Where is the Sociology in U.S. School Reforms?

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course aims to challenge our assumptions about which education as an institution in the United States is predicated and ask some fundamental questions about the relationship between education and society. Why does everyone go to school? Why do some students seem to learn more and “get ahead” than others? What factors shape how schools are run and organized, and what curricular materials are taught? How do schools help to maintain our capitalist system, and how do the factors of race, class, and gender affect the educational experiences of students within schools and classrooms? How can schools become more effective? What interventions have worked to improve schools? These are among the questions we will consider this semester. A primary focus of this course will be on the effects of schools and classrooms on educational outcomes. We will cover topics in the sociology of education related to school effects, sector effects, tracking and ability grouping, and classroom and teacher effects. We will look at the structure, practices, content, and outcomes of schooling, primarily in the light of their relationships to the wider society in which schools are situated. As part of the course, we will also consider the social and organizational context of contemporary education reforms in the United States—particularly test-based accountability for schools, teachers, and students—and place these reforms in a more global perspective.