Hard+Truths+Uncovering+the+Deep+Structure+of+Schooling,+Barbara+Benham+Tye

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__**Book** **Name:**__ Hard Truths: Uncovering the Deep Structure of Schooling


 * __Basic Summary:__**
 * Intro:** This book opens with a story about the author’s personal educational experiences. She then talks about different changes in education over the years, as well as from when she was in school. She discussed the different steps that Congress went through to help shape education. She touches on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965; “The U.S. Office of Education and the Office of Economic Opportunity, which started programs such as the Teacher Corps, VISTA, Head Start and Follow Through” (pg. 4). She talks about three specific communities and how their school systems began. The communities are, Reston, Virginia; Columbia, Maryland; and Irvine, California. The end of the introduction gives a summary as to what she will discuss in the rest of the book.


 * Chapter 1:** Chapter 1 discusses some major issues. She discusses how “all schools in the United States are connected by a deep structure of schooling, and it differs from the deep structure of schooling that connects schools in other countries” (pg 13). She talks about the changes of schools in America over the years and how we have taken, and still do take, so much for granted.
 * Chapter 2:** Chapter 2 touches more on the subject of what schools take for granted. She comes to “the assumption that Americans don’t agree on what schools should be or do has some operational advantages, even if it isn’t really true” (pg 27). She says that there are 3 basic goals of schools, and if schools were to step away from these goals, people would be unhappy. (1) The Academic Goal of Schooling. (2) The Vocational Goal of American Schooling. (3) The Civic and Personal Goals of Schooling. She then touches briefly on standardized testing and the opinions of testing critiques. She discussed how people get their knowledge of school systems from the media and how the media has many misconceptions of schools, therefore give the public wrong ideas and messages.

(Chap 3) Each kind of structure seems to do its job and work for what it has to accomplish. In Chapter 3 she discusses how each works and how each in its way contributes to the deep structure of schooling and supports its resistance to change. Chapter 2 explored the social context within which schools are embedded. Chapter 3 the organizational structure of the institution of schooling.

(Chapter 4) - Chapter 4 focuses about how innovation and money affect the public school system. Tye states that innovation is a great push towards better education, however, obtaining funds and keeping these funds active to effect any kind of change in the education system seems virtually impossible due to the dramatic bureaucratization with the system itself. The introduction of federal funds into the education system took place during the mid-1950s, which led to the National Defense Education Act of 1958 and the Elementary and Secondary Education act of 1965 which sought to enhance math and science programs in response to Soviet Union becoming more technologically advanced. Federal money also led to the development of head start and breakfast programs. The problem sometimes associated with federal funding is that there can be substantial miscommunication between the federal and local levels on the distribution of funds. Many federal grants that are supposed to make change are funded by "soft money" which means that when the federal money runs out, then the program needs to be funded by the local community, which like a catch 22; if they could afford to fund the program, then why would they have ask for a federal grant in the first place. Tye also goes on to say that external funders fail to take into account aspects of the larger context, offering an overly simplistic solution to a very complex set of problems. Federal funds try to alleviate the problem by just saying that a certain target needs to be adressed, when in fact it is many targets. External funding may also have unanticipated consequences that are as problematic as the situations the funding was intended to alleviate. Chapter 4 also discusses certain myths in our economy that cause people to have a somewhat irrational mindset. One myth is zero-sum myth, meaning that there is not enough money to go around, and therefore leads to two mindsets: unnecessary competitiveness ("I need to prevent you from getting what you need, because if you get it, there wont be enough left for me"), and legitimization of comparative advantage ("I got more that he does because I deserve it and he doesn’t, because if he did, he would have it too"). This chapter also discusses the state-by-state differences in education. Since under the constitution, education was given to the power of the states, then each state can have its own definition of what a proper education is, and therefore distribute its resources as needed. Tye starts to sum up the chapter by saying that reality is that structural inequalities serve as a purpose. We need people to do the "petty" jobs in society, and those jobs do not require sufficient or higher education. We also need teachers, doctors, lawyers, and bankers, which do require higher education. Therefore, the government will not allot sufficient funds to educate everyone on the same basis.

(Chap 5) Parents can play a huge role in school environment and the lives of students. PTA which stands for Parent Teacher Association is a particular outreach program for parents to become more involved in their children’s lives within the school. Communities try to stay out of school problems not pertaining to them. The involvement of parents with students is on a decline. There have been new varieties of models that are made by parents and communities. The main point for the new models is to bring people together, not just as families but communities, ethnic groups, religious groups, to become a democratic group of people.

(Chap 6) Teaching has changed in many aspects from the nineteenth century on. Teachers mostly are considered to be women. Four of of five teachers today are women. The only way their teaching is satisfying to them and which they feel is most beneficial to their students is without any interruptions from others. Teachers would rather not be sit on by others who are not there just to observe but rather to ask questions pertaining to why they are doing something. If they are asked questions during their lessons it calls them off guard and makes it difficult for the children to learn. “Structural factors, limited resources, competing demands and relationships with administrators was found to limit the amount of reform that most teachers will tolerate.” There are four main components to teaching which are conservatism, collegiality, autonomy, and egalitarianism. When making decisions and change, most teachers become nervous and don’t like to step forward in some cases. They are always up for change, but don’t enjoy speaking up about it especially to people of higher positions. Men that are teachers are also found to only teach with the idea of making it up the promotion ladder, maybe being offered an administrative position in the future.

(Chap 7) Each school has its own unique personality; therefore no two schools are completely alike. The way in which they are run will differ depending on the adult interpersonal dynamics, and the involvement of parents in the school. As well there is no such thing as a “good” school and a “bad” school. Schools are constantly changing, and imperfect. Change in schools is something that comes about through the unique personality level. Ways to reform a school start with the faculty. Improvements in problem solving, open communication, conflict resolution, shared decision making, goal setting, and shared leadership would be examples of “process goals.” Some “substantive goals” would be projects that connect the school to the community, or becoming a full service school (a type of community center). When choosing goals in a school at the unique personality level it is important to focus on specific goals, even if they may take longer, rather than setting a new goal every time a new idea comes along. Deep structure reforms are based more on what society //thinks// a “real school” should look like, while unique personality reforms focus on other characteristics within school life.

Pg. 3 “I further suggest that the phenomenon we might think of as the “deep structure” of schooling is undergirded by a number of interconnected phenomena that exert a conservative pull on efforts to change the way things are done in schools. These inhibiting forces are the following: 1. The social context: conventional wisdom, and the role played by the media. 2. The structural characteristics of the institution itself. 3. Fiscal realities, including the strong influence of the knowledge industry. 4. Parent expectations and community assumptions 5. The demands of teaching and the nature of the teaching profession.
 * __Key Passages:__**

Pg. 10 “The brief overview of key developments in the past half-century or so reveals numerous efforts to understand the dynamics of educational change. It also shows that no matter how often we slide back toward what’s familiar; practitioners are ever ready to try again. Habitual optimists, educators always bounce back: There //must// be better ways to do things-there //must// be ways to solve the big and little problems of schools.”

Pg. 12 “Children and young people leave home to attend a place called school for part of each week, and their society expects them to master certain knowledge and skills as a result. Beyond this, the institution of education may also fulfill other tasks for the society it serves, such as sorting and channeling young people into predetermined adult roles and preparing them for the world of work. In virtually all cultures, schools are expected to contribute significantly to the acculturation and socialization of the young, reinforcing the norms of their society and teaching them to behave in acceptable ways.”

Pg. 38 "The messages we receive from the media are more powerful than what we know from personal experience.”

“Sometimes it’s not so much that money is (or is not) made available for reforms, but how it is made available: with strings attached.”

“By the 1920’s, the high school went beyond age-grading: In offering a newly differentiated curriculum, it sorted adolescents in not just one but three ways – by age, by future plans, and by ability. It served the emerging corporate culture well to have the future work force pass through schools structured to prepare them for life in a hierarchical work environment.” (pg.41).

“The humanity of the self-contained classroom and the efficiency of age-grading would coexist hence-forth in American elementary school classrooms…both subsequently have been extremely resistant to change.” (pg.41).

"To most of us, the fist thing that comes to mind when we think of a “bureaucracy” is //hierarchy:// distinct levels of authority, status, and responsibility. Inextricably interwoven with the concept of a hierarchical system is the notion of role //differentiation:// people at each level have certain functions and tasks to do within the organization.” (pg.42).

"Adoption of the district model of organization and of property taxes as the primary mechanism for funding schools locked the nation into a pattern virtually guaranteed to produce and sustain inequality" (p. 79.)

"'Soft' money, it's sometimes called - and so it is, and too often unreliable as a way to make permanent change." (p.81)

"Educators who are involved with or considering a project that includes decentralization of power over financial matters would be wise to take a clear-eyed look at the situation before dovting too much energy to an initiative that may sound just great but have little real potential for success." (p.86)

"A really bright African American or Hispanic girl of 14 with the potential to earn a Nobel Prize in medicine or physics one day may never even have the chance to learn chemistry or physics, because her rural Louisiana high school does not offer those courses or cannot afford well-equipped science labs. Not having had the right courses, she may not get into college. An average White girl with the potential only to get through with barely passing grades will nonetheless be accepted to several good colleges, simply because she attended a high school in suburban Connecticut and was steered into all the right courses by a competent guidance counselor" (p.93)

Pg 110: “Parents need to be welcome participants in the life of their children’s schools, but given the nature of teachers’ work, it may be more constructive to involve parents and other interested community members in site- level or district- level activities and decision- making rather than actually in the classroom.”

Pg 114 “Powerful parents can support and protect as well as defeat change; it all depends on what the change is.”

Pg 118 “Members of a community certainly expect their schools- and those in charge of them- to act in familiar ways; in fact this expectation of familiarity is one reason why selling the community on a change in its schools is often a challenge.”

Pg127“ Tyack and Cuban feel that teachers are frequently left out of the loop when it comes to designing reform efforts.”

Pg 122 “Without the vigorous and continuing support of community leaders, parents, and the general citizenry, changes in what Americans take for granted about how schools should look and be fun are bound to falter.”

Pg 129 “It’s worth noting that the same dynamic applies to parent involvement” If student learning is seen as entirely the teacher’s responsibility, parents are off the hook too. Teachers are left with no authority in their classrooms (beyond what they can muster by sheer force of personality) and little support from home. It’s a recipe for a demoralized teaching force, guaranteed to produce exactly the opposite results from those we would all like to see in our schools.”

Pg 131 “Four out of five teachers today are women.”

Pg 138 “ The ambiance- whether supportive or tyrannical- pervades the workplace and affects the day-to-day interaction of teachers with each other, with other adults, and with their students.”

“We tend to see schools as being either “good” or “bad” and this limited viewpoint lends itself to simplistic prescriptions: ‘only do these things and your “bad” school too can become a “good” one.’” (pg. 161).

“Some schools started here, others there- and that the schools that seemed to be making the clearest progress were ones hat didn’t try to tackle everything at once but ‘aimed for more modest goals and allowed for changes to take place on a longer time line than other schools.’ This absence of a clear recipe for how to proceed suggests not only that idiosyncratic adaptation will take place at individual school sites but that it does so because each school has a unique personality. And that means that each school must find its own way of achieving its improvement goals.” (Pg. 162).

“Schools in which self-reliance was highly valued tended to be places in which there was little sense of community or mutual support among the teachers and little sense of collective ability to solve school problems.” (pg.166).

“Part of the necessary activism of teachers who want to make some unique-personality-level changes at their school involves finding ways to gain the support of those external agencies that might otherwise erect barriers to their efforts. In this, enthusiastic parents can play a pivotal role.” (pg. 175).


 * __Key Terms:__**


 * Deep Structure:** “A composite of widely held beliefs about what schools are for and how they should structure.” (pg. 23)
 * Conventional Wisdom:** “Undergirds the deep structure of schooling by providing the “taken-for-granted” ideas that are used to justify the way things are done.” (pg. 38)
 * Bureaucracy:** was first developed in a few limited and specialized industries after the Civil War, it was not generalized to a widely applicable model until the 1920’s, it became fully “worked out” in its details only during the 1950’s.
 * Hierarchy:** distinct levels of authority, status, and responsibility.
 * Differentiation:** people at each level have certain functions and tasks to do within the organization.
 * Sporadic involvement:** involvement that is painful and often ugly, involving as it does the taking of sides, angry charges, defensive rebuttals, and hard feelings all around
 * Pedagogy:** the art or science of teaching; education, instructional methods
 * Structural Factors:** aspects of schooling that form the framework within which teachers work
 * Collegiality:** those behaviors appropriate among people who work together
 * Pluralistic Community:** Includes several community interest groups running a school with no one of them dominant.
 * Inert Community:** There is little interest in the schools and no competition for seats on the school board.
 * Adult Interpersonal Dynamics:** The relationships between teachers with one another, as well as with administrators.
 * Adaptation:** The process in which an innovation adjusts to fit local circumstances.
 * “Process Goals”:** The tools used collectively to get things done.
 * “Substantive Goals”:** Specific work in curriculum and pedagogy, designed to improve student learning.