Running head: HISTORICAL TIMELINE 1

Historical Timeline

Deianara Torres

College of Southern Nevada: EDU 201

HISTORICAL TIMELINE 2

1620-1750 Teaching and Schools

• Lower classes learned at the elementary level (reading, writing, and computation and

religious instruction).

• Upper classes had opportunity to go to Latin grammar schools where they were given

college preparatory that focused on Latin and Greek classics.

• Status of teachers

1. Respect increased with grade level and amount of education

▪ Elementary level teachers had the least respect and secondary level

teachers had the highest status.

• Colonial Schools

1. The Dame Schools

▪ Initial instruction for boys and the only schooling for girls.

▪ Classes usually held in the kitchen, where children learned barest

essentials of reading, writing, and arithmetic.

▪ Students learned alphabet from horn book.

2. Reading and Writing Schools

▪ Reading lessons were based on the Bible, various catechisms, and the

New England Primer.

3. Latin Grammar Schools

▪ Proved a pre-college education for the new country`s future leaders.

▪ Latin and Greek were the principle studies, though arithmetic was

introduced in 1745.
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4. One of the first schools for African Americans and Native Americans was started

by Elias Neau in New York city in 1704

• Origins of Mandated Education

1. Massachusetts Act of 1642

2. Massachusetts Act of 1647

1750-1820 Goals of Education during the Revolutionary Period

• Education was characterized by a general decline of European influences on schools.

• Ideas from Benjamin Franklin, Sarah Pierce, Noah Webster, and Thomas Jefferson

shaped education.

• At the end of the American Revolution, literate African Americans were taught by their

masters or through church-affiliated programs

• Other schools for African and Native Americans were started by the Quakers.

1820-1865 State-Supported Common Schools

• Horace Mann is known as the champion of the common school movement, which led to

the free, public, locally controlled elementary schools. He improved the quality of

schools using his new title Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education and

believed teachers needed more of an education and should be trained in professional

programs

• McGuffey reader’s six-volume series had the greatest impact on what children learned.

1. It ranged in difficulty from first-grade level to sixth-grade level and emphasized

virtues such as hard work, honesty, truth, charity, and obedience

• Morrill Land-Grant Act, passed in 1862, provided federal land for colleges and set a

precedent for federal involvement in education.

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• A Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling in 1850 supported “equal, but separate” schools

for African Americans.

1865-1920Compulsory Education

• Because of compulsory attendance laws, an ever-increasing proportion of children

attended school and scientific management techniques were applied to schools.

• After the Civil War and emancipation, schools for former slaves were opened by African

American communities which led to the establishment of the Freedmen`s Bureau.

• Booker T. Washington believed that education could improve African American lives just

like it did for the Whites.

1. He helped find an industrial school that played a key role in bringing racial

equality.

• William E. Burghardt DuBois disagreed with Washington and believed African

Americans should accept their inferior status.

• The National Education Association (NEA), founded in 1857, and the American

Federation of Teachers (AFT), founded in 1916, were founded to professionalize teaching

and increase teachers` salaries and benefits.

• The NEA appointed Committee of Ten, Committee of Fifteen and the Commission on the

Reorganization of Secondary Education to make recommendations for secondary

curriculum in regard to students` individual differences.

• Women became influential in shaping the American education in the early 1900s.

1920-1945 Progressive Era

• The Progressive Education Association was founded to implement progressive theories in

the classroom that they believed would lead to improvement of society.

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• Dewey`s Laboratory Schools curriculum was based off of the student`s needs and

interests.

• Maria Montessori`s method created learning environments based on student`s levels of

development and readiness to learn new material.

• In 1955, the progressive Education Association ended

• Diversity of American school populations increased during late 19th and early 20th

centuries.

• Lanham Act (1941) funded training in war plants, construction of schools, and provision

of child care.

• G.I. Bill of rights (1944) provided payments for veterans for tuition and room and board.

1945-2000 Modern Postwar Era

• The National Defense Education Act of 1958 sponsored research and innovations in

science, math, foreign languages, and guidance.

• As a result, from the decision in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case, schools

were ordered to desegregate.

• April 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was passed which allocated

funds on the basis of the number of poor children in school districts, which led to an act

in 1968 that provided federal aid to low-income children that were bilingual.

• The 1970s saw drops in enrollment, test scores, and public confidence in schools.

1. New educational policies called for equality of education for all in the U.S. and

demanded teacher accountability

• A Nation at Risk and other reports gave evidence that schools were failing to reach their

goals and begun a debate on how to improve the school system.

HISTORICAL TIMELINE 6

2000-present The New Century

• Three trends will continue to be educational priorities throughout this century: equity for

all students, excellence and high standards, and accountability for schools and teachers.
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References

Parkay, F. W. (2016). Becoming a Teacher (pp. 146-174). Boston: Pearson.