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First Education Laws - Massechusets (1642-1647)
A selectman from each town was meant to determine the quality of education/apprenticeship children received. If a child was not being given adequate education, he could be apprenticed to someone else. This established the idea of compulsory education. -
The Impact of Horace Mann (1827-1846)
www.pbs.org I believe that this entry is the most important of all. Horace Mann served as a spokesperson for the common school movement, travelling from town to town and promoting public support of common school and also increasing awareness of current school problems. Horace Mann also established the State Board of Education in Massachusetts in 1837. Without Horace Mann, education may have never been easily publicly supported. -
Population Growth and Immigration in the 19th Century -- Removal of Religious Content in Public Schools
An increase in immigrants led to conflicting religious views. Bible Riots in 1843 in protestant education forced public schools to remove any material offensive to Catholics from textbooks and the public school society was replaced with board of education. This marked the beginning of public education without religious curricula. -
Population Growth after the Civil War (1870-1890)
From Here to There: The Road to Reform of American High Schools Population growth after the Civil war led to the growth of industry and technological change, which also intensified the demand for skilled workers. Economic growth led to a larger tax base to use for education. All of these factors led to a demand for secondary education, establishing High Schools all around the country. -
Committe of Ten
The first effort to establish/standardize the high school curriculum, established by the National Education Association. The entire high school curriculum was dominated by college preparatory courses. -
The Impact of John Dewey
John Dewey established and provided an intellectual foundation for progressive education. He adopted the child centered curriculum first suggested by Francis W. Parker, and opened his own Laboratory school. His goal was to promote individual student growth and prepare students for participation in the democratic society. -
Child Study Movement (1900-1920)
G. Stanley Hall recognized that emotional growth and personality development were just as important as cognitive development in understanding a child. He brought together scholars to study the development of children, with the idea being that if they could better understand the development of the child, schools could foster that development. -
The Measurement Movement
IQ tests were originally used to measure the ability of troupes to serve in the military. An unexpected result was they found several were illiterate, and it became used in education soon after. Tests were meant to diagnose learning difficulties and assess individual differences -- it was the first time students could be compared objectively to each other. -
Brown vs Board of Education
US Supreme Court ruled that segregated education facilities were unconstitutional and began trying to enforce schools to desegregate. It was met with nationwide resistance, and sparked the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. -
Sputnik and NDEA (1957-1958)
When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, America became increasingly concerned with the need for science and math -- progressivism didn't agree with those ideals -- and thus seemed irrelevant. The National Defense Education Act was passed, directing significant funding to specific curricula areas and sponsored the efforts of academic curricula reform and revision. -
Introduction of the Spiral Curriculum
Influenced by child development theory and Bruner's theory -- which stressed the teaching of major concepts and methods of inquiry -- this curriculum splits concepts into layers of complexity to be taught over several grades. -
Social Unrest (1960-1970)
Student rights and anti-Vietnam war movements tended to have a negative effect on the civil rights movement. Because the student rights movements was strongly opposed and had been using the same strategy as the civil rights movement, the civil rights movement was seen in a negative way simply by association. -
The Impact of the Civil Rights Movement
The Civil Rights movement is dotted with several governmental acts being written for the purpose of providing equality to all Americans, both in and outside of school systems. Acts were passed prohibiting discrimination in employment/students, and in subgroups such as Indians, and handicapped individuals. -
A Nation at Risk Report
A Nation at RiskDuring Raegon's Presedency, a Nation at Risk Report was written, and sparked the educational reform movement of the 1980's. The report warned of current practices promoting a "mediocre" generation, and urged social reform. States created higher graduation requirements, standardized curriculum mandates, increased testing for students and teachers, homework, and focused on the basic academics. -
No Child Left Behind
No Child Left BehindNo Child Left Behind No Child Left Behind was an act enforced in 2001 by George Bush, the current president. The goal was to have every student meeting a state established "proficient" level on the state standards by 2014. Yearly tests would determine if the students had made adequate yearly progress, andwould be penalized.
