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Boston Latin Grammar Schools
The Boston Latin School is the oldest school in America. The curriculum of the school is centered in the humanities, its founders shared the belief with the Greek that the only good things are the goods of the soul. Establishment of the school was due to the influence of the Reverend John Cotton, who wanted to create a school like the Free Grammar School of Boston, England, in which Latin and Greek were taught.
http://www.bls.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=206116&type=d -
Harvard College
Harvard is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States. In recognition of John Harvard’s bequest, the Great and General Court orders “that the college agreed upon formerly to be built at Cambridge shall be called Harvard College.”
http://www.harvard.edu/about-harvard/harvard-glance/history -
Old Deluder Satan Law
The Old Deluder Satan Law ordered that every township shall forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read. (All children must be taught to write and read).
http://www.constitution.org/primarysources/deluder.html
https://www3.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/masslaws.html -
New England Primer Published
During Colonial times in early America, the Founding Fathers realized that for the Republic to succeed, the society must follow the moral laws of the Bible. The Primer taught children to read while at the same time teaching them morals from the Bible.
http://www.free2pray.info/Primer.html -
South Carolina Denies Education to Blacks
Fearing that black literacy would prove a threat to the slave system -- which relied on slaves' dependence on masters -- whites in many colonies instituted laws forbidding slaves to learn to read or write and making it a crime for others to teach them.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/education/docs1.html -
Opening of the Franklin Academy in Philadelphia
The Academy of Philadelphia was founded to provide a classical education with a modern twist. An advertisement at the time of its opening in January of 1751 offered teaching in the following areas: writing, arithmetic, and mathematics (merchants' accounts, geometry, algebra, surveying, gauging, navigation, astronomy, etc.
http://www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/features/1700s/acad_curric.html -
Noah Webster’s American Spelling Book
Webster’s book, with its polysyllabic words broken into individual syllables and its precepts and fables, became the favorite spelling book.
http://www.merrycoz.org/books/spelling/SPELLING.xhtml -
Land Ordinance Act, Northwest Ordinance
"In an effort to consolidate schools and make education mandatory, Congress enacted the Land Ordinance of 1785.
Two years later came the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. This ordinance provided land in the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley regions for settlement."
https://www3.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/ord17857.html
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=8 -
Emma Willard’s Troy Female Seminary opens, first endowed secondary school for girls
"Thousands of young women passed through the Troy school during her lifetime. Although most were wealthy and worked mostly as wives and mothers, many of her graduates became teachers, writers, and social activists."
https://www.emmawillard.org/about-emma/emma-hart-willard -
First public high school opens in Boston
The English High School began in 1821. Up until the early 1800's, the education system in Boston consisted of a scattering of grammar schools throughout the town.The Academy was paid for, at least in part, by the parents of the students.
http://www.englishhs.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=75360&type=d&termREC_ID=&pREC_ID=129652&hideMenu=1 -
First normal school opens in Vermont
Rev. Samuel Hall established Concord Academy, the first training school for teachers to be recognized in the United States.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjcwJe5s8LSAhVEWSYKHRbgBo8QFggZMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Foldstonehousemuseum.org%2Fhall-bio%2F&usg=AFQjCNGAbaK2hAJeTJ27bw3HstOKkLvR8g&sig2=89b0tS4RBFOlOZtId1I-5w&bvm=bv.148747831,d.eWE -
Massachusetts requires public high schools
"In 1827, Massachusetts passed a law requiring all towns with 500+ families to have a public high school open to all students. The education system in America began to spread as the Perkins School for the Blind opened up in 1829."
https://www.sutori.com/item/in-1827-massachusetts-passed-a-law-requiring-all-towns-with-500-families-to-ha -
Horace Mann becomes secretary of board of education in Massachusetts
Named secretary of the new Massachusetts board of education in 1837, he overhauled the state's public-education system and established a series of schools to train teachers.
http://www.biography.com/people/horace-mann-9397522 -
First public normal school in Lexington, Massachusetts
The first public normal school in the United States was founded in Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1839.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/normal-school -
First kindergarten (German language) in United States
The kindergarten was much more influential in the United States and in the northern part of Europe. In the United States Margarethe Schurz founded the first kindergarten in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1856.
http://www.faqs.org/childhood/Ke-Me/Kindergarten.html -
Morrill Land Grant College Act
Land-Grant College Act of 1862, or Morrill Act, Act of the U.S. Congress (1862) that provided grants of land to states to finance the establishment of colleges specializing in “agriculture and the mechanic arts.”
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Land-Grant-College-Act-of-1862 -
Kalamazoo case (legalizes taxes for high schools)
In 1875 a lawsuit was filed in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to collect public funds for the support of a village high school. The town had used taxes to support the school for thirteen years without complaints from the citizens. The defendants in the case, the school officials, felt that a select few out of thousands need not dispute their obligation to pay taxes for the purpose of supporting a high school.
https://www3.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/kalamazo.html -
Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision supporting racially separate but equal schools
In the 1896 case of Plessy v Ferguson, the Supreme Court concluded that a Louisiana law requiring whites and blacks to ride in separate railroad cars did not violate the Equal Protection Clause.
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/PROJECTS/FTRIALS/conlaw/sepbutequal.htm -
First junior high school in Berkeley, California
The first junior high school opened its doors in Berkeley, California in 1910, and by 1920 over 800 junior high schools, each containing grades 7 through 9, had opened across the country.
http://www.faqs.org/childhood/In-Ke/Junior-High-School.html -
Smith-Hughes Act (fund vocational classes)
"Smith-Hughes Act, formally National Vocational Education Act, U.S. legislation, adopted in 1917, that provided federal aid to the states for the purpose of promoting precollegiate vocational education in agricultural and industrial trades and in home economics. "
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Smith-Hughes-Act -
Progressive education programs
"During most of the twentieth century, the term "progressive education" has been used to describe ideas and practices that aim to make schools more effective agencies of a democratic society. Although there are numerous differences of style and emphasis among progressive educators, they share the conviction that democracy means active participation by all citizens in social, political and economic decisions that will affect their lives. "
http://www.uvm.edu/~dewey/articles/proged.html -
New Deal education programs
"New Deal, the domestic program of the administration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1939, which took action to bring about immediate economic relief as well as reforms in industry, agriculture, finance, water power, labor, and housing, vastly increasing the scope of the federal government’s activities."
https://www.britannica.com/event/New-Deal -
G.I. Bill of Rights
"G.I. Bill (of Rights), also called Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, U.S. legislation passed in 1944 that provided benefits to World War II veterans. Through the Veterans Administration (VA), the bill provided grants for school and college tuition, low-interest mortgage and small-business loans, job training, hiring privileges, and unemployment payments."
https://www.britannica.com/topic/GI-Bill-of-Rights -
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Supreme Court decision outlawing racial segregation in schools
"Brown v. Board of Education (1954), now acknowledged as one of the greatest Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century, unanimously held that the racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/landmark_brown.html -
Sputnik leads to increased federal education funds
"The Soviets' history-making accomplishment — launching a satellite into orbit — created both paranoia and concern that the Soviets had beaten Americans into space. That concern sparked a much-needed revolution in scientific education in the U.S."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14829195 -
National Defense Education Act (NDEA) funds science, math, and foreign language programs
"National Defense Education Act (NDEA), U.S. federal legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower on September 2, 1958, that provided funding to improve American schools and to promote postsecondary education."
https://www.britannica.com/topic/National-Defense-Education-Act -
Job Corps and Head Start are funded
"In Johnson's first State of the Union address on June 8, 1964, he called for an unconditional war to defeat poverty. He expanded and revised the proposals given to Kennedy and developed the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964." The Act included Head start and Job Corps.
http://www.iacaanet.org/history.php -
Elementary and Secondary Act (ESEA)
"The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was a cornerstone of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty” (McLaughlin, 1975). This law brought education into the forefront of the national assault on poverty and represented a landmark commitment to equal access to quality education (Jeffrey, 1978)."
http://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/programs/education/elementary-and-secondary-education-act-of-1965/ -
Bilingual Education Act
"The Bilingual Education Act of 1968 is noted as the first official federal recognition of the needs of students
with limited English speaking ability (LESA). Since 1968, the Act has undergone four re-authorizations with
amendments, reflecting the changing needs of these students and of society as a whole."
https://ncela.ed.gov/files/rcd/BE021037/Fall88_6.pdf -
Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in schools
"Title IX states that: No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."
https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/tix_dis.html -
-Public Law 94-142, Education for All Handicapped Children Act (renamed the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act), is passed (IDEA)
"Congress first authorized IDEA in 1975 as the Education for All
Handicapped Children Act"
https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/2000/9/13/extensions-of-remarks-section/article/E1474-2 -
Cabinet-level Department of Education is established
"Congress passed the Department of Education Organization Act (Public Law 96-88). Created by combining offices from several federal agencies, the Department began operations in May 1980."
https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/focus/what_pg2.html -
No Child Left Behind Act calls for state standards and annual testing (President George Bush)
"The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, President George W. Bush's education-reform bill, was signed into law on Jan. 8, 2002."
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/schools/nochild/nclb.html -
Race to the Top (President Barack Obama)
"On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), legislation that was designed to stimulate the economy; support job creation; and invest in critical sectors, including education, in the aftermath of the Great Recession"
http://educationnext.org/results-president-obama-race-to-the-top-reform/
