Socy 345 F. Pincus

Spring 1999 Ext. 2079

Pincus@umbc.edu

Office hours:

Tu 11:30 - 1:00

Th 9:00 - 10:00

and by appointment.

ACIV 353

REQUIRED TEXTS

Kathleen Bennett deMarrais and Margaret D. LeCompte

The Way Schools Work: A Sociological Analysis of Education, 3rd Ed. White Plains, N.Y.: Longman, 1999. (TWSW)

David Levine, Robert Lowe, Bob Peterson and Rita Tenorio, Eds.

Rethinking Schools: An Agenda for Change. New York: The New Press, 1995. (RS)

Text on Reserve in Library

James W. Noll

Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Educational Issues, Eighth Edition, Duskin, 1995.

COURSE OUTLINE AND READING ASSIGNMENTS

Jan. 28 INTRODUCTION

No Reading Assignment

Feb. 2,4,9 THEORY

TWSW Chapter 1 "Theory and It's Influences on the Purposes of Schooling"

National Commission on Excellence in Education

"A Nation at Risk." (Reserve)

Feb. 11,16 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOLS

TWSW Ch. 2 "The Social Organization of Schooling" (pp.43-79)

QUIZ 1 DUE FEB. 11

Feb.18,23 YOUTH CULTURE

TWSW Ch.3 "Youth Culture and the Student Peer Group"

QUIZ 2 DUE FEB. 18

Feb. 25, March 2 TEACHERS

TWSW Ch.4 "The Labor Force in Education" (pp.144-185)

Ellwood "Preparing Teachers for Education in a Diverse World" (RS:246-52)

QUIZ 3 DUE FEB. 25

March 4 STATISTICS ON INEQUALITY

Pincus "Statistics on Educational Inequality: 1999 Edition" (reserve)

No Quiz

JOURNAL REVIEW PROPOSALS DUE

March 9,11,16 CLASS AND INEQUALITY

TWSW Chapter 5 "Social Class and It's Relationship to Education"

TWSW Chapter 6 "What is taught in the schools: Curriculum and the Stratification of Knowledge." (Pp. 236-255)

Bigelow "Getting Off the Track: Stories from an Untracked Classroom." (RS: 155-168)

Miner "Algebra for All: An Equation for Equity." (RS:171-174)

Meier "Standardized Tests: A Clear and Present Danger." (RS:175-184)

QUIZ 4 DUE MARCH 9

LATE JOURNAL REVIEW PROPOSALS DUE

March 18: EXAM 1

March 30, April 1,6 RACE AND EDUCATION

TWSW Chapter 7 "Ethnic Minorities: Equality of Educational Opportunity"

Murray and Herrnstein

"IQ: An Apologia." (reserve)

Gould "Mismeasure by Any Measure." (reserve)

QUIZ 5 DUE MARCH 30

April 8,13,15 GENDER AND EDUCATION

TWSW Chapter 8 "Gender Equality in Schooling"

QUIZ 6 DUE APRIL 8

April 20,22 MULTICULTURALISM

Chavez "Demystifying Multiculturalism." In Noll, pp. 94-98 (reserve)

Gates Multiculturalism: A Conversation Among Different Voices." (RS: 7-8)

Lee "Taking Multicultural, Anti-racist Education Seriously." (RS:9-16)

Derman-Sparks "How Well Are We Nurturing Racial and Ethnic Diversity?" (RS:17-22)

Karp Trouble Over the Rainbow." (RS:23-35)

Mahaffey "Are We Accepting Too Much?" (RS:36-39)

QUIZ 7 DUE APRIL 20

April 27,29 CRITICAL THINKING

Bigelow "Discovering Columbus: Rereading the Past." (RS:61-68)

Zinn "Why Should Students Study History?" (RS:89-99)

Christiansen "Whose Standard?Teaching Standard English in Our Schools."(RS:128-35)

Delpit "Teachers, Culture and Power." (RS:136-147)

QUIZ 8 DUE APRIL 29

May 4,6 SCHOOL CHOICE

Chub and Moe

"America's Public Schools." In Noll, 148-159, (reserve)

Lowe "The Perils of School Vouchers." (RS:191-204)

Bastian "Is Public School 'Choice' a Viable Alternative?" (RS:205-208)

QUIZ 9 DUE MAY 6

JOURNAL REVIEWS DUE MAY 6

May 11,13 CONCLUSION

Jencks and Phillips

"America's Next Achievement Test: Closing the Black-White Test Score Gap" (reserve)

TWSW pp.86-94

Editors of Rethinking Schools

"Beyond Pizza Sales: Parent Involvement in the 1990s" (RS:235-239)

Glover "All Children Are Our Children" (RS:264-267)

QUIZ 10 DUE MAY 11

LATE JOURNAL REVIEWS DUE MAY 11

May 20 EXAM #2

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

During the semester there will be two required essay exams and nine take-home quizzes. In addition, students have the option to do a Book Review or a Teacher Education Report. Each of these assignments are described below.

I. Take-Home Quizzes The quizzes are intended to motivate students to do the reading assignments and to think about the readings. The quiz will cover the readings for that particular section of the class and will be due BEFORE the readings are discussed in class. For example, Quiz 1 covers Chapter 2 in The Way Schools Work. It will be due on February 11. Chapter 2 will be discussed in class on February 11 and 16.

The questions for each quiz will be the same:

1. List two important things that you found particularly interesting or that you learned from the readings that you didn't know before. Explain.

2. List two things about the readings that you disagree with. Explain why you disagree.

3. List two things about the readings that you had questions about or that you did not understand. Explain.

You should be as specific and concrete as possible in your answers. If there was a particular statistic, study or concept that you want to discuss, cite the page that you found it on. Explain why you found something interesting or why you disagreed with it. If there are multiple readings, you should make one point from each reading; e.g., you might list one interesting point from reading #1, one disagreement from reading #2, one question from reading #3, etc. If one reading is long and the other is short, you would be expected to make more points from the long reading than from the short reading. In any case, the maximum length of the quiz is 300 words for all 3 questions combined. You must observe the word limit! The instructor will stop reading the quiz at the 300 word mark and grade you accordingly.

There are several additional important points about the quizzes. First, you must attend class in order to get credit for the quiz. This means that you must come on time and stay for the entire class. The instructor reserves the right to refuse quizzes from students who come excessively late or who leave excessively early. Second, quizzes are due at the beginning of class. No late quizzes will be accepted for any reason including illness, family emergencies, accidents, doctor appointments, etc. Third, students may drop one quiz without any penalty (see below).

Generally, quizzes will receive one of two grades -- "Pass" or "Unacceptable". In order to pass, you must answer all three questions in sufficient detail and cover all the assigned readings. Occasionally, a grade of "Pass-" will be given. In this case, student will be given credit for half of a quiz. There are ten quizzes. Students who pass 9 quizzes will receive 100 points or an A++ for the quiz portion of the grade. Passing 8 quizzes will result in 95 points or an A+. Seven quizzes will mean 90 points (A), six quizzes will mean 80 points (B), five quizzes will mean 70 points (C), four quizzes will mean 60 points (D). A "Pass-" on a quiz will mean that the student gets credit for only one-half a quiz; to receive 90 points, you would have to have six quizzes with grades of "pass" and two with grades of "pass-". Since there are ten quizzes, one can be dropped without any penalty. Students can drop up to 3 quizzes (i.e., turn in seven quizzes) and still get an A for that section of the course.

It is strongly recommended that students take all of the quizzes until the desired grade is reached. Since it is not possible to turn in late quizzes, students who do not take quizzes at the beginning of the semester my find themselves in trouble at the end of the semester. Remember, LATE QUIZZES WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED EVEN IN CASES OF ILLNESS, ACCIDENTS AND FAMILY CRISES. STUDENTS WHO DO NOT ATTEND CLASS MAY NOT HAND IN THE QUIZ DUE THAT DAY. PLAN AHEAD!

II. Essay Exams The two in-class essay exams will consist of two parts. The first part will include a series of short-answer questions based on readings not covered by the quizzes and on materials discussed in class (including films) that were not covered in the readings. The second part will consist of one or two "thought" questions about all of the course materials. The first exam, to be given March 18, is worth 100 points and will cover all the material in the first part of the course. The second exam, to be given on May 20, is worth 100 points and will cover all the material since the second exam. Although the second exam will be given during finals period, it is not a comprehensive final exam.

Students must take the exams on the day on which they are scheduled unless extraordinary circumstances arise and the instructor is notified in advance. Students must arrange a make¬up exam within a week. Students who do not notify the instructor in advance also have a week to make-up the exam but they will be assessed a 10-point penalty. This will probably mean that the student will get a score that is one full grade lower. If UMBC is closed due to bad weather, the exam will be given on the following scheduled day.

III. Journal Review Students who want a grade of A or B must also complete a Journal Review which is worth 100 points. Students who want a C or less may do a Journal Review but it is not required.

First, students should select a topic in the field of education that you want to do extra reading about. The topic could be something that we have covered in the course like funding, tracking, segregation, school choice, etc. In this case, you would be expected to do reading above and beyond the assigned reading. Or, you may want to select a topic like racial inequality in pre-school education or gender inequality in higher education. If you have trouble deciding upon a topic, talk with your instructor.

Next, students must find four articles on that topic that appeared in professional journals since January 1, 1990. After selecting a topic, students should consult ERIC, Education Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, and/or Social Science Abstracts to find relevant articles. All of these on-line abstracting services are available through the library's home page and provide brief summaries of articles, arranged by topic, that have been published during a specific period of time. If, after reading the abstract, the article seems relevant to your topic, go Victor to see if the UMBC library carries that particular journal. If it does, skim the article to make sure that it is comprehensible to you; i.e., that you can read and understand it. If the article seems too difficult or if it is not relevant to your topic, select another article. If the library does not carry that particular journal you have several choices--select another article, request the article through interlibrary loan (this could take several weeks), or go to another library to find the journal.

All of the journals that are abstracted in these on-line services are acceptable for the assignment with the following exceptions: newspapers, popular magazines (Time, Newsweek, Redbook, etc.) and Dissertation Abstracts. You may use one article from specialized education newspapers like Education Week or The Chronicle of Higher Education if it is at least 25 column inches long. If you use ERIC, some of the references are only available on microfiche; don't use these.

If you need help on selecting a topic and/or on finding relevant articles, see your instructor during office hours. Reference librarians are also helpful in finding relevant journals after you have selected the topic.

Students must hand in a Journal Review proposal by March 4. The proposal must include the topic and the titles of the four articles along with the authors, dates, title of the journal and pages. Be sure to include a photocopy of the first page of each article; this is proof that you actually looked at the article Late journal review proposals will be accepted until March 11. STUDENTS WHO DO NOT SUBMIT PROPOSALS BY MARCH 11 WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DO THE JOURNAL REVIEW. THIS MEANS THAT YOU CANNOT GET BETTER THAN A "C" IN THE COURSE.

After reading and thinking about the four articles, students must write a paper, not to exceed 1600 words (about 6 - 7 double-spaced typed pages), which answers the following questions:

1) What is the main point of each of the four articles? Summarize each article in 100 words or less. (400 words maximum)

2) How do the four articles relate to the readings, lectures, audiovisual materials and class discussions? How is each article similar to or different from the relevant course materials? Be as specific as possible in this section. (1200 words)

Students may organize the paper anyway they wish as long as these two questions are answered. However, it is the instructor's experience that students do better when the paper is organized into two separate sections as indicated above. Be sure to discuss the relevant course materials. The more course materials you bring in, the better your grade will be Students who spend most of the paper summarizing the articles and spend little time answering Question 2 will not receive a good grade.

FINAL WRITTEN PAPERS ARE DUE MAY 6. Papers should be typed. Students should be certain to list all four articles with full citations at the beginning of the paper. Formal footnotes are not necessary. Students should refer to specific articles or books by the name of the first author and page numbers for any quotations should be put in parentheses. Late papers will be accepted until May 13, but a ten-point penalty will be assessed; this means you will be penalized one entire grade NO PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER MAY 13.

V. Attendance Since the class involves a lot of participation, regular attendance is essential. Students are expected to come on time and stay for the entire class. You may not hand in a quiz if you do not attend class. Therefore, an attendance sheet will be passed around each day. Students will also be evaluated in terms of their participation in class discussions. Attendance and participation will be worth 30 points. This can have a significant impact if students fall on the borderline between two final grades.

VI. Participation Active student participation makes the class more interesting and increases student learning. Students who regularly make several comments in almost every class will receive a "bonus" of 10 points toward the final grade. Students who make single comments in most classes or who make multiple comments in approximately half the classes will receive a "bonus" of 5 points. The bonus points will be added on to the student' total score and could make an important difference if a student is on the borderline between two grades.

To review, the value of the various assignments is as follows:

Quizzes ............................................................................100 points

2 exams @100 points. ......................................................200 points

1 Journal Review.. ............................................................100 points

Attendance..........................................................................30 points

Participation bonus..............................................................10 points

Final grades will be based on the total number of points accumulated over the course of the semester. For each assignment, an A will be approximately 90% of the total points,, a B will be approximately 80%, a C will be approximately 70%, etc. The final grade will be based on the total number of points accumulated over the semester. Since there are 430 possible points (not counting the participation bonus), students will need approximately 387 points for an A, 344 points for a B, and 301 points for a C. The participation bonus will simply be added to the student's total score..

Students taking the course on a "pass-fail" basis must receive the equivalent of a "C" or better to receive a grade of "pass." Students who elect the "pass-fail" option and do not receive enough points to receive a "C" or better will get a "fail" grade.