The SBE is charged with implementing educational policy and providing both governance and supervision to all schools located within the state. Typically, the SBE performs the following functions: • Establish the general goals, vision, and direction for education in the state. • Determine the curriculum that will be taught in

Is the most powerful person at the local level, because he or she is the de facto head of all schools in the district, fulfilling both executive and administrative functions. Superintendents are usually selected by school boards, although some districts elect their superintendent. There is a significant gender gap at

Refers to the set of theories put forward by Socrates and Plato (427–347 BC) in their search for an Absolute Truth. Socrates and Plato questioned the fundamentals of reality, knowledge, and human nature. From these teachings emerged the Socratic method—the process of gaining knowledge by carefully questioning and then criticizing

Is the branch of philosophy that seeks to organize reasoning. Students of logic learn how to think in a structurally sound manner. Logic has two types: deductive and inductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning involves examining a general case, deducing a general set of rules or principles, and then applying these rules

Is the branch of philosophy that considers how people come to learn what they know. Derived from the Greek word episteme, meaning knowledge or understanding, epistemology refers to the nature and origin of knowledge and truth. Epistemology proposes that there are four main bases of knowledge: divine revelation, experience, logic

Is the branch of philosophy that considers the physical universe and the nature of ultimate reality. It asks questions like, What is real? What is the origin of the world? What is beyond the stars? Your consideration of reality as an external creation or an internal construct can influence your

Was fashioned by the philosophers Francis Bacon (1561–1626) and John Locke (1632–1704). Locke conjectured that everything we know comes from experience and from reflecting on that experience. We are not born with any innate or preconceived ideas, but rather are a blank slate. Bacon attempted to change the structure of

In Christianity was founded by St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1275). Aquinas presumed that God is pure reasoning, which is the truth of all things. He believed the sole purpose of existence is to reunite the soul with God.

Suggests that matter is real and that it is separate from our perceptions. You may not see it, hear it, or feel it, but it nevertheless exists. Education cultivates the capacity to reason, which allows for proper choices. Aristotle asserted that ideas could exist without matter, but matter cannot exist

Is the notion that the world exists regarding matter, separate from the world of ideas and independent of it. Aristotle (384 BC–322 BC), the father of realism, was a student of Plato and adapted his philosophies from that of his teacher. Considering that both men were from the same small