Landmark Moments in American Education

Events

Harvard College was opened for 9 pupils who strived for further learning, taught by John Harvard.

1636

The first text book was printed in Boston, the 'New England Primer'. While it taught students to spell, it also drilled them with religion.

1690

The average lifetime of school attendance was less than 82 days.

1776

Noah Webster published “The Blueback Speller,” a textbook designed to teach about the United States and its peoples.

1783

Margarethe Schurz founded the first kindergarten in the United States in Watertown, Wisconsin.

1856

Hampton Institute in Virginia became an agricultural based college and Normal School for newly freed slaves.

1868

Joliet Junior College, in Joliet, Illinois, opens. It is the first public community college in the U.S.

1901

Federal troops enforce integration in Little Rock, Arkansas as the Little Rock 9 enroll at Central High School.

1957

The National Association of Bilingual Education is founded.

1976

33 states have been granted waivers from some No Child Left Behind requirements.

2012