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During this time period education was not available to the masses and was not very common, especially in the South. In the North Education was more common due to the Puritans strong commitment to religion. In order to save young peoples souls they must be taught to read the Bible causing children to be taught to read at a basic level.
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This was one of the first laws helping expand education. It required parents to educate their children in religion (which generally meant learning to read) and also to know and obey capital laws.
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This law made it mandatory for all towns with over 50 people to hire a male teacher to educate the towns children to read and write in a basic manner.
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During this era through the work of prominent reformers like Horace Mann, education became available to a broader range of people by having it be funded by taxes through the states. Education was still more prominent in the North and still fairly basic overall just teaching the basics like simple arithmatic and reading.
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The McGuffey reader was the first form of a textbook to be used extensively by school-aged children.
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Started in Massachusetts, this was one of the first instances where children were required to go to school and learn.
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This act set encouraged schools to form by setting land aside in the Northwestern Territory in areas like Michigan and Wisconsin.
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In 1864 Congress forces Native Americans to stop learning their traditional languages and to start to become more "American". To accomplish this they sent the Native American Children to boarding schools to be taught properly.
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African Americans after earning their freedom from the civil war were now able to learn to read and write. Organizations like the freedmans bureau were sent to help educate the freedmen in a basic fashion (reading and writing). This was primarily during the reconstruction period and disapeared for the most part once the south regained it's freedom. With rulings like Plessy v. Fergussen it was apparent that courts would not help improve African American's education until nearly 100 years later.
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As a result of a massive amount of Chinese immigrants into the United States, some states passed laws exculding minority groups like the Chiense from learning.
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In this era education became more expansive and ended up incompassing more children. Kindergartens started to appear and high school education became available. Also laws were passed that mandated childrens education intil a certain age which varied around the country. Education in this era was seen as a oppurtinity to "Americanize" the thousands of immigrants coming into the U.S. from Asia and Europe.
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As a result of the supreme court case Plessy v. Ferguson, seperate but equal was deemed acceptable by the Federal Government. This translated over to schools and fueled segregation, especially in the south.
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The supreme court ruled in 1905 that states like California must accept Chinese-American students. This overruled the Chinese Exculsion Act passed in 1882.
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With the formation of the NAACP, schools became more equal as they pushed for equal rights for African Americans.
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After WW2, Congress passed the Servicemens Readjustment Act (GI Bill) in order to help former soldiers succeed in post war life. This paid for their college fees and drastically increased college attendance throughout the country.
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With changing attitudes throughout the country and the Warren court spitting out controversal desicions left and right, Brown v. Board of Education finally ruled that the Plessy v. Fergussen ruling was unconstitutional and overturned it. This was then followed by events like the Little Rock incident where the 101st airbourne were needed to desegregate this Arkansas school.
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As a result of this ruling public facilities were now required to desegregate, this included schools meaning that now black and white students could be taught togeather.
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Due to the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, schools were now forced to desegregate. In this instance it took the use of Federal troops to allow these kids access to a "white" school.
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As a result of the passing of this act the College Board was set up which helped create classes like APUSH. This was all done to keep up with the Russians.
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During this time period in Americas educational history, the public worried about losing ground to foriegn countries and sought to reform public schools. To do this they started to mandate standardized testing across the country in order to try and force schools to meet a certain standard. Opposition of this movement argued that this would overall hurt education by forcing schools to teach to "the test".
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Due to this report that stated that America was falling behind other nations in the area of education, many Americans were outraged and demanded change.
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Since America had been using the same education system since the early 1900s, people looked for different ways to educate the youth of America. One way people tried to change the education system was through charter schools or other non-traditional classroom type education settings that allowed students to challenge themselves in new and different ways.
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As a result of the fear of the United States falling behind other countries in the area of education, George Bush signed the "No Child Left Behind" act in 2002 to try and hold schools more accountable for providing better education.
