Activities for Exploring the Institution of Education

From Bob Greene

Lead Off Activity:

Tell students that they are to create a test from the last chapter that you covered. Since this is the education chapter, students will understand how this might be related. Have the students break up into groups of four and begin to write the tests. These tests will include basic concepts and theories from previous chapters. Most students will probably create a standardized multiple choice test but some might try an essay test. See if any students decide to create a project that measures student knowledge of the content. Have each group distribute copies of their test to the other students and have students take at least one or two of the tests. When students are done, have them analyze the test questions for validity and reliability. This will allow students to see how difficult administering tests can be. Discuss the built-in biases of tests as well as how a project might be just as reliable and allow for student creativity. You might want to provide students with an alternative project. Once the topic has been exhausted, have students take the standardized test and the complete the project and compare and contrast the results. This is a good lead in to discuss the major standardized tests, the state test, ACT and SAT tests.

ACT scores and Family Income

In order for students to understand how socio economic status and its implications for standardized tests particularly the ACT exam, the following list is the results of the students completing the ACT nationwide in 1999.

Family Income ACT score Percent of Test Takers

Less than $18,000                        18.4                           9%
About $18,00-$24,000                   19.2                           7%
About $24,000-$30,000                 19.9                           7%
About $30,000-$36,000                 20.5                           7%
About $36,000-$42,000                 20.8                           8%
About $42,000-$50,000                 21.2                           9%
About $50,000-$60,000                 21.6                         10%
About $60,000-$80,000                 22.1                         13%
About $80,000-$100,000               22.7                           7%
About $100,000                          23.4                           8%
No response                                  20.8                          15%

Have students evaluate the data considering the following questions

Why might students whose parents earn more score higher on ACT exams?
Could intervening variables exist? What might they be?
What sociological concepts might help explain discrepancies in these scores?
How might one interpret the category, no response? That group represents 15% of the sample and has scores comparable to the group in the $36,000 to $42,000 group.
Would an understanding of the discrepancies in schools (see Jonathan Kozol’s Savage Inequalities) help explain these scores?

Relating Previous Concepts

Students might remember learning about George Ritzer’s McDonaldization of Society book based on Max Weber’s concept of Rationalization through predictability, irrationality, efficiency, use of non-human technology, calculability, and the iron cage. Have students observe how these concepts might be applicable in an educational setting like your own high school. You might want to allow students class time to walk through the building and quietly identify places where these concepts are utilized. Have students type their findings and share with the class. This will help students see how apparently abstract concepts can have real life applications.

Hidden Curriculum

Since sociologists emphasize the hidden curriculum in education, you might allow students to debate the current re-emphasis on the “pledge of allegiance” in American schools. In small groups, allow students to pick sides on which part of the argument they want to debate. Some will feel strongly that the pledge of allegiance is a vital part of the patriotic wave since September 11th and others might say they feel a need to conform. Some students have been harassed for not participating and others feel that the line of the pledge, one nation under God is offensive. Allow students a day or two to gather the pros and cons of this debate. If students are reluctant to tackle both sides of the debate, discuss what aspects of conformity exist in your school or community that might influence their attitudes.

Education and Careers:

Sociologists Barbara Schneider and David Stevenson’s book, Ambitious Generation: Motivated but Directionless, addresses the role that educators, family and peers play in one’s career choices. You might want to allow students to spend some time online at websites like “Career Visions” to see the skills, education, and experience necessary for particular careers. Schneider and Stevenson’s research found that students who began thinking about career planning early seemed more likely to successfully complete their career goals. Students that waver are more likely to settle for career options less than what they intended. You might also want to use this opportunity to direct students to careers in sociology. www.careervisions.com [NOTE: Their free test of vocational interests is useful, but is larded with ads, and they hope participants will allow them to send materials and offers to their email addresses. If students don’t want to get such offers, they should indicate that and be careful not to click on ads that closely resemble the survey.]

Education and Earning Power

To illustrate the earning power of a degree, put the following information on the board or an overhead transparency. Less than high school diploma = $21,500, high school diploma = $26,800, some college = $31,200, and B.A. college degree or higher = $43,100. These were the median incomes of each of these educational levels in 2005. If a person works for the next 30 years, what would be their total earnings over this time, you might want to try to calculate cost of living indices as well as opportunities for home ownership. For example, in one mid-western city, the median price of a home today is $164,000.00. What might these incomes mean for one’s chances of home ownership, or investment opportunities? For more information on the relationship between income and education have students visit the National Center for Education Statistics.

Educational Test Bias

Returning to the previous idea about students creating their own unit test, have students consider test bias. Give them several examples of multiple choice options or find a test that you believe to be biased. Here are some simple examples:

1. A symphony is to a composer as a book is to:

paper
a musician
a sculptor
a man
an author

2. A person is to a chair as a cup is to a:
a) saucer
b) table
c) plant
d) spoon

3. To shoot the pill means:

to take drugs
to end the problem
to end homelessness
to shoot a basketball

4. What is the answer to this math question 2x + 2 =12, x =

5. In sociology, the most reliable data is often obtained through:

random sampling
interviewing one person
survey methods
field research

In Kozol’s book, Savage Inequalities, senior students in one school didn’t know the answer to the fourth question. Now have your students consider the difficulty in writing an exam that would be free of cultural bias. In studies of cultural test bias, Latino students had difficulty with the second question and black students immediately knew the answer to the third question. Although these questions are not likely to appear on standardized tests, one would assume that students should know the answer to the fourth question which is devoid of any cultural bias and based on knowledge. See if you can obtain a standardized test and have students examine questions that might be biased due to content that students might not have attained and what factors might contribute to that such as courses offered, when are coursed offered in relation to when standardized tests are offered. In some states, tenth graders take the state standardized test, some may not have taken certain classes up to that point. The fifth question best illustrates that point, students lacking a sociology class might not know how field research can be more useful than survey results or the strength of a random sample.

Demonstration of the Pygmalion Effect

The following is a true story. Write down a series of fifteen numbers from 120-140, such as, 120, 122, etc. on your chalkboard or on an overhead transparency. Now begin to tell this story. Prior to the first day of school, a teacher was given the list of students that would be in their class for the school year. Next to each student’s name was the number that students see in front of them. The teacher was in her first year of teaching and assumed that each number represented the student’s IQ number. An average IQ is in the 90-109 range so the teacher believed she had been given a class of gifted students. She was excited and began to devise elaborate lesson plans that challenged them individually and collectively. Consequently, on the standardized test they took during the school year, their scores were in the highest percentile. The teacher assumed that since they were gifted, the scores reflected that. The principal who had given the teacher the list of students prior to the start of school was so impressed that he came up to the teacher in the hallway one day and congratulated her. She told the principal that it was nothing special, given that she knew their IQ scores since he had given them to her, they would have done well anyway. He looked at her dumbfounded for a second and realized that the teacher had assumed had the numbers next to their names were IQ scores when they were actually locker numbers. A self-fulfilling prophecy had been created. The teacher, believing that her students were gifted, worked them hard and they responded. Had the teacher known that the scores were actually locker numbers, she might not have been as motivated. Have students read the Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson (1968) study, Pygmalion in the Classroom (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston), about the effects of teacher expectations and their impact on student development.

Mock School Board Meeting

To help students understand the impact of political decisions in educations, have several students attend a school board meeting. The dates of these meetings can be obtained in the main office or on the local radio or TV networks. Have students focus on the issues discussed at the meeting and report back to the class. Either have student debate these issues or create a list of issues that they would like to propose to the school board. It would be wise for students to research these issues, see what other schools do so they are informed citizens on an issue. Be sure to have students choose topics that realistically would be addressed by a school board. The tendency is to choose petty issues like choosing a new menu in the lunch room, but these are not issues addressed by school boards at their public meetings. Students might want to address issues related to prices of meals or providing discounted meals to disadvantaged students in the building. Some schools offer discounted meals to senior citizens. Maybe your school district would consider that and your class would have instituted some social change.

Video

An absolutely poignant video about the discrepancies that exist in American schools is Children in America’s Schools with Bill Moyers. It is available through South Carolina ETV Network, P O Box 11000, Columbia, SC 29211. To phone: 1-800-553-7752.

Bibliography

Kozol, Jonathan. 1992. Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools. New York: Harper Collins.

Schneider, Barbara and David Stevenson. 1999. Ambitious Generation: Motivated but Directionless. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.