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Horace Mann Becomes Massachusetts' Secretary of Education
Horace Mann, while abroad in Prussia (modern-day Germany), was inspired by their system of schooling called "common schools" where students would be divided by grade based on their age. This model quickly became famous especially in northern states. -
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The Progressive Movement
An era of social reform in the United States, one of the areas focused on by activists was education. A main proponent of this was John Dewey who worked at the University of Chicago. Dewey was a harsh critic of public schools and fought to expand the curriculum and school accessibility -
Compulsory Education Laws
By this time 34 out of 45 states had laws requiring students to go to school, up to the age of 14 in most cases -
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The Gary Plan: An Experiment
William Wirt, Superintendent of Schools in Gary, IN, created this type of schooling where students would spend half their day learning about academic subjects and the other doing hands-on vocational learning. This system was abandoned in the 1930s as running Gary-type schools was very expensive and the Great Depression limited the funds schools had to work with -
Another Big Win for Compulsory Schooling
By this time, it was required by federal law for all children to complete at least elementary school, this ran afoul with several communities who believed their children would be better off working than going to school -
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A Changing Curriculum
Reformers like Dewey start to see the fruits of their labor, public schools now offer a more diversified and advanced curriculum meaning families don't have to spend money on private school for their children to get a decent education -
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
A father in Topeka, KS sued the city's board of education, eventually the case made its way to the Supreme Court where it overturned previous precedent Plessy v. Ferguson (1890) declaring that segregation against race violated the US Constitution, effectively de-segregating all public schools -
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Little Rock Nine
De-segregation was not popular in southern states. When 9 black students attempted to attend Little Rock High School in Little Rock, AR in order to get a better quality education, they were stopped from entering by protesters, the Arkansas National Guard was called in by the governor to quell the protests. Eventually President Eisenhower nationalized the federal guard, as well as sent in the 101st Airborne Division, in order to integrate the school and protect the black students -
The US Department of Education is created
On this day under the authority of President Carter, the US Department of Education is created. This new department creates a new cabinet position, the Secretary of Education. This department allowed for more federal oversight of education,which previously fell to the states. While most assessments and curricula are still created at the state-level, the Department has since established certain standards that all states must follow -
"A Nation at Risk" is published
This report, which was compiled by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, found that America was falling behind in education standards, leading to many to call for reforms like longer school days, a change in curriculum, and more rigorous testing standards -
Enter E.D. Hirsch
Hirsch was an English teacher who was motivated by "A Nation at Risk", he wanted sweeping reforms for education which centralized more authority with the federal government rather than the states, he gained many critics who said that his proposal to federalize public school curricula violated the 10th amendment to the US Constitution -
The No Child Left Behind Act
This was a bipartisan law passed by the US Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush, this law took into account a lot of the problems raised by the "A Nation at Risk" report. It awards federal funding to schools who meet certain test scores and cuts funding from those that fail. This law has been criticized for unrealistic standards and outdated curriculum expectations