the manifest functions of education?

Socializing of youngCreating new culture Integrating people into a new

society

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What are the latent functions of education?

Child careConsumes time & energyLasting relationships

What are some problems within education? Functional illiteracy Educational tracking Bureaucracy Teacher shortage

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What is functional illiteracy?

People leave school without learning basic skills

Urgent problem Greater than 5 other countries 40 M adults=8th grade

language skills

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What are the problems with educational tracking? (Conflict perspective)

Best schooling goes to students who are more privileged to begin with.Segregates students

into different worlds11

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What problems are increased by bureaucracy?

Imposes uniformity and ignores cultural variations

Numerical performance and test scores = success

All students are expected to progress at the same rate

The teacher shortage problem

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Do you remember?

What are manifest and latent functions of education?

What are some problems within education?

Solutions

“School choice” model

Magnet schoolsA Nation at RiskCommunity

colleges

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What is the “school choice” model?

Assumes U.S. public schools perform poorly because they have no competition

Designed to increase competition

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What are “magnet schools”?

Encourages students to specialize in specific areas of study

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A Nation at Risk

Requires more Math, English, Social Studies, Science, and Computer science

Improve teacher trainingImprove teachers’ salaries

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Community collegesEnroll almost 40% of college

studentsGreatly expand the

opportunity to attend collegeEnroll ½ of African American

and Hispanic undergraduates

Do you remember?

What are four of the suggested solutions to educational problems?

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