40s and 50s
Landmark Supreme Court case that ruled racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, mandating desegregation
What is Brown vs. Board of Education (1954)
A decades-long struggle, primarily during the 1950s and 1960s, aimed at ending racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans, and securing legal recognition and federal protection of their constitutional rights. During this effort, peaceful protests like sit-ins and marches were used to fight racial discrimination. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech was delivered during the 1963 March on Washington.
What is the Civil Rights Movement?
Led to soaring prices, shortages, and inflation, which decreased disposable income and affected education funding.
This president and his successor, George H.W. Bush, stated a belief that the federal government should have a reduced involvement in education.
A publicly funded school that operates with greater flexibility in its curriculum and policies than traditional public schools, while being held accountable for meeting specific goals.
What is a charter school?
Legislation passed in response to the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, aimed to improve scientific equipment in schools and encourage stronger math, science, and foreign language instruction in the U.S.
What is the National Defense Education Act (1958)?
Signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson, this aimed at providing preschool children from low-income families with the skills needed for success in kindergarten and beyond. It also coordinated with other social programs to provide full-day childcare and a high-quality environment for early childhood education.
What is Project Head Start (1965)?
Despite desegregation laws, inequality in education persisted due to segregated neighborhoods. School districts' attempt to use THIS was to achieve racial integration, but it faced strong resistance from many families. Congress debated whether it was an effective approach for desegregation.
What is busing?
Despite economic growth for some, this condition existed in the 1980s, in which some families benefited from the economic growth and grew richers, while others grew even poorer, and the difference between rich and poor widened.
What is an Income Gap?
A test administered and scored consistently across all test takers to measure students' performance, to compare results at the national or state level, and to evaluate the quality of instructional programs.
What is a standardized test?
B.F. Skinner's theory of behaviorism influenced education, emphasizing controlling the classroom environment to shape student behavior and performance, with rewards and punishments widely used.
What is Behaviorism?
The president, who was a supporter of the Civil Rights Movement, who was assassinated in 1963.
Who was John F. Kennedy?
In 1971, the Supreme Court ordered THIS for Spanish-speaking students, requiring classes in both English and Spanish to ensure equal educational opportunities. In 1974, the Court mandated that schools provide basic English language instruction to students with limited English skills, based on a case involving Chinese students in San Francisco.
What is bilingual education?
Millions of Americans were this, meaning a person is not able to read and write.
What is illiterate?
Agreed-upon benchmarks defining what students should know and be able to do at specific grade levels in various subjects.
Surge in birth rates after WWII that created a demand for more schools and teachers.
What is the Baby Boom?
Part of President Lyndon Johnson's “War on Poverty” and “Great Society” programs, this law provided federal funding to school districts based on the number of low-income children, helping to equalize educational opportunities for disadvantaged schools.
What was the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965)?
This act prohibited gender-based discrimination in all federally funded education programs, which led to expanded opportunities for women in sports and other educational activities. With increased opportunities for women, women began to enter male-dominated fields like law and medicine, although pay discrepancies persisted. By 1978, more women than men enrolled in college for the first time.
A report published by a federal government agency that warned that America’s competitive edge was at risk, highlighting concerns that the U.S. was falling behind other countries in business, science, and technology. College graduates and military recruits were found to have weaker reading and writing skills, and illiteracy remained a major issue. Later critics of this report cited that the data may have been misleading because when the test scores were broken into subgroups, all subgroups were improving.
What is A Nation at Risk (1983)?
The process of holding schools, teachers, and students responsible for meeting certain performance standards, often measured through standardized testing.
What is Educational Accountability?
What is the Cold War?
A full 10 years after Brown vs. Board, this law finally outlawed segregation in public schools and places, mandated the desegregation of schools, and required districts to racially balance schools to undo the harm caused by segregation. However, resistance and delays continued in some regions.
This act guaranteed free public education for children with disabilities and required that education be provided in the least restrictive environment, allowing students with disabilities to participate in regular classrooms. Parents were given a role in deciding their child’s educational placement.
What is the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1975)?
In response to the findings in A Nation at Risk, there was this - a push for schools to return to emphasizing core subjects like reading, writing, and math. This movement was met with criticism by some who argued that students needed more diverse skills to succeed in a complex world.
Structured sequences of academic and technical courses designed to prepare students for college or a specific career path.
What are Programs of Study?