Timeline of the History of Public Education in America

  • Period: to

    American Colonial Period

  • Period: to

    American Early National Period

  • Jefferson proposed 3 years education

    3 years would be available to all students but advanced education would be only available to a select few.
  • Period: to

    Jefferson would propose general education again

    He brought it up 3 times and each time it was shot down.
  • Noah Webster made the Blueback Speller

    The government thought it best not to have british textbooks anymore
  • Period: to

    Horrace Mann in Massachusetts

    He was made Secretary of Education and went from district to district on horseback assessing schooling within his state
  • Inequity in schools

    Horrace Man determined schools were built on inequity after surveying over 1000 schools
  • Religious schooling debates

    Schooling debates were held that city funds should be available to other religions who wanted to open schools in the name of their fath so their children would not be subjected to a different faith in schools
  • Period: to

    American Common School Period

  • Public school society was replaced by the New York City Baoard of Education

  • Catholic schools were the major alternative

  • Law Passed abolishing segregation in schools in Massachusetts

    This law was used throughout the years in 1896 and 1954
  • Female Educators out West

    By having an army of women traveling to teach the goal was to create a profession for women and to fulfill a moral duty
  • Period: to

    American Progressive Period

  • John Dewey published The School and Society

    He was criticizing the rigic curriculum and turned people to the direction of child based learning.
  • The Schools of Gary, Indiana

    The school in Gary Indiana were modled so that students would have a good experience where they were interested in the topics and nor bored for the majority of the day by moving from class to class. The school was designed by William A. Wirt a follower of Dewey.
  • Victory in WWI

    After the allied powers defeated Germany in 1918 schools started burning books in that language, This helped educators to maintain an english only curriculum in 35 states
  • New York adopted the Gary method into schools

    The mayor John Mitchel put the Gary plan into 30 schools in New York, but immigrant families didn't like that. They wanted their children to have a more traditional education. Mitchel did not get re-elected and the new mayor John Hylan terminated the Gary plan in New York
  • IQ testing, Carreer Tracking

    Elwood P. Cubberley thought the one size fits all education was out of date and thought that education should be tailored to how that student will live outside of school and implimented a carreer tracking tool, based on the IQ test students would be placed into different types of courses that best suited their determined ability
  • Period: to

    Industrial Revolution

  • The Nava brothers

    The two are Mexican-Americans and were pushed towards more vocational courses because of their low IQ scores from when they were in kindergarden or first grade. Henry graduated and houned the navy, after returning home he pushed for Julian to also take college prep courses to the guidance counselor. Both were successfull in their fields of study, despite their "low IQ"
  • 13 parents including brown try to enroll

    The NAACP had 13 parents in Topeka, Kansas try to enroll their black children in white schools. None were successfull, but this was the first step towards the monumental cout case Brown v Board of Education
  • Period: to

    Civil Rights Movement

  • Educational Wastelands

    Arthur Bestor published his book talking about how education was being spoonfed to students and they weren't being made to think critically. This led to another call back to the basics of acedemic subjects.
  • Brown v Board of Education

    There was a unanimous descision that separate was not equal and ended segregation in schools across the country
  • National Defense Education Act

    This was the first time that a large sum of money was given to education and schools changed rapidly.
  • Arkansas called the national guard

    Rather than let black children attend the Little Rock Central High School the govenor called the national guard. In return the president Eisenhower called federal troops to enforce the integration.
  • Sputnik launch

    The sputnick launch reinforced the thoughts that Bestor had, pushing students even more into a classic acedemic era
  • Period: to

    Julian Nava fought IQ testing in Los Angeles schools

    Through these years Nava fought to ban IQ testing and was successful. Other minority groups helped to end carreer tracking in this time period also
  • Civil Rights Act 1964

    This banned discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity in any federally funded institutions. This threatened the loss of federal funding if discrimination continued.
  • Elementary and Secondary Education Act 1965

    This is the second act passed that helped end segregation. This act promised an increase in funds.
  • Crystal City

    Mexican-Americans students drew up a list of demands to the next school board meeting with the help of Jose Angel Gutierrez. When they were not listened to over the next few weeks more than 2/3 the students were not in attendance.
  • Title IX

    Now that different races in America had a more equal access to education and opportunities it was womens turn. Feminists had been fighting for rights to education and opportunities. Title IX was modled after the Civil Rights Act and it limmited federal grants to schools who discriminated on the basis of gender.
  • School Board Election

    In the next school board election Mexican Americans took the majority of seats with Jose Gutierrez being the president. This allowed them to make descisions when it came to funding or the curriculum and allowed for change to take place where the Mexican American students had proper representation in their learning.
    This was also the first time bilingual education was explored.
  • Bussing introduced

    The Supreme court said that bussing students within city limits was okay to help try and remedy the incidental segregation.
  • Language in schools

    A lawsuit took place because Chinese American students were being taught in english which they didn't understand. The supreme court found that there was discrimination. Students had equal access to materials but that access wasn't equitable. After this lawsuit the government allocated 68 million dollars for different language programs and materials.
  • Dorothy Raffel

    She wanted to play sports but there was no girls team, she tried out for the boys team. When denied the school made a girls team but it wasn't equally funded or supported by the school. Because of this Raffel added her name in a lawsuit against the federal government for failing to enforce Title IX. After the suit female students were allowed into vocational school and were given their own sports teams that were funded and supported by schools. Raffel got one of the first athletic scholarships
  • Detroit Michigan Bussing

    Bussing in Michigan didn't work as well as the supreme court wanted. Having minorty children buss from the city to the suberbs and having white children bus to the city was not well received by parents or students. It failed to succeed in its purpose and because of that the bussing was no longer required
  • Choice

    Schools in East Harlem had low state test scores and because of that they only had one way to go, up. Because of that the school district was experimenting with the idea of choice. Having alternative schooling available at already established schools.
  • Accessability for the disabled

    Legislation based on the Brown descision helped get these rights for disabled students as well.
  • Period: to

    Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform

  • Choice continues

    By 1982 all middle schoolers in the East Harlem school district were made to choose a school. By allowing kids to choose they could pick something they were interested in, and excell at those things. Schools that were unsuccessful were closed down and changed. Students who wanted to remain in that alternative school had to be outperforming others so the school could stay open and this was a market place model
  • Performance Review

    East Harlem school district was outperforming over half the city's school district with this model in place. The success started to spread the choice idea.
  • Furthering Choice

    With the success of the choice program New York allowed students to find school anywhere in the city. Allowing for choice not to just be within a building or two but throughout the whole city.
  • Vouchers begin

    A small number of students were given vouchers which allowed students to attend private schools that weren't religious. This would give the private school 2,500 of public school funding. This was an expansion of the Choice program in Milwaukee, giving poor parents the choice between public and private.
  • Homeschooling

    A new choice option was presenting itself, the right to homeschool
  • Educational Alernatives Incorportated (EAI)

    EAI took 9 schools under its supervision and claimed that it could boost test scores while maintaining profit. It was able to improve the buildings by investing company money
  • Tessaract Schools

    These schools were put in place by EAI, the tesseract was its new curriculum, including new computers. But this came at a cost for students as well as teachers, EAI replaced teachers with teachers' aids and interns, they cut special education and fine arts.
  • Vouchers and religious schools

    The expansion was debated and by using the fact that specific groups (Hispanic, Afro-Centric) could use vouchers then religious schools should be able to also. Ohio was the first to do this and then Milwaukee followed behind shortly after. And then the number of active vouchers went up to 6000.
  • Charter Schools

    While the chooice program had ended years ago it persisted but in the new form of charter schools. They had the same individualized learning approach with the same focus on competition, but these schools were unlice choice schools because they could take place outside of a traditional school, had a completely different curriculum, and they answered directly to the state instead of to a school board.
  • State Testing

    Clinton addressed the people and said that every 4th grader should be tested in reading and every th grader in math. With this a new focus turned to state testing and with that came the implimentation of Core knowledge curriculum.
  • Money Around Schools

    There was not enough money in schools, so they opened themselves up to advertising for companies to get extra funding, including news stations, and product placement.
  • School privitization

    EAI said it could do more for students and the schools, but student scores didn't seem to be improving all that much, and with a financial crisis happening in cities the Board of Education was pushed to end the experiment. Despite its failures schools were now able to spend their own money instead of having the money spent for them and this overall helped schools in the long run
  • Core Knowledge

    Created by ED Hirsch Core Knowledge offers the same curriculum to all students, and there is a timeline for learning with this. Because everyone was receiving the same curriculum test scores became even more important, they started being responsible for how certain funds were allocated within schools and they started testing every grade not just 4th and 8th