Early 1600's - The Puritans settle and colonize the New
England area.
God is the
center of their
lives, laws, and
customs.
"Grammar Children" quizzed on information from Biblical Scriptures at home and school.
1601 - "The Poor Law"
put the apprenticeship
"on the job" training
system into effect.
Boys started at ages as
young as 9 after
finishing a "Dame"
school.
1635 - The first formal, free school offered to all children. The Roxbury Latin School was formed by the Puritans.
Latin Grammer schools only
for boys of certain social class.
1638 - The 1st printing press arrived.
1639 - The First
American college
established: Harvard @ Cambridge.
1642 - The Massachusetts Act of 1642. Required all parents and masters (of apprentices) to teach their children how to read to assure that they knew the principals of religion and the capital laws of the common wealth. Parents were to educate their children in the home.
1648 - The
Apprenticeship system
expanded to include
girls.
1647 - Old Deluder Satan Act - required towns of 50 + families to hire a schoolmaster to teach children to read & write.
Towns of 100+ families were required to hire a grammar
schoolmaster to prepare children to attend Harvard. This
act made education a social responsibility.
Many believed that Satan could easily interfere in the lives of those who could not read the scriptures for themselves. For this
reason it was vital to their faith & beliefs that all should know how to read the Bible scriptures.
1690 - John Locke
published "Essay Concerning Human Understanding". This essay has had a great impact on American Education.
1690 - "New
England Primer"
textbooks printed in Boston by Benjiman Harris.
1693 - John Locke
wrote another publication: "Some Thoughts Concerning
Education" which described his beliefs on education upper class boys.
1731 - 1st Public
Library founded
by Benjiman
Franklin.
1740 - Law
passed that
forbid the
education of
black slaves.
1749 - Proposal of
plan for an English
Grammar School
developed by Benjiman Franklin.
Plan was rejected and failed
but set the stage for schools such as this.
1752 - The St. Matthews
Lutheren School in New
York was founded by
Henry Melchoir Muhlenburg.
Was one of the 1st
"Charity Schools".
1779 - Thomas
Jefferson proposed a two-track educational
system. One for the "laboring"
& one for the "learned".
1782 - Noah Webster recognized the need for schools to have textbooks on American language and experience. He wrote a 3-volume work, of which the first volume is the most "The American Spelling Book".
1785 - Land Ordinance of
1785. Section 16 required
every township in the new
Western Territory to maintain
public schools.
1786 -"Thoughts upon
the Mode of
Education Proper in
a Republic" essay
written by Benjamin
Rush in an effort
to promote & enact
reform in education.
1787 - First
academy for girls
opened in
Philadelphia: The
Young Ladies
Academy.
1787 - Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Which provided land for
settlement &
"encouraged" public schools.
Schools now started to not only teach
reading, writing, and religion, but also added science & math.
1821 - Boston
English High School,
the first public
High School, opened.
1823 - Catherine
Beecher founded a
private school for girls in Connecticut:
The Hartford Female Seminary.
1827 - Law
passed in
Massachusetts
that established
High Schools. It required
towns with 500+ families
to have a public
high school.
1828 - First
publication of original
Webster's Dictionary.
Webster's Dictionary was adopted by Congress
as the national standard in 1831.
1829 - The first school for children with visual disabilities opened in Massachusetts: The New England Asylum for the Blind.
1837 - Formation of the first State Board of Education in Massachussets.
1837 - Horace Mann accepted the
position of Secretary of Education.
1839 - Horace Mann persuaded the legislature
of Massachusetts to implement a minimum 6-
month school year.
1839 - The establishment of the first public "Normal
School" in the United States at Lexington. The purpose
of this school was for teacher education.
This was the first school of it's kind to be funded by government.
1841 - Reveren William Holmes
McGuffey published his first reader which introduced children to his ethical code.
1842 - Law enacted in Connecticut which stated that no child under the age of 15 could be employed without proper proof of three months of schooling.
1852 - The Cumpulsory Attendance Act in Massachusetts required that children aged 8-14 attend school for at least 3 months out of the year of which 12 weeks must be consecutive.
1857 - The National
Teacher's Association founded in Philadelphia.
1867 - To help states establish
more effective schools the government created the Department of Education.
1869 - Boston established
the 1st public Day School
for children who were deaf.
1873 - Age requirement changed to 12 yers old and time in school increased to 20 weeks. Out of this resulted the position of "Truent Officer" as the need to monitor student attendance was increasing.
1873 - The Panic of 1873 resulted in an economic depression which reduced revenues available for education.
1873 - The Society to Encourage Studies at home was the first Correspondence School in the U.S.
1877 - Reconstruction ended and a legal system of segregation and discrimination set in.
1879 - The Carlisle Indian Industrial School opened - the 1st Indian boarding school with the purpose of assimilating Indian Children.
1881 - Booker T. Washington was the 1st Principal of the "new" Normal School in Tuskegee, Alabama.
1885 - The last Reader of McGuffey published. Had 186 selections, quoted 111 renoun authors, and included variations of composition, description, narration, argumentation, and esposition, as well as 17 selections from the Bible.
1892 - The Committee on Secondary Social Studies recommended a college oriented high school curriculum.
1905 - "New Methods for the Diagnosis of the Intellectual Level of Subnormals" by Albert Binet is published in France. This article details the Binet-Simon scale for measuring intelligence.
1905 - The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching was founded.
The foundation made many improvements in education
over the years for teachers.
1909 - Ella Flagg Young became the 1st female superintendent of a large city school system.
1911 - In Tarrytown, New York the 1st Montessior School in the U.S. opened.
1916 - The Binet-Simon scale converted into American version by Louis M. Terman & a team of graduate students from Stanford.
The Stanford-Binet scales gave birth to the "IQ".
1916 - John Dewy published "Democracy & Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education". It helped advance the idea of a progressive educational movement.
1917 - The Smith-Hughes Act provided federal funding for agricultural and vocational education.
1919 - With a purpose of education reformation in the U.S., the Progressive Education Association was founded.
1919 - All states had laws that provided monies for the transportation of students to schools.
1922 - The International Council for Exceptional Children founded at the Teachers College of Columbia University.
1925 - Tennessee vs. John Scopes - Scopes tried and convicted for teaching the theory of evolution at a high school.
1929 - Jean Piaget's work "The Child's Conception of the World" was published.
His theory about cognitive
development has greatly
influenced education.
1929 - The Great Depression resulted in a catastrophe for education: school closings, lay-offs, and lower salaries.
1931 - The 1st successful court case for school desegregation in California - Alvarez vs. The Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District.
1935 - The "Works Progress Administration" is authorized by Congress. It gave work to the unemployed by having them work on public projects which included the construction of hundreds of new school buildings.
1939 - National Conference on student transportation in which was created the standards for school buses in the U.S.
1941 - The attack on Pearl Harbor began the U.S. involvement in WWII. From 1941 -1945 education was female dominated as male teachers and students enlisted and many resources were put towards the war effort.
1946 - Another desegregation case, Mendez vs. Westminster and the California Board of Education, ruled that educating children of Mexican descent is unconstitutional.
This set the stage for Brown vs. the Board of Education.
1946 - The Age of Computer Technology began.
1948 - McCollum vs. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that schools cannot allow students to participate in religious education in public school during the school day.
1954 - Brown vs. Board of Education. Ruled that: "separate facilities are inherently unequal", completing legal desgregation in schools.
Segregation and discrimintation continue to be an issue to this day. However, there are teachers and students still battling this age old issue to make it an issue of the past.
1957 - The Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the 1st satellite to orbit the earth.
1958 - As the ambitions rose for scientific knowledge and advancement in the U.S., the National Defense Education Act was passed which increased funding for scientific education and research which became increasingly important in the U.S.
1959 - The 1st ACT test was administered.
1962 - "Thought and Language" by Lev Vygotsky introduced in the U.S.
1963 - Cases of School District of Abington Township, Pennsylvania vs. Schempp and Murray vs. Curlett, ruled that "no state law or school board may require that passages from the Bible be read or that the Lord's prayer be recited in the public schools.
1963 - John F. Kennedy assassinated. Schools closed to mourn his death.
1964 - Association for Children with Learning Disabilities created.
1964 - Civil Rights Act became law. Proibits discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, or national origin.
1965 - The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provided federal funds to help low-income students.
Through this act resulted
Title I & Bilingual Education
1966 - The Equality of Education Opprtunity Study, or "The Coleman Report", concluded that African American students benefited from integrated classrooms in the school.
This study set the stage for bussing to achieve desegregation.
1966 - Jerome Bruner's "Toward a Theory of Instruction" highly promoted the theory of cognitive learning.
1968 - The Bilingual Education Act, or Title Vii, became law.
1968 - Epperson et al vs. Arkansas, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Arkansas law prohibiting the teaching of the theory of evolution was not constitutional.
1969 - "The Open Classroom by Herbert R. Kohl promoted "open education" in which encouraged student-centered classrooms and active learning.
1970 - "The Science of Education" by Jean Piaget describes his Learning Cycle Model which proliferated the discovery-based approach, specifically in science.
1971 - Diana vs. California State Board resulted in the requirement of testing a students in their primary language if they were a possible candidate for Special Education placement.
1971 - Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children vs. Pennsylvania. The federal court ruled that children who were mentally retarded were still entitled to free public education.
1972 - The Indian Education Act became law and established "a comprehensive approach to meeting the unique needs of Native American Indians and Native Alaska Indians."
1972 - Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 become law. This resulted in the prohibition of discrimination based on sex in all aspects of education
1974 - Boston, Massachusetts, Federal Judge Arthur Garrity ordered busing of African American students to predominantly white schools in order to achieve racial integration of public schools.
1975 - The Education of All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142) become federal law. Free, appropriate public education, suited to the student's individual needs was a requisite as well as offering that education in the least restrictive environment, to be provided for all "handicapped" children.
1975 - The National Association of Bilingual Education was founded.
1982 - Edwards v. Aguillard, the U.S. Supreme Court repealed Louisiana's "Creationism Act," which required the teaching of creationism whenever evolution was taught, because it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution.
1982 - Board of Education v. Pico , the U.S. Supreme court ruled that books cannot be removed from a school library because school administrators believed their content to be offensive.
1983 - The report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, A Nation at Risk, called for extreme reforms in public education and teacher training.
1985 - Wallace vs, Jaffree, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Alabama statutes authorizing silent prayer and teacher-led voluntary prayer in public schools violated the First Amendment.
1990 - Public Law 101-476, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), renames and amends Public Law 94-142. The changes also mandated transition services and added autism and traumatic brain injury to the eligibility list.
1993 - The Massachusetts Education Reform Act required a "common curriculum" and statewide tests (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System). Many states followed Massachusetts' lead and implemented similar testing programs.
1999 - Columbine High School killings.
2001 - No Child Left Behind Act approved by Congress & signed by president George Bush
2004 - H.R. 1350, The Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act (IDEA 2004), reauthorized and modified IDEA
2010 - U.S. economy in a recession, employment remaining high, states have massive budget deficits. As many as 300,000 teachers face layoffs.
References
Kizer, Kay. (n.d.) Puritans. Retrieved July 5, 2010 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfrnb/puritans.html.
O’Neill, Mary. (n.d.) The New England Primer. Retrieved July 5, 2010 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfrnb/neprimer.html.
Kizer, Kay. (n.d.) Apprenticeship. Retrieved July 5, 2010 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfrnb/apprenti.html.
Cheek, Karen. (n.d.) Education in the Southern Colonies. Retrieved July 5, 2010 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfrnb/soucolon.html.
PBS. (2004) Sambol-Tosco, Kimberley. The Slave Experience: Education, Arts, and Culture. Retrieved July 5, 2010 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/education/history2.html.
Meiss, Christina. Benjiman Franklin. Retrieved July 5, 2010 from the World Wide Web : http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfrnb/franklin.html.
Weidner, Linda. Noah Webster. Retrieved July 5, 2010 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfrnb/webster.html.
Wassenhove, Emily. Benjamin Rush. Retrieved July 5, 2010 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfrnb/rush.html.
VanZant, Kevin. The Land Ordinance of 1785 and Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Retrieved July 6, 2010 from the World Wide Web : http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfrnb/ord17857.html.
Mason-King, Pam. Horace Mann. Retrieved July 6, 2010 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfrnb/mann.html.
Kern, Julie. The Catholic Issue. Retrieved July 6, 2010 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfrnb/catholic.html.
Payne, Shannon. The McGuffey Readers. Retrieved July 6, 2010 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfrnb/mcguffey.html.
Grocke, Vicky. Compulsory Education. Retrieved July 6, 2010 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfrnb/compulso.html.
Sass, Edmund. June 27, 2010. American Educational History: A Hyptertext Timeline. Retrieved July 6, 2010 from the World Wide Web: http://www.cloudnet.com/~edrbsass/educationhistorytimeline.html.
1840's -
One of the standards was that the buses must be yellow!
Growth of state
funded public education
in states from Connecticut Illinios. Public education in the South still not of much public
interest. In the South it was very rural, so families took on the duty of educating their children in the home.