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13.1 Apply structural/functional, conflict/critical, and interactionist approaches to the social institution of education.

Video Link: Functionalist View Of The Role Of Education

Description: The video presents an elementary overview of the role of education in the United States from a functionalist perspective.

Audio Link: Boosting Education For Babies And Their Parents

Description: Harlem Children's Zone has a program called The Baby College, which is geared towards expectant parents and parents with children under the age of three. It aims to educate parents and children in impoverished neighborhoods and provides young children with educational materials to support early learning.

Web Resource: Pregame Analysis: The Coming Federal Education Debate

Description: The Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or ESEA, is a federal education law, which may get a makeover in Congress in 2015. The most recent major modifications were applied in 2001 as part of President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act.

 

13.2 Discuss the relationship between education, commercialization, and consumption.

Video Link: Documentary explores why higher education has a higher price

Description: The video discusses the growing cost of college and the rise of student debt, causing some students to never graduate because of the overwhelming expense. In the video, Jeffrey Brown talks to filmmaker Andrew Rossi about his documentary The Ivory Tower.

Audio Link: AltSchool Promises To Reimagine Education For the 2030s

Description: The AltSchool is a for-profit micro-school founded by a former Google engineer. The school blends a traditional Montessori education (a style of teaching that emphasizes play and hands-on learning) with high-tech tools. A group of engineers are working with teachers on building and testing a software platform to be used in the school’s classrooms.

Web Resource: The Commercialization of Education

Description: The article discusses a new trend in China: the commercialization of education due to its rapid economic growth.

 

13.3 Describe inequality in education, its sources, and its effects.

Video Link: IVORY TOWER Documentary on Exploding Tuition Costs w. Andrew Rossi

Description: Filmmaker Andrew Rossi discusses how the educational system in the United States has become a big business, which has negatively impacted upward mobility.

Audio Link: Rubio: Small Government Can Help Fix Economic Inequality

Description: Senator Marco Rubio discusses his idea of how to make education more affordable and his plans to increase opportunities for economic mobility for America’s low-income population.

Web Resource: Investigate the Relationship between Social Inequality and Educational Disadvantage

Description: The goal of the Russell Sage Foundation is to improve social inequality in the United States. The project featured in the website, sponsored by the foundation, focuses on the educational performance of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as how the differences in educational experiences between wealthy and poor students can negatively affect society in the future.

 

13.4 Compare the position of the educational system in United States to those in other countries around the world.

Video Link: Learn how the High School Experience Differs Around the World

Description: Amanda Ripley discusses why countries such as Poland, Finland and South Korea have higher academic achievement than students from the United States.

Audio Link: German Schools Beckon Americans Seeking Affordable Degrees

Description: The audio discusses the benefits of having a free college education for all of its citizens and the effect it would have on the country’s economy and learners.

Web Link: Global Grade: How Do U.S. Students Compare?

Description: The article compares the academic performance of students in the United States to students from 57 other countries. The researchers explain why the academic performance of American students ranges near the middle of the group when compared to the highest performing students in Finland.