Chapter Six
American Educational History
American Educational History

The Reformation of the 1500s
and 1600s linked European and
American education
 This struggle within the Christian
Church led to the settlement of
the Puritan colony of
Massachusetts Bay and the
American educational revolution
that followed.
American Colonial Education
 The
Puritans developed universal primary
education in the Massachusetts Bay
Colony with the Old Deluder Law of 1647.
 This model of public education spread
west as New Englanders migrated to New
York and the upper Midwest in the 1700s.
Education in the Middle Colonies
 These
schools reflected the rich ethnic
and religious diversity of this region.
 Schools of the Dutch Reformed church,
German Lutherans, Quakers, Roman
Catholics, and the Mennonites, etc. each
centered on religious and moral education.
Education in the Colonial South
West
 Jesuit
education flourished in areas
extending from present day Santa Fe,
New Mexico through San Diego and Los
Angeles, California.
 Jesuit priests established hundreds of
primary and secondary Catholic schools.
 This tradition continues to the present day.
Education in the Southern
Colonies
 In
these communities, private schools and
in-home tutoring for wealthy planter
children was the norm.
 Beyond apprenticeship and minimal
reading education in charity schools, there
were few educational opportunities for
poor children.
 For African Americans, free or enslaved,
formal education was extremely rare.
The Common School: Origins
 Following
the Revolution, Americans
understood that children needed a
common set of cultural and social
experiences in order to appreciate the
concepts of nationhood and civic
responsibility.
 The common school movement took root
and began to grow in the first half of the
1800s.
Common School: Curriculum
 When
the McGuffey Reader became
available in the late 1830s, lessons on
patriotism and civic virtue became the
mainstay of reading instruction.
 The common school also created a
curriculum that prepared young Americans
for the new market economy.
 Competition and examinations became
commonplace during this period.
Common School: Religious and
Cultural Conflict

As new immigrants came to America during the
1800s, the Protestant oriented common school
curriculum became a growing source of conflict.
 Many Roman Catholics, opposed these
Protestant prayers and values in the primary
school curriculum.
 English-only instruction branded immigrant
children as deficient and even ignorant because
they had difficulty speaking English.
 This problem continues with many immigrant
children today.
African Americans and Education:
Before the Civil War
 Prior
to the Civil War, race had a lasting
impact on public education.
 In the South, slave children had few
educational opportunities other than
Charity or Sunday schools.
 In the North, schools for black children
existed but were limited.
 African Americans played the greatest role
in the primary education of their children.
African Americans and Education:
Freedmen’s Bureau schools

When slavery officially ended in 1865, a new era
of educational reform swept the South with the
establishment of the Freedmen’s Bureau
Schools.
 These schools fostered what Booker T.
Washington called “a veritable fever” for
education.
 Thousands of idealistic, young men and women
from the north came south to teach in
Freedmen’s Bureau schools – their impact was
dramatic.
African Americans and
Education: Plessy v Ferguson
The Freedmen’s Bureau Schools were opposed and
resented by many white southerners.
 Southern states typically adopted a system of
segregated schools with limited opportunities for African
Americans.
 The infamous Supreme Court decision Plessy v
Ferguson (1896) gave segregated educational facilities
the false legitimacy of the federal government.
 As a result, African Americans created their own schools
and promoted both primary and secondary education.
 This tradition of self-help was essential for the survival of
African American education.

European Educational Reformers

Meanwhile, an educational reform movement spread
throughout Europe.
 The most important European educational reformers
were John Locke, Jean Jacque Rousseau and Johann
Pestalozzi.
 Locke felt the most effective method of instruction was to
provide praise for good behavior and achievement. He
also rejected corporal punishment.
 Rousseau argued that children had innate intelligence,
and therefore education should be based on the child’s
experiences and their need to know and understand.
 Pestalozzi maintained that education should focus on the
“objects” and activities of the real world presented to
children with love and nurture.
American Educational Reformers

American educators transformed the schools of
late 1800s and the early 1900s.
 Among the most important of these reformers:
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Johann Herbart
William Heard Kilpatrick
Edward Thorndike
B.F. Skinner
John Dewey.
Each of these powerful figures contributed to this
revolution in teaching.
Herbart and the Lesson Plan
 Johann
Herbart (1776-1841) was a
psychologist who introduced the idea of
the structured lesson plan – a template
that outlined the five steps of instruction:
1) preparation
2) presentation
3) association
4) generalization
5) application
Kilpatrick’s Project Method

William Heard Kilpatrick was a progressive
educator who wrote during the late 1910s and
early 1920s.
 His project method involved student learning by
means of a “socially purposeful act.”
 By involving students in projects like putting out
a newspaper from start to finish, teachers could
direct student learning to socially useful ends
and strengthen their connection to the larger
society.
Thorndike: Father of Evaluation
 Edward
Thorndike (1874-1949)
recommended that all instruction be based
on the scientific method and evaluated by
scientific instruments.
 Rigorous educational testing would help
teachers choose the most effective
instructional methods and direct students
to their “most useful role” in society.
Skinner and Behaviorism
 B.F.
Skinner (1904-1990) popularized
educational psychology by broadening its
appeal.
 He focused on the effect of rewards in the
learning process, which became the basis
of “programmed learning.”
Dewey: Father of Progressive
Education



John Dewey (1859-1952) made enormous contributions
to education with his “laboratory school” and concepts of
“learning by doing”.
His emphasis on innovative, socially responsible group
instruction, linked to rigorous scientific evaluation, was
the basis of the progressive education.
Many of these progressive forms of instruction provided
the basis of curricular innovations such as:
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inquiry based instruction
individual contracting
preschool education
multi-age grouping
differential staffing
flexible scheduling
team teaching
Various Progressive Education
Plans

University of Chicago Laboratory School (1896-1904) was
managed by Alice Dewey, wife of John Dewey. Students were
actively engaged in projects and worked in groups. The Lab
School of Chicago is still in existence today and continues to be
innovative.
 The Gary Plan (1908-1915, Gary, Indiana) This plan attempted
to reorganize the school building more efficiently. The school
building was divided into spaces allocated for specific use – such
as classrooms, playground, shops, laboratories, etc.
 The Dalton Plan (1919, Dalton, Massachusetts) divided the
curriculum into units that were contracted by students for a
specified period of time.
 The Winnetka Plan (1919, Winnetka, Illinois) separated the
curriculum into subjects and used the Dalton technique. It also
employed the use of cooperative social activities as advocated
by John Dewey.
The Basal Reader

The basal readers represented a revolution in
reading instruction.
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Incorporated Pestalozzi’s and Herbart’s ideas of
distinctive developmental levels through the use of a
controlled vocabulary.
Used Pestalozzi’s concept of “objects” in the form of
vivid illustrations.
Incorporated Kilpatrick’s idea of drawing on the
interests and experiences of students.
Borrowed Herbart’s idea of the lesson plan and his
concept of sequencing reading materials.
Utilized Thorndike’s concept of measuring the
progress of student comprehension.
Innovations in the 1960s and
Beyond

The Humanistic Curriculum stresses personal student
growth, self-discovery, as well as moral and esthetic
development.
 The Open Classroom promotes individualized instruction
where students determine the nature and sequence of
the curriculum.
 Whole Language integrates language arts skills with a
special emphasis on literature and rejects the use of
phonics as the primary method of reading instruction.
 Magnet Schools are specialized public schools open to
students on a competitive or lottery basis and generally,
have a specific educational focus, such as the Arts or
Science.
Educational Backlash
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During the 1980s, conservatives rejected many
innovative, progressive-based educational programs.
Some claimed that these programs lacked rigor and
academic credibility.
Others argued that the solution to our “educational crisis”
was greater student accountability through “competency
based” instructional programs.
Still others rejected the basal reader and instructional
methods - such as whole language - and demanded, and
in some cases legislated, phonics as the primary method
of reading instruction.
A Nation at Risk?

The educational backlash reached a crescendo
with the publication of A Nation at Risk (1983).
 The language of this report alarmed many
Americans.
 Many conservative political leaders called for
“privatization” of public education, vouchers, and
high stakes testing.
 The NCLB (No Child Left Behind) reflected many
of these concerns and later became national
law.
The New Progressivism

In recent years, many of these conservative
plans have been challenged by progressive
educational researchers.
 They argue that vouchers and school choice are
ineffective.
 They note that End of Grade (EOG) Tests have
misdirected the curriculum.
 They call for a reassessment of education based
on educational research and not politics.