Educational Access, Alternative Education, Social Stratification, Structural Nature / Integrity, School ReformPAOM.xlsPAOM.xlsEvidence_chart.xlsSRP_Proposal.doc
I am a product of the public institution. However, this institution is in jeopardy and many people will not have the opportunity to benefit from the lessons available through it as I have been able to. At the forefront of this issue is the continued erosion of public schools. In order to effectively combat this systemic erosion, a thorough understanding and appreciation of the symbiotic nature of schools and the environment in which they are located is required, as is an in depth and critical analysis of the structural nature and make-up of the public education system as it currently is being employed. Training in operational planning leads me to suspect that the current function of public education (structurally, not theoretic) does not meet nor does it address its objective, or that the intent is not clearly defined and thus cannot be adequately addressed.
Additionally, over the past year and a half I have worked alongside educators in a continuation high school in San Diego, and have been witness to the myriad of institutional layers present in one school, and therefore have begun to question the current educational model’s ability to address any of its stated objectives in their entirety within the structural limits of the model; as it does not possess the legal purview to adequately negotiate said objectives within its current form.
Through this project, I hope to narrow down some of the broader areas of focus in a question into the future of public education.
I know that it is more than five, but I am working to fit the bill for the portfolio.. Next time maybe I can slim it down.
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Conchas, Gilberto Q. Color of success race and high-achieving urban youth. New York: Teachers College P, 2006.
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Patricia, Burch. The New Educational Privatization: No Child Left Behind, Markets, and Public Schools. New York: Routledge, 2008.
Pierre., Bourdieu,, and Jean-Claude Passeron. Reproduction in education, society, and culture. 2nd ed. London: Sage in association with Theory, Culture & Society, Dept. of Administrative and Social Studies, Teesside Polytechnic, 1990.
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The Center on Education Policy, a think tank and resource for articles and literature on a myriad of topics concerning education policy, published a report in 2003 titled State Exit Exams: Put to the Test. The report gives detailed synopses of the states who currently require exit exams, and a brief detail of each exam.
http://www.cep-dc.org/document/docWindow.cfm?fuseaction=document.viewDocument&documentid=123&documentFormatId=4287 - State Exit Exams: Put to the Test, CEP August 2003 (full report)
http://www.cep-dc.org/document/docWindow.cfm?fuseaction=document.viewDocument&documentid=123&documentFormatId=4289 - State Exit Exams: Put to the Test, CEP August 2003 (Summary)
Equitable access to education is at the forefront of many ‘hot-button’ issues discussed in the context of the urban environment. Until we are able to ensure that the entire population has access to the knowledge base required to understand the importance of systemic deviation from the status quo it will be increasingly difficult for us to address these issues, as entire segments of our population will be excluded from the conversation.
With rising attrition rates amongst both teachers and students, an easy inference would be that the models of public education currently in use are structurally flawed. In efforts to salvage entire portions of the population most adversely affected by the shortcomings of the educational system, many different alternative methods have been proposed, with different degrees of success. This study will look at the effectiveness of alternative models of education and also suggest reasons for the shortcomings of alternative education.
Alternative schools have been synonymous with curriculum centered on vocational training with the primary purpose of preparing students for working class employment. This research project analyzed one program currently in use at an alternative high school in San Diego, which instead focuses on college preparation. The study examined the structure, curriculum and pedagogy behind the implementation of the program, using qualitative data in the form of interviews and onsite observation. Detailed interviews of administrators, counselors, teachers and students provided insight into the actual nature and effectiveness of the program, the challenges in successful implementation, and offered inferential data into the plausibility of creating such programs at other schools. This research contributes to the literature on alternative education by demonstrating that programs such as ACCESS can be effective in promoting an academically inclined student population amongst students who otherwise would have been overlooked by the public school system.
I plan on using three primary sources of evidence for the SRP: Demographic information. In person interviews of ACCESS teachers, current and former ACCESS students, Counselors and school Administrators; and onsite, participatory observation of school activities.
The SDUSD website provides a comprehensive and current database of the demographic information for the school. This information will provide insight and evidence as to which racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups are present in the high school. This information will be extremely helpful for the spatial component. The weaknesses of this information are that it does not tell the story of the program or of the activities in the school.
The bulk of evidence collected for the SRP will come by way of in-person interviews. These will allow me to approach the ACCESS program through different paradigms(student, teacher, administrator, counselor). Due to limited access to, it will be extremely important for me to draft the questions ahead of time and structure the interviews so as to extract the maximum amount of meaningful content. I plan on starting with the ACCESS teachers, as they are the easiest to approach. Furthermore, by hearing what the teachers have to say I can better situate the questions for the counselors and administrators so as to foster conclusive dialogue. I plan on spending the first week of the quarter working with the administrators and counselors at the school. The interview questions will go out prior to the high school leaving on their winter break. Lastly, the students will give me insight about the program from a user standpoint. I anticipate this process taking up a great deal of time due to allowing for the analysis of the information collected.
Lastly, as I am present at the school three days of the week, I will use onsite participatory observation to add context to the other information gathered. A major weakness of this type of evidence is that it may be too broad of an approach to facilitate accurate research, especially due to my own involvement with the ACCESS program.
The San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) is the 2nd largest (population) school district in the state of California, and the 8th largest in the nation. Furthermore, the diverse nature of the population combined with the myriad of alternative methods of public instruction already being used within the district (i.e. project based learning, charter schools, alternative / continuation schools, adult education, zero-tolerance schools) make it an excellent case study of creative educational practices and educator pedagogy.
In addition to mixed cultural representations, the San Diego area also runs the gamut in terms of wealth, in that the district represents some very poor communities in addition to some of the wealthiest communities, not only nationally, but worldwide. Thus, it should provide good comparative case-studies as to the nature of education in different socioeconomic enclaves.
Additionally, wherever San Diego falls short, the state of California should suffice in providing excellent case studies in regards to educational trends over time; and as a tertiary level of support I plan on using data from the CEP to get a national perspective; however, all said and done, I plan on focusing most of my energy on San Diego.
For part 2 of the assignment, the “spatial factors” would be: 1) location of alternative methods (schools) of education in relation to (2) demographic areas, particularly in regards to (3) socioeconomic enclaves.
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