Education

Education in the United States: It's Historical Roots

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    The Colonial Period

    The roots of the American educational system are established in Jamestown. Colonial schools were typically taught by men waiting to become ministers or lawyers. Instruction was primitive, resources were scarce, and students often had to sit passively for hours. Schools reflected settlers' values and beliefs; schooling had same class and gender distinctions common in Europe (wealthy white males, ignored women, people of color, and less wealthy).
  • Boston Latin Grammar School

    American High School-prepared boys for ministry and law
  • Massachusetts Act/ Old Deluder Satan Act

    Massachusetts Act/ Old Deluder Satan Act
    designed to produce citizens who understood the Bible and could thwart Satan's trickery; required every town of 50 or more households to hire a teacher; public education could contribute to the greater food our of country
  • William Berkeley

    William Berkeley
    supported restrictive views of education and railed against both free public education and access to books
  • Franklin's Academy

    American High School-eliminated religion, focused on practical needs: math, science, and navigation
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    Native American Education

    Federal government signs nearly 400 treaties with Native American nations and tribes
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    Early National Period

    Before 1775, the U.S. was a loose collection of separate colonies that looked mostly to Europe for trade and ideas. From 1775-1820, the separate colonies became the U.S.A., and this country shaped its future through the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The Constitution removes formal religion from the schools and establishes state responsibility in education.
  • Land Ordinance of 1785

    Land Ordinance of 1785
    designed to raise money by selling land in the territories west of the original colonies acquired from Britain at the end of the Revolutionary War; divided land into townships for support of education; the lines of responsibility between state and federal government were being blurred
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    The Common School Movement: The Rise of State Support for Public Education

    free public schooling becomes accessible to most students; Common school movement-a historic attempt to make education available to all children in the U.S.
  • English Classical School

    American High School-focused on needs of boys not attending college; in 1824-new name English High School
  • Hispanic Education

    Hispanic Education
    Hispanic education in America began with Catholic Mission Schools in the southwest, but shifted to public schools after the Mexican-American War
  • Students in Slave States

    Students in Slave States
    4,000 black students in slave states and 23,000 in free states attended school; less than 2% of African American population
  • Nation's First Compulsory School Attendance Law

    Nation's First Compulsory School Attendance Law
    under Horace Mann's influence
  • Booker T. Washington

    Booker T. Washington
    Tuskegee Institute established bettering the education and lives of African Americans in the South
  • Native American Education

    Native American Education
    U.S. government begins building boarding schools
  • Committee of Ten

    American High School-created standards and methods for high school
  • Asian Americans

    Asian Americans
    San Francisco established segregated schools for Asian Americans
  • Junior High School

    Junior High School
    educators created Junior High Schools to provide a unique academic curriculum for early adolescents-Columbus, Ohio was the first to open a 7-9 school.
  • Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education

    American High School-created Cardinal Principles of Education, including applied goals in health and civic education
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    Native American Education

    National reports and federal legislation provide Native Americans with greater control over education
  • Projectors and Filmstrips

    1930's
  • Overhead Projector

    1940's
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    Modern Era

    schools become instruments of national purpose and social change
  • Programmed and Computer-based Instruction

    1950's
  • National Science Foundation

    National Science Foundation
    created to support research and improve science education
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    Educational TV, VCR, and VHS

    1950's-1970's
  • Brown vs. Board of Education-Topeka

    Brown vs. Board of Education-Topeka
    Supreme Court ruled that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal and that racially segregated schools generated "a feeling of inferiority".
  • NDEA-National Defense Education Act

    NDEA-National Defense Education Act
    designed to enhance "the security of the nation" by improving instruction in math, science, and foreign languages
  • War on Poverty

    1960's: increasing federal funding for K-12 education, development of the Job Corp, creation of the Department of Education in 1979, support for learners with exceptionalilites (IDEA in 1975), creation of national compensatory education programs
  • Civil Rights Act

    Civil Rights Act
    prohibited discrimination against students on the basis of race, color, or national origin in all institutions receiving federal funds
  • Head Start

    Head Start
    federal compensatory education program designed to help 3-to 5-year old disadvantaged children enter school ready to learn
  • Title I

    Title I
    a federal compensatory education program that funds supplemental education services for low-income students in elementary and secondary schools
  • Handheld Calculators

    1967
  • Middle Schools-1970's

    Middle Schools-1970's
    Middle schools created targeted at grades 6-8 and designed to meet the unique social, emotional, and intellectual needs of early adolescents
  • Kindergarten

    Kindergarten
    1970's-state supported kindergarten become a reality for most students in the United States
  • Magnet Schools

    Magnet Schools
    1970's-public schools that provide innovative or specialized programs and accept enrollment from students in all parts of a district developed to integrate white and minority students
  • Indian Education Act

    Indian Education Act
    establishes Office of Indian Education
  • Title IX

    Title IX
    No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded in the participation in, be denied benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.
  • Lau vs. Nichols

    Lau vs. Nichols
    federal court rules that San Francisco school system had violated the rights of Chinese American students, and students who found their educational experience "wholly incomprehensible" should be taught in their first language if that language was not English
  • Native American Languages Act

    Native American Languages Act
    protects the languages and cultures of Native Americans
  • NCLB-No Child Left Behind

    NCLB-No Child Left Behind
    required all states to develop a comprehensive accountability plan to ensure that all students acquire basic skills, with primary emphasis on reading and math