JHU Course Catalog: Hot Topics in
Education

Sociologist Karl Alexander introduces freshmen to the timely, often controversial
issues of education policy and practice.
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By Amy Lunday
The Gazette
Editor's note: This is part of an occasional
series in which reporters drop in on interesting
classes throughout the university's eight
academic divisions. Suggestions are welcome
at
gazette@jhu.edu.
The course: Hot Topics in Education.
Offered to freshmen by the
Department of Sociology in the Krieger School. 3 credits.
Meeting time: Tuesdays, 3 to 5 p.m.;
Thursdays, 1 to 2 p.m. Spring 2006.
The instructor: Sociologist Karl Alexander,
who says the focus of his research
is figuring out "why some children, and
some kinds of children, are more successful
in school than others and how this
affects them later in life." Alexander has
spent the past 24 years tracking the personal
and academic development of 790
Baltimore City Public School students,
following their lives since they were
first-graders, with his Beginning School
Study. A few years ago, a new survey of the
group, whose members are now in their late
20s, found that 42 percent had dropped out
before earning a high school diploma, a statistic
that drives Alexander in his research
to pick up on the early warning signs that
a first-grader might one day leave school
without graduating.
Syllabus: In Hot Topics, Alexander and
his students turn a sociological lens on the
timely, often controversial issues of education
policy and practice. The focus is on
public schools, which are often subjected to
the whims of what Alexander calls "planful
change." There are many forces—both
internal and external—at work to shape
and reform public schools, he says, from
parents, teachers unions and administrators
to politicians aiming to "fix" schools in their
districts. "It is very much contested terrain,
and as sociologists, one of the things we
try to do is understand that contestation,"
Alexander says. "And that's what we try to
do in this course. We take on three or four
policy or reform topics, starting with the
federal government's No Child Left Behind
Act, [and] try to understand the background
and context of each, the contesting interests
and even perhaps future prospects."
Course work: Using a seminar format, class
meetings begin with instruction from Alexander,
but the bulk of each session is student
led, with the idea that everyone is responsible
for the conduct of the course. For each
"hot topic," the class breaks into three
four-person
working groups: one to prepare background materials,
one to make the case in favor of the initiative at hand and one
to make the case against the initiative.
The working groups are reconstituted for
each topic. After No Child Left Behind,
the class moved on to the "varieties
of schooling," comparing public, private
and home schooling. The groups, which
determine their own internal division of
labor, prepare a class presentation and a
written executive summary. There also is
a term paper, focused on one of the "hot
topics" in students' home communities,
centering on either a specific school,
school district or the entire state.
Students say: "I really love this course
and Professor Alexander. I chose to take
this course because I personally think that
because education develops the future
and development of this country that it
should be a priority. Prior to this class,
I was not very informed in the subject
of education, and I felt that I should be
because it is such a controversial topic
right now. I am thoroughly enjoying this
class because of the style of it. It is a freshman
seminar, so I am with students my
age who also are not too familiar with the
subject. There are only 12 students in the
class, and we sit around a small table and
discuss. The professor brings up a topic,
and we all go from there and express our
opinions, debate, bring up new information
from research that we had done for
homework, etc. The class is very informal
and is structured yet flexible, which sets a
great environment for such broad topics
as we are learning. Professor Alexander
is great because he simply introduces
discussion topics and lets us figure it out
ourselves while making sure that we do
not stray or introduce incorrect information,
clarifying points, and answering
questions that none of us are able to.
Although there is a good amount of reading
assignments, they are not a burden to
do because the hot topics are so interesting."
—Paula Osborn, freshman, psychology
major, Albuquerque, N.M.
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2006
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