History of Multicultural Education

  • Civil Rights Movement

    The Civil Rights Movements began begin in the 1960s. This movement fought for the rights of minority groups in the United States and led to the argument that schools should teach a multicultural education to all students. It took many years, but eventually the movement was success. Today's society is the proof.
  • Public Law 88-352

    The Civil Rights Act was passed and prohibited discrimination when hiring employees (or firing employees) based on an applicant's race, background, gender, and religion. This was a major boost for multicultural education because it meant that there could be more ethic teachers in public and private schools.
  • United States v. The Jefferson County Board of Education

    This court case ordered that segregation is school be overruled and that schools have to racially balance their students in order to make things equal within the school grounds.
  • Gender and Religion

    Right around the 1970s the idea of expanding education to include and cover all races and ethnicities grew to also include gender and religion. Women's rights became a huge topic of discussion and more people began to fit outside of the Catholic bubble that America had initially consisted of.
  • Education Amendments of 1972

    These amendments brought about a lot of changes to the laws affecting multicultural education. The most significant of these changes was that any educational program receiving federal funding must not discriminate based on a participants gender.
  • Public Law 94-142

    This law was called the Education for All Handicapped Children's Act. This act focused on ensuring that certain children with disabilities could receive a free, proper education. This was a breaking point in the multicultural schooling history. It led to future changes that granted even more rights to children with disabilities.
  • Milliken v. Bradley

    This took place in Michigan, more specifically Detroit, and the ruling stated that the state and city must find a way to ensure that there was financial funding available to the education of African American students.
  • James Banks Research

    Looked at school systems in terms of how they incorporated a multicultural context. He was one of the first individuals to really dive deep into this topic and explore it fully.
  • Individuals with Diabilities Education Act

    This was an extention and modification of the Education for All Handicapped Children's Act. It clarified definitions and explanations. It also changed some wording to make the law politically correct.
  • No Child Left Behind

    The purpose of this law was to ensure that all children received a fair education and it did so by requiring that students be tested and required to meet certain standards set by the state.