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History of Changes in Education
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Horace Mann's Common Schools
Horace Mann, or “The Father of American Education” pushed for publicly supported (free) common schools which would be open to all students regardless of race, class or gender. These public schools would become the “great equalizer” by helping end poverty and social class divisions. All children should be offered free education because it was necessary for all citizens to learn to live in a democratic society. This was the beginning of our public-school system today. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
The Supreme Court ruled in favor to establish the law that black and whites be “separate but equal”. This covered many areas of community life from, public schools, restaurants and restrooms. This decision served as legal justification for many years of racial segregation in communities, especially in schools. -
Brown v. Board of Education
This verdict overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson law saying that blacks and whites were “separate but equal”, because that was not the case. In public education, there should be no such thing as segregated schools and blacks were being deprived of the equal protection guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. This was the start of mixed race and desegregation in public schools. -
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)
President Johnson led to pass this act to end the “War on Poverty”, to help fund educational programs like primary and secondary education. He wanted equal access to quality education and held high standards for education. This Act lead to Head Start (preschool for economically disadvantages families) and Title I (supplemented academic resources for low-income students). To this day, it gave education more opportunities to grow and be successful. -
No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)
President George W. Bush, reauthorized ESEA funds and made districts accountable for the unequal achievement among students through state and federal testing. If districts don’t meet these requirements, they could lose funding. This Act was to have disadvantaged students meet the same goals as the advantaged students but gave school many tests to give to students to keep districts responsible for achievement gaps.
