School: The Story of American Public Education

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkFzyKKHmsFeNFAxU_g_Lc1yzAdhjeJz_

ORIGINS OF SCHOOLING IN THE U.S.

– 17th and 18th Century: Colonial Period
– 2 unique aspects of colonial condition affected history of schooling:
– village clusters rejected by colonists: 
A deviation from classic European farming patterns. European farmers clustered their houses in villages, and then traveled out to till their plots. So originally colonial plots were distributed in the same way, each person receiving small strips. Colonialists rejected the pattern, acquiring land in consolidated plots. Therefore they built their houses on their plots, instead of village clusters. 
– school calendar altered to fit agricultural necessity:
Any kind of instruction at all at that time, and subsequently, was accommodated to fit agricultural patterns. Mostly it meant schools during the winter, to not interfere with farming.
– these two things meant, there was no village common, where a central school would normally be, and no set schedule because of farming. Eventually schools moved out onto the countryside, but it took a while.

– Distinction between Education and Schooling:
– Education as the content and process of cultural transfer 
- family - apprenticeship - local community - Church - economy 
According to Bernard Bailyn, the forms of education by the 1st generation of colonists was a direct inheritance from the medieval past. The primary agent in the transfer of culture was family, not any formal instruction. So to study the character of the family in 16th and 17th century England is vital in understanding education in Colonial America, basically a patriarchal kinship. Also, this meant that the colonists were not Americans yet, but English. 
Later, families extended vocational training in the form of apprenticeship. Mostly parents to children, etc... Further, where the family left off, the local community took over. The Church played an important role also in transmitting English culture across generations (mostly through religious training). 
Further, economic hardships on the Colonists forced extended families to break up into smaller units. So the economy was seen as a contributing factor since this is the origin of the notion of educational achievement with economic success.
– Schooling as formal instruction
Before the Common School, there was a hodgepodge of different institutions and arrangements. These included church-supported schools, those organized by towns, tuition schools set up by traveling schoolmasters, schools run by “benevolent” societies for the poor, boarding schools for the “well-to-do,” “dame” schools for society girls and private tutoring. For the most part, the unsystematic approach to schooling resulted in sheer inequities. Native Americans, African Americans, and poor Whites (both girls and boys) who didn’t belong to well-funded churches were excluded from schools. This was also either by law or custom, e.g. many states had formal laws on their books that made it a crime to teach a slave to read.

– Schools cropped up as soon as a significant number of families lived within a few miles of each other:
– one-room community schools was dominant form of elementary instruction
– colleges and academies for “advanced” learning
Towards the end of the colonial period, many other types of people had arrived in New England. Thus, to ensure that English culture dominate and pass on successfully to future generations, the "state" (i.e. government) and elite had shifted the cultural burden away from family onto formal schools. In other words, schools were formed specifically for the purpose of cultural transmission. Rich English - Americans, behind the guise of neutral and disinterested philanthropy, gave large land endowments and money grants to form the first large schools. This was most common in New England, by rich folk who considered themselves “cultural leaders.” There were also many religious sects who formed their own large academies and colleges.
In redefining education as cultural transmission, B.B. was able to argue that schools were responsible for disseminating American Nationalism. That schools created the consciousness of nationhood.

– Early 19th Century: Tension and Polarization between Social Control and Local Autonomy.

– Social Systems of township / state / national vs. family / local / individual
Restructuring, growth, and societal shifts caused a lot of anxiety. Not just with schools, but with other things, this caused a tension and polarization between Social Control and Local Autonomy.

– educational institutions inter-related with synchronic developments of overall U.S.:
– industrialism – urbanization – capitalism – formation of the working class
– production mentalities – bureaucratic entrenchment – increased “democratic” participation
This phase meant the expansion of the changing role of the “State” (i.e. government), and schools were actually formed alongside other governmental institutions like insane asylums and prisons. Educational institutions and the like in the mid and late 19th century, according to the M.B.K., were intended to alleviate the perceived salient social problems of the time (from the elite perspective, mostly). Schools were somehow supposed to eliminate poverty and crime, deal with the anxiety of increased diversity, alleviate poor work habits, decrease anxiety of “downward mobility,” and keep youth off the streets and integrate them into Industry.

– four separate models of schooling in competition with each other:
– paternalistic volunteerism – corporate volunteerism 
– democratic localism – incipient bureaucracy
Four separate models in competition with each other, eventual triumph of the incipient bureaucracy model of organization.
First, paternalistic volunteerism is described as a charitable form of education given by one economic class to another. It was a school for the poor masked as "free" education, but did not do much more than perpetuate the class system. Next, Corporate volunteerism was the model that lend itself to the least amount of supervision by government authorities, since each school would be allowed to function as its own "closed" corporation. 
Thirdly, democratic localism was described as whole school districts functioning as independent units. Arguably, this was suppose to give more autonomy and control to the respective communities, but in fact showed to have given unconditional control to small oligarchies. 
Lastly, Incipient bureaucracy, it seems, had become the response to ever-expanding conditions and very specific problems (which is the model that was adopted). Bureaucratization was the form in which the “State” could establish its control and authority. Rationalizations were made using analogies to the new industries increasing productions in the name of “progress.” Comparatively, large numbers of people had to be “managed” and “coordinated.” Tasks had to be “distributed” and responsibilities “delegated.” Efficiency and steady production were goals of the model. A clear, undisputable, and vertical line of hierarchy was structured that centralized power and decision making and very importantly could offer supervision at all the levels of "production". The board of education would function on the State level and superintendents on the local levels.

– rise of Common Schools:
Establishment in 1820's and 1830's.
– control, organization, and bureaucracy along state lines – common curriculum
– grades 1 - 8 – tax-supported – inclusion of girls – Horace Mann
– Horace Mann is most associated with Common Schools, considered “the Father.” He was Superintendent of Schools for Massachusetts (1837-48) and Secretary of Massachusetts’ first State Board of Education, and founder of first Normalization schools. Idea did not originate with Horace Mann, 1789 article in The Massachusetts Magazine titled “Essay on the Importance of Studying the English Language Grammatically,” and argued for an expanded common school curriculum, beyond the Latin School. Basically the idea came about during the American Revolution, but didn’t catch on until roughly 75 years later.
– by the 1850's it had taken hold in the Northeastern and Midwestern states, with most states in these regions establishing free elementary public schools, and some high schools.
– not until the 2nd half of the 19th century did these schools come about here in the South, and in the West and Southwest. 
– also, not until the end of the Civil War, here, and the U.S. invasion and acquisition of the Southwest territories did schools open up for African Americans, Native Americans, and Mexican Americans. But these schools were segregated and substandard.

– Late 19th Century / Early 20th Century: Social Harmony / Progressive Education Movement
– New Urban Industrial Order
– Shift in societal patterns, increased heterogeneity, broadened role and burden on schools
-several things were going on: the growth of big business, urbanization, and big cities versus agrarianism and rurality, unequal distribution of wealth with sharper class divisions, rise in political corruption, and continuing denial of political and economic rights of women and racial minorities (despite the end of slavery), and the influx of immigrants.
– Pedagogy:
– Universal Education – environmental conditioning – Compulsory Americanization
– morality and intelligence – John Dewey
-Lawrence A. Cremin describes the movement of Progressive Education. 
-Joseph Mayer Rice's published papers on U.S. schools, “sad story of the state of affairs that schools unknowingly found themselves.” Namely that of a narrow view of education, a short-sighted and outdated philosophy, and under hostage by the political machinery. 
-Rice finishes his papers with a battle cry to action to the decadent condition of schools and prominent men of the field at the time came forward as proponents of new exciting ideas such as Universal Education . 
-Concerns for keeping the Social Harmony are born out of shifts in societal patterns and education is seen ideally as a process that should divorce itself from politics. This transformation had revamped and again broadened the role and burden of schools from only a transmitter of culture to that which now becomes the major influence in a student's life dictating one's position and role in the overall society.
-The effect of environmental conditioning is now key to pedagogical approaches to the existing problems of the time. No longer was Evolution perceived as a neutral unarbitrary force affecting the nature of society, but as a force that could be channeled and intentionally guided to serve the social ends. 
-The social ends of course were guided by a few major factors. Namely a migration pattern from the rural country to the urban cities. Attracted by the new industrialism, people left the poverty of their farms to embrace the big city. This created problems on both ends. Country scholars and practitioners began to incorporate new techniques and ideas to their curriculum in hopes of rescuing the great country heritage of rural America and keep people in the country. In the city, the "immigrant problem" created an added dimension of heterogeneity that necessitated different interventions. These interventions were often distorted by the belief that the process of education is strictly apolitical.
-As ideas such as Universal Education became popularized, the notion of sharing knowledge had also become riskful. Like Mann who argued that since knowledge is power, a knowledgeable person has the capacity to do evil as well as good. Thus any schooling must unrelentlessly instil values into students, thus Character schooling. Social Harmony was argued to be the fundamental goal of Education and training was to be moral and self-discipline a primary ambition. 
-Dared by their present conditions, convinced of the need to transcend, school teachers stepped forward to face the challenge. Whole large learning centers were set up and we are left with a legacy of Compulsory Americanization. Schools took a stronger hold to the process of assimilation in the name of the(ir) social good. Cultural integration, forced in many cases, was seen as progress.
-In reference to class and intelligence, S.A. Gelb describes for us a shift in professional and popular terminology from the 18th and 19th centuries to the 20th. In the prior centuries to ours, the term "morality" was used to describe cognitive processes and determinants of the whole spectrum of human behavior. As dominant society was concerned with what was seen as social instability, they had equated it to moral deficiency. With respect to education, this led to the belief that religious and moral training could somehow reverse what were seen as defects. Further, the theory of Evolution allowed for the upper class to rationalize the social order of the time, since it allowed for the belief that people are predetermined completely by hereditary and so are responsible for their own positions in society.
-people should bear their own responsibility for their poverty. This blame the victim ideology, rationalized through social Darwinism and the theory of natural selection, meant that no longer hard work was the determinant of own's social class but actually their biological traits. For example, Chicanos were classified as hereditarily and intellectually handicapped. Since I.Q. testing was inherently culturally biased, they did not test well and were categorized as mentally deficient. They were forced to enroll into slower learner classes, vocational education classes, and those for the mentally retarded.
-John Dewey: most associated with this period, due mostly to his writings and teachings. He was a philosopher, psychologist, educator, and activist. Taught at the Universities of Chicago, Michigan and Minnesota. Founded the first Teacher Union in New York city, and the New School for Social Research. Most of what he’s known for is the intersection of Democracy with Schooling.

A Struggle for Educational Equality, 1950-1980
In the 1950s, America’s public schools teemed with the promise of a new postwar generation of students, over half of whom would graduate and go on to college. This program shows how impressive gains masked profound inequalities: seventeen states had segregated schools; 1 percent of all Ph.D.s went to women; and “separate but equal” was still the law of the land. Interviews with Linda Brown Thompson and other equal rights pioneers bring to life the issues that prompted such milestones as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Title IX, and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

1954
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The Supreme Court unanimously agrees that segregated schools are "inherently unequal" and must be abolished.

1957
A federal court orders integration of Little Rock, Arkansas public schools. Governor Orval Faubus sends his National Guard to physically prevent nine African American students from enrolling at all-white Central High School. Reluctantly, President Eisenhower sends federal troops to enforce the court order not because he supports desegregation, but because he can't let a state governor use military power to defy the U.S. federal government.

Late 1950s
A stunning event occurred that triggered a massive round of educational reform. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union placed the world’s first space satellite in a low orbit of earth. Politicians, government officials, and mass media outlets in the United States assessed “Sputnik” “as a major humiliation for the country, proclaimed it a dangerous threat to the nation’s security”, and gave rise to fear that the nation had fallen behind the Soviet Union in technological development. To remedy the situation, government officials called for (among other changes) improved public education. Sputnik both ignited a space race with the USSR and impelled the United States to improve its education in general and its science education in particular.

1960s
The United States had a racially segregated system of schools. This was despite the 1954 Brown vs. Board Supreme Court ruling. By the late 1970s segregated schooling in the United States was eliminated.

1965
Congress passes the Elementary and Secondary Education School Act, providing aid to secondary and primary schools and helping educate poor children.

1968
African American parents and white teachers clash in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville area of New York City, over the issue of community control of the schools. Teachers go on strike, and the community organizes freedom schools while the public schools are closed. Same year, Congress passes the Bilingual Education Act, providing the first funding to encourage schools to incorporate native-language education in their curriculum

1974
Milliken v. Bradley. A Supreme Court made up of Richard Nixon's appointees rules that schools may not be desegregated across school districts. This effectively legally segregates students of color in inner-city districts from white students in wealthier white suburban districts.

Late 1970s
The so-called "taxpayers' revolt" leads to the passage of Proposition 13 in California, and copy-cat measures like Proposition 2-1/2 in Massachusetts. These propositions freeze property taxes, which are a major source of funding for public schools. As a result, in twenty years California drops from first in the nation in per-student spending in 1978 to number 43 in 1998.

The Bottom Line in Education, 1980-Present
In 1983, the Reagan Administration’s report, “A Nation at Risk,” shattered public confidence in America’s school system and sparked a new wave of education reform. This program explores the impact of the “free market” experiments that ensued, from vouchers and charter schools to privatization—all with the goal of meeting tough new academic standards. Today, the debate rages on: do these diverse strategies challenge the Founding Fathers’ notions of a common school, or are they the only recourse in a complex society?

1983
The National Commission on Excellence in Education report “A Nation at Risk” concludes that America’s educational system is so poor that America’s competive future is threatenend, prompting a wave of reforms in schools and teacher education.

1994
Proposition 187 passes in California, making it illegal for children of undocumented immigrants to attend public school. Federal courts hold Proposition 187 unconstitutional, but anti-immigrant feeling spreads across the country.

1996
Leading the way backwards again, California passes Proposition 209, which outlaws affirmative action in public employment, public contracting and public education. Other states jump on the bandwagon with their own initiatives and right wing elements hope to pass similar legislation on a federal level.

1998
California again! This time a multi-millionaire named Ron Unz manages to put a measure on the June 1998 ballot outlawing bilingual education in California.

2000s
During the Clinton administration, the GOALS 2000: Educate America Act became law. The intent was to bolster reform (Goals, 2000, 2011). The reauthorization of the
SCHOOL REFORM: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE 25 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was specifically intended to support achievement of Goals 2000 by providing additional funding for primary and secondary education; improvement of standards, instructional and professional development, and more accountability (Improving America's Schools Act, 1994, 2011).

2001
The United States entered its current era of education accountability/reform with the institution of the No Child Left Behind law. *Update: The Every Student Succeeds Act has replaced No Child Left Behind.