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First Academy for Girls
1787 - The Young Ladies Academy opens in Philadelphia and becomes the first academy for girls in the original 13 colonies/states.
This event paved way to allow girls to attend school. This impacted multicultural education by allowing girls to attend school also. -
School for the Blind
1829 - The New England Asylum for the Blind, now the Perkins School for the Blind, opens in Massachusetts, becoming the first school in the U.S. for children with visual disabilities.
By allowing children with disabilities to attend school, they were not discriminated against. -
African Institue Opens
1837 - The African Institute (later called the Institute for Colored Youth) opens in Cheyney, Pennsylvania. Now called Cheyney University, it the oldest institution of higher learning for African Americans.
Struggling to find a higher education for themselves, African Americans opened a school for their own people. It paved ways to a better way of life. -
Head Start
1965 - Project Head Start, a preschool education program for children from low-income families, begins as an eight-week summer program. Part of the "War on Poverty," the program continues to this day as the longest-running anti-poverty program in the U.S.
By allowing low-income families to send their children to school, these students stood a better chance at succeeding in kindergarten. -
Equality of Educational Opportunity Study
1966 - The Equality of Educational Opportunity Study, often called the Coleman Report because of its primary author James S. Coleman, is conducted in response to provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Its conclusion that African American children benefit from attending integrated schools sets the stage for school "busing" to achieve desegregation.
This event allowed children to embrace each other, rather than hate one another. -
PARC
1971 - In the case of Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children (PARC) v. Pennsylvania, the federal court rules that students with mental retardation are entitled to a free public education.
No child should be left behind because of their developmental skills. This act allowed children with disabilities to learn just like the kids around them. -
Rehabilitation Act
1973 - The Rehabilitation Act becomes law. Section 504 of this act guarantees civil rights for people with disabilities in the context of federally funded institutions and requires accommodations in schools including participation in programs and activities as well as access to buildings.
This act allowed children with disabilities to have special accommodations who don't qualify for and IEP. It gives them an equal chance to learn. -
Lau V. Nichols
1974 - In the Case of Lau v. Nichols, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the failure of the San Francisco School District to provide English language instruction to Chinese-American students with limited English proficiency (LEP) is a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This act paved way to ELL students. Schools had to provide extra help to students whose first language wasn't English. It gave them an equal opportunity to learn just like their friends. -
Equal Educational Opportunities Act
1974 - The Equal Educational Opportunities Act is passed. It prohibits discrimination and requires schools to take action to overcome barriers which prevent equal protection. The legislation has been particularly important in protecting the rights of students with limited English proficiency. This allowed children to be who they are without being left out. Students didn't have to be a certain race to qualify, for every qualified. -
Bussing in Boston, MA
1974 - Federal Judge Arthur Garrity orders busing of African American students to predominantly white schools in order to achieve racial integration of public schools in Boston, MA. White parents protest, particularly in South Boston.
Busing paved way to having schools desegregated. Allowing all kids to learn regardless of their skin color or race.
