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In response to the large number of Cuban immigrant children arriving in Miami after the Cuban Revolution,Coral Way Elementary School starts the first bilingual and bi-cultural public school in the United States.
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The Civil Rights Act becomes law. It prohibits discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion or national origin.
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Project Head Start, a preschool education program for children from low-income families, begins as an eight-week summer program. Part of the "War on Poverty," the program continues to this day as the longest-running anti-poverty program in the U.S.
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The Bilingual Education Act, also know as Title VII, becomes law. After many years of controversy, the law is repealed in 2002 and replaced by the No Child Left Behind Act.
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The case of Diana v. California State Board results in new laws requiring that children referred for possible special education placement be tested in their primary language.
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Michael Hart, founder of Project Guttenberg, invents the e-Book.
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John Holt's book,Teach Your Own: A Hopeful Path for Education, adds momentum to the homeschooling movement.
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The University of Phoenix establishes their "online campus," the first to offer online bachelor's and master's degrees. It becomes the "largest private university in North America."
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Whiteboards find their way into U.S. classrooms in increasing numbers and begin to replace the blackboard.
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In yet another school shooting tragedy, high school senior Karl Pierson enters Arapohoe High School (Centennial, Colorado) on December 13 armed with a shotgun, machete, and Molotov Cocktails. His goal apparently was to take revenge on the school librarian and debate coach who had disciplined him earlier in the school year. Instead, before taking his own life, he critically wounds a female classmate. She dies eight days later.
