-
Massachusetts Educational Law
In 1647 Massachusetts makes it a law that each town with over 50 homes must provide a teacher who can read and write for the local children. They also determine that towns over 100 schools must establish a grammar school for students. This is an inital stepping stone for making education available. -
Elementary Spelling Book
The Elementary Spelling book was wrintten by Noah Webster as a way to seperate the newly independant American continent from Britan. He felt that it was vital to create a cultural separation and that it would be a mistake to use Brtish text in American School. This text was used for 100+ years and still is in print and impacts our language today, making it the most important moment to me. -
Secondary School Movement
The Secondary School movement of 1824 was to provide a more practical education to students and to prepare them for life. It focus on seven principals. -
Catharine Beecher
Catharine Beecher founded several colleges for women. At these colleges she trained them to be teachers out west. Jobs were available to women becasue their pay was lower than that of their male counterparts. Catherine is largely responsible for the female presence we see in education today. -
Free Education
After the Civil War Congress requires states to include in thier constitutions that they would provide a free education. -
IQ Testing
The IQ test was developed and used in coordination with selection of soldiers for WWI. The IQ test became a permanent part of American education. It has been and continues to be used for both good and bad in our eductional system. Either as a tool to assist those students with special needs or select and seperate the most intellegent students and give them more opportunities than other students. Due to the effect that this has had on our Ed system, I think it may be the the most important point -
WWI
After WWI 35 states moved to an English only education. There was a focus on "Americanizing" education. Christian Holidays are observed in the public school system. -
Common School & Horace Mann
The Common School was established to give studnets a common body of knowledge. Horace Mann was the first Secretary of the Board of Edcation. He rode over 1000 schools and determined that livestock was treated better than education. He became a crusader for Public Education. -
Brown vs. the Board of Education
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/brownvsboard.htmlThe lawsuit was filed after 13 parents from Topeka, KS attempted to enrol their children in white schools and were denied access. This was a stepping stone for the Civil rights act and one of the more important moments. The Supreme court ruled that it was unlawful to segrate schools, "Seperate but equal, was not equal". This ruling displaced over 30,000 black teachers. The law was largely ignored, at the time of the Civil Rights Act 98% of black children were still in segregated schools -
Sputnick & NDEA
The launch of Sputnik by Russia made the Untied States feel as though they were losing in terms of Cold War Tech and the Military race as direct result of their lack in trained educator, engineers and students. As a result NDEA was intstituted and provided federal fundign to areas like math, science, and current foreign languages. -
Civil Rights Act
The Civil Rights act of 1964 is likely the most important moment for me. This act took enforcement of desegregation into full effect. The ability to remove federal funding from schools who refused to desegregate increased compliance with the law exponentially. Increased opportunities for students and teachers. It also opened doors for Bilingual education programs for students who were not proficient in english. -
War on Poverty
The War on Poverty innitiated by President Lyndon B Johnson inferred the belief that an equal chance at education would give people an qual chance at life. It federally funded Headstart programs, college loans, low income housing, and increased funding for Welfare. It also focused on improving inner city schools. -
IDEA
http://www.help4adhd.org/education/rights/ideaIDEA for me is one of the most important moment to American Education. IDEA for the first time took those individuals who have a disability and made them equal members of our society and education community. Persons with disablilities are guarenteed under the law, access to a free and appropriate education. To this point in time education was rarely, if ever available to persons with disablitiies. IDEA also became a starting point for many other laws regarding individuals with disabilities. -
A Nation at Risk
A Nation at Risk was the educational reform during the Reagan administration. The reform indicated that we would consider it an "act of war" if an unfriendly nation had impossed our educational system on us. The reform had two primary process of reform. The first was from the state level moving down into the schools, focusing on technology and basic skills. The second was from the local level it worked to empower teachers and parents. -
No Child Left Behind
No Child Left Behind was a program to increase US education in the international rankings. NCLB mandated that studnets grades 3-8 must be tested yearly and that students grades 10-12 must be tested at least once. The test while issued by the state had to be approved on a federal level. Standards for both students and teachers were raised. Schools failiing to meet required standards could face consequences of new staff and or a take over if standards were not met within 5 years.
