Timeline of Important Events in American Education History
 1635 - The first "free school" in Virginia opens. However, education in the Southern
colonies is more typically provided at home by parents or tutors.
 1636 - Harvard College, the first higher education institution in what is now the United
States, is established in Newtowne (now Cambridge), Massachusetts.
 1690 - John Locke publishes his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, which conveys
his belief that the human mind is a tabula rasa, or blank slate, at birth and knowledge is
derived through experience, rather than innate ideas as was believed by many at that
time. Locke's views concerning the mind and learning greatly influence American
education.
 1698 - The first publicly supported library in the U.S. is established in Charles Town,
South Carolina. Two years later, the General Assembly of South Carolina passes the first
public library law.
 1743 - Benjamin Franklin forms the American Philosophical Society, which helps bring
ideas of the European Enlightenment, including those of John Locke, to colonial
America. Emphasizing secularism, science, and human reason, these ideas clash with the
religious dogma of the day, but greatly influence the thinking of prominent colonists,
including Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.
 1821 - The first public high school, Boston English High School, opens.
 1827 - The state of Massachusetts passes a law requiring towns of more than 500
families to have a public high school open to all students.
 1862 - The First Morrill Act, also known as the "Land Grant Act" becomes law. It donates
public lands to states, the sale of which will be used for the "endowment, support, and
maintenance of at least one college where the leading object shall be, without excluding
other scientific and classical studies and including military tactics, to teach such
branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in order to
promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several
pursuits and professions in life." Many prominent state universities can trace their roots
to this forward-thinking legislation.
 1867 - The Department of Education is created in order to help states establish effective
school systems.
 1913 - Edward Lee Thorndike's book, Educational Psychology: The Psychology of
Learning, is published. It describes his theory that human learning involves habit
formation, or connections between stimuli (or situations as Thorndike preferred to call
them) and responses (Connectionism). He believes that such connections are
strengthened by repetition ("Law of Exercise") and achieving satisfying consequences
("Law of Effect"). These ideas, which contradict traditional faculty psychology and
mental discipline, come to dominate American educational psychology for much of the
Twentieth Century and greatly influence American educational practice.
 1916 - John Dewey's Democracy and Education. An Introduction to the Philosophy of
Education is published. Dewey's views help advance the ideas of the "progressive
education movement." An outgrowth of the progressive political movement,
progressive education seeks to make schools more effective agents of democracy. His
daughter, Evelyn Dewey, coauthors Schools of To-morrow with her father, and goes on
to write several books on her own.
 1919 - The Progressive Education Association is founded with the goal of reforming
American education.
 1944 - The G.I. Bill of Rights officially known as the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of
1944, is signed by FDR on June 22. Some 7.8 million World War II veterans take
advantage of the GI Bill during the seven years benefits are offered. More than twomillion attend colleges or universities, nearly doubling the college population. About
238,000 become teachers. Because the law provides the same opportunity to every
veteran, regardless of background, the long-standing tradition that a college education
was only for the wealthy is broken.
 1946 - The computer age begins as the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer
(ENIAC), the first vacuum-tube computer, is built for the U.S. military by Presper Eckert
and John Mauchly.
 1954 - On May 17th, the U.S. Supreme Court announces its decision in the case of
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, ruling that "separate educational facilities are
inherently unequal," thus overturning its previous ruling in the 1896 case of Plessy v.
Ferguson. Brown v. Board of Education is actually a combination of five cases from
different parts of the country. It is a historic first step in the long and still unfinished
journey toward equality in U.S. education.
 1958 - At least partially because of Sputnik, science and science education become
important concerns in the U.S., resulting in the passage of the National Defense
Education Act (NDEA) which authorizes increased funding for scientific research as well
as science, mathematics, and foreign language education.
 1959- Donald L Kirkpatrick's training evaluation model - the four levels of learning
evaluation is published.
Donald L Kirkpatrick, Professor Emeritus, University Of Wisconsin (where he achieved
his BBA, MBA and PhD), first published his ideas in 1959, in a series of articles in the
Journal of American Society of Training Directors.
 1965 - The Higher Education Act is signed at Southwest Texas State College on
November 8. It increases federal aid to higher education and provides for scholarships,
student loans, and establishes a National Teachers Corps.
 1966 - Jerome Bruner's Toward a Theory of Instruction is published. His views regarding
learning help to popularize the cognitive learning theory as an alternative to
behaviorism.
 1968 - The Bilingual Education Act, also known as Title VII, becomes law. After many
years of controversy, the law is repealed in 2002 and replaced by the No Child Left
Behind Act.
 1972 - Texas Instruments introduces the first in its line of electronic hand-held
calculators, the TI-2500 Data Math. TI becomes an industry leader known around the
world.
 1974 - The Equal Educational Opportunities Act is passed. It prohibits discrimination and
requires schools to take action to overcome barriers which prevent equal protection.
 1977 - Apple Computer, now Apple Inc., introduces the Apple II, one of the first
successful personal computers. It and its offspring, the Apple IIe, become popular in
schools as students begin to learn with computer games such as Oregon Trail and Odell
Lake.
 1982 - Madeline C. Hunter's book, Mastery Teaching, is published. Her teaching model
becomes widely used as teachers throughout the country attend her workshops and
become "Hunterized."
 1990 - Tim Berners-Lee, a British engineer and computer scientist called by many the
inventor of the internet, writes the first web client-server protocol (Hypertext
Translation Protocol or http), which allows two computers to communicate. On August
6, 1991, he puts the first web site on line from a computer at the CERN (the European
Organization for Nuclear Research) in order to facilitate information sharing among
scientists. So . . . does this mean that Al Gore didn't invent the internet after all?
 2001 - The controversial No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is approved by Congress and
signed into law by President George W. Bush on January 8, 2002. The law, which
reauthorizes the ESEA of 1965 and replaces the Bilingual Education Act of 1968,
mandates high-stakes student testing, holds schools accountable for student
achievement levels, and provides penalties for schools that do not make adequate
yearly progress toward meeting the goals of NCLB.
 2014 - President Barack Obama signs the 1.1-trillion dollar bipartisan budget bill on
January 17. The bill restores some, but not all, of the cuts to federal education programs
that resulted from sequestration. It is the first budget to be agreed to by our divided
government since 2009!
 2015 - On January 9, President Barack Obama announces a plan to allow two years of
free community college for all American students. However, with Republicans in control
of both the House and Senate, there seems little hope that this proposal will be
implemented any time soon.