Educational History

By Lora Hazen
Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) was a landmark case in which the
Supreme Court ruled unanimously that separate schools for whites and
blacks were inherently unequal because the effects of such separate
schooling are likely to be different. Because of this inequality, the
court decided, schools could not remain segregated.
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 ensured that
federal assistance would be sent to the poorest schools and
communities in the nation. Its immediate impact was to provide $1
billion to improve the education of students from families living below
the poverty line.
Tinker vs. Des Moines (1965) was a landmark case in which the
Supreme Court ruled that students do not shed their constitutional
rights when they enter the schoolhouse door. In this case, the
Supreme Court upheld the First Amendment right of high school
students to wear black armbands in a public high school as a form of
protest against the Vietnam War.
The Bilingual Education Acts of 1968 was the first federal legislation to
address the unique educational needs of students with limited Englishspeaking ability. It set the stage for further legislation regarding
equality of educational opportunity for language minorities.
Title IX of 1972, part of the Education Amendments of 1972, is a
federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any
federally funded education program or activity. The main objective of
Title IX is to avoid the use of federal money to support sexually
discriminating practices.
The Equal Education Act of 1974 provided specific definitions of what
constituted denial of equal educational opportunity.
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, also known as the
Buckley Amendment, is a federal law that requires educational
agencies and institutions to protect the confidentiality of students
educational records.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1975 guarantees that
all children with disabilities receive free, appropriate public education.
A Nation at Risk (1983) was a report issued by the National
Commission of Excellence in Education showing deep concern about

the educational system in the United States. The report called for
tougher standards for graduation, increases in the required number of
mathematics and science courses, higher college entrance
requirements, and a return to what was called academic basics.
No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 was a response to A Nation at Risk
which revised the ESEA and called for states to develop content-area
standards and annual testing of math and reading in grades 3 to 8.
Schools with poor test results face the possibility of being closed.