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The Term "Learning Disability"
Samuel A. Kirk used the term "learning disability" at a conference on children with perceptual disorders, and the term stuck. This led to the formation of the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities, now the Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA). This helped children with learning disabilities get recognized in order to receive the help they needed. The LDA provides support to people with learning disabilities, their parents, and teachers in various ways. -
The Civil Rights Act
The Civil Rights Act was signed into law on July 2, 1964. This act was an incredible legislative achievement of the civil rights movement. It prohibits discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, or national origin. This was a huge step in the right direction for all different types of people. -
Immigration Act of 1965
Lyndon Johnson signed the Immigration Act of 1956, also known as the Hart-Cellar Act. This eliminated the various nationality criteria, supposedly putting people of all nations on an equal footing for immigration to the United States. It resulted in an unprecedented number of Asians and Latin Americans to immigrate to the US. It was considered an extension of civil rights sentiments. Ultimately, it led to much more diverse classrooms in America. -
The Indian Education Act
This established a comprehensive approach to meeting the unique needs of American Indian and Alaska Native Students. It recognizes that American Indians have unique, educational, and culturally related academic needs and distinct language and cultural needs. It is the only comprehensive Federal Indian Education legislation, that deals with American Indian education from pre-school to graduate-level education and reflects the diversity of government involvement in Indian education. -
The Equal Education Opportunity Act
This act prohibits discrimination and requires schools to take action to overcome barriers which prevent equal protection. This civil rights statute prohibits states from denying equal educational opportunity to an individual on account of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin. This legislation also has been particularly important in protecting the rights of students with limited English Proficiency. -
Plyler v. Doe
The Supreme Court ruled that Texas law denying access to public education for undocumented school-age children violates the Equal Protection Clause. It also found that school districts cannot charge tuition fees for the education of these children. These children can neither affect their parents' conduct nor their own undocumented status. The deprivation of education takes an inestimable toll on the social, economic, intellectual, and psychological wellbeing of the individual. -
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
In addition to changing terminology from handicap to disability, it mandates transition services and adds autism and traumatic brain injury to the eligibility list. IDEA sets high standards for their achievement and guides how special help and services are made available in schools to address their individual needs. More than 6 million children with disabilities receive special education and related services in IDEA schools each year. -
Multicultural Education: Transformative Knowledge and Action written by James Banks
This book makes an important contribution to the growing body of scholarship regarding multiculturalism in education. James Banks demonstrates the ways in which the current multicultural education movement is both connected to and a continuation of earlier movements, both scholarly and activist, designed to promote empowerment, knowledge transformation, liberation, and human freedom in US society. -
Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No1 and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education
Seattle-whites or non-whites could be favored for admission depending on which race would bring the racial balance closer to the goal. Jefferson County-no school was allowed to have an enrollment of black students less than 15% or greater than 50% of its student population. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that race cannot be a factor in assigning students to high schools, thus rejecting the integration plans, and possibly affecting similar plans in school districts around the nation. -
U.S. School Enrollment Hits Majority-Minority Milestone
When schools opened in the fall of 2014, a demographic milestone was reached. Minority students enrolled in K-12 public school classrooms outnumbered non-Hispanic Caucasians. It's a shift that poses a plain imperative for public schools and society at large, demographers and educators say: The United States must vastly improve the educational outcomes for this new and diverse majority of American students, whose success is inextricably linked to the well-being of the nation.
