An overview of education reforms

1. Once upon a time…in a land
far, far away, education reform
began
Sheelagh Lucas SPED 232

2. Let us begin in an era of
great reform… the Civil
Rights Era
"In these days, it is doubtful
that any child may reasonably
be expected to succeed in life
if he is denied the opportunity
of an education. Such an
opportunity, where the state
has undertaken to provide it, is
a right that must be made
available on equal terms."
- Chief Justice Earl Warren,
Brown v. Board of Education
(1954)

3. A Historic Moment in History….
Brown v. Board of Education was actually a consolidation of cases from five jurisdictions:
Brown v. Board of Education (Kansas)
Briggs v. Elliot (South Carolina)
Bulah v. Gebhart and Belton v. Gebhart (Delaware)
Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (Virginia)
Bolling v. Sharpe (District of Columbia)
The cases were combined because they all sought desegregation of schools as the remedy for grossly
inadequate conditions in segregated black schools.
The Supreme Court's Brown decision was particularly important because it was not based on the gross
inequalities in facilities and other tangible factors that characterized previous desegregation cases. In
Brown, the Court dealt directly with segregation and ruled that even if tangible factors like facilities,
teachers and supplies were equal, separation itself was inherently unequal and a violation of the
equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. With Brown, the Court effectively overturned the
infamous 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson which had permitted racial segregation under the guise of
"separate but equal."
http://www.civilrights.org/education/brown/

4. A landmark change in how education
reform began….
 Brown versus the Board of Education
changed the landscape of education
reform forever in this country. We no
longer looked at schools with
students…we looked at students in the
schools.
 As individuals, student’s rights became
part of the education landscape

5. Student’s rights became a priority in the classroom…
a view never before upheld in public education.
 Laws upholding the rights of the individual
and their rights in school became the
trend in schools. Parents and children
were granted rights and fought for more
than they had ever in the past.

6. The Freedom of Speech!
 John and Mary Beth Tinker of Des Moines,
Iowa, wore black armbands to their
public school as a symbol of protest
against American involvement in the
Vietnam War. When school authorities
asked that the Tinkers remove their
armbands, they refused and were
subsequently suspended. The Supreme
Court decided that the Tinkers had the
right to wear the armbands, with Justice
Abe Fortas stating that no one expects
students to “shed their constitutional rights
to freedom of speech or expression at the
schoolhouse gate.”
Tinker vs. Des Moines

7. Reform in Education-Laws to protect the
student as an individual
 Segregation was banned
 Prayer in school was banned
 Compulsory Bussing to end segregation
began

8. Special Education Reform
 In the 1960s, advocates sought a Federal
role in providing leadership and funding
for efforts to provide a free appropriate
public education, or FAPE, to children
with disabilities. Congress took a step
toward this in 1966 when it established the
Bureau for Education of the
Handicapped under Title VI of the
Elementary and Secondary Schools Act
(ESEA). Subsequently, a number of
initiatives earmarked small amounts of
Federal funds for serving children with
disabilities

9. “That we have compromised this commitment is, upon
reflection, hardly surprising, given the multitude of often
conflicting demands we have placed on our Nation's
schools and colleges. They are routinely called on to
provide solutions to personal, social, and political problems
that the home and other institutions either will not or cannot
resolve. We must understand that these demands on our
schools and colleges often exact an educational cost as
well as a financial one.”
A NATION AT RISK, President Ronald Regan’s 1983
Education Reform Plan

10. Then the focus shifted… our Individual Student’s Rights Must
NOT be Compromised by substandard Schools
 The commission found few signs of
encouragement about the American
education system. Test scores were rapidly
declining, low teaching salaries and poor
teacher training programs were leading to
a high turnover rate among educators, and
other industrialized countries were
threatening to outpace America’s
technological superiority. The report
provided mounds of statistical evidence —
23 million American adults were functionally
illiterate; the average achievement for high
school students on standardized tests was
lower than before the launch of Sputnik in
1957; and only one-fifth of 17-year old
students had the ability to write a persuasive
essay. Almost immediately, A Nation at Risk
garnered massive media attention

11. What did it all mean? We were mobilized into action! School Reform
was the headline in communities across the nation. But despite this,
major changes were not yet adopted.
 Despite the initial fervor around A Nation at
Risk, the report didn’t lead to many far-reaching
changes. Many of the problems
identified in 1983 remain unaddressed, and
stagnant student achievement continues to
challenge educators and administrators
 All states have adopted academic
standards, and forty-five states including the
District of Columbia, four territories, and the
Department of Defense Education Agency
have all embraced the Common Core
State Standards to ensure that students
have the necessary knowledge and skills for
success in college and careers.

12. Now we are ready to make changes!
1990s & 2000s
 In the 1990s, schools began adopting
common standards
 Teachers began having more rigorous
training and expectations for education
 Standardized testing became stronger
and more common
 Parents began to have a stronger voice
in education

13. In 1994, President Bill
Clinton signed “The
Goals 2000: Educate
American Act” into
law. Seen as the
predecessor to the No
Child Left Behind Act,
this law created clear
expectations for the
future.
By the Year 2000...
•All children in America will start school ready to learn.
•The high school graduation rate will increase to at least 90 percent.
•All students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having demonstrated competency
over challenging subject matter including English, mathematics, science,
foreign languages, civics and government, economics, the arts, history, and
geography, and every school in America will ensure that all students learn to
use their minds well, so they may be prepared for responsible citizenship,
further learning, and productive employment in our nation's modern economy.
•United States students will be first in the world in mathematics and science
achievement.
•Every adult American will be literate and will possess the knowledge and
skills necessary to compete in a global economy and exercise the rights and
responsibilities of citizenship.
•Every school in the United States will be free of drugs, violence, and the
unauthorized presence of firearms and alcohol and will offer a disciplined
environment conducive to learning.
•The nation's teaching force will have access to programs for the continued
improvement of their professional skills and the opportunity to acquire the
knowledge and skills needed to instruct and prepare all American students for
the next century.
•Every school will promote partnerships that will increase parental
involvement and participation in promoting the social, emotional, and
academic growth of children.
The Goals for
Success were
Lofty Ones….

14. But the No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law by President George
W. Bush in 2001, voided the Goals 2000 bill.
The Four Principles of No Child Left Behind
•Stronger accountability for results;
•increased flexibility and local control;
•Expanded options for parents
• an emphasis on teaching qualifications and
methods. Of these four, accountability for results is
the principle that has the potential to greatly improve
the educational results for children with LD

15. Critics have struggled with the No Child Left Behind Act. They claim it
is over-reaching and impossible to achieve. It places emphasis back
on the tests, and away from the individual.
 Schools must follow mandates or they risk
funding cuts
 Smaller budgets create more difficult
learning environments, so schools have
begun “Teaching to the Test” in an effort
to raise testing scores
 Parents and teachers complain of lack of
flexibility, autonomy, and ability to teach
in their classrooms.

16. Meanwhile in Special
Education

17. Although provisions have been added or amended in order to
expand the provision of services to younger groups of children with
disabilities, or to improve the quality of the services provided under
the law, the four purposes of IDEA have remained essentially the
same: to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to
them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special
education and related services designed to meet their particular
needs; to ensure that the rights of children with disabilities and their
parents or guardians are protected; to assist States and localities to
provide for the education of all children with disabilities; and to assess
and ensure the effectiveness of efforts to educate children with
disabilities
Special Education has continued to expand their laws to
include issues and problems that may have excluded
children with disabilities

18. Laws continue to strengthen to protect the
individual student and their disabilities.
 Differentiation in the classroom is hard to
come by… children with disabilities are
receiving more individualized education
than ever before
 Laws that protect children with disabilities
help create an atmosphere of support
and educational aid in the classroom.
 In crowded classes of 30+ students,
individual attention is hard to come by.
Special Education helps those students.

19. A More Comprehensive List of Education Laws & Reforms are
available at
http://www2.ed.gov/policy/landing.jhtml?src=pn

20. New Problems Arise… Overcrowding &
Student/Teacher Responsibility for Achievement Are
an On-Going Issue

21. Among them is a movement that Standardized Testing is not
the Best Measure of Student Knowledge and Success
 Students learn in different ways. The are
able to express themselves in different
ways… a one size fits all education is not
what is best for everyone. Parents are
finding themselves in a strange situation.
Traditional school no longer fitting them
due to the standardized tests that should
dhow exactly how much a student is
learning.

22. To top it off… Funding is down and expectations are
UP! A difficult and sometimes impossible situation
 Most states have largely stagnant or
declining funding levels, and vast disparities
among states remain. In fourteen states,
funding levels in 2011 were below 2007
levels, even without adjusting for inflation.
There is over a $10,000 gap between the
highest funded state (Wyoming) and the
lowest (Idaho).
 Most states experienced a decrease in
overall revenue resulting in a declining
financial base from which to fund schools;
most states also further reduced effort by
lowering the share of economic productivity
dedicated to education

23. Time for something new!
Parents are opting OUT of
public school for non-traditional
routes.
Homeschooling is becoming a
popular option for parents. The
National Center for Education
Statistics shows this is a growing
trend.
This report was first conducted in
1999, when the NCES found that
approximately 850,000 students
were homeschooled. In 2003,
NCES found that this number
had grown to 1.1 million. And in
2007, NCES found that 1.5 million
students were homeschooled.
The new report concludes that
approximately 1,770,000
students are homeschooled in
the United States—3.4% of the
school-age population.

24. Other Options…
Charter Schools
Private Schools
Opting into
other school
districts.

25. And a more recent Development…
Digital Education!
 Online Education is a growing trend.
Groups like K-12 Grow, The Connections
Academy, and Khan Academy are
bringing technology and learning
together. Parents are making the choice
to go with free, online schooling,
sometimes over public schooling.
 There are drawbacks, similar to
homeschooling there are certain aspects
traditionally associated with education
that are missing. Social development,
individual problem solving, social skill
building, physical education, arts
exploration that are missing

26. http://www.civilrights.org/education/brown/
http://www.streetlaw.org/en/landmark/cases/tinker_v_des_
moines#Tab=Overview
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/eric/faq/spedhist.html
http://neatoday.org/2013/04/25/a-nation-at-risk-turns-30-
where-did-it-take-us/
http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/2013/201309030.asp
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/
wp/2014/02/05/americas-school-funding-problems-state-
by-state/
References