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Department of Education Created
• President Andrew Johnson signed legislation creating the first Department of Education
• Main purpose was to collect information and statistics about the nation’s schools
• Due to concern that the Department would exercise too much control over local schools, the new Department was demoted to an Office of Education in 1868
• Remained relatively small operating under different titles and housed in various agencies until 1950’s -
Dewey Decimal System
• Dewey Decimal Classification used to organize the contents of a library based on the division of all knowledge into 10 groups with each group assigned 100 numbers. These 10 main groups are un turn subdivided again and again to provide more specific subject groups
• First formulated by the American librarian Melvil Dewey
• The numerical classification provides a shorthand identification and location tool -
GI Bill of Rights
• Signed into law by President franklin D. Roosevelt on June 22, 1944
• Provided veterans from WW II funds for college education, unemployment insurance and housing
• Used to reduce postwar depression and make sure the 15 million men and women serving would not be unemployed
• The act provided tuition, subsistence, books and supplies, equipment, and counseling services for veterans continue their education in school or college
• Approximately 8 million veterans received educational benefits -
Supreme Court case Engel vs Vitale
• New York State law required public schools to open each day with the Pledge of Allegiance and a nondenominational prayer
• A parent sued on behalf of his child arguing that the law violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, as made applicable to the states through the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment
• Supreme Court ruled 6-1 that school-sponsored prayer violates the First Amendment
• https://www.oyez.org/cases/1961/468 -
Supreme Court case Tinker vs Des Moines
• A public school in Des Moines, Iowa students planned to wear black armbands at school as a silent protest against the Vietnam War, warned students that they would get suspended if they wore them
• 7-2 decision the Supreme Court’s majority ruled that neither students nor teachers “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate”
• https://www.oyez.org/cases/1968/21 -
A Nation at Risk
• April 1983 the National Commission of Excellence in Education released the report A Nation at Risk
• Declaring that the “educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people”
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQzdyhSDhuM -
Americans with Disabilities Act
• ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act
• Makes it illegal to discriminate against people with disabilities
• It applies almost everywhere from schools to workplaces to public places like restaurants and businesses
• Requires places to have ramps, elevators and designated parking spots and curb cuts to provide accommodations for people with a range of disabilities
• https://time.com/5870468/americans-with-disabilities-act-coronavirus/ -
No Child Left Behind Act
• Main focus was to close student achievement gaps by providing all children with a fair, equal and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education
• Four pillars within the bill: accountability, flexibility, research-based education, and parent options
• Required each state to establish state academic standards and a state testing system that meet federal requirements -
Common-Core Initiative
• Creating one set of challenging academic expectations for all students would improve achievement and college readiness
• Common-Core Standards are skills students should have at each grade level in English/language arts and math by the time they finish high school
• They are broad outline of learning expectations from which teachers or district leaders craft a curriculum
• Adopted by 43 states -
COVID-19
• In the year 2020 the was a world outbreak of the disease COVID-19 or the coronavirus many schools closed or didn’t allow in-person learning
• This was detrimental to many kids because their education was cut short and the following year it was a mixture of in-person to online learning to make sure kids continued learning
• https://abcnews.go.com/Health/study-shows-covid-19-case-rates-schools-higher/story?id=77193309