POL3319: Education and the American Dream

What role does education play in American democracy? What role should it play? Does American education, particularly public education, live up to its citizens' hopes and expectations? And, perhaps most importantly, what do we mean by a "good education"? This is a question with deep historical roots in this country, one that is the subject of current policy debates and one that cannot be separated from questions of discrimination and inequality. The over-arching theme of the course is to wrestle with what it means to be an educated citizen in the context of historical struggles to achieve that vision in the face of multiple and inter-related inequalities and competing visions about how to make the American dream a reality in the field of public education. No one political perspective will be offered or favored. No magic powder will be revealed on the last day of the course. The fact is that the underlying issues are really complicated, often seemingly intractable, and very, very political. This course is intended as introduction to education politics and policy in the United States. It will focus on K-12 education, especially in the public system. It is designed for any student who might have an interest in exploring education, public policy, or American government. Topics will include equality of educational opportunity, educating democratic citizens, school finance, the role of political institutions in making educational policy, and efforts to reform and remake American education, including charter schools, private school vouchers, and standardized testing. By the end of the course, students should have a basic understanding of the provision of public education in the United States, including the ways in which education is governed and the institutions involved in that governance. Students should be able to critically reflect on the degree to which American education fulfills the sometimes-competing goals Americans have for their schools. This course fulfills the Social Sciences Core of the University liberal education requirements. In this course students will act as policy analysts, with all of the complexity that such a task entails in the field of American public education. This course also fulfills the Diversity and Social Justice in the United States theme of the University liberal education requirements.

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