Americas Public Schools

From the Common School to No Child Left Behind

-Reese

Time Periods:
I believe we said each person would sign up for a period and take a few notes next
to it, and we can also add notes in each others categories. Ill get back to work on
this tonight or tomorrow morning!
-Sarah
Should we talk about the main theme of a sort of continuum of attempted reform
versus social criticism? (just as a way to connect each stage/ one of the points the
reading is working with)
-Abby

Pre-Civil War (Ashley, pretend beginning of time, up through where Abigail
picks up):
- Reeses narrative begins in the early 1800s, an age of evangelical Protestantism,
regional conflict, and dramatic social change. Cities, industry, immigration
threatening rural, agrarian values on which U.S. was founded.
- Schools started in northern states as vehicles to construct a strong citizenry (not
individualistic at all, by the sound) -- goals of strengthening moral character, work
ethic, civic and republican values, ensuring literate, unified public via common
curriculum. For Spring, the description of this goal is similar: uniting the American
population by instilling common moral and political values
- He doesnt say why he begins here -- i.e., what was the situation like before?-- but
from Spring/Wikipedia, we know that it was during this time period that the first free
*nonsectarian* schools were founded (Horace Mann), whereas previously schools
had been organized by parishes
- Persistent idea (and implicitly consensus) dating at least this far back that a better
society is predicated on better schools. However, equally persistent *lack* of
consensus about what better schools look like (in terms of organization, curriculum,
teaching practices, overall purpose, !)

Post-Civil War (Abigail):
[covering the 2 paragraphs on p. 3 that begin After the Civil War until the powerful
role of tradition and the continuity of school practices.]
- Reese references violence and hostility encountered by former slaves related to
education access, and Rurys as they joined charity schools designed for free black
children, in addition to creating new schools. They were just one example of the way
institutions were used, even across race lines to certify character in lieu of firsthand
personal relationships.
- This time period also saw extensive development of the fields of curriculum and
pedagogy, beginning in urban areas, with greater numbers of children (Rury, p. 17)
facilitating a movement to single-grade/age classrooms, in contrast to the one room
schoolhouse model.
- Additionally, the first kindergarten was opened in 1873: created to fight urban
poverty (Spring, American, p. 6). This is an interesting harbinger of the 1964
introduction of Head Start as part of the federal War on Poverty (Spring, American,
p. 7)
- Finally, mathematics instruction began to be influenced by European methods,
including object teaching, or work with manipulatives

1890s-1920s (Miranda) :

The timeline gets a bit fuzzy on page three, but I think my time period starts with the
last paragraph on that page (that starts The expansion of public education through
the middle paragraph ending on page five (High schools, too).

--the country was becoming more diverse with African Americans from the South
moving north to cities, and immigrants coming into the country from Europe
--these social changes gave rise to higher expectations of what schools should do
--conflict between grassroots reform efforts (focusing on social justice and the
students) and centralized school boards (focusing on economic efficiency)
--IQ tests lead to students separated by ability
--the role of high school changes-- more students, fewer jobs available outside of
school, more working class and immigrant students, more vocational courses and
team sports, leading to fears of lower academic standards

1930s (Abby):

- the Great Depression caused schools (especially High Schools) to become larger
mass institutions because of decrease in jobs for youth
- because families were less able to send kids to college, schools started to
emphasize social over academic
- more vocational courses, elevated significance of team sports and other
extracurricular activities (bands, theater etc) - the beginning of schools as this type of
source of entertainment for the purpose of more diversity in the type of education
- this roused resistance from some parents and school officials :the major concern
about schools moving into the following decades was that schools seemed to lack a
coherent purpose (5)
-because of WWII, most of the countries energy was focused there, but generally,
since the 1930s, high schools have kept youth out of the workplace and out of
harms way (5)

*We didnt assign the 40s - whoever begins working on 30s or 50s first can decide
where it fits best!

1950s (Jaclyn - page 5 to the first paragraph on page 7):
- ongoing conflict between traditionalists and progressives regarding the purpose of
schools and their curriculum, pressure from many different perspectives
- citizens turned to public schools for solutions to societal issues (page 6), vehicles
of reform, weakened academic standards were blamed for national shortcomings
- new populations of students (poor and minority children) and increase of special
education programs
-scramble to meet demands of the baby boom

1960s-1970s (Sarah, p. 6-7):

60s:
-rising expectations after WWII in general amongst Americans (consumer goods,
health care, overall lifestyle)
-progressives advocate a more child-centered approach
-decline of jobs without educational requirements puts more pressure on students
and schools to succeed, price of dropping out (once very common) gets much more
serious
-racial integration w/ civil rights movement
-each party demanding quality education for their children: middle class parents,
parents of children with special needs, etc.
-left endorsing school innovation, more support for disadvantaged
-Law forbids prayer in schools, leads to Christian conservative anger, Christian
schools, and home schooling

70s:
-end of postwar economic boom, romaticism fades, louder critique of
underperformance
-demands for better discipline, higher standards, and back-to-basics curricula
-demand for tougher standards, esp. on SAT as scores fell

1980s-1990s: (Nandi)
- there remained criticism of underperforming, bureaucratic schools and parents
demanded higher standards and focus on back to the basics curricula as SAT
scores fell.
- state mandated tests became commonplace
- choice became important in education - tax dollars began to be allocated to funding
parochial or Christian schools
-schools became an important avenue towards success and poor schools were
blamed as a cause for the Rust Belt and industrial decline
- in the 90s Republicans and Democrats came together to set national education
goals with a national report card being published yearly from the Dept of Ed.