Aubreanna Velasco

EDU 202-1001

1600’s; Seventeenth Century

-Education focused on religion, providing a path to heaven. Girls were only in school 1-2 years
with the focus on preparing them to become better wives and mothers in the future.
-Home and family lessons focused on reading, values, manners and vocational skills.
-Dame schools were created by well-respected women with an interest in education. They taught
privately in their homes for a fee. The focus of this education was on reading, writing and
computation.
-1636; the first college in America was established: Harvard. To prepare ministers and was only
available to students who could afford to pay to go to college.
-1642; Massachusetts Law requiring parents and master to provide education to children.
-1690; the first real textbook called The New England Primer was first published.
-The most common teaching device during the colonial times was the Hornbook. This device
provided children with an introduction to the alphabet and reading.
-Massachusetts Law of 1647 also known as Old Deluder Satan Law was passed to ensure
children were being taught properly. This law required that every town of 50 households must
provide a teacher of reading and writing as well as every town of 100 households must provide a
Latin grammar school for university prep.

1700’s; Eighteenth Century

-American education reconstructed to meet broader, nonsectarian goals. Abandoned European
influence.
-1740; South Carolina denies education to blacks.
-Thomas Jefferson believed education should be available to all economic and social class white
children. Thomas Jefferson was this era’s most eloquent spokesperson for education and was the
founder of the University of Virginia.
-1749; Benjamin Franklin proposed a new secondary school to replace the Latin grammar school
(the academy). Two years later, Franklin Academy was established.
-Franklin Academy was free of religious influence and offered subjects such as; math,
astronomy, athletics, navigation, dramatics and bookkeeping and was open to all boys and girls
who could afford the tuition.
-1783; Noah Webster's American spelling book replaced the New England Primer as the
textbook for elementary schools.
-1785 (Land Ordinance Act) and 1787 (Northwest Ordinance) two ordinances that provided an
establishment of public education in the territory between the Appalachian Mountains and the
Mississippi River. This reserved support for public education and encouraged the establishment
of schools.

1800’s; Nineteenth Century

-1821; First free secondary school called The English Classical school was established in Boston.
-1828; Andrew Jackson was elected and he became the voice of many poor white people,
specifically their demand for access to an education.
-Horace Mann was the nation’s leading advocate for the establishment of a common school open
to all. Common schools were known as elementary schools during this era. Mann was also called
“The Father of the Public School”
-Goals for common schools were to instill common and humane moral values.
-Mann helped create the Massachusetts State Board of Education and in 1837 became its
secretary. This began his reform on education; believing that public education should serve both
practical and idealistic goals.
-Normal schools were founded in Massachusetts and devoted to preparing teachers in pedagogy.
-1837; Friedrich Froebel founded the first kindergarten and believed in the importance of
establishing an emotionally secure environment for children.
-Between 1836 and 1920, Mcguffey Readers educated several generations of Americans. The
readers emphasized work ethic, patriotism, heroism and morality and was geared for different
grade levels. Mcguffey Readers paved the way for graded elementary schools.
-Men dominated education until the mid-19th century. Single women were labeled lesbian and
after WWII men who stayed in education were labeled gay.
-1850s, Quakers such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Myrtilla Miner established the Miner
Normal School for Colored Girls providing new education opportunities for African American
women.
-1862 and 1890, Morill Land Grant College Acts also known as the Land-Grant College Acts
established 69 institutions of higher education in various states. Public land was donated to
establish these colleges.
-1874; Kalamazoo Michigan case ruled taxes could be used for secondary schools.
-1896; Plessy v. Ferguson - the supreme court decision supporting racially separate but equal
schools. This decision came about after states continued to pass laws that explicitly provided for
segregated schools.

1900s-1950s (Twentieth Century Part 1)

-John Dewey was the most influential and controversial educator of this era and gave us a look
into progressivism. Broadening school programs to include health concerns, family and
community life issues and vocational education concerns.
-1909; the first junior high school was established in Columbus, Ohio including grades 7,8 and 9.
The focus was on more individualized instruction, with a strong emphasis on guidance and
counseling and core curriculum for preadolescents.
-1917; Smith-Hughes Act provided funds for teacher training and development in vocational
education at a high school level.
-1919; The Progressive Education Association formed. The study called The Eight-year Study
was used to determine which educational approach was more effective. The results favored in
progressive schools.
-1930s; during the Great Depression, the government became more involved. Constructing
schools, providing free lunches for poor children, part-time work programs for high school and
college students and offering education programs to older Americans.
-1944; Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (G.I Bill of Rights) passed and paid veterans tuition and
living expenses for a number of months based on their length of service in the military.
-1950s; middle school created for grades 5-8 stressing team-teaching and interdisciplinary
learning rather than heavy subject mastery.

1950s-1999 (Twentieth Century Part 2)

-1954; Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (Kansas), the supreme court decision that all
schools must desegregate.
-1958; When soviets launched Sputnik in 1957, the National Defense Education Act (NDEA)
was passed which funded teacher training programs and provided loans and scholarships for
college students to allow them to major in subjects important for national defense.
-1964; President Johnson and congress move to eradicate racial segregation. The Civil Rights
Act gave the federal government power to help school districts desegregate (Title IV) and when
necessary withhold federal funds and initiate lawsuits to force desegregation (Title VI). The Civil
Rights Act produced more results in desegregation in four years that the Brown v. Board
decision did in decades.
-1965; Elementary and Secondary Education Act- provided financial assistance to school
districts for low income families. The 1970s expanded funding to include bilingual, Native
American education, drug education and school lunch and breakfast programs.
-1964 and 1965; project head start -provides medical, social, nutritional and educational services
for low income children 3-6 years old.
-1968; Bilingual Education Act, funds from congress to provide relevant instruction to
non-english speaking students. Although this was mainly passed for spanish speakers, this act
applies to everyone.
-1972; Title IX of the Education Amendment, prohibits sex based discrimination for males and
females
-1973; Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) founded by Marian Wright Edelman. Ensures that every
child has a healthy start, head start, fair start, safe start and moral start in life.

2000’s (Twenty-first Century)

-2001; No Child Left Behind Act- revises the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
and calls for standards and annual testing of math, reading and science.
-Parents are given greater freedom to select schools with increased federal support for charter
schools.
-2007; a ruling by supreme court backed away from desegregation efforts by striking down
Seattle and Louisville plans that used race to assign k-12 students to public school.
-2011; states are given more freedom to hold teachers and schools more accountable for
underperforming.