Excellence for all … or excellence for some? Can schools function as the “great equalizer”? A reading-intensive course, this seminar focuses on the broad issue of educational equity over the past 100 years, explored within the context of the many goals of American schooling. In particular, readings and discussions will assess:
- the social distribution of educational resources, opportunities and outcomes;
- the role of school structure and organization in reproducing and reinforcing prevailing economic, political, and social relationships; and
- the potential contradictions between the societal functions of schooling and the professed goals of educators.
Class time will follow a seminar format with student requirements including extensive readings and active participation/leadership in class discussions, and four short essays (5-7 pages) with revisions.
Readings will be drawn from a coursepack and such texts as:
- Bowles & Gintis (1976), Schooling in Capitalist America
- Carnoy, Jacobsen, Michel, & Rothstein (2005), The Charter School Dust-Up
- Entwisle, Alexander, & Olson (1997), Children, Schools, & Inequality
- Kozol (1991), Savage Inequalities
- Oakes (1985), Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality
- Powel, Farrar, & Cohen (1985), The Shopping Mall High School
- Rothstein (2004), Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap
Course Requirements:
Student requirements including extensive readings and active participation/leadership in class discussions, and four short essays (5-7 pages) with revisions.
Class Format:
Class time will follow a seminar format