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First School Built
The first public school in America was established by Puritan settlers in 1635 in the home of Schoolmaster Philemon Pormont and was later moved to School Street. -
Every Town of 50 Gets an Elementary
The General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony decrees that every town of fifty families should have an elementary school and that every town of 100 families should have a Latin school. -
Jefferson Pushes For Education
Jefferson believed all children should have at least three years of education in reading, writing, and math. -
Jeffersons Two Track Education System
Thomas Jefferson proposes a two-track educational system, with different tracks in his words for "the laboring and the learned." Scholarship would allow a very few of the laboring class to advance, Jefferson says, by "raking a few geniuses from the rubbish." -
Horace Mann & Board of Education
When Horace Mann was elected to act as Secretary of the newly-created Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837, he used his position to enact major educational reform. He spearheaded the Common School Movement, ensuring that every child could receive a basic education funded by local taxes. -
Public Education Comes To The South
After the Civil War, and with the legal end of slavery, African Americans in the South make alliances with white Republicans to push for many political changes, including for the first time rewriting state constitutions to guarantee free public education. -
Committe of Ten
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MOST IMPORTANT
In 1892 high school teachers were torn on wether high school was more of a college prepatory thing, or a life skills training thing. The National Education Association addressed this issue by appointing a Committee of Ten in 1892 to establish a standard curriculum. This influenced education because it made it so students leave high school with multiple classes, and paths to chose from. -
John Dewey in Education
John Dewey believed that students must be invested in what they were learning. Dewey argued that curriculum should be relevant to students' lives. -
Transportation Is Funded
In 1919 all states have laws providing funds for transporting children to school. Also compensation for those who dont live on "transportation routes". -
The Great Depression Hits Schools Hard
The Great Depression begins with the stock market crash in October. The U.S. economy is devastated. Public education funding suffers greatly, resulting in school closings, teacher layoffs, and lower salaries. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
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MOST IMPORTANT
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The Supreme Court unanimously agrees that segregated schools are "inherently unequal" and must be abolished. This caused a huge rift in the south, and is still prominent today because without this, we may still have segregated schools. -
Elementary and Secondary Education Act
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The Elementary and Secondary Education Act was developed under the principle of redress, which established that children from low-income homes required more educational services than children from affluent homes. As part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Title I Funding allocated 1 billion dollars a year to schools with a high concentration of low-income children. Title I funding is still in place today, aiding the schools with higher poverty rates. -
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Read more about IDEA here.MOST IMPORTANT
IDEA ensures students with disabilities have access to an education in the least restrictive enviornmnet. As of 2012, about 5.8 million school-age children in the United States receive special education services as a result of IDEA.This act has helped countless students throughout the years excell in school. -
A Nation at Risk
Read more about it here.MOST IMPORTANT
A Nation At Risk is a report that was issued by the National Commission on Excellence in Education. Economic repercussions were presumed to occur because of this poor state of American education. It was thought that as long as we continued to decline in education we would lose our competitive edge in the world's market economy. A nation at risk was so influencial, because without this testing education could have continued on that path and we would be even further behind today. -
No Child Left Behind Act
Under the 2002 law, states are required to test students in reading and math in grades 3–8 and once in high school. All students were expected to meet or exceed state standards in reading and math by 2014.The major focus of No Child Left Behind was to close student achievement gaps by providing all children with a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education.
