Time Line:

1620-1750 – American Colonies

 Colonial Period
o Colonies: New England (Strict), Middle (diverse), Southern (Plantations)
 Primary roots in English culture
 Upper classes had opportunity to attend Latin (language taught) grammar
schools
o Stresses religious objectives
o Education primarily for the elite
 Dame schools for boys and girls in the home of a housewife or widow. – used
horn books.
 Reading and writing schools for boys beyond Dame Schools. Religious texts –
New England Primer
 Latin Grammar Schools like secondary schools, prep for Harvard and religious
roles in the church
 1620 – Emphasis on basic skills needed to learn religion and read prayers.
 1635 – Boston Latin School was founded (pre-college)
 1636 – Harvard College established
 1642 –Massachusetts Act: Required young people to read and write
Education  1647 – Mandated the establishment and support of the school
became the  1648 – Revised the 1642 law
responsibility
 1690 – New England Primer (first printed book)
of the state.
 1704 – 1st school for African Americans (NY City) and Native Americans
o Those schools were run by churches
o 1745 – Latin and Greek were the principal studies in the schools
Focus: Every person needed to be able to read. Wanted people to read the Bible (for
salvation).

1750-1820 – Revolutionary Period

 New Nation
 Declaration of Independence
 Important People:
o Benjamin Franklin (academics): 1706 – 1790
o Thomas Jefferson (T. J.) (education cornerstone of freedom): 1743 –
1826
o Noah Webster: 1758 – 1843
o Sarah Pierce (female academy): 1767 - 1852
 1751 – Philadelphia Academy (private school) became University of Philadelphia
(Benjamin Franklin)
 1770 – African American schools funded by Anthony Benezet
  Revolutionary Period 1776
 1779 Virginia Legislative (T. J. –author- wanted free education for all white
schools paid by the state)
Put away a  1783 – Spelling Book/Dictionary by Noah Webster
lot of land  1785 – Land Ordinance Acts
for schools.  1787 – Northwest Ordinance Act
 1819 – Federal funds for reservation schools (Native Americans)

1820-1865 – State Supported Common Schools

 Education taught in English
 Common schools movement/free education
 1820 – 1st state – supported High School in Boston – English Classical School
 1821 – First public high school teaches basic skills and history, geography,
health, and physical training
 1821 – Troy Seminary (first Woman College)
 Horace Mann – Massachusetts spokesperson for common schools and free
public education
o 1st Secretary of State of Education (Massachusetts)
 1827 – Sarah Pierce: Female Academy (accepted female students)
 Harriet Beecher Stowe: author of UncleTom’s Cabin
 Catherine Beecher: curriculum – practical knowledge and skills
 1837 – Horce Mann: Secertary of Massachusetts State Board of Education
 1836 – McGaffery Readers – (1st based readers) Emphasis: Virtues, Read and
Study and Religion
 1839 – Normal School (teacher colleges) in Lexington, Massachuettes
o Teachers – General Knowledge, Pedagogy
 1849 – Electra Lincoln Walton: 1st woman to be in administration of a state
school (a graduate of Normal School)
 1850 – Roberts V. City of Boston
o Separate but Equal School
Private  1855 – Margarat Schurz – 1st Kindergarten (in Wisconsin) material taught in
Schools. German
 1860 – Elizabeth Peabody – Kindergarten material taught in English
 1862 – Morrill Land-Grant Act
o Land Grant
o College
o Mechanical Agriculture
 Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1890 – provided more funds for land-grant colleges
 1864 – Columbia Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind
o College degrees to the disabled (Massachusetts)
1865-1950 – Compulsory Education
End of Civil War and WWI
 Scientific Management
 Professionalization of Teaching: NEA 1857 and AFT 1916, large numbers of
women enter teaching profession
 Compulsory Education - by 1930 all states had compulsory education laws.
 1837 – Frederick F. founded 1st Kindergarten
 1855 – Margerthe Schurz opened 1st Kindergarten – in home in WWI
 Susan Bloom – 1st Public Kindergarten in St. Louis
 1857 – National Education Association founded (1st Union)
 1860 – Elizabeth Peabody opened 1st private English Kindergarten in Boston
 1865 – New Orleans Black Republican
 1868 – Emancipation of African Americans
 1869 – Freeman’s Bureau – provide “foundations of Education for former slaves”
 1880 – Booker T. Washington – Tuskegee Institute for industrial training
o William E. Burghardt DuBois – one founder of NAACP, more academics
 1892 – Committee of Ten – High School Curriculum
 1893 – Committee of Fifteen – Elementary School Curriculum
 1896 – Plessy Versus Ferguson
 1900s – Women’s Suffrage Movement
o Right to Vote
 1918 – Commission on Reorganization of Secondary Education

1920 – 1945 – Progressive Era

 Progressive Era with the progressive focus to improving education
 John Dewey: Laboratory School with progressive theories, cooperative groups
 Maria Montessori
 Assimilation is the practice for educating immigrants and minorities
o 1924 – Native American citizenship
o 1928 – Recommendations: cultural curriculum, reservation day schools,
reform boarding schools; 50 years to implement
 WWII and Federal Involvement in Education
o 1941 – Lanham Act
o GI Bill of Rights – 1944

1950-Present – Modern Postwar Era

 1950s – Defense and Desegregation
 Postwar Era
 1954 – Brown Versus Board of Education of Topeka
o Desegregation
 1957 – Soviet launched Sputnik
o Sparks emphasis on science, mathematics, and languages
 1958 – National Defense Education Act – federal funding for
research/development in science, math , foeign language, guidance (a result
from the launch of Soviet Sputnick).
 1960s – Kennedy and Johnson: War on Poverty and Great Society
 Texts:
o 1960 - Summerhill – by: A. S. Neills
o 1963 - Teacher – by: Sylvia Ashton - Warner
o 1964 - How Children Fail – by: John Holts
o 1967 - 36 Children – by: Herbert Kohls
o 1969 - The Way It Spozed to Be – by: James Herndon
o 1967 - Death at an Early Age – by: Jonathan Kozols
 The administrations of President Kennedy and President Johnson funneled
massive amounts of money into a war on poverty
o Developed methods, materials, and programs such as subsidized
breakfast and lunch programs, Head Start, Upward Bound and the Job
Corps.
 1962 – Engel versus Vitale – US Supreme Court ruled daily pray with teacher
unconstitutional
o 1963 – Supreme Court ruled Bible reading and Lord’s Prayer in school
unconstitutional
 Title III – 1964 – funded reading, English, geography, history, civics programs
 1965 – Elementary and Secondary Education Act – low-income and limited
English children
o Amended in 1968 with Title VII, the Bilingual Education Act – based on
low-income children
 1970s – Accountability and Equal Opportunity – Back to basics, accountability
with basal readers and teacher-proof curricula
 John Holt – Led home education movement
o Back to basic advocates (focusing on reading, writing, mathematics and
oral communication
 1971 – Lemon versus Kurtzman (called the Lemon Test) – provides guidelines to
evaluate religion/education practices in school (has not been overruled):
o 1. Secular purpose (relating to the world, not specifically religions)
o 2. Primary effect to neither advance or inhibit religion
o 3. Avoid excessive entanglement with religion
 1972 – Title IX Education Amendment prohibiting sex discrimination (allowing
female athletes)
 1972 – Indian Education Act and 1974
 1974 – Buckley Amendment – allowed parents and students over 18 to examine
their school records. Also, granted privacy that information could not be shared
without written permission.
 1975 – Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Public law 94-142) – the
mainstreaming law
 1975 – Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act (Vietnam)
 1980s – A Great Debate: Perennialist Core
 Lee Shulman – Characterized 1980s as an ear of “teacher bashing”
 Text:
o 1982 – Paideia Proposal by: Mortimer Adler
o 1983 – Report by National Commission on Excellence in Education
 A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Education Reform (created
debate on how to improve the quality of schools) – Reagan
administration
o 1983 – High School: A Report on Secondary Education in America by:
Ernest Boyer
 1986 – IDEA (Special Education Federal Funding)
 1987 – William Bennett advocated intellectually rigorous High School curriculum
that he described in James Madison High
 1987 – McKinney-Vento Act – requires schools to register homeless children
 1989 – Kentucky Supreme Court ruled state’s school system “inadequate.”
 1990s – Teacher Leaderships challenges and change
 1990 – Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
o 1997 – Amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA 97)
 1990 – Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) – required a school-based
management council in each school to develop policy in curriculum, staff
development, instruction, discipline, etc.
 1995 – Information Highway (internet)
 2000s – The New Century
 Priorities throughout this century:
o EQUITY for all students
o EXCELLENCE and high standards
o ACCOUNTABILITY for schools and teachers
 2001 – No Child Left Behind
 The Black – White Achievement Gap: Why Closing It Is the Greatest Civil Rights
Issue of Our Time by: Rod Paige
 2010 – National Conference of State Legislatures (promotes excellence on many
fronts)
 2010 – Obama Administration proposes broad changes to No Child Left Behind
and initiates the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act;
implements Race to the Top and the Teacher and Leader Innovation Fund