Evolution of American Education System

The Bostin Latin School, a boys-only public school, was the first public school in the United States. This English school taught Latin and Greek and was centered on the humanities.

The first public schools in the United States offered a very different curriculum compared to what is taught today. Initially, public schools focused more on religion, family, and morality, and did not find the nature of academic instruction important.

Education for girls was limited. Girls learned how to read, but did not learn how to write.

In 1647, the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony decrees that every town of fifty families should have an elementary school and that every town of 100 families should have a Latin school. The goal is to ensure that Puritan children learn to read the Bible and receive basic information about their Calvinist religion.

In 1779, Thomas Jefferson proposes a two-track educational system, with different tracks in his words for "the laboring and the learned." Scholarship would allow a very few of the laboring class to advance, Jefferson says, by "raking a few geniuses from the rubbish."

The earliest continually operating for girls in the United States is the Catholic Ursaline Academy in New Orleans. It was founded by the Sisters of the Order of Saint Ursula. This was the first free school and first retreat center for young women. It was also the first school to teach free women of colour, Native Americans, and female African-Americans slaves.

Teaching young students was not an attractive career for educated people. As such, adults became teachers without any particular skill. Hiring was handled by the local school board, who were mainly interested in the efficient use of limited taxes and favored young single women from local taxpaying families.

Academics did not become a popular concept in the public school system until the 1850s, which was when concepts like mathematics and reading were introduced to promote literacy.

However, the public school attendance is only 59%.

By the year 1870, all states had tax-subsidized elementary schools. The US population had one of the highest literacy rates in the world at the time. Private academies also flourished in the towns across the country, but rural areas, where most people lived, had few schools before the 1880s.

By the close of the 19th century, public secondary schools began to outnumber private ones.

The Progressive Era was notable for a dramatic expansion in the number of schools and students served, especially in the fast-growing metropolitan cities. After 1910, smaller cities also began building high schools. By 1940, 50% of young adults had earned a high school diploma.

1900: Although it took some time for the public school system to grow in America, by 1900, 31 states were requiring children from the age of 8-14 to attend public schools.

1918: The demand for public education continued to grow, and by 1918, all states in America required that children at least complete elementary school.

1920s: From the 1920s on, more academic subjects were introduced. Schools focused on Mathematics, English, and Social Studies mainly.

Statistics: The number of students increased from 200,000 in 1890 to 1,000,000 in 1910, and to almost 2,000,000 by 1920. The percentage of youths aged 14 to 17 that were enrolled also increased from 7% in 1890, to 32% in 1920.