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Mary McLeod Bethune founds the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls
Mary McLeod Bethune, an African American educator, founds the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls in Daytona Beach, Florida. It merges with the Cookman Institute in 1923 and becomes a coeducational high school, which eventually evolves into Bethune-Cookman College, now Bethune-Cookman University. -
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is founded.
The Foundation encouraged the adoption of a standard system for equating "seat time" (the amount of time spent in a class) to high school credits. Other important achievements of the Foundation during the first half of the 20th Century: the "landmark 'Flexner Report' on medical education, the development of the GRE, and the founding of the ETS. -
First junior high school opens
In 1909, the Columbus, Ohio, Board of Education authorized the creation of the first junior high school in the United States. Previously, students in Columbus remained in elementary school through the eighth grade, and then attended high school after eighth grade. -
The first Montessori school in the U.S. opens
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John Dewey's Democracy and Education. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education is published.
Dewey's views help advance the ideas of the "progressive education movement," which seeks to make schools more effective agents of democracy. -
US Enters World War I
Army alpha and beta tests laid groundwork for standardized testing -
Smith-Hughes Act passes
Provided federal funding for agricultural and vocational education. -
Franklin Bobbitt's "Scientific Method in Curriculum" is published
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19th Amendment is ratified
Women get the right to vote. -
Tennessee vs. John Scopes ("the Monkey Trial")
John Scopes, a high school biology teacher, is charged with the heinous crime of teaching evolution, which is in violation of the Butler Act, The trial ends in Scopes' conviction. The evolution versus creationism controversy persists to this day. -
The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is first administered
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Great Depression begins
The U.S. economy is devastated, and public education funding suffers greatly. -
Jean Piaget's The Child's Conception of the World is published
His theory of cognitive development becomes an important influence in American developmental psychology and education. -
Alvarez vs. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove (California) School District
The first successful school desegregation court case in the United States, as the local court forbids the school district from placing Mexican-American children in a separate "Americanization" school. -
U.S. enters World War II
The country's resources go to the war effort. Education is put on hold as many young men and employees are drafted or quit school to enlist. -
G.I. Bill of Rights
Because the law provides the same opportunity to every veteran, regardless of background, the long-standing tradition that a college education was only for the wealthy is broken. -
Mendez vs. Westminster and the California Board of Education
U. S. District Court in Los Angeles rules that educating children of Mexican descent in separate facilities is unconstitutional, thus prohibiting segregation in California schools and setting an important precedent for Brown vs. Board of Education.