History of American Education

  • Benjamin Franklin

    Formed the American Philosophical Society, which brought over the ideas of European enlightenment to colonial America.
  • Benjamin Franklin

    Helped establish the first English Academy in Philadelphia , now called the University of Pennsylvania.
  • Thomas Jefferson

    Proposed 2-track education system with different tracks for the laboring and the learned.
  • Common Schools

    All children attend the same schools and are taught the same political and social ideology
    The government used the common schools as instruments of government policy
    States created agencies used to control local schools
  • Frederick Froebel

    Founder of kindergarten and very influential educational reformers of the 19th century.
  • Horace Mann

    “The Father of the Common School Movement” Becomes Secretary of new Massachusetts State Board of Education.
  • Normal Schools

    Train (elementary) school teachers for common schools.
  • Elizabeth Palmer Peabody

    Opens first formal kindergarten on Boston, MA.
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    Morril Act (1 and 2)

    Donates public land to states that will be used for colleges that will support education related to agriculture and the mechanic arts. Provides for more complete support of colleges. Part of which lead to 16 historically black land-grant colleges.
  • Civil Rights Act

    Banned segregation in all public accommodations.
    Commons Schools
  • Booker T. Washington

    Was the first principal of the normal school in Tuskegee, Alabama, now called Tuskegee University.
  • Maria Montessori

    Opened the Casa del Bambini, a school for disadvantaged children.
  • John Dewey

    Democracy and Education. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education is published. His views helped to advance the ideas of “progressive education” which seeks to make schools more effective agents of democracy.
  • Smith-Hughes Act

    Passed providing federal funding for agriculture and vocational education.
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    Dick and Jane Readers

    A series that was published by the Scott Foresman Company, that helped school children learn to read.
  • Brown vs. Board of Education

    Decided that the racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This Supreme Court case put the Constitution on the side of racial equality.
  • Elementary and Secondary Education Act

    Provided federal funds to help low-income students, which started the initiation of educational programs such as Title 1 and bilingual education.
  • Project Head Start

    An 8 week summer preschool program that teaches children with low-income families.
  • Children with Disabilities Act

    Replaced the Education of the Handicapped Act. It states that all children (people) with disabilities have the right to a free appropriate public education.
  • No Child Left Behind

    Reauthorized the ESEA of 1965 and replaces the bilingual education act of 1968. Mandates students testing (high-stakes), holds schools accountable achievement levels, and provides penalties to schools that don’t make good yearly progress toward the NCLB goals.