Timeline indicating important developments in educational policymaking,
such as the influence of legislative/political, societal, economic, or
philosophical changes in the past 100 years.
1900 - The Association of American Universities is
founded to promote higher standards and put U.S. universities on an
equal footing with their European counterparts.
1901 - Joliet Junior College, in Joliet, Illinois,
opens. It is the first public community college in the U.S.
1903
- Ivan Pavlov reads his paper, The Experimental
Psychology and Psychopathology of Animals, at the 14th International
Medical Congress in Madrid, explaining his concept of the conditioned reflex,
an important component of classical conditioning.
1904
- Mary
McLeod Bethune, an African American educator, founds
the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro
Girls in Daytona Beach, Florida. It merges with the Cookman Institute in 1923 and becomes a
coeducational high school, which eventually evolves into Bethune-Cookman College, now Bethune-Cookman University.
1905
- Alfred Binet's article, "New Methods for the Diagnosis of the Intellectual Level of
Subnormals," is published in France. It describes his work with
Theodore Simon in the development of a
measurement instrument that would identify students with mental retardation.
The Binet-Simon Scale, as it is called, is an effective means of measuring
intelligence.
1905- The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of
Teaching is founded. It is charted by an act of Congress in
1906, the same year the Foundation encouraged the adoption of a standard system
for equating "seat time" (the amount of time spent in a class) to high school
credits. Still in use today, this system came to be called the "Carnegie Unit." Other important achievements of
the Foundation during the first half of the 20th Century include
the "landmark 'Flexner Report' on medical education, the
development of the Graduate Record Examination, the founding of the
Educational Testing Service, and the creation of
the Teachers
Insurance Annuity Association of America (TIAA-CREF)." See the
Carnegie
Foundation's home page for additional
information.
1909 - Educational reformer Ella Flagg Young becomes superintendent of the
Chicago Public Schools. She is the first female superintendent of a large city
school system. One year later she is elected president of the National Education Association.
1911
- The first Montessori school in the U.S. opens in Tarrytown, New York. Two
years later (1913), Maria Montessori visits the U.S., and
Alexander Graham Bell and his wife Mabel found the Montessori
Educational Association at their Washington, DC, home
1913 - Edward Lee Thorndike's book, Educational
Psychology: The Psychology of Learning, is published. It describes his
theory that human learning involves habit formation, or connections between
stimuli (or situations as Thorndike preferred to call them) and responses (Connectionism). He believes that such
connections are strengthened by repetition ("Law of Exercise") and achieving
satisfying consequences ("Law of Effect"). These ideas, which contradict
traditional faculty
psychology and mental discipline, come to dominate American
educational psychology for much of the Twentieth Century and greatly influence
American educational practice.
1914 - The Smith-Lever Act establishes a system of
cooperative extension services connected to land grant universities and
provides federal funds for extension activities.
1916 - Louis M. Terman and his team of Stanford
University graduate students complete an American version of the Binet-Simon
Scale. The Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon Scale becomes a widely-used
individual intelligence test, and along with it, the concept of the intelligence quotient (or IQ) is born. The Fifth Edition of the Stanford-Binet Scales is
among the most popular individual intelligence tests today. For additional
information on the history of intelligence testing, see A.C.E. Detailed History of the I.Q. Test.
1916
-The American
Federation of Teachers (AFT) is founded. So is the American Educational Research Association
(AERA).
1916
- John Dewey's Democracy
and Education. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education
is published. Dewey's views help advance the ideas of the "progressive education
movement." An outgrowth of the progressive political movement,
progressive education seeks to make schools more effective agents of democracy.
His daughter, Evelyn Dewey, coauthors Schools of To-morrow with her father, and
goes on to write several books on her own.
1916 - The Bureau of Educational Experiments is founded in
New York City by Lucy Sprague Mitchell with the purpose of
studying child development and children's learning. It opens a laboratory
nursery school in 1918 and in 1950 becomes the Bank Street College of
Education. Its School
for Children is now "an independent demonstration
school for Bank Street College." This same year (1916), Mrs. Frank R. Lillie
helps establish what would become the University of Chicago Nursery School.
1917 - The Smith-Hughes Act passes, providing federal
funding for agricultural and vocational education. It is repealed in 1997.
1917 - As the U.S. enters W.W.I the army has no means of
screening the intellectual ability of its recruits. Robert Yerkes, then President of the American
Psychological Association and an army officer, becomes Chairman of the
Committee on Psychological Examination of Recruits. The committee, which
includes Louis Terman, has the task of developing a group intelligence test. He
and his team of psychologists design the Army Alpha and Beta tests. Though these tests
have little impact on the war, they lay the groundwork for future standardized
tests.
1918 - World War I ends on 11
November.
1919 - The Treaty of Versailles is signed on 28 June. It
officially ends the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers.
However, the terms of the treaty are tragically flawed, and instead of bringing
lasting peace, it plants the seeds for World War II, which begins
twenty years later.
1919
- The Progressive Education Association is founded
with the goal of reforming American education.
1919 - All states have laws providing funds for transporting children to school.
1920 - John B. Watson and his assistant Rosalie Rayner
conduct their experiments using classical conditioning with children. Often
referred to as the Little
Albert study, Watson and Rayner's work showed that children
could be conditioned to fear stimuli of which they had
previously been unafraid. This study could not be conducted today because of ethical
safeguards currently in place.
1920 - The 19th Amendment is ratified, giving women the right to
vote.
1921 - Louis Terman launches a longitudinal study of "intellectually superior"
children at Stanford University. The study continues into the 21st
Century!
1922 - The International Council for Exceptional Children
is founded at Columbia University Teachers College.
1922 - Abigail Adams Eliot, with help from Mrs. Henry
Greenleaf Pearson, establishes the Ruggles Street Nursery School in Roxbury,
MA, one of the first educational nursery schools in the U.S. It becomes the Eliot-Pearson Children's School and is now
affiliated with the Eliot-Pearson
Department of Child Development at Tufts University.
1924 - Max
Wertheimer describes the principles of Gestalt Theory to the Kant Society
in Berlin. Gestalt
Theory, with its emphasis on learning through insight and
grasping the whole concept, becomes important later in the 20th Century in the
development of cognitive views of learning and teaching.
1925
- Tennessee vs. John Scopes ("the Monkey Trial")
captures national attention as John Scopes, a high school biology teacher, is
charged with the heinous crime of teaching evolution. The trial ends in Scopes'
conviction. The evolution
versus creationism controversy persists
to this day.
1926
- The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is first
administered. It is based on the Army Alpha test.
1929 - Jean Piaget'sThe Child's Conception of the
World is published. His theory of cognitive development becomes an
important influence in American developmental psychology and
education.
1929
- The Great Depression begins with the stock market crash in October. The U.S. economy
is devastated. Public education funding suffers greatly, resulting in school
closings, teacher layoffs, and lower salaries.
1931 -
Alvarez vs. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove
(California) School District becomes the first successful school desegregation court
case in the United States, as the local court forbids the school district from
placing Mexican-American children in a separate "Americanization" school.
1932 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected president
and begins bold efforts to initiate his New Deal and spur economic recovery. His wife,
Eleanor, becomes a champion of human rights and forever transforms the role of American First
Lady.
1935 - Congress authorizes the Works Progress Administration. Its purpose is to
put the unemployed to work on public projects, including the construction of
hundreds of school buildings.
1938 - Ladislas Biro and his brother Georg patent the
ballpoint pen.
1939
- Frank W. Cyr, a professor at Columbia
University's Teachers College, organizes a national conference on student
transportation. It results in the adoption of standards for the nation's school buses, including
the shade of yellow.
1939 - The
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (first called the Wechsler- Bellevue
Intelligence Scale) is developed by David Wechsler. It introduces the concept of the
"deviation
IQ," which calculates IQ scores based on how far subjects'
scores differ (or deviate) from the average (mean) score of others who are the
same age, rather than calculating them with the ratio (MA/CA multiplied by 100) system. Wechsler
intelligence tests, particularly the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, are
still widely used in U.S. schools to help identify students needing special
education.
1941 - The U.S. enters World War II after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor on December 7. During the next four
years, much of the country's resources go to the war effort. Education is put
on the back burner as many young men quit school to enlist; schools are faced
with personnel problems as teachers and other employees enlist, are drafted, or
leave to work in defense plants; school construction is put on hold.
1944 - The G.I. Bill officially known as the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, is signed
by FDR on June 22. Some 7.8 million World War II veterans take advantage of the
GI
Bill during the seven years benefits are offered. More than
two-million attend colleges or universities, nearly doubling the college
population. About 238,000 become teachers. Because the law
provides the same opportunity to every veteran, regardless of background, the
long-standing tradition that a college education was only for the wealthy is
broken.
1945 - World War II ends on August 15 (VJ Day) with
victory over Japan.
1946 - At one minute after midnight on
January 1st, Kathleen
Casey-Kirschling is born, the first of nearly 78 million baby
boomers, beginning a generation that results in unprecedented
school population growth and massive social change. She becomes a teacher!
1946 - In
the landmark court case of Mendez vs. Westminster and the California Board of
Education, the U. S. District Court in Los Angeles rules that
educating children of Mexican descent in separate facilities is
unconstitutional, thus prohibiting segregation in California schools and setting an important precedent for Brown vs. Board of
Education.
1946 - The computer age begins as the
Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC), the first vacuum-tube computer, is built for the U.S.
military by Presper
Eckert and John Mauchly.
1946 - With thousands of
veterans returning to college, The President's Commission on Higher Education
is given the task of reexamining the role of colleges and universities in
post-war America. The first volume of its report, often referred to as the Truman Commission Report, is issued in 1947 and
recommends sweeping changes in higher education, including doubling college
enrollments by 1960 and extending free public education through the
establishment of a network of community colleges. This latter recommendation comes to fruition in the
1960s, during which community college enrollment more than triples.
1946 - Recognizing "the need for a permanent
legislative basis for a school lunch program," the 79th Congress approves the National School Lunch Act.
1947 - In the case of Everson v. Board of Education, the
U.S. Supreme Court rules by a 5-4 vote that a New Jersey law which allowed
reimbursements of transportation costs to parents of children who rode public
transportation to school, even if their children attended Catholic schools, did
NOT violate the Establishment Clause of the
First Amendment.
1948 - In the case of McCollum v. Board of Education, the Supreme
Court rules that schools cannot allow "released time" during the school day which
allows students to participate in religious education in their public school
classrooms.
1950 - Public Law 81-740 grants a federal charter to
the FFA and recognizes it as an integral part of the
program of vocational agriculture. The law is revised in 1998 and becomes Public
Law 105-225.
1952 - Public Law 550, the Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act of 1952,
modifies the G.I. Bill for veterans of the Korean
War.
1953 - Burrhus Frederic
(B.F.) Skinner'sScience and Human Behavior is published.
His form of behaviorism (operant conditioning), which emphasizes changes
in behavior due to reinforcement, becomes widely accepted and influences many
aspects of American education
1954 - On May 17th, the U.S.
Supreme Court announces its decision in the case of Brown v. Board. of Education of Topeka, ruling
that "separate educational facilities are inherently
unequal," thus overturning its previous ruling in the 1896 case
of
Plessy v. Ferguson. Brown v. Board of Education is actually a
combination of five cases from different parts
of the country. It is a historic first step in the long and still unfinished
journey toward equality in U.S. education.
1955 - Rosa Parks, a Montgomery, Alabama seamstress,
refuses to give up her seat on the bus to a Caucasian passenger and is
subsequently arrested and fined. The Montgomery bus boycott follows, giving impetus
to the Civil Rights Movement. A year later, in the case
of Browder v. Gale, the U.S. Supreme Court rules
that segregated seating on buses unconstitutional.
1956 – The Taxonomy
of Educational Objectives: The Cassification of Educational Goals; Handbook I:
Cognitive Domain is published. Often referred to simply as “Bloom’s
Taxonomy” because of its primary author, Benjamin
S. Bloom, the document actually has four coauthors (M.D. Engelhart, E.J.
Furst, W.H. Hill, and David Krathwohl). Still widely used today, Bloom’s
Taxonomy divides the cognitive
domain into six levels: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis,
synthesis. Handbook
II: Affective Domain, edited by Krathwohl, Bloom, and Masia, is
published in 1964. Taxonomies for the psychomotor
domain have been published by other writers.
1957 - The Civil Rights Act of 1957 is voted into law in
spite of Strom Thurmond's filibuster. Essentially a
voting-rights bill, it is the first civil rights legislation since
reconstruction and is a precursor to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
1957 - Federal troops enforce integration in
Little Rock, Arkansas as the Little Rock 9 enroll at Central High School.
1957 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the Earth.
Occurring in the midst of the Cold War, it represents both a potential threat
to American national security as well as a blow to national
pride.
1958 - At least partially because of Sputnik,
science and science education become important concerns in the U.S., resulting
in the passage of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) which
authorizes increased funding for scientific research as well as science,
mathematics, and foreign language education.
1959 - The ACT Test is first
administered.
1960 -First grader Ruby Bridges is the first African American to
attend William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. She becomes a class of
one as parents remove all Caucasian students from the
school.
1962 - First published in 1934, Lev Vygotsky's book, Thought and Language is introduced to the
English-speaking world. Though he lives to be only 38, Vygotsky's ideas regarding the social nature of
learning provide important foundational principles for contemporary social constructivist theories. He is perhaps
best known for his concept of "Zone of Proximal
Development."
1962 - In the case of Engel v. Vitale, the U. S.
Supreme Court rules that the state of New York's Regents prayer violates the First Amendment. The ruling specifies that "state officials may not compose an official state prayer
and require that it be recited in the public schools of the
State at the beginning of each school day. . . "
1963 - In the cases of School District of Abington Township, Pennsylvania v.
Schempp and Murray v. Curlett, the U. S. Supreme Court
reaffirms Engel v. Vitale by ruling 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 . . . even if individual
students may be excused from attending or participating . . ."
1963
- Samuel A. Kirk uses the term "learning disability" at a Chicago conference on
children with perceptual disorders. The term sticks, and in 1964, the Association for Children with Learning
Disabilities, now the Learning Disabilities Association of America, is
formed. Today, nearly one-half of all students in the U.S. who receive special
education have been identified as having learning disabilities.
1963 -
President John
F. Kennedy is assassinated. Schools close as the nation mourns
its loss. Lyndon
Johnson becomes president.
1963 - In response to
the large number of Cuban immigrant children arriving in Miami after the Cuban Revolution, Coral Way Elementary School starts the "nation's first bilingual public school in the modern
era."
1964 - The Civil Rights Act becomes law. It prohibits
discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion or national
origin.
1965 - The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is
passed on April 9. Part of Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty," it provides
federal funds to help low-income students, which results in the initiation of
educational programs such as Title I and bilingual
education.
1965 - The Higher Education Act is
signed at Southwest Texas State College on November 8. It increases federal aid
to higher education and provides for scholarships, student loans, and
establishes a National
Teachers Corps.
1965 - Project Head Start, a preschool education
program for children from low-income families, begins as an eight-week summer
program. Part of the "War on Poverty," the program continues to this
day as the longest-running anti-poverty program in the U.S.
1965
- Lyndon Johnson signs the Immigration Act of 1965, also known as the
Hart-Cellar Act, on October.3rd. It abolishes the National Origins Formula and results in unprecedented numbers of Asians and Latin Americans immigrating
to the United States, making America's classrooms much more
diverse.
1966 - The Equality of Educational Opportunity Study, often called the Coleman Report because of its primary author James
S. Coleman, is conducted in response to provisions of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964. Its conclusion that African American children benefit from
attending integrated schools sets the stage for school "busing" to achieve
desegregation.
1966 - Jerome Bruner's Toward a Theory of
Instruction is published. His views regarding learning help to popularize
the cognitive learning theory as an alternative to behaviorism.
1966 - Public Law 358, the Veterans Readjustment Benefits Act of 1966,
provides not only educational benefits, but also home and farm loans as well as
employment counseling and placement services for Vietnam veterans. More than 385,000 troops, serve in Vietnam during 1966.
From 1965-1975, more than nine million American military personnel are on
active military duty, about 3.4 million of whom serve in Southeast
Asia.
1968 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Nobel Prize winner and
leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April
4th. The Martin
Luther King, Jr. Holiday, observed on the third Monday of
January, celebrates his "life and legacy."
1968 - The Bilingual Education Act, also know as Title VII,
becomes law. After many years of controversy, the law is repealed in 2002 and replaced by the No Child
Left Behind Act.
1968 - The "Monkey Trial"
revisited! In the case of Epperson et al. v. Arkansas, the U.S. supreme
Court finds the state of Arkansas' law prohibiting the teaching of evolution in
a public school or university unconstitutional.
1968 - Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm, an African
American educator, becomes the first African American woman to be
elected to the U.S. Congress.
1968 - McCarver Elementary School in Tacoma, Washington
becomes the nation's first magnet school.
1969 -
Herbert R. Kohl's book, The Open
Classroom, helps to promote open education, an approach emphasizing
student-centered classrooms and active, holistic learning. The conservative
back-to-the-basics movement of the 1970s begins at least partially as a backlash
against open education. .
1969 - On
April 30th, the number of U.S. military personnel in Vietnam stands at 543,482, the most at any time during the war.
College enrollments swell as many young men seek student deferments from the
draft; anti-war protests become commonplace on college
campuses, and grade inflation begins as professors realize
that low grades may change male students' draft status.
1969 - ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency
Network), the first "packet-switching" network and precursor of the
internet, is created by the U.S. Defense Department. Its first message is sent October 29, at about 10:30
P.M. For alternate perspectives on the origins of the internet, see So, who really invented
the internet?
1970 - Four students are killed by Ohio National Guard
troops on May 4th during an anti-war protest at Kent State
University in Ohio.
1970 - In his controversial book, Deschooling Society,Ivan Illich sharply
criticizes traditional schools and calls for the end of compulsory school attendance.
1970 - Jean Piaget's book, The Science of
Education, is published. His Learning Cycle model helps to popularize
discovery-based teaching approaches, particularly in the sciences.
1970 - The case of Diana v. California State Board results in new
laws requiring that children referred for possible special education placement be tested in their primary
language.
1971 - In the case of Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children (PARC) v.
Pennsylvania, the federal court rules that students with mental
retardation are entitled to a free public education.
1971 - Michael Hart, founder of Project Guttenberg, invents the e-Book.
1972 - Texas Instruments introduces the first in its
line of electronic hand-held calculators, the TI-2500 Data Math. TI becomes an industry leader known around the world.
1972 - The Indian Education Act becomes law and establishes
"a comprehensive approach to meeting the unique needs
of American Indian and Alaska Native students"
1972 - The
case of Mills v. the Board of Education of Washington,
D.C. extends the PARC v. Pennsylvania ruling to other students
with disabilities and requires the provision of "adequate alternative
educational services suited to the child's needs, which may include special
education . . ." Other similar cases follow.
1972 - Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
becomes law. Though many people associate this law only with girl's and women's
participation in sports, Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sex in all
aspects of education.
1972 - The Marland Report to Congress on gifted and
talented education is issued. It recommends a broader definition of giftedness that is still widely
accepted today.
1973 - U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War ends
on January 27. More than 58,000 U.S. service personnel are killed in
action during the war. The fighting continues until April 30,
1975 when South Vietnam surrenders to the communist North Vietnamese forces.
1973 - Marian
Wright Edelman founds the Children's Defense Fund, a non-profit child
advocacy organization.
1973 - The Rehabilitation Act becomes law. Section 504 of this act guarantees civil rights
for people with disabilities in the context of federally funded institutions
and requires accommodations in schools including participation in programs and
activities as well as access to buildings. Today, "504 Plans" are used to provide accommodations
for students with disabilities who do not qualify for special education or an
IEP.
1974 - In the Case of Lau v. Nichols, the U.S. Supreme Court
rules that the failure of the San Francisco School District to provide English
language instruction to Chinese-American students with limited English
proficiency (LEP) is a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Though the case does
not require a specific approach to teaching LEP students, it does require
school districts to provide equal opportunities for all students,
including those who do not speak English.
1974 - The Equal Educational Opportunities Act is passed.
It prohibits discrimination and requires schools to take action to overcome
barriers which prevent equal protection. The legislation has been particularly
important in protecting the rights of students with limited English
proficiency..
1974 - Federal Judge Arthur Garrity orders busing of
African American students to predominantly white schools in order to achieve
racial integration of public schools in Boston, MA. White parents protest, particularly in South
Boston.
1975
- The Education of All Handicapped Children Act (PL
94-142) becomes federal law. It requires that a free,
appropriate public education, suited to the student's individual needs, and
offered in the least restrictive setting be provided for all "handicapped"
children. States are given until 1978 (later extended to 1981) to fully
implement the law.
1975 - The National Association of
Bilingual Education is founded.
1975 -
Newsweek's December 8 cover story, "Why Johnny Can't Write," heats up the debate
about national literacy and the back-to-the-basics movement.
1977
- Apple Computer, now Apple Inc., introduces the Apple II, one of the first successful personal
computers. It and its offspring, the Apple IIe, become popular in schools as students
begin to learn with computer games such as Oregon Trail and Odell Lake.
|1980
- The Refugee Act of 1980 is signed into law by
President
Jimmy Carter on March 18th. Building on the Immigration Act of
1965, it reforms immigration law to admit refugees for humanitarian reasons and
results in the resettlement of more than three-million refugees in the
United States including many children who bring special needs
and issues to their classrooms.
1980 - President Jimmy Carter signs the Refugee Education Assistance Act into law as the
"Mariel Boatlift" brings thousands
of Cuban
and a small number of Haitian refugees to Florida.
1980 - Ronald Reagan is elected president, ushering in
a new conservative era, not only in foreign and economic policy, but in education as well. However, he never carries
out his pledge to reduce the federal role in education by eliminating the Department of Education, which had become a
Cabinet level agency that same year under the Carter administration..
1981 - John Holt's book,
Teach Your Own: A Hopeful Path for Education,
adds momentum to the homeschooling movement.
1981 - IBM
introduces its version of the personal computer (PC) with its
Model
5150. It's operating system is MS-DOS.
1982 - In the case of
Edwards v. Aguillard, the U.S. Supreme Court
invalidates Louisiana's "Creationism Act," which requires the teaching of
creationism whenever evolution is taught, because it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution.
1982 - Madeline C.
Hunter's book, Mastery Teaching, is published. Her direct instruction teaching model becomes widely
used as teachers throughout the country attend her workshops and become
"Hunterized."
1982 - In the case of Plyler v. Doe, the U.S. Supreme Court rules in a
5-4 decision that Texas law denying access to public education for undocumented
school-age children violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
The ruling also found that school districts cannot charge tuition fees for the education of
these children.
1982 - In the case of Board of Education v. Pico, the U.S. Supreme
court rules that books cannot be removed from a school library because school
administrators deemed their content to be
offensive.
1983 - The report of the National Commission on Excellence
in Education, A Nation at Risk, calls for sweeping reforms in
public education and teacher training. Among their recommendations is a
forward-looking call for expanding high school requirements to include the study of
computer science.
1984 - Public Law 105-332, the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education
Act, is passed with the goal of increasing the quality of
vocational-technical education
in the U.S. It is reauthorized in 1998 and again in 2006 as the
Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education
Act (PL 109-270).
1984 -The
Emergency Immigrant Education Act is enacted to
provide services and offset the costs for school districts that
have unexpectedly large numbers of immigrant students.
1985 - In the case of Wallace v, Jaffree, the U.S. Supreme Court finds
that Alabama statutes authorizing silent prayer and teacher-led voluntary
prayer in public schools violate the First Amendment.
1985 - Microsoft Windows 1.0, the first independent version of Windows, is released,
setting the stage for subsequent versions that make
MS-DOS obsolete.
1986 - Christa McAuliffe is chosen by NASA from among
more than 11,000 applicants to be the first teacher-astronaut, but her mission
ends tragically as the Space Shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds
after its launch, killing McAuliffe and the other six members of the
crew.
1987 - In
the case of Edwards v. Aguillard, et al. the U.S. Supreme
Court strikes down a Louisiana requiring that creation science be taught along with
evolution. Will this controversy ever be resolved?
1989 - The University of Phoenix establishes their "online
campus," the first to offer online bachelor's and master's
degrees. It becomes the "largest private university in North
America."
1990 - Tim Berners-Lee, a British engineer and computer
scientist called by many the inventor of the internet, writes the first web
client-server protocol (Hypertext Translation Protocol or http), which allows
two computers to communicate. On August 6, 1991, he puts the first web site on
line from a computer at the CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear
Research) in order to facilitate information sharing among
scientists. So . . . does this mean that Al Gore didn't invent the internet after
all?
1990 - Public Law 101-476, the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act (IDEA), renames and amends Public Law 94-142. In addition to
changing terminology from handicap to disability, it mandates transition
services and adds autism and traumatic brain injury to the eligibility
list.
1990 - The Milwaukee
Parental Choice program is initiated. It allows
"students, under specific circumstances, to attend at no charge, private
sectarian and nonsectarian schools located in the city of Milwaukee."
1990 - Teach for America is formed, reestablishing the
idea of a National
Teachers Corps.
1990- The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990,
the first comprehensive reform since 1965, is enacted on 29 November and
increases annual immigration to 700,000 adding to the diversity of our nation
and its schools. Specific aspects of the law provide for family-sponsored
visas; employment-based visas for priority workers, skilled workers, and
"advanced professionals"; and 55,000 diversity visas "allocated to natives of a country that has sent fewer than
50,000 immigrants to the United States over the previous five
years."
1991
- Minnesota passes the first "charter school" law.
1991 - The
smart board (interactive white board) is
introduced by SMART
Technologies.
1992 - City Academy High School, the nation's first
charter school, opens in St. Paul, Minnesota.
1993 - Jacqueline and Martin Brooks' In Search of
Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms is published. It is
one many books and articles describing constructivism, a view that learning best occurs
through active construction of knowledge rather than its passive reception. Constructivist learning theory, with roots such
as the work of Dewey, Bruner, Piaget, and Vygotsky, becomes extremely popular
in the 1990s.
1993 - The Massachusetts Education Reform Act requires a
common curriculum and statewide tests (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment
System). As has often been the case, other states follow Massachusetts' lead
and implement similar, high-stakes testing programs.
1993 - Jones
International University
becomes the first university "to exist completely online."
1994 - The Improving America's Schools Act (IASA) is signed
into law by President Bill Clinton on January 25th. It.
reauthorizes the ESEA of 1965 and includes reforms for Title I;
increased funding for bilingual and immigrant education; and provisions for
public charter schools, drop-out prevention, and educational
technology.
1994 - As a backlash to illegal immigration,
California voters pass Proposition 187, denying benefits, including
public education, to undocumented aliens in California. It is challenged by the
ACLU and other groups and eventually overturned.
1994 - Jim Clark and Mark Andreesan found Mosaic
Communications. The corporation is later renamed Netscape
Communications. On December 15th, they release the first commercial web browser, Mozilla 1.0. It is available without cost to
individuals and non-profit organizations. By the summer of 1995, more than 80% of internet users are browsing
with Netscape!
1994 - CompuHigh is founded. It claims to be the first
online high school.
1994-1995 - Whiteboards find their way into U.S. classrooms
in increasing numbers and begin to replace the blackboard.
1995
- Georgia
becomes the first state to offer universal preschool to all four
year olds whose parents choose to enroll them. More than half of the state's four year olds are
now enrolled.
1996 - James Banks' book, Multicultural Education: Transformative Knowledge and
Action, makes an important contribution to the growing body
of scholarship regarding multiculturalism in education..
1996 -
The Oakland, California School District sparks controversy as it proposes that Ebonics be recognized as the native language of African
American children.
1996 - President Bill
Clinton signs the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of
1996 into law on September 30th.. It prohibits states from
offering higher education benefit based on residency within a state (in-state
tuition) to undocumented immigrants unless the benefit is available to any U.S.
citizen or national. This law conflicts, however, with practices and laws in
several U.S. states.
1997 - New York follows Georgia's lead and passes
legislation that will phase in voluntary pre-kindergarten classes over a
four-year period. However, preschool funding is a casualty of September 11,
2001 as New York struggles to recover. As of 2008, about 39% of the state's
four year olds, mostly from low-income families, are enrolled.
1998
- California voters pass Proposition 227, requiring that all public
school instruction be in English. This time the law withstands legal challenges.
1998
- The Higher Education Act is amended and reauthorized requiring
institutions and states to produce "report cards" about teacher education (See Title II).
1998 - Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin set up a workplace
for their newly
incorporated search engine in a Menlo Park, California garage.
1999 - On April 20th, two Columbine High School students go on a killing
spree that leaves 15 dead and 23 wounded at the Littleton,
Colorado school, making it the nations' deadliest school shooting incident.
Though schools tighten safety procedures as a result of the Columbine massacre,
school shootings continue to occur at an alarming
rate.
2000
- Diane Ravitch's book, Left Back: A Century of Failed School
Reforms, criticizes progressive educational policies and
argues for a more traditional, academically-oriented education. Her views,
which are reminiscent of the "back to the basics" movement of the late 1970s
and 1980s, are representative of the current conservative trend in education
and the nation at large.
2000 - In yet another case regarding
school prayer (Santa Fe School District v. Doe),
the U.S. Supreme Court rules that
the district's policy of allowing student-led prayer prior to football games
violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
2001 - Nineteen
al-Qaeda terrorists hijack four commercial jet
airliners on the morning of September 11. They crash two into the twin
towers of the World
Trade Center and another into the Pentagon. The fourth plane
crashes in a rural area of Pennsylvania as passengers try to retake it from the
hijackers. A total of 2976 victims as well as the 19 terrorists are killed. The
attacks have a devastating effect on the both U.S. and world stock markets,
result in the passage of the Patriot Act, formation of the Department of Homeland Security, provide the
impetus for two wars, and take a lasting toll on Americans' sense of safety and
well-being.
2001 - The controversial No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is approved by
Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush on January 8, 2002. The
law, which reauthorizes the ESEA of 1965 and replaces the Bilingual Education
Act of 1968, mandates high-stakes student testing, holds schools accountable
for student achievement levels, and provides penalties for schools that do not
make adequate yearly progress toward meeting the goals of
NCLB.
2002 - In
the case of Zelman
v. Simmons-Harris the U.S. Supreme
court rules that certain school voucher programs are
constitutional and do not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
2002 - The North
American Reggio Emilia Alliance (NAREA) is formally launched as
an organization. Its goals include promoting the rights of young children and
providing information about the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood
education.
2003
- The Higher Education Act is again amended and reauthorized, expanding access to
higher education for low and middle income students, providing additional funds
for graduate studies, and increasing accountability.
2003 - The
North American
Council for Online Learning (NACOL), a non-profit organization
dedicated to enhancing K-12 online education, is "launched as a formal
corporate entity."
2004 - H.R. 1350, The Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act
(IDEA 2004), reauthorizes and modifies
IDEA. Changes, which take
effect on July 1, 2005, include modifications in the IEP process and
procedural safeguards, increased authority for school personnel in special
education placement decisions, and alignment of IDEA with the
No Child Left Behind Act. The 2004
reauthorization also requires school districts to use the Response to Intervention (RTI) approach as a
means for the early identification of students at risk for specific learning
disabilities. RTI provides a three-tiered model for screening, monitoring, and
providing increasing degrees of intervention using “research-based instruction"
with the overall goal of reducing the need for special education services
2005 - In the latest incarnation of the "Monkey Trial," the U.S. District
Court of Pennsylvania rules in the case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District that
teaching "intelligent design" as an alternative to
evolution is a violation of the First Amendment.
2007 - On
January 1, 2007, the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) became
the American
Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
(AAIDD), joining the trend toward use of the term intellectual disability in place of mental retardation.
2007 - Cho
Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old student, kills two students in a dorm and then 30 others in a classroom
building at Virginia Tech University. Fifteen others are
wounded. His suicide brings the death toll to 33, making it the deadliest
school shooting incident in U.S. history.
2007 - In the cases of
Parents
involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No 1
and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education,
the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that race cannot be a factor in assigning
students to high schools, thus rejecting integration plans in Seattle and
Louisville, and possibly affecting similar plans in school districts around the
nation.
2007 - Both the House and Senate pass the Fiscal Year 2008 Labor-HHS-
Education appropriation bill which includes reauthorization of the No Child Left
Behind Act. However, the bill is vetoed by President Bush because it exceeds his
budget request. Attempts to override the veto fall short.
2008 -
Less than one year after the Virginia Tech massacre, former graduate student
Stephen P. Kazmierczak kills five and wounds 17 in a classroom at Northern Illinois
University. He later takes his own life.
2008 - Barack
Obama defeats John
McCain and is elected the 44th President of the United States.
Substantial changes in the No Child Left Behind Act are
eventually expected, but with two ongoing wars as well as the current
preoccupation with our nation's economic problems, reauthorization of NCLB is
unlikely to happen any time soon.
2009 - The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009
provides more than 90-billion dollars for education, nearly half of which goes
to local school districts to prevent layoffs and for school modernization and
repair. It includes the Race to the Top initiative, a
4.35-billion-dollar program designed to induce reform in K-12 education. For
more information on the impact of the Recovery Act on education, go to ED.gov.
2009 - The Common Core State Standards Initiative, "a
state-led effort coordinated by the National
Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and
the Council of Chief
State School Officers," is launched. It is expected that many,
perhaps most, states will adopt them.
2009 - Quest to Learn
(Q2L), the first school to teach primarily through game-based
learning, opens in September in New York City with a class of sixth graders
There are plans to add a grade each year until the school serves students in
grades six through twelve.
2010 - With the U.S. economy mired in
a recession and unemployment remaining high, states have massive budget deficits. As many as
300,000 teachers face
layoffs.
2010 - New Texas social studies curriculum standards,
described by some as “ultraconservative,” spark controversy. Many fear they will affect textbooks and classrooms in other
states..
2011 - Sylvia Mendez, whose parents where lead
plaintiffs in the historic civil rights case, Mendez vs. Westminster and the California Board of
Education, is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on February
16th..
2011 - In spite of workers' protests and
Democratic legislators leaving the state to delay the vote, the Wisconsin legislature passes a bill removing
most collective-bargaining rights from many public employees, including
teachers. Governor Scott Walker signs the bill into law on March 11. After
legal challenges are exhausted, it is finally implemented in June. Similar
proposals are being considered in Ohio and several other
states.
2011 - President Barack Obama announces on September 23
that the U.S. Department of Education is inviting each State educational agency
to request
flexibility regarding some requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.
2011 -
Alabama becomes the first state "to require public schools to
check the immigration status" of students. Though the law does
not require schools to prohibit the enrollment nor report the names of
undocumented children, opponents nevertheless contend it is unconstitutional
based on the Plyer v. Doe ruling.
2012 - In
his January 24th State of the Union Address, President Barack
Obama calls for requiring students to stay in school until they graduate from
high school or reach age 18. Twenty states and the District of Columbia currently require
attendance until age 18.
2012 - President Barack
Obama announces on February 9 that the applications of ten states seeking waivers from some of the
requirements of the No
Child Left Behind law were approved. New Mexico's application is approved a few days
later, bringing the number of states receiving waivers to 11. An additional 26 states applied for waivers in late
February.
2012 - Speaking at an economic summit hosted by the
Latino Coalition on May 23,Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney warns of a "National Education
Emergency," blames teachers unions for blocking needed
education reform, and calls for expanding school choice by offering vouchers to
low-income students and those with disabilities.
2012 - On July
6, Washington and Wisconsin become the two most recent states to
be granted waivers from some requirements of the federal No
Child left Behind law, bringing the total number of states granted waivers to 26.
Several more states have submitted waiver applications and are waiting for
approval.
2012 - As of August, 32 states and Washington, D.C. have been granted
waivers from some No Child Left Behind requirements.
However, the waivers for eight states are "conditional," meaning some aspects
of their plans are still under review.
2013 - On January 11, the
Washington Post reports that Seattle high school teachers have refused to give the
district-mandated Measures of Academy Progress, joining a
"growing grass-roots revolt against the excessive use of standardized
tests."
Additional References (print references and online
references not linked in the text above):
Barger, R.N. (2004). History
of American Education Web Project. Retrieved December 21, 2004 from http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfrnb/index.html
Applied
Research Center (2008). Historical Timeline of Public Education in the US.
Retrieved December 28, 2008 from http://www.arc.org/content/view/100/53/
Helton,
Gene. (No Date). Curriculum Development in 20th Century United States.
Retrieved January 2, 2005 from http://www.personal.kent.edu/~whelton/index.html
Lloyd,
J. W. (2005). Chronology of Some Important Events in the History of Learning
Disabilities. Retrieved June 22, 2009 from http://faculty.virginia.edu/johnlloyd/edis511/classes/LD_Times.html.
Rippa,
S. Alexander (1971). Education in a Free Society, (2nd. Edition ). New
York: David McKay Company.
Stankiewicz, M.A. (No Date). The History of Art
Education Timeline. Retrieved June 22, 2009 from http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/m/a/mas53/timelint.html
Thayer,
V. T. (1965). Formative Ideas in American Education . New York: Dodd,
Mead, and Company.
such as the influence of legislative/political, societal, economic, or
philosophical changes in the past 100 years.
1900 - The Association of American Universities is
founded to promote higher standards and put U.S. universities on an
equal footing with their European counterparts.
1901 - Joliet Junior College, in Joliet, Illinois,
opens. It is the first public community college in the U.S.
1903
- Ivan Pavlov reads his paper, The Experimental
Psychology and Psychopathology of Animals, at the 14th International
Medical Congress in Madrid, explaining his concept of the conditioned reflex,
an important component of classical conditioning.
1904
- Mary
McLeod Bethune, an African American educator, founds
the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro
Girls in Daytona Beach, Florida. It merges with the Cookman Institute in 1923 and becomes a
coeducational high school, which eventually evolves into Bethune-Cookman College, now Bethune-Cookman University.
1905
- Alfred Binet's article, "New Methods for the Diagnosis of the Intellectual Level of
Subnormals," is published in France. It describes his work with
Theodore Simon in the development of a
measurement instrument that would identify students with mental retardation.
The Binet-Simon Scale, as it is called, is an effective means of measuring
intelligence.
1905- The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of
Teaching is founded. It is charted by an act of Congress in
1906, the same year the Foundation encouraged the adoption of a standard system
for equating "seat time" (the amount of time spent in a class) to high school
credits. Still in use today, this system came to be called the "Carnegie Unit." Other important achievements of
the Foundation during the first half of the 20th Century include
the "landmark 'Flexner Report' on medical education, the
development of the Graduate Record Examination, the founding of the
Educational Testing Service, and the creation of
the Teachers
Insurance Annuity Association of America (TIAA-CREF)." See the
Carnegie
Foundation's home page for additional
information.
1909 - Educational reformer Ella Flagg Young becomes superintendent of the
Chicago Public Schools. She is the first female superintendent of a large city
school system. One year later she is elected president of the National Education Association.
1911
- The first Montessori school in the U.S. opens in Tarrytown, New York. Two
years later (1913), Maria Montessori visits the U.S., and
Alexander Graham Bell and his wife Mabel found the Montessori
Educational Association at their Washington, DC, home
1913 - Edward Lee Thorndike's book, Educational
Psychology: The Psychology of Learning, is published. It describes his
theory that human learning involves habit formation, or connections between
stimuli (or situations as Thorndike preferred to call them) and responses (Connectionism). He believes that such
connections are strengthened by repetition ("Law of Exercise") and achieving
satisfying consequences ("Law of Effect"). These ideas, which contradict
traditional faculty
psychology and mental discipline, come to dominate American
educational psychology for much of the Twentieth Century and greatly influence
American educational practice.
1914 - The Smith-Lever Act establishes a system of
cooperative extension services connected to land grant universities and
provides federal funds for extension activities.
1916 - Louis M. Terman and his team of Stanford
University graduate students complete an American version of the Binet-Simon
Scale. The Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon Scale becomes a widely-used
individual intelligence test, and along with it, the concept of the intelligence quotient (or IQ) is born. The Fifth Edition of the Stanford-Binet Scales is
among the most popular individual intelligence tests today. For additional
information on the history of intelligence testing, see A.C.E. Detailed History of the I.Q. Test.
1916
-The American
Federation of Teachers (AFT) is founded. So is the American Educational Research Association
(AERA).
1916
- John Dewey's Democracy
and Education. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education
is published. Dewey's views help advance the ideas of the "progressive education
movement." An outgrowth of the progressive political movement,
progressive education seeks to make schools more effective agents of democracy.
His daughter, Evelyn Dewey, coauthors Schools of To-morrow with her father, and
goes on to write several books on her own.
1916 - The Bureau of Educational Experiments is founded in
New York City by Lucy Sprague Mitchell with the purpose of
studying child development and children's learning. It opens a laboratory
nursery school in 1918 and in 1950 becomes the Bank Street College of
Education. Its School
for Children is now "an independent demonstration
school for Bank Street College." This same year (1916), Mrs. Frank R. Lillie
helps establish what would become the University of Chicago Nursery School.
1917 - The Smith-Hughes Act passes, providing federal
funding for agricultural and vocational education. It is repealed in 1997.
1917 - As the U.S. enters W.W.I the army has no means of
screening the intellectual ability of its recruits. Robert Yerkes, then President of the American
Psychological Association and an army officer, becomes Chairman of the
Committee on Psychological Examination of Recruits. The committee, which
includes Louis Terman, has the task of developing a group intelligence test. He
and his team of psychologists design the Army Alpha and Beta tests. Though these tests
have little impact on the war, they lay the groundwork for future standardized
tests.
1918 - World War I ends on 11
November.
1919 - The Treaty of Versailles is signed on 28 June. It
officially ends the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers.
However, the terms of the treaty are tragically flawed, and instead of bringing
lasting peace, it plants the seeds for World War II, which begins
twenty years later.
1919
- The Progressive Education Association is founded
with the goal of reforming American education.
1919 - All states have laws providing funds for transporting children to school.
1920 - John B. Watson and his assistant Rosalie Rayner
conduct their experiments using classical conditioning with children. Often
referred to as the Little
Albert study, Watson and Rayner's work showed that children
could be conditioned to fear stimuli of which they had
previously been unafraid. This study could not be conducted today because of ethical
safeguards currently in place.
1920 - The 19th Amendment is ratified, giving women the right to
vote.
1921 - Louis Terman launches a longitudinal study of "intellectually superior"
children at Stanford University. The study continues into the 21st
Century!
1922 - The International Council for Exceptional Children
is founded at Columbia University Teachers College.
1922 - Abigail Adams Eliot, with help from Mrs. Henry
Greenleaf Pearson, establishes the Ruggles Street Nursery School in Roxbury,
MA, one of the first educational nursery schools in the U.S. It becomes the Eliot-Pearson Children's School and is now
affiliated with the Eliot-Pearson
Department of Child Development at Tufts University.
1924 - Max
Wertheimer describes the principles of Gestalt Theory to the Kant Society
in Berlin. Gestalt
Theory, with its emphasis on learning through insight and
grasping the whole concept, becomes important later in the 20th Century in the
development of cognitive views of learning and teaching.
1925
- Tennessee vs. John Scopes ("the Monkey Trial")
captures national attention as John Scopes, a high school biology teacher, is
charged with the heinous crime of teaching evolution. The trial ends in Scopes'
conviction. The evolution
versus creationism controversy persists
to this day.
1926
- The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is first
administered. It is based on the Army Alpha test.
1929 - Jean Piaget'sThe Child's Conception of the
World is published. His theory of cognitive development becomes an
important influence in American developmental psychology and
education.
1929
- The Great Depression begins with the stock market crash in October. The U.S. economy
is devastated. Public education funding suffers greatly, resulting in school
closings, teacher layoffs, and lower salaries.
1931 -
Alvarez vs. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove
(California) School District becomes the first successful school desegregation court
case in the United States, as the local court forbids the school district from
placing Mexican-American children in a separate "Americanization" school.
1932 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected president
and begins bold efforts to initiate his New Deal and spur economic recovery. His wife,
Eleanor, becomes a champion of human rights and forever transforms the role of American First
Lady.
1935 - Congress authorizes the Works Progress Administration. Its purpose is to
put the unemployed to work on public projects, including the construction of
hundreds of school buildings.
1938 - Ladislas Biro and his brother Georg patent the
ballpoint pen.
1939
- Frank W. Cyr, a professor at Columbia
University's Teachers College, organizes a national conference on student
transportation. It results in the adoption of standards for the nation's school buses, including
the shade of yellow.
1939 - The
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (first called the Wechsler- Bellevue
Intelligence Scale) is developed by David Wechsler. It introduces the concept of the
"deviation
IQ," which calculates IQ scores based on how far subjects'
scores differ (or deviate) from the average (mean) score of others who are the
same age, rather than calculating them with the ratio (MA/CA multiplied by 100) system. Wechsler
intelligence tests, particularly the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, are
still widely used in U.S. schools to help identify students needing special
education.
1941 - The U.S. enters World War II after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor on December 7. During the next four
years, much of the country's resources go to the war effort. Education is put
on the back burner as many young men quit school to enlist; schools are faced
with personnel problems as teachers and other employees enlist, are drafted, or
leave to work in defense plants; school construction is put on hold.
1944 - The G.I. Bill officially known as the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, is signed
by FDR on June 22. Some 7.8 million World War II veterans take advantage of the
GI
Bill during the seven years benefits are offered. More than
two-million attend colleges or universities, nearly doubling the college
population. About 238,000 become teachers. Because the law
provides the same opportunity to every veteran, regardless of background, the
long-standing tradition that a college education was only for the wealthy is
broken.
1945 - World War II ends on August 15 (VJ Day) with
victory over Japan.
1946 - At one minute after midnight on
January 1st, Kathleen
Casey-Kirschling is born, the first of nearly 78 million baby
boomers, beginning a generation that results in unprecedented
school population growth and massive social change. She becomes a teacher!
1946 - In
the landmark court case of Mendez vs. Westminster and the California Board of
Education, the U. S. District Court in Los Angeles rules that
educating children of Mexican descent in separate facilities is
unconstitutional, thus prohibiting segregation in California schools and setting an important precedent for Brown vs. Board of
Education.
1946 - The computer age begins as the
Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC), the first vacuum-tube computer, is built for the U.S.
military by Presper
Eckert and John Mauchly.
1946 - With thousands of
veterans returning to college, The President's Commission on Higher Education
is given the task of reexamining the role of colleges and universities in
post-war America. The first volume of its report, often referred to as the Truman Commission Report, is issued in 1947 and
recommends sweeping changes in higher education, including doubling college
enrollments by 1960 and extending free public education through the
establishment of a network of community colleges. This latter recommendation comes to fruition in the
1960s, during which community college enrollment more than triples.
1946 - Recognizing "the need for a permanent
legislative basis for a school lunch program," the 79th Congress approves the National School Lunch Act.
1947 - In the case of Everson v. Board of Education, the
U.S. Supreme Court rules by a 5-4 vote that a New Jersey law which allowed
reimbursements of transportation costs to parents of children who rode public
transportation to school, even if their children attended Catholic schools, did
NOT violate the Establishment Clause of the
First Amendment.
1948 - In the case of McCollum v. Board of Education, the Supreme
Court rules that schools cannot allow "released time" during the school day which
allows students to participate in religious education in their public school
classrooms.
1950 - Public Law 81-740 grants a federal charter to
the FFA and recognizes it as an integral part of the
program of vocational agriculture. The law is revised in 1998 and becomes Public
Law 105-225.
1952 - Public Law 550, the Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act of 1952,
modifies the G.I. Bill for veterans of the Korean
War.
1953 - Burrhus Frederic
(B.F.) Skinner'sScience and Human Behavior is published.
His form of behaviorism (operant conditioning), which emphasizes changes
in behavior due to reinforcement, becomes widely accepted and influences many
aspects of American education
1954 - On May 17th, the U.S.
Supreme Court announces its decision in the case of Brown v. Board. of Education of Topeka, ruling
that "separate educational facilities are inherently
unequal," thus overturning its previous ruling in the 1896 case
of
Plessy v. Ferguson. Brown v. Board of Education is actually a
combination of five cases from different parts
of the country. It is a historic first step in the long and still unfinished
journey toward equality in U.S. education.
1955 - Rosa Parks, a Montgomery, Alabama seamstress,
refuses to give up her seat on the bus to a Caucasian passenger and is
subsequently arrested and fined. The Montgomery bus boycott follows, giving impetus
to the Civil Rights Movement. A year later, in the case
of Browder v. Gale, the U.S. Supreme Court rules
that segregated seating on buses unconstitutional.
1956 – The Taxonomy
of Educational Objectives: The Cassification of Educational Goals; Handbook I:
Cognitive Domain is published. Often referred to simply as “Bloom’s
Taxonomy” because of its primary author, Benjamin
S. Bloom, the document actually has four coauthors (M.D. Engelhart, E.J.
Furst, W.H. Hill, and David Krathwohl). Still widely used today, Bloom’s
Taxonomy divides the cognitive
domain into six levels: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis,
synthesis. Handbook
II: Affective Domain, edited by Krathwohl, Bloom, and Masia, is
published in 1964. Taxonomies for the psychomotor
domain have been published by other writers.
1957 - The Civil Rights Act of 1957 is voted into law in
spite of Strom Thurmond's filibuster. Essentially a
voting-rights bill, it is the first civil rights legislation since
reconstruction and is a precursor to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
1957 - Federal troops enforce integration in
Little Rock, Arkansas as the Little Rock 9 enroll at Central High School.
1957 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the Earth.
Occurring in the midst of the Cold War, it represents both a potential threat
to American national security as well as a blow to national
pride.
1958 - At least partially because of Sputnik,
science and science education become important concerns in the U.S., resulting
in the passage of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) which
authorizes increased funding for scientific research as well as science,
mathematics, and foreign language education.
1959 - The ACT Test is first
administered.
1960 -First grader Ruby Bridges is the first African American to
attend William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. She becomes a class of
one as parents remove all Caucasian students from the
school.
1962 - First published in 1934, Lev Vygotsky's book, Thought and Language is introduced to the
English-speaking world. Though he lives to be only 38, Vygotsky's ideas regarding the social nature of
learning provide important foundational principles for contemporary social constructivist theories. He is perhaps
best known for his concept of "Zone of Proximal
Development."
1962 - In the case of Engel v. Vitale, the U. S.
Supreme Court rules that the state of New York's Regents prayer violates the First Amendment. The ruling specifies that "state officials may not compose an official state prayer
and require that it be recited in the public schools of the
State at the beginning of each school day. . . "
1963 - In the cases of School District of Abington Township, Pennsylvania v.
Schempp and Murray v. Curlett, the U. S. Supreme Court
reaffirms Engel v. Vitale by ruling 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 . . . even if individual
students may be excused from attending or participating . . ."
1963
- Samuel A. Kirk uses the term "learning disability" at a Chicago conference on
children with perceptual disorders. The term sticks, and in 1964, the Association for Children with Learning
Disabilities, now the Learning Disabilities Association of America, is
formed. Today, nearly one-half of all students in the U.S. who receive special
education have been identified as having learning disabilities.
1963 -
President John
F. Kennedy is assassinated. Schools close as the nation mourns
its loss. Lyndon
Johnson becomes president.
1963 - In response to
the large number of Cuban immigrant children arriving in Miami after the Cuban Revolution, Coral Way Elementary School starts the "nation's first bilingual public school in the modern
era."
1964 - The Civil Rights Act becomes law. It prohibits
discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion or national
origin.
1965 - The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is
passed on April 9. Part of Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty," it provides
federal funds to help low-income students, which results in the initiation of
educational programs such as Title I and bilingual
education.
1965 - The Higher Education Act is
signed at Southwest Texas State College on November 8. It increases federal aid
to higher education and provides for scholarships, student loans, and
establishes a National
Teachers Corps.
1965 - Project Head Start, a preschool education
program for children from low-income families, begins as an eight-week summer
program. Part of the "War on Poverty," the program continues to this
day as the longest-running anti-poverty program in the U.S.
1965
- Lyndon Johnson signs the Immigration Act of 1965, also known as the
Hart-Cellar Act, on October.3rd. It abolishes the National Origins Formula and results in unprecedented numbers of Asians and Latin Americans immigrating
to the United States, making America's classrooms much more
diverse.
1966 - The Equality of Educational Opportunity Study, often called the Coleman Report because of its primary author James
S. Coleman, is conducted in response to provisions of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964. Its conclusion that African American children benefit from
attending integrated schools sets the stage for school "busing" to achieve
desegregation.
1966 - Jerome Bruner's Toward a Theory of
Instruction is published. His views regarding learning help to popularize
the cognitive learning theory as an alternative to behaviorism.
1966 - Public Law 358, the Veterans Readjustment Benefits Act of 1966,
provides not only educational benefits, but also home and farm loans as well as
employment counseling and placement services for Vietnam veterans. More than 385,000 troops, serve in Vietnam during 1966.
From 1965-1975, more than nine million American military personnel are on
active military duty, about 3.4 million of whom serve in Southeast
Asia.
1968 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Nobel Prize winner and
leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April
4th. The Martin
Luther King, Jr. Holiday, observed on the third Monday of
January, celebrates his "life and legacy."
1968 - The Bilingual Education Act, also know as Title VII,
becomes law. After many years of controversy, the law is repealed in 2002 and replaced by the No Child
Left Behind Act.
1968 - The "Monkey Trial"
revisited! In the case of Epperson et al. v. Arkansas, the U.S. supreme
Court finds the state of Arkansas' law prohibiting the teaching of evolution in
a public school or university unconstitutional.
1968 - Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm, an African
American educator, becomes the first African American woman to be
elected to the U.S. Congress.
1968 - McCarver Elementary School in Tacoma, Washington
becomes the nation's first magnet school.
1969 -
Herbert R. Kohl's book, The Open
Classroom, helps to promote open education, an approach emphasizing
student-centered classrooms and active, holistic learning. The conservative
back-to-the-basics movement of the 1970s begins at least partially as a backlash
against open education. .
1969 - On
April 30th, the number of U.S. military personnel in Vietnam stands at 543,482, the most at any time during the war.
College enrollments swell as many young men seek student deferments from the
draft; anti-war protests become commonplace on college
campuses, and grade inflation begins as professors realize
that low grades may change male students' draft status.
1969 - ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency
Network), the first "packet-switching" network and precursor of the
internet, is created by the U.S. Defense Department. Its first message is sent October 29, at about 10:30
P.M. For alternate perspectives on the origins of the internet, see So, who really invented
the internet?
1970 - Four students are killed by Ohio National Guard
troops on May 4th during an anti-war protest at Kent State
University in Ohio.
1970 - In his controversial book, Deschooling Society,Ivan Illich sharply
criticizes traditional schools and calls for the end of compulsory school attendance.
1970 - Jean Piaget's book, The Science of
Education, is published. His Learning Cycle model helps to popularize
discovery-based teaching approaches, particularly in the sciences.
1970 - The case of Diana v. California State Board results in new
laws requiring that children referred for possible special education placement be tested in their primary
language.
1971 - In the case of Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children (PARC) v.
Pennsylvania, the federal court rules that students with mental
retardation are entitled to a free public education.
1971 - Michael Hart, founder of Project Guttenberg, invents the e-Book.
1972 - Texas Instruments introduces the first in its
line of electronic hand-held calculators, the TI-2500 Data Math. TI becomes an industry leader known around the world.
1972 - The Indian Education Act becomes law and establishes
"a comprehensive approach to meeting the unique needs
of American Indian and Alaska Native students"
1972 - The
case of Mills v. the Board of Education of Washington,
D.C. extends the PARC v. Pennsylvania ruling to other students
with disabilities and requires the provision of "adequate alternative
educational services suited to the child's needs, which may include special
education . . ." Other similar cases follow.
1972 - Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
becomes law. Though many people associate this law only with girl's and women's
participation in sports, Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sex in all
aspects of education.
1972 - The Marland Report to Congress on gifted and
talented education is issued. It recommends a broader definition of giftedness that is still widely
accepted today.
1973 - U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War ends
on January 27. More than 58,000 U.S. service personnel are killed in
action during the war. The fighting continues until April 30,
1975 when South Vietnam surrenders to the communist North Vietnamese forces.
1973 - Marian
Wright Edelman founds the Children's Defense Fund, a non-profit child
advocacy organization.
1973 - The Rehabilitation Act becomes law. Section 504 of this act guarantees civil rights
for people with disabilities in the context of federally funded institutions
and requires accommodations in schools including participation in programs and
activities as well as access to buildings. Today, "504 Plans" are used to provide accommodations
for students with disabilities who do not qualify for special education or an
IEP.
1974 - In the Case of Lau v. Nichols, the U.S. Supreme Court
rules that the failure of the San Francisco School District to provide English
language instruction to Chinese-American students with limited English
proficiency (LEP) is a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Though the case does
not require a specific approach to teaching LEP students, it does require
school districts to provide equal opportunities for all students,
including those who do not speak English.
1974 - The Equal Educational Opportunities Act is passed.
It prohibits discrimination and requires schools to take action to overcome
barriers which prevent equal protection. The legislation has been particularly
important in protecting the rights of students with limited English
proficiency..
1974 - Federal Judge Arthur Garrity orders busing of
African American students to predominantly white schools in order to achieve
racial integration of public schools in Boston, MA. White parents protest, particularly in South
Boston.
1975
- The Education of All Handicapped Children Act (PL
94-142) becomes federal law. It requires that a free,
appropriate public education, suited to the student's individual needs, and
offered in the least restrictive setting be provided for all "handicapped"
children. States are given until 1978 (later extended to 1981) to fully
implement the law.
1975 - The National Association of
Bilingual Education is founded.
1975 -
Newsweek's December 8 cover story, "Why Johnny Can't Write," heats up the debate
about national literacy and the back-to-the-basics movement.
1977
- Apple Computer, now Apple Inc., introduces the Apple II, one of the first successful personal
computers. It and its offspring, the Apple IIe, become popular in schools as students
begin to learn with computer games such as Oregon Trail and Odell Lake.
|1980
- The Refugee Act of 1980 is signed into law by
President
Jimmy Carter on March 18th. Building on the Immigration Act of
1965, it reforms immigration law to admit refugees for humanitarian reasons and
results in the resettlement of more than three-million refugees in the
United States including many children who bring special needs
and issues to their classrooms.
1980 - President Jimmy Carter signs the Refugee Education Assistance Act into law as the
"Mariel Boatlift" brings thousands
of Cuban
and a small number of Haitian refugees to Florida.
1980 - Ronald Reagan is elected president, ushering in
a new conservative era, not only in foreign and economic policy, but in education as well. However, he never carries
out his pledge to reduce the federal role in education by eliminating the Department of Education, which had become a
Cabinet level agency that same year under the Carter administration..
1981 - John Holt's book,
Teach Your Own: A Hopeful Path for Education,
adds momentum to the homeschooling movement.
1981 - IBM
introduces its version of the personal computer (PC) with its
Model
5150. It's operating system is MS-DOS.
1982 - In the case of
Edwards v. Aguillard, the U.S. Supreme Court
invalidates Louisiana's "Creationism Act," which requires the teaching of
creationism whenever evolution is taught, because it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution.
1982 - Madeline C.
Hunter's book, Mastery Teaching, is published. Her direct instruction teaching model becomes widely
used as teachers throughout the country attend her workshops and become
"Hunterized."
1982 - In the case of Plyler v. Doe, the U.S. Supreme Court rules in a
5-4 decision that Texas law denying access to public education for undocumented
school-age children violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
The ruling also found that school districts cannot charge tuition fees for the education of
these children.
1982 - In the case of Board of Education v. Pico, the U.S. Supreme
court rules that books cannot be removed from a school library because school
administrators deemed their content to be
offensive.
1983 - The report of the National Commission on Excellence
in Education, A Nation at Risk, calls for sweeping reforms in
public education and teacher training. Among their recommendations is a
forward-looking call for expanding high school requirements to include the study of
computer science.
1984 - Public Law 105-332, the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education
Act, is passed with the goal of increasing the quality of
vocational-technical education
in the U.S. It is reauthorized in 1998 and again in 2006 as the
Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education
Act (PL 109-270).
1984 -The
Emergency Immigrant Education Act is enacted to
provide services and offset the costs for school districts that
have unexpectedly large numbers of immigrant students.
1985 - In the case of Wallace v, Jaffree, the U.S. Supreme Court finds
that Alabama statutes authorizing silent prayer and teacher-led voluntary
prayer in public schools violate the First Amendment.
1985 - Microsoft Windows 1.0, the first independent version of Windows, is released,
setting the stage for subsequent versions that make
MS-DOS obsolete.
1986 - Christa McAuliffe is chosen by NASA from among
more than 11,000 applicants to be the first teacher-astronaut, but her mission
ends tragically as the Space Shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds
after its launch, killing McAuliffe and the other six members of the
crew.
1987 - In
the case of Edwards v. Aguillard, et al. the U.S. Supreme
Court strikes down a Louisiana requiring that creation science be taught along with
evolution. Will this controversy ever be resolved?
1989 - The University of Phoenix establishes their "online
campus," the first to offer online bachelor's and master's
degrees. It becomes the "largest private university in North
America."
1990 - Tim Berners-Lee, a British engineer and computer
scientist called by many the inventor of the internet, writes the first web
client-server protocol (Hypertext Translation Protocol or http), which allows
two computers to communicate. On August 6, 1991, he puts the first web site on
line from a computer at the CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear
Research) in order to facilitate information sharing among
scientists. So . . . does this mean that Al Gore didn't invent the internet after
all?
1990 - Public Law 101-476, the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act (IDEA), renames and amends Public Law 94-142. In addition to
changing terminology from handicap to disability, it mandates transition
services and adds autism and traumatic brain injury to the eligibility
list.
1990 - The Milwaukee
Parental Choice program is initiated. It allows
"students, under specific circumstances, to attend at no charge, private
sectarian and nonsectarian schools located in the city of Milwaukee."
1990 - Teach for America is formed, reestablishing the
idea of a National
Teachers Corps.
1990- The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990,
the first comprehensive reform since 1965, is enacted on 29 November and
increases annual immigration to 700,000 adding to the diversity of our nation
and its schools. Specific aspects of the law provide for family-sponsored
visas; employment-based visas for priority workers, skilled workers, and
"advanced professionals"; and 55,000 diversity visas "allocated to natives of a country that has sent fewer than
50,000 immigrants to the United States over the previous five
years."
1991
- Minnesota passes the first "charter school" law.
1991 - The
smart board (interactive white board) is
introduced by SMART
Technologies.
1992 - City Academy High School, the nation's first
charter school, opens in St. Paul, Minnesota.
1993 - Jacqueline and Martin Brooks' In Search of
Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms is published. It is
one many books and articles describing constructivism, a view that learning best occurs
through active construction of knowledge rather than its passive reception. Constructivist learning theory, with roots such
as the work of Dewey, Bruner, Piaget, and Vygotsky, becomes extremely popular
in the 1990s.
1993 - The Massachusetts Education Reform Act requires a
common curriculum and statewide tests (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment
System). As has often been the case, other states follow Massachusetts' lead
and implement similar, high-stakes testing programs.
1993 - Jones
International University
becomes the first university "to exist completely online."
1994 - The Improving America's Schools Act (IASA) is signed
into law by President Bill Clinton on January 25th. It.
reauthorizes the ESEA of 1965 and includes reforms for Title I;
increased funding for bilingual and immigrant education; and provisions for
public charter schools, drop-out prevention, and educational
technology.
1994 - As a backlash to illegal immigration,
California voters pass Proposition 187, denying benefits, including
public education, to undocumented aliens in California. It is challenged by the
ACLU and other groups and eventually overturned.
1994 - Jim Clark and Mark Andreesan found Mosaic
Communications. The corporation is later renamed Netscape
Communications. On December 15th, they release the first commercial web browser, Mozilla 1.0. It is available without cost to
individuals and non-profit organizations. By the summer of 1995, more than 80% of internet users are browsing
with Netscape!
1994 - CompuHigh is founded. It claims to be the first
online high school.
1994-1995 - Whiteboards find their way into U.S. classrooms
in increasing numbers and begin to replace the blackboard.
1995
- Georgia
becomes the first state to offer universal preschool to all four
year olds whose parents choose to enroll them. More than half of the state's four year olds are
now enrolled.
1996 - James Banks' book, Multicultural Education: Transformative Knowledge and
Action, makes an important contribution to the growing body
of scholarship regarding multiculturalism in education..
1996 -
The Oakland, California School District sparks controversy as it proposes that Ebonics be recognized as the native language of African
American children.
1996 - President Bill
Clinton signs the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of
1996 into law on September 30th.. It prohibits states from
offering higher education benefit based on residency within a state (in-state
tuition) to undocumented immigrants unless the benefit is available to any U.S.
citizen or national. This law conflicts, however, with practices and laws in
several U.S. states.
1997 - New York follows Georgia's lead and passes
legislation that will phase in voluntary pre-kindergarten classes over a
four-year period. However, preschool funding is a casualty of September 11,
2001 as New York struggles to recover. As of 2008, about 39% of the state's
four year olds, mostly from low-income families, are enrolled.
1998
- California voters pass Proposition 227, requiring that all public
school instruction be in English. This time the law withstands legal challenges.
1998
- The Higher Education Act is amended and reauthorized requiring
institutions and states to produce "report cards" about teacher education (See Title II).
1998 - Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin set up a workplace
for their newly
incorporated search engine in a Menlo Park, California garage.
1999 - On April 20th, two Columbine High School students go on a killing
spree that leaves 15 dead and 23 wounded at the Littleton,
Colorado school, making it the nations' deadliest school shooting incident.
Though schools tighten safety procedures as a result of the Columbine massacre,
school shootings continue to occur at an alarming
rate.
2000
- Diane Ravitch's book, Left Back: A Century of Failed School
Reforms, criticizes progressive educational policies and
argues for a more traditional, academically-oriented education. Her views,
which are reminiscent of the "back to the basics" movement of the late 1970s
and 1980s, are representative of the current conservative trend in education
and the nation at large.
2000 - In yet another case regarding
school prayer (Santa Fe School District v. Doe),
the U.S. Supreme Court rules that
the district's policy of allowing student-led prayer prior to football games
violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
2001 - Nineteen
al-Qaeda terrorists hijack four commercial jet
airliners on the morning of September 11. They crash two into the twin
towers of the World
Trade Center and another into the Pentagon. The fourth plane
crashes in a rural area of Pennsylvania as passengers try to retake it from the
hijackers. A total of 2976 victims as well as the 19 terrorists are killed. The
attacks have a devastating effect on the both U.S. and world stock markets,
result in the passage of the Patriot Act, formation of the Department of Homeland Security, provide the
impetus for two wars, and take a lasting toll on Americans' sense of safety and
well-being.
2001 - The controversial No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is approved by
Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush on January 8, 2002. The
law, which reauthorizes the ESEA of 1965 and replaces the Bilingual Education
Act of 1968, mandates high-stakes student testing, holds schools accountable
for student achievement levels, and provides penalties for schools that do not
make adequate yearly progress toward meeting the goals of
NCLB.
2002 - In
the case of Zelman
v. Simmons-Harris the U.S. Supreme
court rules that certain school voucher programs are
constitutional and do not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
2002 - The North
American Reggio Emilia Alliance (NAREA) is formally launched as
an organization. Its goals include promoting the rights of young children and
providing information about the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood
education.
2003
- The Higher Education Act is again amended and reauthorized, expanding access to
higher education for low and middle income students, providing additional funds
for graduate studies, and increasing accountability.
2003 - The
North American
Council for Online Learning (NACOL), a non-profit organization
dedicated to enhancing K-12 online education, is "launched as a formal
corporate entity."
2004 - H.R. 1350, The Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act
(IDEA 2004), reauthorizes and modifies
IDEA. Changes, which take
effect on July 1, 2005, include modifications in the IEP process and
procedural safeguards, increased authority for school personnel in special
education placement decisions, and alignment of IDEA with the
No Child Left Behind Act. The 2004
reauthorization also requires school districts to use the Response to Intervention (RTI) approach as a
means for the early identification of students at risk for specific learning
disabilities. RTI provides a three-tiered model for screening, monitoring, and
providing increasing degrees of intervention using “research-based instruction"
with the overall goal of reducing the need for special education services
2005 - In the latest incarnation of the "Monkey Trial," the U.S. District
Court of Pennsylvania rules in the case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District that
teaching "intelligent design" as an alternative to
evolution is a violation of the First Amendment.
2007 - On
January 1, 2007, the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) became
the American
Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
(AAIDD), joining the trend toward use of the term intellectual disability in place of mental retardation.
2007 - Cho
Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old student, kills two students in a dorm and then 30 others in a classroom
building at Virginia Tech University. Fifteen others are
wounded. His suicide brings the death toll to 33, making it the deadliest
school shooting incident in U.S. history.
2007 - In the cases of
Parents
involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No 1
and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education,
the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that race cannot be a factor in assigning
students to high schools, thus rejecting integration plans in Seattle and
Louisville, and possibly affecting similar plans in school districts around the
nation.
2007 - Both the House and Senate pass the Fiscal Year 2008 Labor-HHS-
Education appropriation bill which includes reauthorization of the No Child Left
Behind Act. However, the bill is vetoed by President Bush because it exceeds his
budget request. Attempts to override the veto fall short.
2008 -
Less than one year after the Virginia Tech massacre, former graduate student
Stephen P. Kazmierczak kills five and wounds 17 in a classroom at Northern Illinois
University. He later takes his own life.
2008 - Barack
Obama defeats John
McCain and is elected the 44th President of the United States.
Substantial changes in the No Child Left Behind Act are
eventually expected, but with two ongoing wars as well as the current
preoccupation with our nation's economic problems, reauthorization of NCLB is
unlikely to happen any time soon.
2009 - The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009
provides more than 90-billion dollars for education, nearly half of which goes
to local school districts to prevent layoffs and for school modernization and
repair. It includes the Race to the Top initiative, a
4.35-billion-dollar program designed to induce reform in K-12 education. For
more information on the impact of the Recovery Act on education, go to ED.gov.
2009 - The Common Core State Standards Initiative, "a
state-led effort coordinated by the National
Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and
the Council of Chief
State School Officers," is launched. It is expected that many,
perhaps most, states will adopt them.
2009 - Quest to Learn
(Q2L), the first school to teach primarily through game-based
learning, opens in September in New York City with a class of sixth graders
There are plans to add a grade each year until the school serves students in
grades six through twelve.
2010 - With the U.S. economy mired in
a recession and unemployment remaining high, states have massive budget deficits. As many as
300,000 teachers face
layoffs.
2010 - New Texas social studies curriculum standards,
described by some as “ultraconservative,” spark controversy. Many fear they will affect textbooks and classrooms in other
states..
2011 - Sylvia Mendez, whose parents where lead
plaintiffs in the historic civil rights case, Mendez vs. Westminster and the California Board of
Education, is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on February
16th..
2011 - In spite of workers' protests and
Democratic legislators leaving the state to delay the vote, the Wisconsin legislature passes a bill removing
most collective-bargaining rights from many public employees, including
teachers. Governor Scott Walker signs the bill into law on March 11. After
legal challenges are exhausted, it is finally implemented in June. Similar
proposals are being considered in Ohio and several other
states.
2011 - President Barack Obama announces on September 23
that the U.S. Department of Education is inviting each State educational agency
to request
flexibility regarding some requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.
2011 -
Alabama becomes the first state "to require public schools to
check the immigration status" of students. Though the law does
not require schools to prohibit the enrollment nor report the names of
undocumented children, opponents nevertheless contend it is unconstitutional
based on the Plyer v. Doe ruling.
2012 - In
his January 24th State of the Union Address, President Barack
Obama calls for requiring students to stay in school until they graduate from
high school or reach age 18. Twenty states and the District of Columbia currently require
attendance until age 18.
2012 - President Barack
Obama announces on February 9 that the applications of ten states seeking waivers from some of the
requirements of the No
Child Left Behind law were approved. New Mexico's application is approved a few days
later, bringing the number of states receiving waivers to 11. An additional 26 states applied for waivers in late
February.
2012 - Speaking at an economic summit hosted by the
Latino Coalition on May 23,Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney warns of a "National Education
Emergency," blames teachers unions for blocking needed
education reform, and calls for expanding school choice by offering vouchers to
low-income students and those with disabilities.
2012 - On July
6, Washington and Wisconsin become the two most recent states to
be granted waivers from some requirements of the federal No
Child left Behind law, bringing the total number of states granted waivers to 26.
Several more states have submitted waiver applications and are waiting for
approval.
2012 - As of August, 32 states and Washington, D.C. have been granted
waivers from some No Child Left Behind requirements.
However, the waivers for eight states are "conditional," meaning some aspects
of their plans are still under review.
2013 - On January 11, the
Washington Post reports that Seattle high school teachers have refused to give the
district-mandated Measures of Academy Progress, joining a
"growing grass-roots revolt against the excessive use of standardized
tests."
Additional References (print references and online
references not linked in the text above):
Barger, R.N. (2004). History
of American Education Web Project. Retrieved December 21, 2004 from http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfrnb/index.html
Applied
Research Center (2008). Historical Timeline of Public Education in the US.
Retrieved December 28, 2008 from http://www.arc.org/content/view/100/53/
Helton,
Gene. (No Date). Curriculum Development in 20th Century United States.
Retrieved January 2, 2005 from http://www.personal.kent.edu/~whelton/index.html
Lloyd,
J. W. (2005). Chronology of Some Important Events in the History of Learning
Disabilities. Retrieved June 22, 2009 from http://faculty.virginia.edu/johnlloyd/edis511/classes/LD_Times.html.
Rippa,
S. Alexander (1971). Education in a Free Society, (2nd. Edition ). New
York: David McKay Company.
Stankiewicz, M.A. (No Date). The History of Art
Education Timeline. Retrieved June 22, 2009 from http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/m/a/mas53/timelint.html
Thayer,
V. T. (1965). Formative Ideas in American Education . New York: Dodd,
Mead, and Company.