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First State Board of Education
In 1837, Massachusetts created the first state board of education. Horace Mann was appointed the first Secretary of Education; he would become known as "The Father of American Education." This began the movement towards universal public schooling: "not a school for common people, but a school common to all people." This movement would lead to laws requiring students to attend school, making sure educators were educated and so much more. -
Committee of Ten
In 1893 the National Education Association (NEA) appointed a committee to establish a standard High School curriculum. This curriculum was based on the idea that all students attending High School were doing so in order to prepare for college. Later it would be revised to include vocational curriculum. This idea has carried on throughout the history of education. Even today we still use standards like Common Core for our public education. -
The Great Depression
Following the Great Depression, there were several changes to the American public school system. The Works Progress Administration and Public Works Administration began to build larger schools to replace the one-room schoolhouses. There was also a greater push to keep young boys in school and out of the workforce, which increased high school enrollments. This began a change not only in the physical classrooms but in the number of years students would spend in school as well. -
Brown v. Board of Education
In 1954, the U.S. Supreme court unanimously ruled that separate but equal was unconstitutional. It would be years of struggles to see segregation end in the south. The rest of the country faced different challenges, in that their segregation was not illegal, but the result of middle-class white families moving to the suburbs. Even today schools are still segregated and quite unequal in the education and resources they provide their students. There is still a lot of room for improvement. -
PL 94-142
In 1958, Public Law 85-926 was created to support training for special education teachers. The Education for All Handicapped Children Act or Public Law 94-142 cam later in 1975. This law helped to ensure basic educational rights. This has continued to evolve throughout the years; today we see all children in the classroom for at least part of the day. Today schools are trying to work with all children, helping them to learn to work together just as they will after they get out of school.
