Goals of schooling in the United States include providing equality of opportunity to pursue wealth,

growing the economy and preparing students for work, and reforming the individual as a means to end
social troubles

Protected childhood focuses on the happiness and well-being of the child. In prepared childhood,
attention is given to the child’s future as an adult rather than concern about the child’s immediate
happiness

Equality of opportunity means: all members of a society are given equal chances to pursue wealth and
enter any occupation or social class.

The three models for providing equality of opportunity through schools are the common-school model,
the sorting machine model, and the high-stakes testing model. The common school model works by
insuring everyone receives an equal and common education. The sorting machine model functions by
administering standardized tests, and placing students on an educational track dependent on their
intelligence. The high-stakes testing model works similarly to the sorting machine model, except instead
of administering tests which measure the students’ intelligence, the tests measure their learned
knowledge.

Social reproduction means that schools reproduce the social class structure of society.

The Fourteenth Amendment protects basic guarantees of the Bill of Rights against laws passed by state
government. The amendment guarantees that states cannot take away any rights granted to an
individual as a citizen of the United States. States have the right to provide school, but they cannot in
their provision of schools violate citizen rights granted by the Constitution.

Brown v. Board of Education overturned the separate but equal doctrine by arguing that segregated
education was inherently unequal. This meant that even if schools, teachers, etc., were equal between
two racially segregated schools, the two schools would still be unequal because of the racial
segregation.

The Civil Rights Act provided a means for the federal government to force school desegregation. Title VI
required mandatory withholding of federal funds from institutions that practiced racial discrimination.

Title IX: No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be
denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity
receiving federal financial assistance.

10th amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by
it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.