Soci #4

Education reform in the U.S.

-Bush- No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Forced teachers to "teach to the test" due to its emphasis on standardized testing
-Obama- Race to the Top which rewarded states that demonstrated improvements in student outcomes including closing the achievements gaps and increasing graduation rates
-Criticized again for relying too heavily on tests and ignoring the real issues like poverty and lack of opportunity
-Trump: school vouchers

What gave rise to the educational system in the U.S?

- Until the first few decades of the nineteenth century, most of the world's population had no schooling

- But as the industrial economy rapidly expanded, a great demand for specialized schooling that could produce an educated, capable workforce
- In the modern age, education and other qualifications have become important stepping stones into job opportunities and careers

High Poverty vs Low Poverty Schools

white schools offer advanced math, literature and an array of arts electives they also get more funding

black schools offer hairdressing, typing and auto shop classes (16% less per student)

James Colman Study

In his 1966 study, Colman concluded that the material resources provided in schools made little difference to educational performance; the decisive influence was the children's backgrounds. Factors such as home, neighborhoods, and peer environments.

tracking

Tracking- divide students into groups and receive different instruction based on assumed similarities in ability or attainment (regular math (average) and AP math(advanced)) Common in American schools for all subjects
-Sociologists think tracking partly explains why schooling seems to have little effect on social inequalities
-Children in more privileged backgrounds find themselves in higher tracks early on and stay there

Tracking and within school effects

Jennie Oaks (1985) studied 25 middle schools and found that:
Several schools claimed they do not track students virtually all of them had mechanisms for sorting students into groups on the basis of ability (don't like to use the word)
Tracking encourages both teachers and students to label students based on their tracks (high ability, low achieving, slow average)

Manifest vs latent functions (functionism)

Manifest functions- include socializing children into a society's norms and values, providing important knowledge and skills, preparing for future careers, and developing a sense of national identity.

Latent functions- Include promoting social stability and keeping children out of trouble
Learning the diff between race and ethnicity is a manifest function

School Vouchers (trump) pros and cons

Allows parents to use public tax dollars to pay for private schools

Pros:
giving parents the best options for their kids
-Gives more options
Gives higher education for some students in certain zip codes
Let kids go to schools that aline with their beliefs
Allows poor students to go to schools there otherwise couldn't afford

Cons:
public funds for private schooling when others just have to go to public schools
Takes away from the funding for public schools
Kids with learning or physical disabilities don't get to go to private schools (don't have to take all students)
Public Schools are losing teachers and grade sizes are increasing

Welfare state

social rights are typically achieved through a welfare state, a political system that provides a wide range of welfare benefits for its citizens
Welfare Benefits
Social security
Unemployment benefits
Medicaid/ Medicare
food stamps

Types of capitalism

1. Family capitalism
2. Managerial capitalism
3. Welfare capitalism
4. Institutional capitalism
5. Global capitalism

Liberal democracy

A type of representative democracy in which elected representatives hold power (citizens elect to governing bodies representatives who then vote on laws and policies)
Ex. US, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand)

Types of democracies

1. Participatory democracy
- direct democracy
2. Liberal democracy
3. Constitutional Monarchs

Why voter turnout is so low in the U.S.

-In the US voter registration is not automatic
-Winner-takes-all- all electrons discourage the formation of third parties
-In some states, there are barriers making it harder to vote like having voter ID laws

Corporate taxes

taxes paid by businesses on the profits they made during the calendar year

loophole

is a technicality that allows a person or business to avoid the scope of a law or restriction without directly violating the law

Work

the activity by which ppl produce from the natural world and so ensure their survival
Work should not be thought of exclusively as paid employment.

Minimum wage in southern U.S. states (MAP)

The highest percentage making less than 15 is black and Latinos
Arkansas, Florida, and Virginia do not have 7.25 minimum in the south

Obesogenic environment

A social environment that unwittingly contributes to weight gain. People are obese because physical activity is discouraged. It is more prevalent to poor people and ethnic groups.

Ideas other than a standard grocery supermarket that could give those in food deserts access to healthy and affordable food

- tax exemptions if they build supermarkets in low-income neighborhods or rural areas
- Offering supermarkets free incentives to build or rent in low-income neighborhoods or rural communities. Offer a free lease program where if they commit to stay in a low-income or rural neighborhood for 20 years.

Jonathan Kozol's Salvage inequalities and Fire in the Ashes

Savage inequalities (1991)
Journalist Jonathan Kozol studied and wrote about segregation and inequalities he observed at schools in about 30 neighborhoods around the U.S.
He compared wealthy and poor schools

Fire in the Ashes (2012)
Kozol revisited the neighborhoods 2 decades later and found most of the children at disadvantaged schools grew up to be troubled adults

Sociological theories of education

Functionalism
Symbolic interactionism
Conflict theory

Functionalism

argues that "schools are the official agency for passing on society's prevailing values

Symbolic Interactionism

helps explain how students develop a sense of self due to how theories are viewed by peers and teachers (then teachers have higher expectations they interact with them consciously and unconsciously with that student in that way)

Conflict therapy

focuses on how school reinforces social inequality (brown vs board

Advantages of mixed schools (black and white schools)

Earn more in the future
More likely to graduate
Less likely to go to jail
Healthier
Make more money

Citizenship

a member of a political community having both rights and duties associated with that membership

Although some refugees are "state-less" almost everyone will identify as a member of some nation state

Citizenship rights

1. Civil liberties- legal rights held by all citizens in a given national community
2. Political Rights- rights of political participation, such as the right to vote in local and national elections. Held by citizens of a national community
3. Social rights- rights of social and welfare provision held by all citizens in a national community, including the right to claim unemployment benefits and sickness payments provided by the state

State/ nation state

state: political organization - its a system of gov't that rules over a specific area, no matter how diverse it is

nation-state (us): a political organization with a shared cultural identity. (same language, tradition, and history)

Features of Capitalism

- Private ownership of the means of production;
- Profit as incentive;
- Competition for markets to sell goods and to acquire cheap materials and labor
- Restless expansion and investment to accumulate capital

Family Capitalism

family-owned businesses passed on to their descendants
Ex. Rockefellers and Fords

Managerial Capitalism

Capitalistic enterprises are administered by managerial executives rather than by owners
As managers came to have more and more influence through the growth of very large firms, the entrepreneurial families were displaced.

Welfare Capitalism

The practice by which large corporations protect their employees from the uncertainties of the market in modern industrial life
At the end of the 19th century, large firms began to provide certain services to their employees, including childcare, recreational facilities, profit-sharing plans, paid vacations, and life and unemployment insurance.
A major objective of welfare capitalist programs was coercion as corporations wanted to avoid unionization.

Institutional capitalism

corporations hold stock shares in one another, increasing corporate power.

the right of ownership in productive assets

Global capitalism

an economic and political system where private individuals own the majority of the world's property, business, and industry, and where corporations operate across national borders

Advantages and disadvantages of 15-dollar minimum wage

Advantages:
-lift people out of the poverty line
-helps support her family
-More equality for black and Hispanic workers

Disadvantages:
-increases prices of consumers by raising the prices of goods and services
-hurt small businesses
-Hurt some industries and regions more than others
-Cost 1.4 million jobs

Theories of Democracy

Democratic elitism- a sociological theory that accepts the idea that all societies are ruled by a minority, not the majority
Pluralist theories- emphasize the role of diverse and potentially competing interest groups (to make things fair)
The power elite- power in modern societies

Participatory democracy

Participatory democracy: a system of democracy in which ALL members of a group or community participate collectively in making major decisions
- Direct democracy: a form of participatory democracy that allows citizens to vote directly on laws and policies however they do not convene in one setting to do so. (ex. referendums where Americans can visit voting booths in their hometowns to vote directly on legislation that affects their lives like for marijuana)

Constitutional Monarchs

Kings and Queens are largely figureheads (real power rests in elected representatives of the people)
Ex. Great Britain, Netherlands, Spain, Belgium and Sweden

Compulsory voting laws

require citizens to vote in elections or pay a fine, lose access to certain public services or even
Imprisonment

Voting

1960 voting has decreased (highest is white, women, college educated as in 2020)

lobbying

attempting to influence policy makers

Occupation

any form of paid employment

Strike vs lockout

Strick: a temporary stoppage of work started by employees in order to express a grievance or enforce a demand

Lockout: The employers (the owners) rather than the workers, bring about a stoppage of work to force workers to accept a particular contract

Contingent Workforce

-trend of the past decade has been the replacement of full-time workers by part-time workers and contingency workers
-Part-time jobs do not provide the benefits associated with full-time work, such as medical insurance, paid vacation time, or retirement benefits
-Employers get to save on the costs of wages and benefits

Union membership rates and reasons for its decline

after 1980, unions suffered declines across the advanced industrial countries

Two explanations of this decline are as follows:
Once-unionized u.s manufacturing jobs have been outsourced to low-wage countries around the world.
Unionization efforts in the US have been hampered in recent years by decisions of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

Informal economy/housework

Informal economy: economic transactions carried on outside the sphere of orthodox paid employment.
-The informal economy includes cash transactions as well as many forms of self-provisioning that people carry on inside and outside the home

Housework: unpaid work done in the house (usually by women and including domestic chores such as cooking cleaning, and shopping, (Also called domestic labor)

Unequal pay CEO to workers

In 2020, the average CEO of the largest 350 corporations took home an average 24.2 million, 351 times more than the average worker in the same industries

Paying more than double in the U.S to a CEO then the next countries up

Sociology of Body

Investigates how and why our bodies are affected by our social experiences

Social Contexts and the human body

Affects our bodies in different ways, partially genetics, it is also shaped by social structures and cultural forces

Obesity

Excessive body weight, indicated by a body mass index (BMI) over 30

Obesity rates around the world (GRAPH)

Considered a top public health problem facing Americans today. Linked to physical health problems and physicololgical and sociological problems

Solutions to the obesity epidemic

Weight report cards, making healthy low-cost produce more widely available, providing safe public place to e
Exercise, free or low cost fitness classes, classes on nutrition, etc

Obesity rates by race in the U.S.

Black- doing the worst
Asian American- doing the best

Food deserts

Geographic areas in which residents do not have easy access to high quality affordable food. These regions are concentrated in rural areas and poor urban neighborhoods.