OVERVIEW OF AMERICAN EDUCATION

Colonial Times through the Turn of the Century

Late 1600's

• Development of Schools - "District Schools"
• Massachusetts Legislation Acts of 1642 & 1647
• Rationale: Everyone needed to read the bible

Late 1700's

• Westward Movement
• Circuit Teachers and Preachers
• Northwest Ordinance that provided government control over the sale of public lands-Each township had to be divided into sections-one reserved for a school
• Began the issue of state v. federal regulation of education
• Variation of Schools begins including schools run by ethnic communities in their native language (German, Russian, etc.)

1800's

• Push toward Modernization
• Common School Reform
• Education becomes compulsory
• Massachusetts passes a law that public education will be free
• Education outlawed to slaves in southern states
• First Bilingual Education Bill passed in Ohio (1839)
• Treaty of Hidalgo-following annexation of parts of Mexico, Spanish is recognized as a permissible component of education (1848)
• Issue of New Immigration-Americanization
• Horace Mann - "Father of Public Education" - First Secretary of State of the Board of Education in Massachusetts - established schools for teacher training, free libraries, and increased funding for public schools

Turn of the Century

• Progressive Era (1896-1917)
• Increasing discussion over schooling immigrants and students of color
• Plessey v. Ferguson (1896)
• Assimilation v. Acculturation
• Concept of Pluralism-Jane Addams and John Dewey/Beginnings of multicultural education
• Debates of W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington
• Creation of Teacher Unions (AFT and NEA)

Civil Rights Era to Present

• GI Bills following WWII
• Integration of Schools (Brown v. Board of Education - 1954)
• Title 1, VII, IX - Funding from Federal Government
• National Defense Education Act (NDEA) in 1958 increased focus on math and science as a result of the space age
• Increased debate around standardized testing and formal curriculum