The History of Education

1
The History of Education
2
The History of Education Has Been One Born Out of
Struggle and Conflict

• Sadovnik points out that actual classroom
  practice has not changed-this interpretation may
  be open to debate
• Differences have arisen over
• What is the purpose of schooling?
• Who is being served?
• What should be taught and how?

3
Education Has Been Politicized Since the
Beginning of the U.S.

• This trend has only increased
• It is important to recognize that there is no one
  interpretation of the history of education

4
Three Historical Themes/Conflicts

• As the nation progressed, schools have
  increasingly taken on roles once held by family
  and community
• Schooling and larger societal issues are linked
  and often cannot be separated
• There is no consensus on school reform issues

5
The History of Education

• The Colonial Era
• The Rise of the Common School
• The Progressive Movement
• Post World-War II Era
• Reform Era

6
The Colonial Era

• Education did not begin with the colonists
• Even then there was concern of the demise of the
  educational role of the family
• Even now we cannot agree on the purposes of and
  policies in education
• Education early on in the Colonial era was only
  for the upper class-they would be future rulers

7
The Colonial Era

• In New England-strong connections to Puritan
  ideas and education-delude the devil through
  schooling
• Much memorization
• Secondary education was through tutors or private
  academies

• Some schools for slaves, usually church-run
• Native Americans taught be missionaries
• Benjamin Franklin one of the first to advocate a
  more utilitarian education (progressive)

8
Colonial Era in CT

• Before 1650 schools were voluntary and church
  supported
• By 1650 CT Code-each town was to have a
  schoolmaster
• Funds raised by taxes-controversial (even to this
  day)

9
Colonial Era in CT

• 1795-Sold off a huge tract of land the Western
  Reserve in the Ohio Territory
• Instead of using funds for the ministry, the
  legislature set aside money for School Fund

• Beginning of civil education

10
The Common School Era

• Early to mid 1800s-rise of populist movement A
  Jackson president
• Beginning of Industrial Revolution
• Rise of those calling for free and public
  education

• Horace Mann Henry Barnard
• Mann believed in the power of schools to socialize

11
Horace Mann

• Mann advocated for a state board of education and
  became its first Secretary in 1837
• Started states first normal school for teacher
  training
• Mann was advocating for free, public
  education.it would both provide good bases for
  citizenship and also provide equality of
  opportunity
• Schools can change society
• Education can foster social mobility

12
Henry Barnard

• 1838 proposed a state board of education and
  became its secretary
• Emphasis on accountability
• Began a process of some uniformity across the
  state in curricula and methods albeit primitive
• 1840-1870-73 rise in CT population
• Towns given local authority-thought to be more
  efficient
• Parents continued to pay tuition
• 1854-local property tax instituted to help pay
  for education his idea of a state tax did not
  fly

13
Barnard

• An early progressive
• Laid groundwork for towns to major authority in
  educational matters-supposed to be more efficient
  (school boards)
• Eventually his idea of a local property tax took
  hold
• Ideas on establishment of public high schools

14
The Common School Era Continued

• Expansion of opportunities for women as 19th
  century progressed Education for women had been
  considered too stressful for them-began to change
  mid century
• African-Americans won the right to educate their
  own-establishment of separate schools

15
Common School Era in CT

• Women excluded early on
• Gave rise to academies and schools for girls
• Miss Porters founded in 1834
• Prudence Crandall founded an academy in Canterbury

• After meeting with resistance for enrolling a
  black young woman she opened an all black academy
• School had to close in 1834 after losing its
  legislative battle with the CT General Assembly
• Academies partly the model for public schools

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Further thoughts on Common School Era in CT

• Normal School Act passed in 1849
• State Board of Education formed in 1865
• 220 men and women admitted. Opened in 1850 in New
  Britain
• By 1868 all public elementary schools were free
• By 1872 all high schools as well

• Not until almost 1900 were women fully integrated
  into the system with compulsory attendance

17
The Progressive Movement

• Continued rise of social reform movements
• Second Industrial Revolution (late 1800s-early
  1900s)
• Rise of immigration to US from Eastern and
  Southern Europe
• John Dewey takes center stage

• Government needs to take on education in a more
  deliberate and systematic way
• Schools can preserve and promote democratic
  principles
• John Dewey
• The emergence of the High School
• Continued rise in numbers of pupils attending
  school

18
During the Progressive Era the trend began toward
compulsory school laws

• By 1918 all states had such laws

19
CT Revision Act 1918

• Affirmed the right of towns to control schools
• Always tension between the various governing
  authorities

20
1950s in CT

• Sentiments that the state of the state education
  was in crisis
• Still hopes that it would be the great
  equalizer
• Increase in immigration and baby boom

21
The High School

• Little consensus on what to teach
• Classical-vocational-literary?
• Committee of Ten-prepare students for the duty
  of life
• Model curricula-classical and modern languages,
  English, mathematics, history and science
• No talk of vocational education-all students
  taught the same

22
The High School

• Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of
  Teaching-Carnegie Units around 1900
• All sorts of reports came out with differing
  views on what should be taught
• What got adopted depended to a large degree on
  political and other power structures

23
Post World War II Era

• Continued debate over goals of education
• Education for whom?
• Purposes of education
• Calls for expansion of educational opportunities,
  especially post high school-GI Bill
• Tensions between equity and excellence
• Sputnik 1962 a watershed

• Elementary and Secondary Education Act
  1965-continually amended to this day
• Continued debate between liberal/progressives and
  conservatives over nature and purposes of
  schooling

24
Post World War II Era

• Social unrest of the 60s was coupled with a
  rising awareness of educational inequities
  between classes and ethnicities/races
• Exponential rise of politicization of education
  due to stresses upon the system

• Brown vs. Board of Education 1954
• Continued debate between progressives and
  traditionalists over aims and methods
• Contention over the means of equal access
  continues this day

25
US Department of Education Founded in 1979

• Purpose was to foster both equity and excellence
  in education
• This, interestingly, at a time of conservatism in
  the U.S. presidential administration
• More and more we are seeing the federal
  government involved in education

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Educational Reform 1980-present

• Conservatives began to blame liberals for the
  lowering of standards and decline of authority
  and discipline
• 1983-Nation at Risk published by the National
  Commission on Excellence in Education
• Set the stage for later legislation such as No
• Child Left Behind

• Other Reform Measures
• School based management
• Teacher empowerment
• School choice

27
1980s and 90s in CT

• Sheff vs. ONeill case
• Addressed directly inequalities between blacks
  and whites in education
• We are seeing the legacy of this today in magnet
  and charter schools

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Additional Issues Related to CT

• We now receive over 70 of financing from local
  support.
• There is a patchwork of funding sources state,
  local, federal and public borrowing.

• This issue reached a head in the mid 70s with the
  Horton vs. Meskill case, an attempt to equalize
  the funding across the state
• 1979-General Assembly developed the Guaranteed
  Tax Base formula
• The GTB is still an issue with changes in the
  legislation-stay tuned

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Conclusion

• More and more students have entered the system
• Increased demand for access and equality of
  opportunity
• Continued conflict over goals and purposes of
  education
• We still have not as a nation resolved the
  sticky issues associated with social class and
  education
• Do we educate for a common, American culture or
  toward a more pluralistic view of culture?
• Do we educate toward excellence or toward
  inclusion of all with a view toward equity?