Underperforming Schools

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Veazie Street Elementary school has a complex and involved social culture with many different, often detrimental layers that can be studied through a sociological lens. Upon studying the Elementary school however, it is apparent that the school is significantly underperforming academically especially in their mathematic competencies. In order to completely understand the interaction between academically struggling Elementary schools and society as a whole each of the three theoretical perspectives of sociology must be addressed and evaluated. From a macro social perspective low performance schools can be viewed extremely differently but equally significant through the functionalist and conflict theories, and from a micro social perspective of symbolic interactionism. To begin, the functionalist perspective must first be outlined which at its most basic level, “emphasizes the contributions and functions performed by each part of society”(Dias), in this case the underperforming Veazie Street Elementary school. In a complex social society most aspects contribute to the society’s well- being and survival, including the consensus of the members of that society (Dias). These contributions according to the functionalist perspective are also symbiotic in which various parts of society will compensate and change due to a variation in another part. The changes can be explained by two types of human functions. Manifest functions which are obvious and “intended and recognized at the time”(Dias), and latent functions which are not obvious and “unintended and unrecognized until later” (Dias). This balancing act of society’s parts is principle to the functionalist perspective because it tends to produce stability, order, cooperation, and... ... middle of paper ... ...of students did score higher although there is still a large percentage that are not at appropriate comprehension level. It goes to show that symbolic interactionism truly is a micro social analysis due to the fact that every individual may subjectively interpret any symbol in daily life in a different light. Clearly each sociological perspective has something very different to say about how it views the social aspect of underperforming schools and the interaction they have with society as a whole. While functionalism focuses on certain positive aspects, and conflict theory argues our societies competitive tendencies, it is apparent that all three of the perspectives need to be addressed in order to gain a well-rounded educated opinion as to how any of societies’ many individual aspects fit into the massive complex web that defines our social structure.

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