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Elementary and Latin Schools are created
The General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony decrees that every town of 50 families should have an elementary school and every town of 100 families should have a latin school. -
Thomas Jefferson proposes at two-track educational system
Thomas Jefferson proposes a two-track educational system, with different tracks in his words for "the laboring and the learned." The scholarship would allow a very few of the laboring class to advance, Jefferson says, by "raking a few geniuses from the rubbish. This system's goal was to separate the privileged from the working-class individuals. This impacted only working-class families because they were on the unfair side of things. -
Free public education for the poor
Pennsylvania state constitution calls for free public education but only for poor children. It is expected that rich people will pay for their children's schooling. -
First public high school in the U.S., Boston, MA, opens.
The first public high school in the U.S., Boston , opens. The then Classical School opened and was all male students and was the seat for America’s first high school of any kind. English Classical places its emphasis on more general studies. This was a positive thing for male students but negatively impacted female students. -
Southern states have laws forbidding the teaching of slaves.
By this time, most southern states have laws forbidding teaching people in slavery to read. Even so, around 5 percent become literate at great personal risk. -
Illegal for Native Americans to be taught their native languages
Congress makes it illegal for Native Americans to be taught in their native languages. Native children as young as four years old are taken from their parents and sent to Bureau of Indian Affairs off-reservation boarding schools, whose goal, as one BIA official put it, is to "kill the Indian to save the man." -
Plessy v Ferguson
The Supreme Court voted a seven-to-one majority to uphold the separate but equal act. The Separate Car Act required Louisiana railways to provide separate but equal accommodations for whites and African Americans. Homer Plessy was asked by the Committee of Citizens to sit in the white's only car. When Plessy was told to leave the "whites only" car, he didn't leave. Plessy went to trial and was convicted. This was a negative impact on Plessy because, in the end, he was convicted. -
Educational Testing Formed
Educational Testing Service is formed, merging the College Entrance Examination Board, the Cooperative Test Service, the Graduate Records Office, the National Committee on Teachers Examinations and others, with huge grants from the Rockefeller and Carnegie foundations. These testing services continued the work of eugenicists like Carl Brigham (originator of the SAT) who did research "proving" that immigrants were feeble-minded. -
Brown v Board of Education
In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Supreme Court sanctioned segregation by upholding the doctrine of "separate but equal." The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People disagreed with this ruling, challenging the constitutionality of segregation in the Topeka, Kansas, school system. In 1954, the Court reversed its Plessy decision, declaring that "separate schools are inherently unequal." -
Little Rock Nine
A federal court orders integration of Little Rock, Arkansas public schools. Governor Orval Faubus sends his National Guard to physically prevent nine African American students from enrolling at all-white Central High School. Reluctantly, President Eisenhower sends federal troops to enforce the court order not because he supports desegregation, but because he can't let a state governor use military power to defy the U.S. federal government. -
Title IX
Title IX the Education Amendments is enacted by Congress and is signed into law by Richard Nixon. The title prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs or activity receiving any federal financial aid. Title IV states: No person in the United States shall, based on 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. Giving all students an equal opportunity. -
Milliken v. Bradley
A Supreme Court made up of Richard Nixon's appointees rules that schools may not be desegregated across school districts. This effectively legally segregates students of color in inner-city districts from white students in wealthier white suburban districts. -
Education of all Handicapped Children Act
This act required all public schools to accept federal funds to provide equal access to education for children with physical and mental disabilities. Public schools were required to evaluate children with disabilities and create an educational plan with parent input that would closely resemble the educational experience of non-disabled students. This was a positive impact for students that were disabled and still wanted their education. -
Plyler v Doe
A class action was filed on behalf of certain school-age children of Mexican origin residing in Texas who could not establish that they had been legally admitted into the United States. The class action asked the district court to prevent defendants from denying a free public education to members of the class. The court based its ruling on the fourteenth amendment and voted in favor of the students. This had a positive impact on students that couldn't prove their status. -
Proposition 187 passes
Proposition 187 passes in California, making it illegal for children of undocumented immigrants to attend public school. Federal courts hold Proposition 187 unconstitutional, but anti-immigrant feeling spreads across the country.
