Educational History Timeline

By Melanie Denaris
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    Educational History Timeline

  • First Public School

    First Public School
    The first public school in the American colonies, Boston Latin School, opens.

  • The Compulsory Education Law

    The Compulsory Education Law
    Massachusetts Bay Colony passes the Compulsory Education Law, requiring parents to teach their children to read.

  • First Education Law

    First Education Law
    Massachusetts Bay Colony becomes the first to require towns of at least 50 households to hire a teacher to educate the town’s children. Towns of 100 families should build public elementary schools

  • Evening School

    An evening school
    for working children
    is established in
    New Amsterdam
    (now New York
    City.)

  • The First School for African Americans

    Quaker school
    for black students
    established in
    Philadelphia

  • Education for Poor Children

    The New York Public
    School Society is formed by
    wealthy businessmen to
    provide education for poor
    children. Schools are run
    on the “Lancasterian”
    model, in which one “master”
    teaches hundreds of
    students in a single room

  • Bilingual Education Law

    Bilingual Education Law
    Ohio becomes the
    first state to
    adopt a bilingual
    education law,
    allowing for
    German-English
    instruction at
    parents’ requests.

  • Spencerian Penmanship

    Spencerian Penmanship
    Platt Rogers
    Spencer develops
    the first widely
    used handwriting
    teaching system
    in schools, called
    Spencerian penmanship.

  • First Special Education School

    First Special Education School
    The first school for children with mental disabilities opens in Massachusetts.

  • NEA

    The National
    Teachers
    Association is
    formed. The name
    later changes to
    National Education
    Association (NEA).

  • School for Native Americans

    School for Native Americans
    A school for Native-American
    children opens in Carlisle, PA
    with 147 students.

  • The First PTA Meeting

    The First PTA Meeting
    The National Congress of Mothers is organized in Washington during a meeting attended by 2,000 people. Today, the group is known as the National Parent Teachers Association, or PTA.

  • Sex Education Program

    A sex education program is
    introduced citywide in public
    high schools in Chicago, Illinois

  • National School Lunch Act of 1946

    National School Lunch Act of 1946
    The United States Congress
    approves the National School
    Lunch Act of 1946, creating the
    modern school lunch program.

  • The School of Performing Arts

    The School of Performing Arts is the first public high school to specialize in music, dance, theater, and broadcasting. It is a division of the Metropolitan Vocational High School in New York.

  • Segregated Schools

    Segregated Schools
    The U.S. Supreme Court rules schools segregated by race are unequal and therefore unconstitutional.

  • The School Breakfast Program

    The School Breakfast Program
    The School Breakfast Program pilot is launched. It becomes permanent in 1975.

  • All Handicapped Children Act

    Congress approves
    the Education for
    All Handicapped
    Children Act,
    requiring states to
    provide free education
    for all children
    with disabilities.

  • The Education Act

    The Education Act
    of 1986 is expanded
    to mandate biological
    education about
    HIV, AIDS, and sexually
    transmitted
    diseases in public
    schools.

  • Immigrants Attend Public School

    Proposition 187 passes in California,
    making it illegal for children of undocumented
    immigrants to attend public school.