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Hall's Child Study
In 1900, the movement to create a more child-centered education began. G. Stanley Hall completed a study that looked at how a child's personality and mind develop, with hopes to help teacher's properly educate all students in the way that best benefits the individual. He decided that students develop in stages, and that one stage must be completed before another can begin. "By 1900, the child study movement had become a key part of educational psychology." (Kaplan and Owings, p 137). -
Compulsory Education Attendance Laws
Mississippi was the last state to pass a compulsory attendance law, stating that every child must attend school for a set number of years. Majority of states hold the law that a child must begin school by the age of 6 and stay within the educational system until they are at least 16. An attempt to reduce child labor and increase literacy in children, this important turning point insured that all children received an education. -
Brown vs. Board of Eduction
In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that "separate but equal" was "inherently unequal." The case examined segregated schools, and determined that while the schools may have access to the same entities, children attending the "white" schools had more advantages that children attending the "black" schools. This extreme turning point - which caused great backlash and was resisted for a great deal of time - ended the segregation of schools. -
The Coleman Report
The publishing of the Coleman report, which examined the achievement gap between children of different races, income groups, and national origins, "deduced that family background - not schools - was the most important determiner of a child's academic success." (Kaplan and Owings, p 157). I chose this as an important turning point in educational history because, for the first time, a child's home life was examined instead of just what happened in the classroom. -
No Child Left Behind
No Child Left Behind is the only turning point this timeline that is a wrongful point in the history of education. NCLB involves the "allocation of federal monies to rigorous and highly public school accountability for raising traditionally under reserved students' academic achievement" (Kaplan and Owings, p 164). In short, NCLB requires all students to pass a series of standardized testing prior to a school receiving state funding.
