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'''History of Education in the United States''', often called '''Foundations of Education,''' is the study of educational policy, formal instiututions and informal learning from the 17th to the 21st century.
#REDIRECT [[History of education in the United States]]
 
==History==
The first American schools opened during the colonial era. As the colonies began to develop, many began to institute mandatory education schemes. In 1642 the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] made "proper" education compulsory.<ref>[http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/%7Ecfrnb/masslaws.html Massachusetts Education Laws of 1642 and 1647]. History of American Education.</ref> Similar statutes were adopted in other New England colonies. Virtually all of the schools opened as a result were private. The nation's first institution of higher learning, [[Harvard College]], opened in 1636. Churches established most early colleges in order to train ministers. Most of the colleges which opened between 1640 and 1750 form the contemporary "Ivy League," including [[Harvard University|Harvard]], [[Yale University|Yale]], [[Columbia University|Columbia]] (at first called King's), [[Brown University|Brown]], and the [[University of Pennsylvania]].  In the South the leading school was the [[College of William and Mary]] in Virginia. After the [[American Revolution]], the new national government passed the [[Land Ordinance of 1785]], which set aside a portion of every township in the unincorporated territories of the United States for use in education. After the Revolution, a heavy emphasis was put on education which made the US have one of the highest literacy rates at the time.
 
There were local  public schools in New England but no system existed until the 1840s. Education reformers, especially [[Horace Mann]] of Massachusetts began calling for public education systems for all, supported by local taxes, with professional teachers produced by state-spoinsored normal schools (later called teachers' colleges).  Upon becoming the secretary of education in Massachusetts in 1837, Mann helped to create a statewide system of "common schools," which referred to the belief that everyone was entitled to the same content in education. These early efforts focused primarily on elementary education.  At the same time, Mann lobbied for the creation of state-supported teacher's colleges or "normal schools," with uniform standards; among the earliest of these were [[Bridgewater State College]] in Massachusetts (1840) and [[Rhode Island College]] in Rhode Island (1854).
 
The common-school movement began to catch on. [[Connecticut]] adopted a similar system in 1849, and Massachusetts passed a compulsory attendance law in 1852. By [[1900]], 31 states required 8- to 14-year-olds to attend school. As a result, by 1910 72 percent of American children attended school and half of the nation's children attended one-room schools. In [[1918]], every state required students to at least complete elementary school. Lessons consisted of students reading aloud from their texts such as the [[McGuffey Readers]], and placed emphasis on rote memorization. Teachers often used physical punishments, such as hitting students on the knuckles with [[birch]] switches, for incorrect answers. Because the urban public schools focused on assimilation with a strong Protestant flavor, Catholics created private religious schools.  In 1925 the Supreme Court ruled in [[Pierce v. Society of Sisters]] that students could attend private schools to comply with compulsory education laws, thus ending the first serious efforet to shut down parochial schools.
 
Secondary education progressed much more slowly, remaining the province of the affluent and domain of private tutors. In [[1870]] only 2 percent of 14 to 17-year-olds graduated from high school. The number rose to 10 percent by [[1900]], but most were from wealthy families. The introduction of strict [[child labor]] laws and growing acceptance of higher education in general in the early [[20th century]] caused the number of high schools and graduates to skyrocket. Most states passed laws which increased the age for compulsory attendance to 16.
 
===Higher education===
At the beginning of the 20th century, fewer than 1,000 colleges with 160,000 students existed in the United States. Explosive growth in the number of colleges occurred at the end of the [[1800]]s and early twentieth century. Philanthropists endowed many of these institutions. [[Leland Stanford]], one of [[The Big Four]], for example, established [[Stanford University]] in [[1891]].
 
Many American public universities came about because of the [[Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act]]s of 1862 and 1890.<ref name=loc>[http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Morrill.html Primary Documents in American History]. Library of Congress. URL accessed February 19, 2005.</ref> During the rapid westward expansion of the United States during the 19th century, the federal government took control of huge amounts of so-called "empty" land (often after forcing the previous [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] residents into [[Indian reservation|reservations]]). Under the Morrill Acts, the federal government offered to give 30,000 acres (121 km²) of federal land to each state on the condition that they used the land (or proceeds from its sale) to establish universities.<ref name=loc>[http://www.researchfor.com][http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Morrill.html Primary Documents in American History]. Library of Congress. URL accessed February 19, 2005.</ref> The resulting schools are often referred to as [[land-grant college]]s. Founded in 1855, [[Michigan State University]] is the pioneer land-grant institution. Other well-known land-grant universities include [[Pennsylvania State University]], [[Ohio State University|The Ohio State University]] and the [[University of California system]]. Some states have more than one land-grant institution, one often being an [[historically black university]]. Three states, [[Alabama]], [[Massachusetts]] and [[New York]], designated private universities as one of their land-grant institutions. Respectively, these are [[Tuskegee University]], [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] and [[Cornell University]].
 
Following [[World War II]], the [[GI Bill]] paid for the college education of many former service men, and helped to create a widespread belief in the necessity of college education and damaging the belief that higher education was only for the wealthy.<ref>[http://fcis.oise.utoronto.ca/~dschugurensky/assignment1/1944gibill.html 1944 GI Bill of Rights]. History of Education: Selected Moments of the 20th Century. URL accessed on February 18, 2005.</ref> As such, attendance at institutions of higher learning has grown ever since.
 
===Segregation and inequality===
[[Image:Educational seperation in the US prior to Brown Map.svg|thumb|300px|Segregation laws in the United States prior to ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'']]
For much of its history, education in the United States was segregated (or even only available) based upon race. For the most part, African Americans received very little to no education before the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. In the South, where slavery was legal, many states enacted laws to forbid teaching slaves; in practice white playmates taugfht the children of house slaves. During [[Reconstruction]] the Southern states created their first public school systems, available to both races. The systems were underfunded, but white missionaries and philanthropists opened dozens of private academies and colleges for blacks. The [[Freedman's Bureau]] had an active education progtram in the late 1860s.
 
After the end of Reconstruction, all southern states enacted "[[Jim Crow laws]]" which mandated racial segregation between blacks and whites. The Supreme Court case of ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'' in 1896 legalized the segregation of races as long as each race enjoyed parity in quality of education (the "separate but equal" principle). However, very few black students actually received equal education, often with low funding, outmoded or dilapidated facilities, and deficient textbooks (often ones previously used in white schools).
 
The [[American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)|Civil Rights Movement]] of the 1950s and 1960s helped overturn such laws; in [[1954]] the Supreme Court in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' unanimously declared separate facilities inherently unequal and unconstitutional. The [[Civil Rights Act]]s of [[1960]] and [[1964]] further helped end the period of segregation. Integration itself was a long and drawn out issue; although required by law, the first integrations of minute numbers of black students met with intense opposition across the south. In [[1957]] the integration of [[Little Rock]], [[Arkansas]], had to be enforced by federal troops; this was after President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] had federalized the [[United States National Guard|National Guard]], which the governor had called in to prevent integration. Throughout the 1960s integration continued with varying degrees of difficulty, including a period of forced bussing, popular during the administration of [[Richard Nixon]].
 
Although full equality and parity in education would take many years (many school districts are technically still under the integration mandates of local courts), technical equality in education had been achieved by 1970.<ref>[http://www.thejacksonchannel.com/news/6805285/detail.html Madison Desegregation Hearing To Be Held Tuesday]. TheJacksonChannel.com. URL accessed on February 14, 2006.</ref> The actual equality of education, however, is still often the subject of dispute. It may also be argued that the transformation of the Pal Grant program to a loan program in the early 1980s has caused the gap between the growth rates of European and African American college graduates to widen since the 1970s.<ref> Adams (2001)</ref>
 
==Bibliography==
''for more detailed bibliography see [[Education, U.S., Bibliography]]''
===Surveys===
* Button, H. Warren and Provenzo, Eugene F., Jr.  ''History of Education and Culture in America.'' Prentice-Hall, 1983. 379 pp. 
* Cremin, Lawrence A. ''American Education: The Colonial Experience, 1607–1783.'' (1970); ''American Education: The National Experience, 1783–1876.'' (1980); ''American Education: The Metropolitan Experience, 1876-1980'' (1990); standard 3 vol detailed scholarly history
* Curti, M. E. ''The social ideas of American educators, with new chapter on the last twenty-five years.'' (1959).
* Herbst, Juergen. ''The once and future school: Three hundred and fifty years of American secondary education.'' (1996).
* Herbst, Juergen. ''School Choice and School Governance: A Historical Study of the United States and Germany'' 2006.  ISBN 1-4039-7302-4.
* Lucas, C. J. ''American higher education: A history.'' (1994). pp.; reprinted essays from ''History of Education Quarterly'' 
* McClellan, B. Edward and Reese, William J., ed.  ''The Social History of American Education.'' U. of Illinois Pr., 1988. 370 pp.; reprinted essays from ''History of Education Quarterly'' 
* David Nasaw; ''Schooled to Order: A Social History of Public Schooling in the United States'' (1981) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=61723639 online version]
* Parkerson, Donald H. and Parkerson, Jo Ann.  ''Transitions in American Education: A Social History of Teaching.'' Routledge, 2001. 242 pp. 
*  Parkerson, Donald H. and Parkerson, Jo Ann.  ''The Emergence of the Common School in the U.S. Countryside.'' Edwin Mellen, 1998. 192 pp. 
* John L. Rury; ''Education and Social Change: Themes in the History of American Schooling.'; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 2002. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=104343399 online version]
* Theobald, Paul.  ''Call School: Rural Education in the Midwest to 1918.'' Southern Illinois U. Pr., 1995. 246 pp. 
* David B. Tyack. ''The One Best System: A History of American Urban Education'' (1974),
* Tyack, David B., & Hansot, E. ''Managers of virtue: Public school leadership in America, 1820–1980.'' (1982).
 
===Pre 1880===
* Axtell, J. ''The school upon a hill: Education and society in colonial New England.'' Yale University Press. (1974).
* Cremin, Lawrence A. ''American Education: The Colonial Experience, 1607–1783.'' (1970); ''American Education: The National Experience, 1783–1876.'' (1980);
*  Parkerson, Donald H. and Parkerson, Jo Ann.  ''The Emergence of the Common School in the U.S. Countryside.'' Edwin Mellen, 1998. 192 pp.
* Reese, William J.  ''The Origins of the American High School''.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.
 
===Since 1880===
* Maurice R. Berube; ''American School Reform: Progressive, Equity, and Excellence Movements, 1883-1993.'' 1994. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23149656 online version]
* Brint, S., & Karabel, J. ''The Diverted Dream: Community colleges and the promise of educational opportunity in America, 1900–1985.'' Oxford University Press. (1989).
* Cremin, Lawrence A. ''The transformation of the school: Progressivism in American education, 1876–1957.'' (1961).
* Cremin, Lawrence A. ''American Education: The Metropolitan Experience, 1876-1980'' (1990); vol 3 of standard detailed scholarly history
* Gatto, John Taylor.  ''The Underground History of American Education: An Intimate Investigation into the Prison of Modern Schooling.'' Oxford Village Press, 2001, 412 pp. [http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/index.htm online version]
* Krug, Edward A. ''The shaping of the American high school, 1880–1920.'' (1964); ''The American high school, 1920–1940.'' (1972). standard 2 vol scholarly history
* Peterson, Paul E. ''The politics of school reform, 1870–1940.'' (1985).
* Ravitch, Diane.  ''Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms.'' Simon & Schuster, 2000. 555 pp. 
* Theobald, Paul.  ''Call School: Rural Education in the Midwest to 1918.'' Southern Illinois U. Pr., 1995. 246 pp. 
* Tyack, David B.  ''The One Best System: A History of American Urban Education'' (1974),
* Tyack, David and Cuban, Larry.  ''Tinkering toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform.'' Harvard U. Pr., 1995. 184 pp.
* Tyack, David B., & Hansot, E. ''Managers of virtue: Public school leadership in America, 1820–1980.'' (1982).
 
===Ethnicity, race, gender, religion===
* Adams, J.Q. and Pearlie Strother-Adams. ''Dealing with Diversity'' (2001)
* Allen, Walter R. and Joseph O. Jewell; "African American Education since 'An American Dilemma'" ''Daedalus,'' Vol. 124, 1995 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5000281309 online version]
* Anderson, James D. ''The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935'' (University of North Carolina Press, 1988). [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=54406292 online edition]
* Eisenmann, Linda ed. ''Historical Dictionary of Women's Education in the United States.'' (1998) 
* MacDonald, Victoria-Maria. ''Latino Education in the United States: A Narrated History from 1513-2000'' (2004)
* Nash, Margaret A. ''Women's Education in the United States, 1780-1840'' (2005)
* Sanders, James W ''The education of an urban minority: Catholics in Chicago, 1833–1965.'' (1977).
* Solomon, Barbara M. ''In the company of educated women: A history of women and higher education in America.'' (1985).
* Walch, Timothy. ''Parish School: American Catholic Parochial Education from Colonial Times to the Present.'' 1996.
 
 
===Higher Education===
* Brint, S., & Karabel, J. ''The Diverted Dream: Community colleges and the promise of educational opportunity in America, 1900–1985.'' Oxford University Press. (1989).
* Geiger, Roger L., ed.  ''The American College in the Nineteenth Century''.  Vanderbilt University Press.  (2000).
* Geiger, Roger L.  ''To Advance Knowledge: The Growth of American Research Universities, 1900-1940''.  Oxford University Press.  (1986).
* Geiger, Roger L.  ''Research and Relevant Knowledge: American Research Universities Since World War II''. Oxford University Press.  (2001).
* Horowitz, Helen L. ''Campus life: Undergraduate cultures from the end of the eighteenth century to the present.'' (1987).
* Levine, D. O. ''The American college and the culture of aspiration, 1915–1940.'' (1986).
* Lucas, C. J. ''American higher education: A history.'' (1994).
* Veysey Lawrence R. ''The emergence of the American university.'' (1965).
 
===Regional and Local Studies===
* Edgar W. Knight; ''Education in the South'' (1924) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=89261938 online edition]
* Lazerson, Marvin; ''Origins of the Urban School: Public Education in Massachusetts, 1870-1915'' Harvard University Press, 1971 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=51915416 online version]
* Leloudis, J. L. ''Schooling the New South: Pedagogy, self, and society in North Carolina, 1880–1920.'' (1996). [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=94841854 online version]
* Troen, Selwyn K.; ''The Public and the Schools: Shaping the St. Louis System, 1838-1920'' (1975) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98077476 online version]
 
===Primary Sources===
* Richard Hofstadter and C. Dewitt Hardy, eds; ''The Development and Scope of Higher Education in the United States'' (1952) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=100591148 online edition]
* Knight, Edgar W. and Clifton L. Hall, eds.; ''Readings in American Educational History'' (1951) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=95504276 online edition]
===Recent===
* John E. Chubb and Terry M. Moe. ''Politics, Markets and America's Schools'' (1990)
*  Kosar, Kevin R.  ''Failing Grades: The Federal Politics of Education Standards.'' Rienner, 2005. 259 pp. 
* E. Wayne Ross et al eds. ''Defending Public Schools.'' (Praeger, 2004), 4 vol: Volume: 1: ''Education Under the Security State''  (2004) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=106679023 online version]; Volume: 2: ''Teaching for a Democratic Society'' (2004) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=106679363 online version]; Volume: 3: ''Curriculum Continuity and Change in the 21st Century'' (2004) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=106679652 online version]; Volume: 4: The Nature and Limits of Standards-Based Reform and Assessment''  (2004) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=106679962 online version]
* Tyack, David.  ''Seeking Common Ground: Public Schools in a Diverse Society.'' Harvard U. Pr., 2003. 237 pp. 
 
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[[Category:Education Workgroup]]
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Latest revision as of 12:21, 12 July 2009