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The Scholastic Aptitade Test (SAT) is first administered. It is based on the Army Allpha test.
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Jean Piaget's The Child's Conception of the World is published. His theory of cognitive development becomes an important influence in American developmental psychology and education.
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The great depression begins with the stock market crash in October. The U.S. economy is devastated. Public education funding suffers greatly, resulting in schools closing, teacher layoffs, and lower salaries.
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A survey of 150 school districts reveals that three quarters of them are using so-called intelligence testing to place students in different academic tracks.
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At the end of the world war 2, the G.I. bill of rights gives thousands of working class men college scholarships for the first time in U.S. history. Because the law provides the same opportunity to every veteran, regardless of background, the long-standing tradition that college is only for the wealthy is broken.
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At one minute after midnight on January 1, Kathleen Casey Wilkens is borns, the first in nearly 1 million baby boomers. Beginning a generation that results in unprecedented school population growth and massive social change.
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The computer age begins as the electronic numerical integrator and computer (ENIAC), the first vacuum-tube computer is built for the U.S. military by Presper Eckert and John Mauchly.
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In the landmark court case of Mendez vs. Westminster and the California board of education, the U.S. district court in Los Angeles rules that educating children of Mexican descent in separate facilities is unconstitutional, thus prohibiting segregating in California schools and setting an important precedent for Brown vs. education.
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Burrhus Frederic (B.F.) Skinner’s science and human behavior is published. His form of behaviorism (operant conditioning), which emphasizes changes in behavior due to reinforcement, becomes widely accepted and influences many aspects of American education.
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May 17, the U.S. supreme court announces its decision in the case of Brown vs. education of Topeka, ruling that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,” thus overturning its previous ruling in the 1896 case of Plessy vs. Ferguson. Brown vs. Board of education is actually a combination of five cases different parts of the country. Almost 45 years later in 1998, schools, especially in the north are as segregate as ever.
