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In 1779, the first one-room schoolhouse was built in Bennington, Vermont. The model was emulated across the countryside because it was a functional and economic way to provide education. -
Education reform in the U.S. has a rich and varied history. In the 1800s, Horace Mann created the
first publicly funded school system
at the elementary level, with an emphasis on teacher training, and universal and secular education. -
Between 1806 and the 1830's Lancaster and his monitors had dominated the classrooms in the U.S. -
In the United States, normal schools were developed and built primarily to train elementary-level teachers for the public schools. In 1823, Reverend Samuel Read Hall founded the first private normal school in the United States, the Columbian School in Concord, Vermont. -
Those who had an education or teaching experience often abandoned their careers early on for more lucrative professions, until women began to take over the profession in the 1840s. Women were significantly less likely to leave their teaching jobs, as there were few other professional options available to them. -
As a response to the social reforms linked to the industrial revolution, John Dewey launched the progressive education movement. -
The Supreme Court decision that ruled racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional -
"No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." -
Title IX is a comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity. -
Reform of teacher education and of the teaching profession became a key item on the agenda of the 80s. The Holmes Group, a consortium of 96 higher-education institutions, called for an overhaul of teacher education. -
By the 1990s, antipathy towards busing transformed into a community schools movement that advocated for neighborhood schools and pushed school districts to abandon their desegregation plans. -
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 kicked off an unprecedented era of testing and accountability in the nation's school system, charging educators to make every child proficient in reading and math by 2014.