USA

EDUCATION
IN BRIEF

Bureau of International Information Programs

U.S. Department of State
http://www.america.gov/
INTRODUCTION the American identity. Every national experience shaping the
American character has been played out in its classrooms: race
and treatment of minorities, immigration and growth of cities,
westward expansion and economic growth, individual freedom
and the nature of community.
International Baccalaureate Fundamental questions about the purpose and methods of
students in Washington state
respond to a science question.
education have resonated in public debates in the United States
from the “common school” movement of the early 19th century

A ll societies must wrestle with fundamental questions

about the nature and purpose of their educational
system, but the United States was the first nation to face these
to debates over academic standards and testing today.
Should schools emphasize basic skills — reading, writing,
and mathematics — or provide a broad education in the liberal
questions as a democracy. arts and sciences? How can schools provide equal access to
Early on, Americans understood that their future as a free all yet maintain high academic standards? Who should pay
people rested upon their own wisdom and judgment, and not for schools — parents or the public? Should schools focus on
that of some distant ruler. For this reason, the quality, character, practical, job-oriented skills, or give all children the academic
and costs of education have remained among the country’s courses necessary to succeed in college? How should teachers
central preoccupations since its founding. impart moral and spiritual values to the children of different
Educational institutions of all types and sizes, from nursery cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds? What criteria should
schools to advanced research institutions, populate the be used for selecting secondary school students for admission
American landscape. Public schools have been described as to prestigious colleges and universities?
the nation’s most familiar government institutions. Whether The answers to these questions are not easy, and, in fact,
communities are poor or affluent, urban or rural, public schools schools in the United States have answered them in very
are a common denominator throughout the United States. different ways at different times in the nation’s history. Today, as
From their origins two centuries ago through today, in the past, education remains a topic of vigorous debate, rapid
America’s public and private schools have served to define change, and enduring values.
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 Size

Schools in the United States — public and private,

elementary and secondary, state universities and private
colleges — can be found everywhere, and the United States
continues to operate one of the largest universal education
systems in the world. More than 75 million children and adults
were enrolled in U.S. schools and colleges in the 2005-2006
academic year, according to the National Center for Education
Statistics. Another 6.8 million were employed as teachers,
teaching kindergarten through college.
In addition, more than a million preschool children from
low-income families, usually ages three and four, attend
Students experimenting with hydraulics in a vocational class. Head Start programs designed to provide learning, social
development, and nutrition programs to ensure that these
Structure of U.S. Education preschoolers will be ready for school at age five or six.
Public school enrollments grew exponentially during the

F or someone from another country, the U.S. educational

system understandably appears large and varied, even
chaotic. Within this complexity, however, American education
post-World War II “baby boom” generation (usually defined as
those born from 1946 to 1964). After a drop-off in the 1980s,
enrollments have rebounded strongly, largely as a result of
reflects the history, culture, and values of the changing country growing Hispanic populations, according to the latest U.S.
itself. From a broad perspective, the American educational Census Bureau reports.
system can be characterized by its large size, organizational The U.S. educational system today comprises almost
structure, marked decentralization, and increasing diversity. 96,000 public elementary and secondary schools, plus more
than 4,200 institutions of higher learning, ranging from small,
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 school years include kindergarten through grades five or six,
and at some schools through grade eight. Secondary schools —
known as high schools in the United States — generally include
grades nine through 12.
Fifty years ago, elementary school students typically moved
immediately to high school, or they attended junior high
school for grades seven and eight or grades seven, eight, and
nine. During the past 30 years, however, junior high schools
have been largely replaced with middle schools configured
for grades six through eight, or roughly for the same grades as
junior high. Estimates are that 20 million young people, ages 10
Preschoolers listen to a story in a Head Start classroom. to 15, attend middle schools today.
As Minnesota principal Mark Ziebarth described the
two-year community colleges to massive state universities with difference between the two approaches, “A junior high school
undergraduate and graduate programs in excess of 30,000 program is designed to mirror a traditional high school program
students. for students at a younger age. It has a similar schedule to the
The nation’s total expenditures for education stand at high school and classes are arranged by departments. Middle
approximately $878 billion a year. schools are designed to provide a forum to meet the special
needs of adolescents.”
K-12 Organization Team teaching and flexible block scheduling, rather
than set 45- or 50-minute classes, are characteristic of middle
School attendance is compulsory for students through schools. These schools also place emphasis on small groups,
age 16 in most states. Children generally begin elementary on an interdisciplinary approach to subject matter, and on
school with kindergarten (K) at age five and continue through special projects that can engage 10- to 15-year-olds, who, says
secondary school (grade 12) to age 18. Typically, the elementary the National Middle School Association, “are undergoing the
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 most rapid intellectual The contemporary American high school has long loomed
and developmental large in the public culture. The popular musical Grease, the
changes of their lives.” television series Happy Days, and movies like Blackboard Jungle
The large depicted the light and dark sides of schools in the 1950s. Recent
contemporary high popular entertainments with high school settings range from
school, offering films like Mean Girls, Juno, Election, and High School Musical to
a broad menu of such hit TV shows as Beverly Hills 90210 and Saved by the Bell.
English language learners in a middle-school in Grand academic and elective
Island, Nebraska.
courses for students Private Schools
ages 14 to 18, became a fixture in American education by the
mid-20th century. High school students also can choose from Private schools flourish in the United States; many of these
a host of clubs, activities, athletics, work-study arrangements, schools are run by churches and other religious organizations.
and other extracurricular activities. Based on grades and tests, Of the estimated 55.8 million children attending elementary
students can take advanced academic courses or more general and secondary schools during the 2007-2008 academic year,
or vocational classwork. about 6 million, or 11 percent, were enrolled in private schools.
Through most of the 20th century, high schools were More than half of the nation’s private school students
consolidated into larger units to offer wider class choices to attend Catholic schools, the nation’s oldest private school
more and more students. The rural country school almost system. Other private schools reflect America’s religious
disappeared, replaced by countywide high schools. In cities, it diversity, encompassing nearly all major Protestant
was not uncommon for large school campuses to hold as many denominations and the Quaker, Islamic, Jewish, and Greek
as 5,000 students with both college-oriented and vocational Orthodox faiths.
courses that could appeal to just about everyone. The country’s oldest private schools, however, are elite
More recently, concerns over the caliber of education in boarding schools, founded in the 18th century, which have had
such large schools has led to a call for the establishment of a record of educating many of the country’s intellectual and
smaller schools with lower student-teacher ratios. political leaders.
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 Another 1.1 million in states like Kansas and Nebraska to the New York City system,
students are home-schooled which educates more than a million children annually.
by their parents under State boards of education, along with a state
guidelines established by each superintendent or commissioner, oversee local education
of the 50 states, according to districts, set student and teacher standards, approve the
recent census figures. classroom curriculum, and often review textbook selections.
The state’s chief power, however, is increasingly financial: Most
Local Control states now provide substantial aid to schools to supplement
local tax revenues.
Perhaps the most One consequence of local control and financing of public
remarkable characteristic schools has been disparities between affluent and poor school
of American education is its districts. In recent years, under pressure from state courts and
decentralization. Schools in the public advocacy groups, many states have taken steps to ensure
Working in the computer lab in a Detroit, United States have been, and more equitable funding of school districts regardless of income
Michigan, elementary school.
remain, overwhelmingly a state levels.
and local responsibility. Unlike most other nations, the United The federal government provides research and support
States does not operate a national education system — with to ensure equal access and excellence in education, along
only a few exceptions, notably the nation’s military academies with funding student loan programs and assistance to lower-
and Native American schools. Neither does the federal income students. Nevertheless, responsibility for education
government approve nor administer a national curriculum. remains primarily a state and local enterprise. According to the
Public education constitutes the single largest expenditure U.S. Department of Education, about 90 percent of the annual
for almost every U.S. city and county, which receive the bulk expenditures for education at all levels comes from state, local,
of their funding from local property taxes. Local boards of and private sources.
education, most of which are elected, administer the nation’s
nearly 15,500 school districts, ranging from small rural schools
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Diversity

Schools in the United States have experienced waves of

immigration throughout their history, and today American
schools, like the larger society they serve, are more ethnically
diverse than ever. In the early 20th century, children of
immigrant families — most from southern and eastern
Europe — flooded public school systems in the Northeast and
Midwest. Today new immigrants continue to change the ethnic
composition of student populations, although the largest
numbers now come from Latin America and Asia.
African Americans constitute about 17 percent of the K-12
student population; Hispanics, however, are becoming the largest Ohio State University, one of the first land-grant universities, established in 1873.
single minority group in public schools. It is not uncommon
to find schools, especially along the East and West Coasts, Rise of the Public School
where more than a dozen different languages, from Arabic to
Vietnamese, are spoken at home by students of foreign-born
parents. As a result, the teaching of English as a second language
remains one of education’s most important responsibilities.
P ublic schools were unknown in the colonial era, although
several New England colonies established “subscription
schools” for those who could afford to pay the fees. Harvard,
Despite their decentralization and diversity, public schools the first institution of higher learning in North America, was
remain remarkably cohesive in the ways they are run. A student founded in 1636 in Massachusetts and, like all early colleges,
transferring from a school in California to one in Pennsylvania or focused almost exclusively on religious scholarship and classical
Georgia will find differences no doubt, but the mix of academic languages — Latin and Greek.
subjects will be largely familiar, despite the fact that the federal
government does not mandate a national curriculum.
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 history as the iconic “little red schoolhouse.” In 1820 Congress
authorized the collection of state education funds through the
sale of public lands.
In the first half of the 19th century, reformer Horace Mann
of Massachusetts launched an influential campaign for using
state taxes to improve and support free common schools for all
children. According to writer Lawrence Cremin, “The fight for
free schools was a bitter one, and for 25 years the outcome was
uncertain.”
By 1860, however, most states had adopted the idea,
mollifying protests against higher taxes by giving local
communities control over their schools. The principle of publicly
funded free education under local control had taken root in
American society.

Students looking up information for a geology experiment. Land for Colleges

The “Common” School The Morrill Land Grant Act, enacted during the U.S. Civil War
in 1862, employed the same mechanism of selling public lands
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which encompassed to establish colleges for agriculture and industry. Today these
the present-day states of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, land-grant schools, constituting some of the largest and most
and Michigan, mandated that every new township set aside influential state universities in the country, offer a full range of
one parcel of land out of every 36 for a public — or what was liberal arts and professional programs at both undergraduate
then termed a “common” — school. These were often simple and graduate levels.
one-room buildings topped with a steeple, celebrated in U.S. Today there are 106 land-grant colleges.
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Frontier Schools Urban Immigrants

On the western frontier, settlers Public schools grew with the steady influx of immigrant
sought to build schools almost as schoolchildren, largely from Europe, but with significant
soon as they established new towns. populations of Chinese and Japanese on the West Coast
Congress, in fact, required territories and Mexicans and Latin Americans in the Southwest. Each
to offer free public education to all of the successive waves of immigrants challenged not only
before they could be considered the capacity but the aims and organization of the American
for statehood. “Schools became educational system as it coped with unprecedented numbers of
important civic amenities that could new students.
draw settlers,” says historian Kathryn The challenge of assimilating and educating children from
Sklar in the book School. vastly different backgrounds and languages was especially
But frontier schools faced far acute in the major destination cities for immigrants — whether
different challenges than urban Irish, Germans, and Scandinavians in the mid-19th century, or
A new citizens’ naturalization
ceremony in San Jose, California. schools, chief among them an acute eastern and southern Europeans in the peak immigration years
lack of teachers. Catherine Beecher, of the 1890s through the 1920s.
sister to Uncle Tom’s Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe, Urban schools could be grim and overcrowded places, but
led a successful campaign to promote women teachers as a as recounted in the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) book
“civilizing force” in the West. These women faced the hardships School, “So powerful was the lure of education that on a day
of the frontier equipped with little more than their belief in the after a steamship arrived, as many as 125 children would apply
calling of education and a series of popular textbooks tailored to one New York school.”
for western schools, called McGuffey Readers. These textbooks Even so, estimates are that, with unrestricted child labor,
interspersed lessons in reading and arithmetic with “moral tales” only about 50 percent of children attended school at all, and the
designed to build character. average period of time was five years.
The growth of public schools in this period was enormous
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— from 7.6 million students in 1870 to 12.7 million by the end largely segregated
of the 19th century. The United States, according to the book lives. Education was
School, “was providing more schooling to more children than no exception, despite
any other nation on earth.” the establishment
As scholar and educational historian Diane Ravitch writes of schools by the
in School: “The American school system’s readiness to provide Freedmen’s Bureau
social mobility to low-income students was truly remarkable; and others to meet the
its efforts to assimilate newcomers into American society were demand for what black
largely successful. ... These were the enduring accomplishments Little Rock Central High School, Arkansas, 1957, a educator Booker T.
landmark in racially integrating schools in the south.
of the American public school.” Washington called “an
entire race trying to go to school.” Segregated schools, upheld in
Education for All an 1896 Supreme Court decision under the doctrine of “separate
but equal,” became the practice in 17 southern and border

B y the mid-20th century, the ideal of universal education

from kindergarten through high school had become a
reality for substantial numbers of Americans. But certainly not
states into the 20th century. Even so, estimates are that black
literacy in the decades following the Civil War jumped from 5
percent to 70 percent.
for all, especially the nation’s racial minorities. Outside of the South, the principal issue was one of
population and housing patterns that resulted in de facto
Segregation segregation of black and white students. As urban areas became
concentrated with African Americans, city school systems
The largest exception to the growing inclusion of U.S. developed into predominantly minority enclaves surrounded by
public education was African Americans. Before the U.S. Civil largely white suburban schools.
War (1861-1865), southern slaves not only had little access
to education but could be punished for learning to read.
With the end of slavery, black Americans in the South lived
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Brown v. Board of Education parts of the South until the years following passage of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 under
African Americans challenged segregation throughout President Lyndon Johnson.
the nation’s history with little success until school integration
became central to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and
1960s.
In 1950, after years of careful preparation, the nation’s
oldest civil rights organization, the NAACP (National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People) recruited 13 black
parents in Topeka, Kansas, who attempted to enroll their
children in their local schools. The NAACP sued when they were
turned away, and by the time the Brown v. Board of Education
case reached the Supreme Court, it had been consolidated
with similar cases from three other states and the District of
Columbia.
In a unanimous 1954 decision, the Court declared,
“Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” Kansas
Nuevo Schools English Academy in Rogers, Arkansas.
and other border states complied with the decision, but the
South defied the Court in a campaign called “massive resistance” Equally important to the cause of integration was the
that resulted in an ongoing confrontation between the state first significant infusion of federal funds into public education
and federal governments. The integration of Little Rock Central through Title I of the Elementary and Secondary School Act of
High School in Arkansas in 1957 required the dispatch of U.S. 1965, which has since provided billions of dollars in aid to school
Army soldiers, and when black student James Meredith enrolled districts with poor and disadvantaged children. Only schools that
in the University of Mississippi, it triggered widespread rioting. could demonstrate that they didn’t practice racial discrimination
Southern resistance to school integration didn’t end in many were eligible for Title I funding.
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 Racial imbalances persist in many public schools, however, reflects a continuing
as a result of residential patterns and the concentration of debate over whether
minorities in urban areas. An ongoing study by Harvard the United States should
University has found that racial segregation has increased in be seen primarily as a
a number of states with high minority populations, affecting melting pot, emphasizing
many poorer Hispanic students as well as African Americans. By a common identity, or
contrast, Asian Americans are the minority group most likely to as a mosaic, with clearly
attend racially mixed schools. Students engaged in a biology class experiment. defined cultures and
The lesson is that although American education remains backgrounds.
committed to principles of equality, it often falls short of that Bilingual proponents contend that students can keep up
goal in practice. academically in their native language and transition to regular
classes when they have learned English. Advocates for English
Bilingual Education and Assimilation argue that a bilingual approach only slows down mastery of
English and prevents students from joining the mainstream
The legacy of Brown and its principle of equal access for culture.
all served as a model for other racial minorities, as well as for Many school districts adopted bilingual approaches in the
women and the disabled. 1960s and 1970s, but their popularity has waned along with lack
Hispanics often found themselves in segregated, poor of funding. In recent years, the typical pattern is to designate
schools, and, in fact, a little-known 1947 court decision ended students as “English Language Learners” and place them in
separate schools for Spanish-speaking students in California. regular English classes, supported by specialists in teaching
The language question remained, however: whether to English as a second language. About 3.7 million, or 8 percent of
place students in English immersion programs or in bilingual all students, receive special English language services, according
classes where students continue to use their native language, to the U.S. Department of Education.
typically Spanish, while also learning English.
The question of bilingual education is an old one and
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Women and Title IX Mainstreaming

The campaign for equal Advocates for disabled and “special needs” students also
rights for women in education drew upon the model of the civil rights movement to call for
focused primarily on colleges fuller inclusion of these students in regular classrooms and
and universities. The result was school activities, a process termed “mainstreaming.” They argue
Title IX, a 1972 amendment to that studies show that placing physically and mentally disabled
the Higher Education Act that students in regular classes for at least part of the day results
banned discrimination on the in higher academic achievement, greater self-esteem, and
basis of gender in higher learning. improved social skills.
As a result, women’s enrollment A 1975 law, now known as the Individuals With Disabilities
in traditionally male professional Education Act, calls for all children with disabilities to receive “a
programs such as medicine, free appropriate public education.” The law requires schools to
Acoma Pueblo students of New law, and engineering increased prepare an individual education plan, or IEP, for each disabled
Mexico learning English.
markedly. child and to place the child in the least restrictive classroom
The most public controversy over Title IX, however, has setting possible.
concerned athletes and whether the law unfairly harmed men’s The law has enjoyed widespread support, although the
collegiate sports programs. The issue has been a subject of costs of implementation have grown rapidly. Much of the overall
furious debate in political and sports circles. Proponents cite the increase in spending for public education in recent years can be
profound impact of Title IX in opening up academic as well as attributed to the costs associated with providing an accessible,
athletic opportunities for girls and women. Opponents argue equitable education for children and adolescents with physical
that the law has become little more than a quota system that and mental disabilities.
harms the interests of both men and women. According to recent figures, U.S. public schools are
educating about 6.1 million special-needs children. The most
common learning disability is speech and language impairment,
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but special needs can include disabilities as a result of mental The first exposure of American Indians to formal schooling
retardation, emotional disturbance, or physical problems. often came through missionaries and church schools, where
the emphasis was less upon academic instruction than religious
Native American Schools conversion and becoming westernized in manner and dress.
As the frontier moved west in the 19th century, many of these
One of the few exceptions to the direct involvement of the church-run schools were gradually replaced by those operated
federal government in education is that of Native Americans. by the federal government’s Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The federal administration of Indian schools reflects the special The policy of these schools was to assimilate Native
relationship between the government and the semi-sovereign Americans into the mainstream by forcibly stripping them of
tribes of American Indian and Native Alaskan peoples that is their tribal culture. Many Indians were educated in boarding
embodied in both laws and treaties. schools, often far from home, where they had their hair cut and
their native clothes replaced and they were forbidden to speak
their own languages. The most prominent of these boarding
schools was the Carlisle School in Pennsylvania.
A 1928 report spotlighting failures and abuses in Indian
education led to reforms and increased financial aid known as
the Indian New Deal. Later, the civil rights movement sparked
a parallel Indian rights movement. Over decades, the federal
government reversed policy and established an educational
system that seeks to provide modern skills and knowledge
while preserving the traditions and culture of Native American
peoples.
Today the Bureau of Indian Education administers 184
elementary and secondary schools, along with 24 colleges.
Cooperating on math problems in Tesuque, New Mexico. These schools are located on 63 reservations in 23 states across
24 25
the United States, serving approximately 60,000 students who
represent 238 different tribes.

Seeking Educational Excellence

T he movement for what is sometimes termed “excellence

in education” has taken many forms. One set of changes
emphasizes a back-to-basics, or core, curriculum focused on
math, science, history, and the language arts (reading, writing,
and literature). Most elementary and secondary schools also
provide so-called gifted and talented programs for high-
achieving students.
Teacher education class in Los Angeles.
AP and IB
subjects that students can take in high school. AP students earn
For American high school students looking to excel academic credits for college in the United States and 40 other
academically, the two most common approaches today are countries — provided they score high enough on AP tests given
known by their initials: AP for Advanced Placement and IB for in their junior and senior years (grades 11 and 12).
International Baccalaureate. AP and IB are different in some More than 60 percent of American high schools offer AP
respects, but both require demanding coursework that can courses, according to the Department of Education. The most
propel students to greater academic achievement in college. frequently taken tests are calculus, English literature, and history.
Advanced Placement, founded in 1955, is run by the In 2006 more than 24 percent of all U.S. high school students
College Board, which comprises 5,200 schools, colleges, and took AP exams, up from 16 percent in 2000.
other educational organizations. Through AP, the College Board The IB diploma program is administered by the International
has developed strenuous, college-level courses in more than 30 Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) in Switzerland and grew out
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of efforts to establish a common curriculum and system of and secondary schools declined from 18.6 to 15.8 students
academic credits that would be recognized by colleges and per teacher, according to the National Center for Education
universities in other countries. Statistics. This ratio reflects, in part, the increase in special
IBO works with more than 2,000 schools in 125 countries, education teachers for the disabled or for teaching English as a
including nearly 800 in the United States. Students follow a second language, and typical public classroom sizes are often in
rigorous curriculum in six academic areas: English, foreign the 20s.
language, science, mathematics, social science, and the arts. Recent figures also indicate that more than 90 percent of all
They must also perform 200 hours of community service and public school teachers are rated as “highly qualified,” meaning
write a 4,000-word essay based on independent research. that they are experienced and certified to teach in their subject
area. These same figures reveal a familiar social and economic
Assessing Teachers divide, however, with more highly qualified teachers in
wealthier schools and fewer in minority and poorer schools.
The numbers and qualifications “Even if you have high numbers [of certified instructors] in
of teachers are subjects of perennial the aggregate,” said one official of the Education Department
debate, although some experts to the newspaper USA Today, “there are pockets where students
have pointed to the turnover of are being taught by teachers that are not highly qualified.”
teachers as often a greater problem Although local school districts have considerable flexibility
than an overall teacher shortage. in how they organize their instructional programs, teacher
One indicator of the push for training tends to function as a countervailing force. States may
higher standards in recent years is have different requirements for certification, for instance, but
student-teacher ratios, with lower all states recognize the same college degrees and coursework,
ratios indicating that teachers can regardless of the location of the school. As a result, most
spend more time with individual teachers, similarly trained and accredited, teach the basic core
In Los Angeles, learning to use a students. From 1980 to 2001, the subjects in roughly the same manner and sequence throughout
computer in an adult education
class.
student-teacher ratio in elementary the country.
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 Recent figures indicate that 100 percent of public schools have
Internet access and that elementary and secondary schools
possess more than 14 million personal computers, roughly one
for every four students.
If the digital divide has been spanned at school, it still
remains a factor at home, according to the Department of
Education, which found that minority and poor students often
lack computer and Internet access at home.
School-oriented Web sites like Blackboard.com have
become a routine means for posting assignments, homework,
and class schedules. Along with e-mail, these Web sites have
become a favorite way for parents and teachers to stay in direct
communication.
Students listening to a lecture at Merritt College in Oakland, California.
As Internet capacity has increased, so has distance or
Textbooks typically represent a substantial investment by online learning. Almost 3.5 million, or 20 percent of all college
book publishers who want to ensure that their products are students, took one or more online courses during the 2006-2007
approved and purchased by as many state and local boards of academic year — an increase of almost 10 percent over the
education as possible. As a result, two of the country’s largest previous year, according to Sloan Consortium, an organization
school systems — Texas and California — wield enormous working to improve online education.
influence over textbook content and publication. Roughly half of all online students are enrolled at the
nation’s community colleges, where the most popular courses
Computers and Education are in such professional fields as business management,
computer science, engineering, and health sciences-related
Computers and the Internet have now become ubiquitous programs.
in American schools from the elementary grades onward.
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 Progressive Reforms

Early reformers tried to establish consistent academic

standards, train teachers, or consolidate schools in the name
of efficiency. In other words, to transform education into a
profession.
These efforts culminated in the Progressive Movement of
the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when educators like John
Dewey called for fundamental reform in what schools taught
and how they operated. Dewey and his supporters urged giving
teachers greater independence in the classroom, emphasizing
learning by doing instead of rote memorization and challenging
students to think independently.
Working on a high school physics experiment in Hidalgo, Texas.
But Dewey’s “child-centered” approach was almost
immediately challenged by those more interested in using
Challenge of School Reform new social science methods to increase efficiency and organize
students into separate tracks of those destined for college

A mericans have always debated the quality and direction

of their educational system, but in recent years the focus
has been upon the best ways to measure and increase academic
or for manual labor. Progressive education was also widely
misunderstood, as its emphasis on the needs of children
became interpreted as a lack of academic standards.
achievement. Comparisons with students in other countries
have also sharpened the debate over educational methods and Nation at Risk
results, especially those showing U.S. schools lagging in science
and mathematics. Criticism of new or progressive ways of teaching resurfaced
in the 1950s, when the debate over the most effective ways to
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 teach language skills to children Charter Schools and Competition
triggered stories on “Why Johnny
Can’t Read.” (A similar debate, two Many recent school reforms have sought to introduce
decades later, inevitably produced greater competition into the public school system. Charter
“Why Johnny Can’t Write.”) schools, for example, are independently operated public schools
The 1957 launch of the that must meet the same academic and legal requirements
Soviet satellite Sputnik triggered as traditional public schools but are free from most of the
similar concerns and led to an bureaucratic and regulatory constraints of their traditional
increased emphasis on science and counterparts. Approximately 2,000 charter schools are now
mathematics in an era of Cold War operating in the United States.
conflict and the U.S.-Soviet space Another response to concerns over academic standards and
Using microscopes to observe bacteria
in pond water in a high school science race. international competition has been to forge alliances between
lab, Donna, Texas.
In 1983, a highly influential business and schools. In some cases, school districts have tried
report called A Nation at Risk asserted that declining academic to emulate efficiencies and organization of the corporate model
standards threatened America’s position in an increasingly by establishing standards and goals that can be measured and
competitive world and called for more resources and greater by holding administrators and teachers accountable for results.
rigor in education. In the push for accountability, many states have passed
The response to the Risk report ranged from lengthening laws permitting the closure of low-performing or failing public
the school day and year to greater emphasis on core academic schools. In such cases, which are still rare, the schools can
subjects. Yet the report’s conclusions have been vigorously choose to reconstitute themselves with new staff and teachers
disputed. “Not only is it not true there has been a great decline,” or convert themselves to charter-school status. Families with
contends historian Carl Kaestle in the book School, “but it is failing neighborhood schools are often given the opportunity to
also true that we are educating a much wider proportion of our transfer their children to higher-performing schools.
population now than we were in the 1950s.” School vouchers have proven to be a highly controversial
innovation. A voucher program permits parents to leave failing
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 Privatization

Estimates are that private, for-profit companies now

operate 10 percent of the nation’s public charter schools. One
of the largest is Edison Schools, founded in 1992, which runs
charter schools in 19 states and the District of Columbia, as
well as providing “academic academies” and other services in
partnership with existing public schools.
Traditional organizations of public school professionals
like the National Education Association oppose privatization,
contending that there is an inherent conflict between the profit
demands of private companies and the needs of schoolchildren.
Companies like Edison contend that competition can help
improve both public and privatized schools, thereby benefiting
Learning multiplication tables at a charter school in New Orleans, Louisiana.
the “customers” — students — just as in any other marketplace.
Both sides point to outside studies that buttress their side
or substandard public schools and receive public funds to of the argument. Public school proponents cite reports in the
cover all or part of the tuition at private schools. The amount is 1990s that show there is no substantial edge for Edison students
usually based on the per-student spending in the community. or that Edison schools publicize only favorable results. A RAND
The idea is that if schools have to compete for students, they Corporation study in 2000, on the other hand, concluded that
will improve. However, the controversy over using tax money to “student achievement gains at Edison Schools matched or
support private or religious schools has been intense, and few exceeded similar improvements in student performance in
communities have fully implemented school vouchers. comparable public schools.”

36 37
High School Redesign NCLB requires states to set
educational standards for
Another reform movement, led by the Bill and Melinda achievement at different
Gates Foundation, has taken a very different approach to grade levels and to take
educational reform through a fundamental rethinking of high steps to improve the
schools themselves. “Our high schools were designed 50 years performance of those who
ago to meet the needs of another age,” says Bill Gates, founder don’t meet the standards.
of Microsoft. NCLB mandates state
Over the past five years, the foundation has funded high- goals for what children
performing model schools that “engage all students with a should know in reading
rigorous curriculum. They offer coursework that is relevant and mathematics in grades
Second-grade charter school students in
to students’ lives and aspirations. And they foster strong Bensalem, Pennsylvania.
three through eight as
relationships between students and adults.” measured on standardized
The Gates redesign effort also stresses that smaller is usually tests. These and other accountability measures of school
better. “All else being equal,” says a foundation report, “students performance are then collected into statewide annual report
in small high schools score higher on tests, pass more courses, cards.
and go on to college more frequently than those in large ones. Although state and local school systems have considerable
Moreover, these results appear to be greatest for low-income flexibility in upgrading performance levels, the law provides for
students and students of color.” eventual removal of students and funding from failing schools.
Parents with children in failing schools can transfer to other
No Child Left Behind public schools or charter schools. They also are eligible for
tutoring and other special services.
The most sweeping change to the federal role in education NCLB has generated responses ranging from strong support
since the 1965 Elementary and Secondary School Act is the to skepticism to outright opposition, according to a 2004 report
Bush administration’s 2001 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. by the Education Commission of the States.
38 39
 ability. Parents point to schools sacrificing art classes or other
enrichment activities to “teach to the test” and avoid any
designation as a failing school.
Jason Kamras, 2005 National Teacher of the Year, says, “No
Child Left Behind’s greatest strength is that it has institutionalized
high expectations for every child in America.”
From a longer viewpoint, NCLB is only the latest installment
in the long debate over balancing the demands of inclusion and
excellence in American education.

Changing Face of Higher Education

Smiling Toyota scholarship winner in San Marcos, Texas.

A greater proportion of young people receive higher
education in the United States than in any other country.
These students also can choose from more than 4,000 very
different institutions. They can attend two-year community
Supporters believe that the nationwide institution of colleges or more specialized technical training institutes.
standards, testing, and accountability are essential to building Traditional four-year institutions range from small liberal arts
and maintaining high-quality schools that can succeed in an colleges to massive state universities in places like California,
intensely competitive global economy. Arizona, Ohio, and New York, each with multiple campuses and
Other groups, such as the American Federation of student populations exceeding 30,000. Approximately one-
Teachers and the National Education Association, have raised third of U.S. colleges and universities are private and generally
strong concerns about how the law distinguishes between charge tuition costs substantially higher than state-run public
effective and ineffective schools when student populations institutions.
differ so much in background, income, and English language
40 41
 government paid for millions of World War II veterans to attend
college. (G.I., which stands for “government issue,” became a
casual term for any Army soldier in World War II.)
The G.I. Bill of Rights included subsidies for attending
virtually any recognized institution of higher learning, as well
as payments for vocational training and subsidies to encourage
home ownership. Congress didn’t expect many to take
advantage of the college provision, but within two years more
than 1 million veterans were enrolled at the nation’s colleges
and universities, doubling the number of college students. Over
a seven-year period, the G.I. Bill enabled more than 2.2 million
veterans to attend college.
The social impact of the G.I. Bill has been little short of
revolutionary. As scholar Milton Greenberg points out, “Today,
American universities are now overwhelmingly public, focused
heavily on occupational, technical, and scientific education,
huge, urban-oriented, and highly democratic.”
North Carolina State University classroom with many veterans in the 1950s.
In subsequent decades, colleges and universities grew
rapidly, as veterans were followed by their children, the so-
G.I. Bill called baby boom generation that began entering college in the
1960s.
For much of their history, American institutions of higher Colleges and universities also began opening their doors
learning remained bastions of privilege, with a predominantly wider to minorities and women. In recent years, more women
white, male population. That pattern didn’t change significantly than men have been attending colleges and universities and
until passage of the G.I. Bill in 1944, when the federal earning more bachelor’s and master’s degrees — a pattern that
42 43
 Costs and Competition

Higher education in the United States is an enormous

enterprise, costing almost $373 billion and consuming nearly 3
percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. College costs for
students can be high, especially for private institutions, which
do not receive general subsidies from either state or federal
governments. To ensure equal access to education for all, the
United States administers an extensive financial aid program
for students. Seven out of 10 students receive some form of
financial aid, which typically combines grants, loans, and work
opportunities to enable full-time students to meet their living
costs and tuition.
Recently, several of the nation’s wealthiest and most
Responsible citizens learn about “Democracy in Action” at Philadelphia’s Constitution High
prestigious universities — schools like Harvard, Princeton, Yale,
School. Columbia, and Dartmouth, among others — announced plans
to substantially increase their financial aid for low- and middle-
shows no signs of changing, according to the National Center income families.
for Education Statistics. Students compete for openings in the nation’s better
The proportion of minority students attending college colleges and universities. At the same time, American
has increased as well — from 14 percent in 1981 to 27 percent institutions of higher learning of all types must broadly
in 2005. Much of the change can be attributed to growing compete for the nation’s top students and to admit sufficient
numbers of Hispanic and Asian students. African American numbers to maintain their enrollments. The most prestigious
enrollments rose from 9 percent to 12 percent in the same American universities — public and private — receive hundreds
period. of applications for each opening. At the same time, it is true
44 45
that most secondary school graduates with good grades and HBCUs
strong scores on college entrance exams receive hundreds of
solicitations from institutions of higher learning. Most Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
Reflecting the decentralized nature of American education, were founded at times when either slavery or segregation
state governments may license institutions of higher learning, ruled the South, and higher education for African Americans
but accreditation, which grants academic standing to the college elsewhere was ignored or marginalized. Although the first
or university, is accorded by nongovernmental associations, not college for African Americans
by states or the federal government. — now Cheney University
of Pennsylvania — was
Community Colleges established in 1837, many
of today’s most prestigious
For an American high school graduate with a modest black schools were
academic record and limited funds, enrolling in a community established immediately
college may be a better option than attending a four-year Nursing students at Hampton University, one of after the Civil War, including
the Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
college or university. Fisk University in Nashville,
Two-year, associate-degree programs in such growing Tennessee; Howard University in Washington, D.C.; and
professional fields as health, business, and computer technology Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.
can be found at most of the nation’s roughly 1,200 community Nineteen public HBCUs were founded with passage of the
colleges. Second Morrill (Land Grant) Act in 1890 — many in the then
Community colleges are also gateways to four-year firmly segregated South.
undergraduate institutions for students who need to bolster Today the White House Initiative on HBCUs counts 40
mediocre high school grades with stronger college credits. four-year public colleges and universities, 50 four-year private
Taking advantage of low fees and liberal admissions policies, colleges, and 13 two-year community and business schools.
more than 11 million American and an estimated 100,000
international students now attend community colleges.
46 47
 Study in the United States The top five areas of study for international students are
business and management, engineering, physical and life
sciences, social sciences, and mathematics and computer
science.
International students attend U.S. colleges and institutions
for the same reasons that Americans do: academic excellence,
unparalleled choices in types of institutions and academic
programs, and great flexibility in designing courses of study and
even in transferring between different institutions.
With a wide range of tuition and living costs, plus
opportunities for financial aid, foreign students find that a U.S.
education can be affordable as well. Most large schools have
international student advisers, and a worldwide network of
student-advising centers, along with a variety of publications,
can guide prospective students through the sometimes
complicated process of finding, applying, and being accepted
Journalism school graduates at New York’s Columbia University.
by an American college or university.

Foreign students have long been a familiar and vital Educating a Democracy
element of American higher education. In the 2006-2007
academic year, according to the publication Open Doors,
almost 583,000 international students were enrolled in many
of America’s 4,000 colleges and universities, an increase of 3
I n the words of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration
of Independence and third president of the United States, “If
a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never
percent over the previous year. India remains the largest single was and never will be.”
source of foreign students, followed by China, Korea, and Japan.
48 49
Teaching Democracy National Identity

A democracy America’s schools may teach democratic values, but they

depends on the also teach their students how to be Americans.
foundation of Ever since the nation’s founding, Americans have
educated citizens recognized that, lacking a common ethnic identity or ancient
who recognize the culture, their national identity would have to rest upon other
value of their hard- foundations: shared ideas about democracy and freedom and
won individual the common experience of working to build a society with
Fourth-grade reading class students in New York City. freedoms and civic equal opportunity for all.
responsibilities. For most Americans, the institution that most closely
In contrast to embodies those shared ideas and common experiences has
the passive acceptance of authoritarian societies, the object been the nation’s schools.
of democratic education is to produce citizens who are Over time, education in America has come to represent
independent and questioning yet deeply familiar with the universal free public education for all, regardless of race, social
precepts and practices of democracy. background, or gender. Education, moreover, is seen as the
As education scholar Chester Finn has said, “People may primary means to succeed in a society that seeks to replace the
be born with an appetite for personal freedom, but they claims of inherited privilege for those of individual freedom and
are not born with knowledge about the social and political equal opportunity.
arrangements that make freedom possible over time for The American classroom of the 21st century scarcely
themselves and their children. ... Such things must be acquired. resembles that of a few decades ago, much less the one-
They must be learned.” room schoolhouse of a past century. Yet the role of American
education in binding together a growing and diverse nation
endures, transmitting the lasting values of freedom and human
dignity from one generation to the next.
50 51
Cover: Jupiterimages. Inside front cover: Elizabeth Executive Editor—Raphael Calis
Armstrong/The Herald/AP images. 2: © Dennis MacDonald/ Managing Editor—Anita N. Green
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30: ©Ralph Epstein/PhotoEdit. 32, 34: © Bob Daemmrich/
PhotoEdit. 36: Cheryl Gerber/AP Images. 39: Dan Loh/AP Cover photo: Joyful high school graduates.
Images. 40: © Bob Daemmrich/PhotoEdit. 42: Courtesy
Office of Information Services, Photo Number 0007433,
Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State
University Libraries. 44: Barbara J. Perenic/The Laramie
Boomerang/AP Images. 47: Courtesy Hampton University.
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