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New England Town Schools
In New England, educating children was left up to individual households and churches. Children were usually taught reading skills by reading religious materials and were taught household skills. The MA government did not see this as formal enough and worried that uneducated children would be "lured to follow Satan's temptations" (Kaplan, 2015), so a law was passed that children had to be taught by a teacher, which was funded by taxation of the entire colonies. -
Horace Mann's Normal Schools
Horace Mann was the U.S. Secretary of Education in 1837. He believed that all children should receive a good, common education in order to benefit the future economy and democracy, and that it would promote children to learn self discipline and social responsibility. The first normal school started in Lexington, MA, but the idea quickly spread. Classrooms were viewed as learning laboratories, where teachers were able to practice their skills. -
World War I
Standardized testing which we still practice today, was developed during WWI. The military was in need of recruits, so they came up with these tests in order to get an idea of students' intellectual level. There was also a shift in focus from child labor to education. The WPA gave money to schools, the NYA created work-study programs for high school students, and the CCC created voluntary education programs that taught young men to read and write. This was the foundation of high school education -
Brown v. Board of Education
The Supreme Court ruled that the "separate but equal" ruling was still unequal, as white children were getting more access to a good education and in order to prepare children for the future, ALL children should have equal access to the same public education. Unfortunately, this still came with resistance and African American students were not welcomed or treated well at the public schools that were previously all white. -
Public Law 94-142
In 1975, it was discovered that over half of the 8 million disabled children in the U.S. were not receiving an equal opportunity to education. Prior to this, only students with intellectual disabilities had access to education. The Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed so that children 3-21 with ALL disabilities were given a free and appropriate education.
