A Brief History of American Education

Reform

© Curriculum Leadership Institute cliweb.org

Traditional American Education of the 19th Century

• Memorization• Handwriting

emphasized• Drill, practice, 3 “R’s”

curriculum• Lecture-based• Teacher as source of

knowledge & final authority

• Corporal punishment• High drop-out rate• Agrarian & immigrant

Society• No federal involvement

Education at the Dawn of the 21st Century

Students expected to be ready for a global & digital economy

Teachers expected to keep up with the latest trends and rapidly changing technology

Among the latest trends:• Problem-Based Learning• Differentiated Learning• STEM, STEAM, STREAM• Flipped Classroom• One-to-one computer

initiatives• Mobile and blended learning• Professional Learning

Communities• Social Media: good, bad and

ugly• Cell phones & BYOD

initiatives• Teacher as Learning

Facilitator

Challenging Political Environment:

Demands for choice (charter schools, homeschooling, vouchers)

Continued debate regarding national involvement in education, from NCLB to CCSS.

How did we get from there to here?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

Authored Èmile, considered by some to be the best treatise on Education since Plato’s Republic

Ideas: • Distinct stages of development

require different educational methods

• Children inherently good, blank slates “Tabula rasa”

• Boys & girls should be educated differently

• Education should not begin until adolescence

• Religion should be discovered, not preached or taught

Horace Mann (1796-1859)

Initiated Common School movement in the U.S.

Believed in free universal education for all

Initiated the grade-level approach to education

Initiated teacher-training and “normal schools”

Served as Secretary of the first State Board of Education in Massachusetts (1837)

Charlotte Mason (1842-1923)

British Education Reformer, authored:Parents and Children: The Role of the

Parent in the Education of the Child (1896)

School Education: Developing a Curriculum (1904)

A Philosophy of Education (1923)Ideas:

Education is “an atmosphere, a discipline, a life”

Students should be taught from “living books” not textbooks “written down to children”

Short, focused lessons with emphasis on mastery

“Liberal” education for all classes, including arts, history & geography

Children are persons deserving respect

Current Impact: Republished by and influencing modern homeschool movement.

John Dewey (1859-1952)

Philosopher, Psychologist and Educational Reformer, authored:

My Pedagogic Creed (1897)The School and Society (1900)The Child and the Curriculum (1902)Democracy and Education (1916)Experience and Education (1938)

Ideas: Proponent of Experiential Education

and PragmatismEducation as Social ReformProgressive and Liberal, “out with the

old”Current Impact: His ideas and extensive writings are still discussed in today’s educational milieu.

Not to be confused with Melvil Dewey (1876), whose name is on the Dewey Decimal System.

Dewey as Visionary, Dewey as Misguided

“Dewey’s philosophy is a treasure house of the wisdom and vitality the twenty-first century requires” (2014)

“How the patron saint of schools has corrupted teaching and learning” (2006)

Maria Montessori (1870-1952)

Italian Physician and Educator, authored:

The Discovery of the Child (1948)The Absorbent Mind (1949)The Montessori Method (1912)

Ideas: Worked to develop “scientific

pedagogy” based on brain science

Expanded practical activities available for children

Allowed children freedom of movement and self-direction

Goal of education as Independence, role of teacher as observer and guide

Current Impact: Many Montessori schools and preschools are still practicing her methods and ideas.

Post WWII: Crisis-Driven Reform

“Life Adjustment Education” aimed to provide vocational skills

Baby boom = need for more teachers, expanding programs for teacher education

Cold-War concerns fueled investment in school safety and bomb shelters

School Segregation Crisis (1954)

Brown vs. Board of Education: Supreme Court ruled that segregation was not legal, new federal mandate for local schools

Schools must integrate to provide fair and equitable education for all

Sputnik Crisis (1957) Politicians blamed public

education

Demands for increased education funding

Education becomes politicized

National Defense Education Act (1958)

Increased Federal Involvement

Head Start (1965)

Child Nutrition Act (1966) expanded the post-WWII National School Lunch Program (1946)

Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) 1965, to be reauthorized every 5 years

Follow-up laws: Educational and Consolidation Act (ECA) 1981, Improving America’s School Act (IASA) 1994, No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) 2001

Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) 1965

Considered the most extensive federal involvement in American education

Title I—Financial Assistance To Local Educational Agencies For The Education Of Children Of Low-Income Families

Title II—School Library Resources, Textbooks, and other Instructional Materials

Title III—Supplementary Educational Centers and Services

Title IV—Educational Research And Training

Title V—Grants To Strengthen State Departments Of Education

Title VI—General Provisions

Examples of Discarded Education Fads Since the 1960s

New Math (60s)

Career Education (spawned by OPEC Crisis of the 1970s, high unemployment, double-digit inflation, Dewian in nature)

Open Classrooms (60s/70s)

Whole-Language (80s/90s)

Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (90s)

Education: A Political Hot Button

1983 “Year of the Reports,” including “A Nation at Risk”

Goals 2000 set by U.S. Congress, first National Standards for Arts Education

No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, standards-based education reform act, revised version of ESEA (1965)

Race to the Top, Obama-led funding initiative (2009)

Common Core State Standards (2009), not federally mandated, adopted on a per-state basis, widely misunderstood to be a federally-mandated “curriculum”

ESEA is overdue for reauthorization & Obama is working on a revision to NCLB

A Few Current Trends in Education

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)

Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

Differentiated Instruction

STEM, STEAM, STREAM

School Choice & Charter Schools

Year-round education

One-to-one technology initiatives

Flipped Learning

Student-Centered Learning

Confused by all the Trends?

This website could help:

“The Glossary of Education Reform” @

http://www.edglossary.org

• Low teacher morale and engagement• Teacher “burn-out”• Student bullying and classroom manag

ement• Negative public perceptions of educato

rs and schools• Cuts to education funding due to deficit

s • Increasing immigrant, migrant populati

ons• Lack of teacher-perceived classroom au

tonomy• Frustrations with high-stakes testing

Current Struggles in Education

Does your District Have These Two Education Basics Mastered?

Empowered & Engaged Teachers

Sound Curriculum

Do You Wish for Some Stability as you Navigate Through the Latest Sea of

Education Reform?

Helping school districts stay on even keel, since 1991.

Curriculum Leadership Institute’s

Pathways to School Improvement

It’s time to consider the CLI Model for School Improvement

• Our process engages teachers in the development of a local, standards-aligned curriculum.

• We believe the professional educator benefits from an active role in curriculum development.

• Teachers who are invested in their district’s curriculum are invested in teaching it in their classrooms.

Modern Theorists Our Model is built largely on the following

three educational and intellectual theorists: Instruction: Benjamin Bloom Curriculum: Ralph Tyler Organizational Management: William

Edward Deming

Benjamin Bloom (1913-1999)

Educational Psychologist, authored: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956), All Our Children Learning (1980), Developing Talent in Young People (1985)

Known for: Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

Contributed to: Theory of Mastery Learning

Ralph W. Tyler (1902-1994)

American Educator in the field of evaluation and assessment, Authored: Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction (1949)

Defined “evaluation” as an exam which aligned with learning outcomes

His book defined a basic, four-part structure for instruction: 1. Define learning objectives

2. Introduce objectives

3. Organize experiences to maximize learning

4. Evaluate and revise processes

William Edwards Deming (1900-1993)

Engineer, professor, author, management consultant

Authored: Quality Productivity and Competitive Position (1982), Out of the Crisis (1986) and The New Economics for Industry, Government, and Education (1993)

Considered the Father of TQM (Total Quality Management), although he did not coin the term

Understanding of human psychology considered essential piece of human management

Our Model Research-based

Time-tested

Allows teachers professional freedom to choose their own teaching methods

Is a systemic model for district-wide vertical and horizontal curriculum alignment

Visit us today at: http://cliweb.org