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Education in the Colonial Period
There were only schools in large towns. Schools were not free or public, so people pulled resources to hire a teacher. The protestant bible was the main study materials. -
Noah Webster (MOST IMPORTANT)
Noah Webster was a patriotic man through and through. He believed that we needed to become separate from England and create our own national way of speaking. Thus in 1783 he pubished what is best known as the Blue-Backed Speller. It is one of the most influential and used books of our history and has transformed to what we all know as Webster's Dictionary. Webster's work has fostered an American language. http://connecticuthistory.org/noah-webster-and-the-dream-of-a-common-language/ -
Northwest Land Ordinance
There was a ton of untamed land to the west and the government needed money without taxing the people that had just been liberated from taxation without representation. So as a way to raise money they began selling land in the west. This also helped with increasing number of immigrants settling in the US. -
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Population Growth & Immigration 19th Century
Population grew from 13 to 32 million very quickly. There was no room for this onslaught of people so people began moving west and building cities. There was 1 million square miles of territory growth in the cities. Factories were everywhere, thus began the Industrial Revolution. -
Horace Mann (MOST IMPORTANT)
A Massachussetts state senator who believed deeply in a good and free education for all children. After becoming the first Secretary on the Board of Education he rode around all the towns on his horse to see the conditions of the schools and the way students were being taught. Mann was the Father of Common Schools. Which are free, tax paid, high quality schools. He believed teaching should be a profession and they should be taught and regulated. http://www.pbs.org/onlyateacher/horace.html -
Common Schools
Common body of knowledge and equal chance for all students. They were nice enough that the rich kids would want to attend, but free so the poor could. These schools had chairs with backs, blackboards, standardized textbooks, and qualified, competent teachers that were regulated. The textbooks were still focused on the Protestant religion. -
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John Dewey
Dewey was a philosopher who believed that school and society were related and interconnected. He is known as the “Father of Progressive Education”. His idea of education was to invest in the whole child. -
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Secondary Education Movement
In 1860, there were 300 high schools and 6000 academies. Slow growing, and mostly in urban areas. By 1900, there were 6000 high schools because of immigrants, growth in industry, etc. Grew as industry and economy grew. -
Education After the Civil War (MOST IMPORTANT)
4 million African-Americans went to school in 1865. All states were required to offer free non-secular education to children. After the civil war we had the most children in school in one nation. There was also a big push for women teachers, as they were seen to be the most qualified, because they were better with children and cheaper. Catherine Beecher knew this was the way to create a profession for women. http://www.pbs.org/onlyateacher/timeline.html -
Gary Plan (MOST IMPORTANT)
School built in Gary, Indiana with an interest in giving kids a rich school experience. Kept kids moving to different classrooms. Many different interests (ie: zoo and shop). Believed in an ideal of work, study, play. Students helped run the school. "Every working man a scholar and every scholar a working man". The school in Gary began a focus on caring for the children at school giving them a place to care for health and hygiene. http://www.britannica.com/topic/Gary-Plan -
Brown vs. Board of Education
Supreme court ruled that “separate facilities are inherently unequal”. Became against the law to segregate schools, but it was fought in the South and ultimately not obeyed. For the schools that did integrate, it was just students and many African-American teachers lost their jobs. -
Lyndon B. Johnson (MOST IMPORTANT)
1964 Civil Rights Act- Federal finding for desegregation. Schools to lose federal funding for not abiding. The South finally forced to integrate schools.
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act
War on Poverty- LBJ legacy, “equal chance at education meant equal chance at life”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2014/01/08/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-war-on-poverty/
LBJ made huge impacts on making education available and equal for everyone. -
A Nation at Risk (MOST IMPORTANT)
A catalyst for the academic-standards movement. The Imperative for Educational Reform is President Ronald Reagan's National Commission on Excellence in Education. The report contributed to the ever-growing assertion that American schools were failing, and it set off a wave of local, state, and federal reform efforts. Reform took place in content, standards, time, teaching, and leadership and fiscal support.
http://neatoday.org/2013/04/25/a-nation-at-risk-turns-30-where-did-it-take-us-2/ -
Growth of Standardized Testing
From A Nation at Risk grew a necessity to measure students progress. Cost of standardized testing from 1983-1984 was $500 million. Test scores became for schools what profit margins are for businesses. -
No Child Left Behind
The Act requires states to develop assessments in basic skills. To receive federal school funding, states must give these assessments to all students at select grade levels. The Act does not assert a national achievement standard. Each individual state develops its own standards. NCLB expanded the federal role in public education through further emphasis on annual testing, annual academic progress, report cards, and teacher qualifications, as well as significant changes in funding.
