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Reliance on Scripture in early American Education
Early reliance on protestant scripture in post-colonial educational systems set the foundations for what American education would become and largely what it would try to overcome as it become an all encompassing institution in modern America. It would lay the foundation that schools were for not only educating but for teaching ethics and a sense of belonging in the culture of the time. -
Noah Webster Pushing For American Ideals in Schools
Noah Webster pushed for specific types of information to be included in curriculum and much of that was to be pushing of American ideals and heros in those books, citizinizing children -
Thomas Jefferson Pushing for Public Education
Thomas Jefferson began to rally the other polticians that schooling should be a public service offered to all equally and not something that should be paied for by the family. The intention being that there would not be a massive education gap based on class in America. -
Horace Mann attempting to enforce Equallity in Schools
Horace Mann, an eduator and first Secratary of Education, rode from town to town inspecting school houses to attempt to ensure equality in learning possibilities, and while he found very little to suggest equallity was being carried out this was the first step to a standardized school system with the ideals of equallity for children rather than on privilege based on class. A problem we are still fighting with today. -
Katherine Beecher pushing women teachers, especially in the west
Beecher pushed for teaching to be a good career path for women, especially young women and created an influx of female teachers to small west towns that were newly forming as the US expanded. -
Influx of Irish Immigrants Into America
This influx changed the landscape of American demographics but more importantly Irish immigrants, who were predominently Catholic, began to rally and fight for equallity in the standards taught in schools. Most schools were heavily biased on protestant beleif and Catholics were often attacked in the informaiton taught. The mass movement to equalize the influence of religion set the groundwork for future movements to influence the school system. -
Publication of the school and society by John Dewy
John Dewy, known as the father of progressive education, published his trestie on education and it's role in America he sought to standardize the way students were being taught and what they learned, specifically what was read in text. -
Opening of the school in Gary Indiana and introduction of Gary Plan
The opening of the first 'Progressive Education' school let students begin to get a practical education in a varietry of topics from factory work and animal husbandry to hygene as well as hands on science and english classes. Many were concerned it pushed a reliance on work related education and it was discontinued. -
World War 2 and the switch to English only
Because of the influx of immigrants many schools taught in specific languages to cater to the immigrant population in the area. But after the start of world war 2 there was a surge of patriotism and xenophobia and as a result schools begin pushing for an English only curriculum and a destruction of forign (specifically German) textbooks. -
Brown Vs Board Of Education
The lawsuit centered around 13 black children from Topeka, Kansas, and that went all the way to the supreme court pushed for an end to segregation in schools and allowed children of all races to finally attend school together. This finally pushed for racial equality in classrooms and allowed black students, who, up to that point, were not recieving adequate funds for education, to join white schools and receive an equal education. -
National Guard Called to prevent integration
Governor of Arkansas called out national guard rather than let 9 black teenagers into a desegregated school. President Dwight Eisenhower called in federal troops to enforce the law -
Signing Into Law the 'Civil Right's Act'
This law prohibited the discrimination of people based on race in all publicly funded programs, most notably education. Schools could no longer legally not hire black teachers, administration, and staff on the basis of race. This also delt with the allocation of federal funds based on desegregation levels in schools. -
Creation of Micro-schools in Harlems East District
Moves like this were some of teh first in changing the ways in which students would attend school and the competition seems to have allowed this poorer district to try new things with competitive schooling and helped the district do better in educating students. -
'A Nation at Risk' report given to president Reagan
A report given to President Reagan and carried out by the department of education concluded that education in America was woefully lacking and that this lack put the nation itself at risk. Reagan used it to claim that American schools were behind becuase of low standards and that they had fallen behind in technology. This worry led to the final major round of educational reforms in the 20th century. -
Push For Standardized Testing in American Schools
'A Nation At Risk' prompted many schools to push for higher graduation standards and what many states used to measure this was standardized testing with the federal government also pushing a more standard approach to graducation requirements.
