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Noah Webster
Noah Webster pushed for the teaching of our new nation and was known as the "schoolmaster of America." After the Revolutionary War there was a decision to get rid of all the British text books for school leading Webster to create a new textbook titled "The Blueback Speller." -
Horace Mann
Through the 1830s and 1840s Mann rode around from district to district documenting the physical standing of each school. He then accomplished both teacher training and regulation, and he got free tax supported education for all of the kids in the Northern States -
Catholic Schooling
Towards the end of the 1840s there was a huge increase in Irish immigrants. John Hughes knew that these children would not wish to go to a school where a different religion was pushed onto them. After he was named Archbishop in 1850 he used his new power to implement an entire system of Nation wide Catholic Schools. -
IQ Testing
With education constantly changing, around this time it was decided that only the best of the best students would be sent to college. They created different curriculums and then to see where a student would fit they gave them the first ever IQ test. -
Child Labor Laws
During the Great Depression a law finally passed requiring schools to track attendance of all students up to the age of 16. This resulted in over-crowded classrooms and an increase of the use of the IQ test -
National Defense Education Act
When the Soviet Union made it to outer space before the US the education system took the fault. There was a huge shift in mathematic and science courses, making them more challenging and increasing their importance. Then a year later President Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act. Over $100 million was given to help public education yearly. -
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act
The Elementary and Secondary Education act was written into place a year after The Civils Right Act. It declared that if schools refused to integrated or discriminated against their students that funding would be taken away from that school. This finally lead the enforcement of the decision on the Brown V. Board case. -
Severita Lara
Severita Lara decided that she was tired of the way the Hispanic students were being treated at school; and together the students compiled a list of demands to bring to attention to the school board. Parents showed to the meeting in support but when she went to speak the president made a motion to adjourn and it was seconded. This lead to a walk out of 500 students the next day and with in a week 2/3 of the school was on strike. -
Bilingual Learning
The San Francisco school district was sued on behalf of Kenny and many other Chinese-American elementary students when instruction was given solely in English, a language less than a quarter of the students understood. This led to the federal government to publish new teaching materials in 70 different languages and gave $68 million for bilingual programs. -
Home schooling
Mainly right wing Christians pushed for the legalization of homeschooling in all 50 states. The result of this was a small percentage of students leaving the public schooling system and the funding leaving with them. -
Charter Schools
The first charter school, City Academy, was opened in St. Paul. A charter school is a tuition free school that publicly funded but individually owned. -
Individuals with Disabilities Act
In 2004 changes were made to the IDEA to increase requirements for identifying students with disabilities and changes to how IEPs are completed. It also included that teachers working in Special Education must have be highly qualified and are set to high standards