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Common School movement
A movement for State sponsored education was brought about by Horace Mann. This movement brought a statewide curriculum, but more importantly it brought about the use of local property taxes to fund schools, this allowed students to go to public school for free. -
The First Montessori School
In New York, the first Montessori School in the U.S. opened. This allowed a new way of learning for children through play. A couple of years later after a visit from Marla Montessori, Alexander Graham Bell and his wife founded the Montessori Educational Association in Washington D.C. -
Brown v Board of Education
This is a landmark event that allowed children of all races to go to school together, schools were previously segregated and had a "separate but equal" policy. This made it so children could all attend and learn the same things together. -
Ruby Bridges
A historical event even today, Ruby Bridges becomes the first black student to attend William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. She was six years old at the time and had to be escorted to and from school by federal marshals, who also had to stand guard at the school. She was yelled at daily by a mob who hurled racial slurs, showed black baby dolls in caskets, and pulled their white children out of school. Ruby often played and ate alone at school, but she persevered. -
Head Start was Created
Head start was created to help families of low income be able to send their children to a program that helped meet their needs. This was all started as part of Johnson's war against poverty and allowed low income families' children to get a head start in life that they might not get otherwise(which would only continue cycles of generational poverty). Head start is still around today and many families use them regularly. What began as an 8 week program is now a legitimate school year round. -
Title IX
Title IX of Education Amendments becomes law. This law prohibits discrimination based on sex in all aspects of education. This helped pave the way for girls getting into sports, as well as getting more involved with science, technology, mathematics, and research positions as well as preventing: sexual harassment, providing unequal educational resources, disqualifying a person based on sex, and more. -
Children's Defense Fund was Founded
Marian Wright Edelman, a black female attorney, founded a non profit advocacy program called the Children's Defense Fund. They state the following: "we have become known for careful research on children’s survival, protection and development in all racial and income groups and for independent analyses of how federal and state policies affect children, their families and their communities." They have worked to build bipartisan support to help children escape various poverty inducing circumstances -
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
The individuals with disabilities act is made into law. This law guarantees that children with disabilities are entitled to appropriate special education in public schools. Not only that, but the education they receive must be tailored to their needs specifically. This helps ensure that children receive early intervention services if needed, and ongoing education. This celebrates the fact that though children may have disabilities that doesn't mean that they can't learn or shouldn't learn. -
The Invention of Google
A household name today, Google was invented. The invention of Google has had a profound impact not only on how teachers teach with the use of technology instead of in spite of, but it also had a profound impact on how students learn and their accessibility to more information. Today google is, perhaps, used more than ever before with the pandemic. Many teachers and schools are utilizing Google Classrooms as well as Google Scholar and other online tools to stay safe and continue education. -
Transgender Rights in Schools
The government informs schools that they must allow transgender children to use the bathroom of whatever gender they identify with and referenced title IX. This was faced with tons of backlash not only from schools, but from parents as well. Though the government didn't necessarily write it into law, they did warn that schools could face loss of government funding and/or face lawsuits if schools did not comply. Shortly after this, many states and their schools battled the decision.
