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Latin Grammar Schools
In the early 1600's Puritan families were concerned with the thoughts that someday their learned leaders would be no more. This caused them to put their stress on secondary and higher learning. This stress caused the establishment of Latin Grammar Schools. The Puritans founded Harvard College. In order to enter this college one has to pass an entrance exam which demanded that they knew how to read and speak Latin and Greek. The Grammar school's purpose was in preparing boys for higher learning. -
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John Locke
John Locke was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and known as the "Father of Classical Liberalism". Locke's theory of mind is known as the origin of modern conceptions of identity and the self. Locke was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness. He said that at birth, the mind was a blank slate. He maintained that we are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is determined only by experience. -
Massachusetts Bay School Law
This was the first of a series of "schooling" laws established in Massachusetts. The law of 1642 did not require attendance of school, but did require certain obligations from parents regarding their children's education. This law set a strong precedent with regards to education in the colonies, particularly in New England. -
Deluder Satan Act
The law of 1647,also known as the Old Deluder Satan Act, It required every town having more than 50 families to hire a teacher, and every town of more than 100 families to establish a "grammar school". Failure to comply with the mandate would result in a fine of 5 pounds.The Deluder Satan Act is commonly regarded as the historical first step toward compulsory government-directed public education in the United States of America. -
Christian von Wolff
Christian Wolff was a German philosopher. Wolff was also the creator of German as the language of scholarly instruction and research, although he also wrote in Latin, so that an international audience could, and did, read him. A founding father of, among other fields, economics and public administration as academic disciplines, he concentrated especially in these fields, giving advice on practical matters to people in government, and stressing the professional nature of university education. -
New England Primer
The New England Primer was the first reading primer designed for the American Colonies. It became the most successful educational textbook published in 18th century America and it became the foundation of most schooling before the 1790s. Included were the alphabet, vowels, consonants, double letters and syllabariums of two letters to six letter syllables. The 90-page work contained religious maxims, woodcuts, alphabetical assistants, acronyms, catechism answers, and moral lessons. -
New England Primer
The New England Primer was the first reading primer designed for the American Colonies. It became the most successful educational textbook published in 18th century America and it became the foundation of most schooling before the 1790s. Included were the alphabet, vowels, consonants, double letters and syllabariums of two letters to six letter syllables. The 90-page work contained religious maxims, woodcuts, alphabetical assistants, acronyms, catechism answers, and moral lessons. -
Salem Witchcraft Trials
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. The trials resulted in the executions of twenty people, most of them women. The most infamous trials were conducted by the Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692 in Salem Town. Many historians consider the lasting effects of the trials to have been highly influential in subsequent United States history. -
Dame Schools
The first schools children in colonial America usually attended were Dame Schools. Dame schools were generally taught by women in their own homes. The teacher would often continue with her household chores while the children attended school. The young students learned to recognize and recite their letters and numbers. They were taught to read and write simple words. They also memorized prayers. Dame schools rarely had desks, and there were few books for the children. Their lessons were simple. -
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and in many ways was "the First American". Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor and civic activist. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of education and hard work. -
Johan Pestalozzi
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi was a Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer who exemplified Romanticism in his approach. He founded several educational institutions both in German- and French-speaking regions of Switzerland and wrote many works explaining his revolutionary modern principles of education. His motto was "Learning by head, hand and heart". Thanks to Pestalozzi, illiteracy in 18th-century Switzerland was overcome almost completely by 1830. -
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was the North American theater of the worldwide Seven Years' War. The war was fought between the colonies of British America and New France. The name French and Indian War is used mainly in the United States and refers to the two main enemies of the British colonists: the royal French forces and the various indigenous forces allied with them. The outcome was one of the most significant developments in a century of Anglo-French conflict. -
Noah Webster
Noah Webster, Jr. was an American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and prolific author. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education." His blue-backed speller books taught five generations of American children how to spell and read, secularizing their education. Webster's name has become synonymous with "dictionary" in the United States, especially the modern Merriam-Webster dictionary. -
Friedrich Froebel
Friedrich Fröbel was a German pedagogue, a student of Pestalozzi who laid the foundation for modern education based on the recognition that children have unique needs and capabilities. He created the concept of the “kindergarten” and also coined the word now used in German and English. He also developed the educational toys known as Froebel Gifts. -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris of 1783, negotiated between the United States and Great Britain, ended the revolutionary war and recognized American independence. This treaty, along with the separate peace treaties between Great Britain and the nations that supported the American cause: France, Spain and the Dutch Republic, are known collectively as the Peace of Paris. Its territorial provisions were "exceedingly generous" to the United States in terms of enlarged boundaries. -
Young Ladies Academy
One of the most pivotal events in the history of women's education was the opening of the Young Ladies Academy in Philadelphia in 1787. It was said to be the first all female academy in America. Sponsored and supervised by many of Philadelphia’s male religious and political leaders, including Benjamin Rush, the Academy offered a Franklinian curriculum to its students: reading, writing, English grammar, mathematics, geography, rhetoric, composition, chemistry, and natural philosophy. -
Constitutional Convention
The Constitutional Convention took place from May 25 to September 17, 1787, to address problems in governing the United States of America, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence from Great Britain. The delegates elected George Washington to preside over the Convention. The result of the Convention was the creation of the United States Constitution, placing the Convention among the most significant events in the history of the United States. -
Constitution and Bill of Rights Ratified
In September 1789, the first Congress of the United States approved 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution and sent them to the states for ratification. The amendments were designed to protect the basic rights of U.S. citizens, guaranteeing the freedom of speech, press, assembly, and exercise of religion; and that powers not delegated to the federal government would be reserved for the states and the people. -
Horace Mann
Horace Mann was an American politician and educational reformer. A Whig devoted to promoting modernization, he served in the Massachusetts State Legislature. Arguing that universal public education was the best way to turn the nation's unruly children into disciplined, judicious republican citizens, Mann won widespread approval for building public schools. Mann has been credited by educational historians as the "Father of the Common School Movement". -
Catherine Beecher
Catharine Esther Beecher was an American educator known for her forthright opinions on female education as well as her vehement support of the many benefits of the incorporation of kindergarten into children's education. Beecher recognized public schools' responsibility to teach moral, physical, and intellectual development of children. She also firmly believed in the benefits of read-aloud. Beecher believed that women have inherent qualities that make them the preferred sex as teachers. -
William Holmes McGuffey
William Holmes McGuffey college president that is best known for writing the McGuffey Readers, the first widely used series of textbooks. It is estimated that at least 122 million copies of McGuffey Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960, placing its sales in a category with the Bible and Webster's Dictionary. He was very fond of teaching and children as he geared the books toward a younger audience. -
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody was an American educator who opened the first English-language kindergarten in the United States. Long before most educators, Peabody embraced the premise that children's play has intrinsic developmental and educational value. She also served as the translator for the first English version of a Buddhist scripture which was published in 1844. As editor of the Kindergarten Messenger, Peabody helped establish kindergarten as an accepted instituation in American education. -
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict, lasting for two and a half years, between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain. The United States declared war for several reasons, including trade restrictions brought about by the British war. The war ended on a high note for Americans, bringing an "Era of Good Feelings" in which partisan animosity nearly vanished in the face of strengthened U.S nationalism. The U.S. took permanent ownership of Spain's Mobile District. -
Boston English High School
The English High School of Boston, Massachusetts is one of the first public high schools in America, founded in 1821. English High was created originally to educate working class schoolboys in preparation for business, mechanics, and engineering trades as opposed to "latin-grammar" schools like Boston Latin that prepared schoolboys for the college, ministry and scholarly pursuits, and private academies that were open only to affluent residents. -
Elizabeth Blackwell
Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States, as well as the first woman on the UK Medical Register. She was the first woman to graduate from medical school, a pioneer in promoting the education of women in medicine in the United States, and a social and moral reformer in both the United States and in Britain. She co-founded the National Health Society in 1871. -
Mount Holyoke Female Seminary
Mount Holyoke College is a liberal arts college for women in Massachusetts, United States. It was the first member of the Seven Sisters colleges, and served as a model for some of the others. Mount Holyoke's founder, Mary Lyon, is considered by many scholars to be an innovator in the area of women's education. Her establishment of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary was part of a larger movement to create institutions of higher education for young women during the early half of the 19th century. -
New York State Asylum for Idiots
The Syracuse State School was a residential facility in Syracuse, New York for mentally disabled children and adults. Founded in 1851 as the New York State Asylum for Idiots, the first director was Hervey B. Wilbur. The rules stated by 1888 that children between the ages of seven and fourteen, who were idiotic, or so deficient in intelligence as to be incapable of being educated at any ordinary school were allowed admittance by the superintendent, with the advice and consent from the committee. -
Lincoln University
Lincoln University of Missouri, a historically black university, is located in Jefferson City, Missouri. The school was founded as Lincoln Institute in 1866 by veterans of the 62nd and 65th Regiments United States Colored Troops Infantry. The former soldiers intended to provide an education to African Americans through the combining of academics and labor, in the industrial school model characteristic of Booker T. Washington's influential Tuskegee Institute. -
Booker T Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington was an African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American community. In 1895 his Atlanta compromise called for avoiding confrontation over segregation and instead putting more reliance on long-term educational and economic advancement in the black community. His base was the Tuskegee Institute, a historically black college in Alabama. -
McGuffey Readers
McGuffey Readers were a series of graded primers, including grade levels 1-6, widely used as textbooks in American schools from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, and are still used today in some private schools and in homeschooling. The series consisted of stories, poems, essays and speeches. The readers were very moralistic in tone. There were 6 readers total in the series; each book taught a different lesson. -
The National Teachers Association
The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest professional organization and largest labor union in the United States, representing public school teachers and other support personnel. Founded in 1857, the National Education Association is the nation's oldest-and largest-teachers union. The NEA lobbies elected and government officials on everything from government funding of education to school safety to teacher pay. -
Alfred Binet
Alfred Binet was a French psychologist who invented the first practical intelligence test, the Binet-Simon scale. His principal goal was to identify students who needed special help in coping with the school curriculum. Binet published revisions of his intelligence scale in 1908 and 1911, the last appearing just before his death. Despite Binet's extensive research interests and wide breadth of publications, today he is most widely known for his contributions to intelligence. -
John Dewey
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist, leading activist in the Georgist movement, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey is one of the primary figures associated with the philosophy of pragmatism and is considered one of the founders of functional psychology. A well-known public intellectual, he was also a major voice of progressive education and liberalism. Although Dewey is known best for his publications about education. -
US Civil War
The American Civil War, widely known in the United States as simply the Civil War was a civil war fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the survival of the Union or independence for the Confederacy. The Union beat the "Confederacy" or the "South" after four years of war. It remains the deadliest war in American history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 750,000 soldiers and an undetermined number of civilian casualties. -
The First Morrill Act
The Morrill Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on July 2, 1862. Officially titled "An Act Donating Public Lands to the Several States and Territories which may provide Colleges for the Benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts," the Morrill Act provided each state with 30,000 acres of Federal land for there Congressional delegation. The land was then sold by the states and the proceeds used to fund public colleges that focused on agriculture and the mechanical arts. -
Emancipation Proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." It captured the hearts and imagination of millions of Americans and fundamentamentally transformed the character of the war. The Emancipation Proclamation has assumed a place among the great documents of human freedom. -
13th Amendment
The 13th amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States." With the adoption of the 13th amendment, the United States found a final constitutional solution to the issue of slavery. The 13th amendment, along with the 14th and 15th, is one of the trio of Civil War amendments that greatly expanded the civil rights of Americans. -
Howard University
Howard University is a federally charered, private, historically black university in Washington, D.C.. It's played an important role in American history and the Civil Rights Movement on a number of occasions. In 1942, Howard University students pioneered the "stool-sitting" technique, which was to play a prominent role in the later civil rights movement. In 1943, students had begun to organize regular sit-ins and pickets around Washington, D.C. which refused to serve them because of their race. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed. In addition, it forbids states from denying any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” By directly mentioning the role of the states, the 14th Amendment greatly expanded the protection of civil rights to all Americans. -
Maria Montessori
Maria Tecla Artemesia Montessori was an Italian physician and educator best known for the philosophy of education that bears her name, and her writing on scientific pedagogy. The Montessori method which is a method of educating young children that stresses development of a child's own initiative and natural abilities, especially through practical play. This method allowed children to develop at their own pace and provided educators with a better understanding of child development. -
American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) is an American non-profit professional organization concerned with intellectual disability and related developmental disabilities. The AAIDD is the oldest professional association concerned with intellectual and developmental disabilities. AAIDD advocates for the equality, dignity, and human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and for their full inclusion and participation in society. -
Carlisle Indian Industrial School
Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, was the Indian boarding school in the United States. Founded in 1879 by Captain Richard Henry Pratt under authority of the US federal government, Carlisle was the first federally funded off-reservation Indian boarding school. It was founded on the principle that Native Americans were the equals of European-Americans, and that Native American children would learn skills to advance in society. -
Committee of Ten
The Committee of Ten was a working group of educators that, in 1892, recommended the standardization of American high school curriculum. In the United States, by the late 1800s, it became apparent that there was a need for educational standardization. Twelve years of education were recommended, with eight years of elementary education followed by four years of high school. These recommendations were generally interpreted as a call to teach English, mathematics, and history to every student. -
Plessy vs. Ferguson
The ruling in this Supreme Court case upheld a Louisiana state law that allowed for "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races." The decision was handed down by a vote of 7 to 1 with the majority opinion written by Justice Henry Billings Brown. "Separate but equal" remained standard doctrine in U.S. law until its repudiation in the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education. -
Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget was a Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistimology." Piaget placed great importance on the education of children. Jean Piaget was the great pioneer of the constructivist theory of knowing. This then led to the emergence of the study of development as a major sub-discipline in psychology. -
Lev Vgotsky
Lev Vygotsky was a Soviet psychologist, the founder of a theory of human cultural and bio-social development commonly referred to as cultural-historical psychology, and leader of the Vygotsky Circle. Vygotsky's main work was in developmental psychology, and he proposed a theory of the development of higher cognitive functions in children that saw reasoning as emerging through practical activity in a social environment. -
Spanish American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, the result of US intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. Although the main issue was Cuban independence, the ten-week war was fought in both the Caribbean and the Pacific. The result was the 1898 Treaty of Paris, negotiated on terms favorable to the US, which allowed it temporary control of Cuba, and ceded indefinite colonial authority over Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippine islands[d] from Spain. -
Joliet Junior College
Joliet Junior College (JJC), a community college based in Joliet, Illinois, was the first public community college founded in the United States. Joliet Junior College was founded in 1901 by Joliet Township High School Superintendent J. Stanley Brown. Brown became a well-known supporter of higher education, and would often encourage his students to attend college after graduation. Brown consulted his friend, Harper, and together they created Joliet Junior College. -
Gestalt Theory
Gestalt psychology or gestaltism is a theory of mind of the Berlin School. Gestalt psychology tries to understand the laws of our ability to acquire and maintain meaningful perceptions in an apparently chaotic world. The central principle of gestalt psychology is that the mind forms a global whole with self-organizing tendencies. This principle maintains that when the human mind forms a percept or gestalt, the whole has a reality of its own, independent of the parts. -
Benjamin Bloom
Benjamin Bloom was an American educational psychologist who made contributions to the classification of educational objectives and to the theory of mastery-learning. In 1956, Bloom edited the first volume of Taxonomy of educational objectives: the classification of educational goals, which outlined a classification of learning objectives that has come to be known as Bloom's Taxonomy and remains a foundational and essential element within the educational community. -
WW1
World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war centered in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. The maps of Europe and Southwest Asia were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created. During the Paris Peace conference, The Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties. The League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repitition of such an appalling conflict. -
Madeline C. Hunter
Madeline Cheek Hunter was an American educator who developed a model for teaching and learning that was widely adopted by schools during the last quarter of the 20th century. She believed that the foremost job of teachers was decision making, and that each teacher makes thousands of decisions each day. Madeline Hunter developed the Instructional Theory into Practice teaching model. It is a direct instruction program that was implemented in thousands of schools throughout the United States. -
American Federation of Teachers
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is an American labor union that primarily represents teachers. The American Federation of Teachers represents 1 million teachers, school staff, higher education faculty and other public employees. The federation also has a health care division, which represents health professionals and nurses. AFT developed additional sub-groups for school-related personnel; local, state and federal employees; higher education faculty; and nurses and other healthcare. -
Smith-Hughes Act
The Smith-Hughes Act, a landmark in vocational education, created the Federal Board for Vocational Education for the promotion of training in agriculture, trades and industries, commerce, and home economics in the secondary schools. Funded by federal grants-in-aid to be matched by state or local contributions, the act required that state boards submit their plans for vocational education to the board for approval, thus providing for greater federal control than previous education grants. -
Progressive Education Association
The term "progressive education" has been used to describe ideas and practices that aim to make schools more effective agencies of a democratic society. Although there are numerous differences of style and emphasis among progressive educators, they share the conviction that democracy means active participation by all citizens in social, political and economic decisions that will affect their lives. The association aims at "reforming the entire school system of America." -
Tennessee vs. John Scopes
The Scopes Trial was an American legal case in 1925 in which a substitute high school teacher, John Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which made it unlawful to teach human evolution in any state-funded school. The trial was deliberately staged in order to attract publicity to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, where it was held. Scopes was unsure whether he had ever actually taught evolution, but he purposely incriminated himself so that the case could have a defendant. -
Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)
The SAT is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. It was first introduced in 1926, and its name and scoring have changed several times, being originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, then the Scholastic Assessment Test, then the SAT Reasoning Test, and now simply the SAT. The test is intended to assess a student's readiness for college. -
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the 1930s. It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. The depression originated in the United States, after the fall in stock prices that began around September 4, 1929. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s. In many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. -
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational approach traditionally based around playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Invented in the 1830s by German educator Friedrich Froebel, kindergarten was designed to teach young children about art, design, mathematics, and natural history. In the United States, kindergarten is usually part of the K-12 educational system. -
Herbert R. Kohl (South High based on his beliefs)
Herbert R. Kohl is an educator best known for his advocacy of progressive alternative education and as the author of more than thirty books on education. He founded the 1960s Open School movement and is credited with coining the term "open classroom." In 1967 he became the founding director of the Teachers & Writers Collaborative, a project intended to transform the teaching of writing in the schools. His first writings centered on advocating for the education of poor and disabled students. -
WW2
World War II was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, though related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world. The United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. -
GI Bill
The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, known informally as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans. Benefits included low-cost mortgages, low-interest loans to start a business, cash payments of tuition and living expenses to attend university, high school or vocational education, as well as one year of unemployment compensation. The G.I. Bill was a major factor in the creation of the American middle class. -
National School Lunch Act
Provides low-cost or free school lunch meals to qualified students through subsidies to schools. "...declared to be the policy of Congress, as a measure of national security, to safeguard the health and well-being of the Nation's children and to encourage the domestic consumption of nutritious agricultural commodities and other food, by assisting the States, through grants-in aid and other means, in providing an adequate supply of food for the establishment of nonprofit school lunch programs." -
Truman Commission Report
Higher Education for American Democracy was a report to President Harry S. Truman on higher education in the U.S.. The Truman Commission Report calls for several significant changes in postsecondary education and the establishment of public community colleges. The commission helped popularize the phrase "community college" and helped shape the future of two-year degree institutions in the U.S. The report also calls for increased Federal spending in the form of scholarships and general aid. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education, now acknowledged as one of the greatest Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century, unanimously held that the racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Although the decision did not succeed in fully desegregating public education in the United States, it put the Constitution on the side of racial equality and galvanized the nascent civil rights movement into a full revolution. -
Ruby Bridges
Ruby Nell Bridges Hall is an American activist known for being the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in the South. She attended William Frantz Elementary School. In spring of 1960, Bridges was one of six black children in New Orleans to pass the test that determined whether they could go to the all-white school. Two of the six decided to stay at their old school, three were transferred to McDonogh, and Bridges went to a school by herself. -
National Defense Education Act (NDEA)
The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) provides funding to United States education institutions at all levels, public and private. NDEA was instituted primarily to stimulate the advancement of education in science, mathematics, and modern foreign languages; but it has also provided aid in other areas, including technical education, area studies, geography, and counseling and guidance. NDEA also gives federal support for improvement and change in elementary and secondary education. -
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Civil Rights Act of 1964
This act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. The act outlawed segregation in businesses such as theaters, restaurants, and hotels. It banned discriminatory practices in employment and ended segregation in public places such as swimming pools, libraries, and public schools. -
Project Head Start
The Head Start Program is a program of the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provides comprehensive early childhood education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families. The program's services and resources are designed to foster stable family relationships, enhance children's physical and emotional well-being, and establish an environment to develop strong cognitive skills. -
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was signed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who believed that "full educational opportunity" should be "our first national goal." ESEA offered new grants to districts serving low-income students, federal grants for text and library books, it created special education centers, and created scholarships for low-income college students. Additionally, the law provided federal grants to state educational agencies to improve the quality of education. -
McCarver Elementary School
The first school designed to reduce racial isolation by offering a choice to parents was an elementary school in Tacoma, Washington, called McCarver. McCarver Elementary School serves Tacoma’s poorest population of students. It has the largest number of homeless students. It is a population transient because of deep poverty, homelessness and housing instability, and the family challenges it can mean. This resulted in the McCarver Elementary School Special Housing Initiative. -
Bilingual Education Act
The Bilingual Education Act, Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1968 (BEA) was the first piece of United States federal legislation that recognized the needs of Limited English Speaking Ability students. Passed on the heels of the Civil Rights movement, its purpose was to provide school districts with federal funds, in the form of competitive grants, to establish innovative educational programs for students with limited English speaking ability, mainly Spanish speakers. -
Indian Education Act
The Indian Education Act was the landmark legislation establishing a comprehensive approach to meeting the unique needs of American Indian and Alaska Native students. It focuses national attention on the educational needs of American Indian learners, reaffirming the Federal government’s special responsibility related to the education of American Indians and Alaska Natives; and it provides services to American Indians and Alaska Natives that are not provided by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. -
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
Title IX is a comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity. The principal objective of Title IX is to avoid the use of federal money to support sex discrimination in education programs and to provide individual citizens effective protection against those practices. -
Rehabilitation Act
The Rehabilitation Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs conducted by federal agencies, in programs receiving federal financial assistance, in federal employment, and in the employment practices of federal contractors. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 replaces the Vocational Rehabilitation Act, to extend and revise the authorization of grants to States for vocational rehabilitation services, with special emphasis on services to those with the most severe disabilities, -
Plyler v. Doe
Plyler v. Doe was a case in which the Supreme Court struck down a state statute denying funding for education to unauthorized immigrant children and simultaneously struck down a municipal school district's attempt to charge unauthorized immigrants an annual tuition fee for each undocumented immigrant student to compensate for the lost state funding. The majority refused to accept that any state interest would be served by discrimination on this basis, and it struck down the Texas Law. -
California Proposition 227
Proposition 227 was a California ballot proposition passed in the June 2, 1998 ballot. Proposition 227 changed the way that "Limited English Proficient" (LEP) students are taught in California. The bill's intention was to educate Limited English proficiency students in a rapid, one-year program. It requires California public schools to teach LEP students in special classes that are taught nearly all in English. This provision had the effect of eliminating "bilingual" classes in most cases. -
No Child Left Behind
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is a United States Act of Congress that is a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. NCLB supports standards-based education reform based on the premise that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals can improve individual outcomes in education. The Act requires states to develop assessments in basic skills. To receive federal school funding, states must give these assessments to all students at select grade levels.
