The History of American Education

By aksmitty
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    Average Lifetime School Attendence: 82 Days

  • Viginia Assembly Public Education Proposal

    Proposal to garantee 3 years of public education for all children (except slave children). Defeated by Virginia Assembly.
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    Statewide School Systems emerge

    Statewide public schools begin to become a reality, especially in Massachusetts.

  • Horace Mann tours schools

    Horace Mann, the first Secretary of Education, toured over a 1000 schools. Found that the quality was widely varied, most were supported by local taxes, and were primarily for wealthy families.
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    Massachusetts Average Lifetime School Attendence: 4 months

  • Bishop John Hughes

    Bishop John Hughes protested against bigotry in New York public schools. Irish Catholics were treated harshly, even in textbooks. Hughes demanded that public funds be made available for Catholic schools.

  • Philadelphia Bible Riots

    A rumor that the Bible was going to be removed from public schools led to Anit-Catholic backlash and massive riots. A Catholic church was burned.
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    Massachusetts Average Lifetime School Attendence: 7 months

  • Massachusetts Supreme Court Ruling on Segregation

    Mass. State Supreme Court rules agains Benjermin Roberts, who sued the Boston school system to integrate schools. Court case would be cited later when both defending and aboloshing segregation.

  • Segregation Abolished in Massachusetts

  • U.S. Civil War Ends

    Civil War ends. African American Slaves are freed.
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    U.S. Public School Spending: $63 million

    Enrollement: 7.6 million students.
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    U.S. Public School Spending: $141 million

    Enrollment: 12.7 million students, leading the world in education.

  • The School and Society

    John Dewey publishes book. He is known as the "Father of Progressive Education."
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    50% of U.S. children attend school

    Average Lifetime Schooling: 5 years

  • I.Q. Testing

    Louis Terman publishes review of his "I.Q." test. This test would be widely used later to judge intelligence.

  • Riots Protesting "Gary Plan"

    Over 5,000 people protest the implementation of the "Gary Plan" in New York schools. The Gary Plan was a an education model started in Gary Indiana.
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    35 States Require English Only Education

    Immigrants were "Americanized" in public schools.
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    Public School Expenditures: $1 Billion

    17% of 17 year olds graduate high school.
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    Federal Law Bans Child Labor

    All states require school attendence until age 16.
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    50 percent of high school graduates go to college

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    Segregation by law in 17 states

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    72% of disabled children not enrolled in school

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    3 out of 5 students graduate high school

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    Average Span of Schooling for Mexican Americans: 5.4 years

  • Linda Brown tries to enroll in white school

    Linda Brown's father attempts to enroll her in a white elementary school in Topeka Kansas.

  • Supreme Court Decision: Brown v Board of Education

    U.S. Supreme court makes unanimous decision, banning segregation in U.S. schools.

  • Little Rock Crisis

    National Guard called in to prevent nine African American children from attending high school. Federal troops were called in later to enforce the Supreme Court decision.

  • Sputnik 1 Launched

    First Artificial Satellite launched into Earth's orbit by Soviet Union. This would put pressure on American schools to put emphasis on math, science, and engineering.

  • Civil Rights Act of 1974

  • Elementary and Secondary Education Act

    Provided 4 billion dollars to help disadvantaged students
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    Texas: 75% Mexican-American Students drop out by 8th grade.

  • Crystal City Texas Walkouts

    Massive student walkouts protesting the Crystal City Texas School Board's discrimination against Mexican-American students.
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    7.4% of high school athletes are women

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    1% of medical and law degrees are awarded to women

  • Crystal City Texas School Board Election

    4 out of 7 School Board seats are filled with Mexican Americans. Crystal City School District becomes a "labratory" for billingual education.
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    35 States increase graduation requirments

  • A Nation at Risk

    Ronald Reagan report "A Nation at Risk" shatters public confidence in public schools.

  • East Harlem Schools Improve

    After implemenation of schools choice and alternative school programs, East Harlem schools go from being ranked last to out performing half of cities schools.

  • Milwaukee Voucher Program Started

    Low income students allowed to attend private schools at tax payer expence.

  • Private Company E.A.I. Hired to Run Public Schools in Baltimore

  • President George H Bush calls for vouchers

  • E.A.I. voted out of Baltimore Schools

    Experiment with privatization in Baltimore Schools after student achievement fails to improve.

  • Cleveland Ohio Vouchers for Religous Schools

    Low income students are first in nation to use publicly funded vouchers for private religous schools.

  • Federal Government Spends $80 million on building charter schools

  • Columbine High School Massacre

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    Students Homeschooled: 2.5%

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    U.S. student enrollment: 47.8 million

    90% enrolled in Public Schools