Evolution of Education Timeline

According to "What Is The Americans With Disabilities Act (ada)?"(n.d.), "The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law in 1990. The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public. The purpose of the law is to make sure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. The ADA gives civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities similar to those provided to individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion. It guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in public accommodations, employment, transportation, state and local government services, and telecommunications. The ADA is divided into five titles (or sections) that relate to different areas of public life," (Para. 1)

This had a huge impact on schools being made accessible for people of all abilities, ramps being added to entryways, special needs classes, even adaptive gym classes (Smith 2018). We are still working on accessibility in this nation but I'm proud to see how far it's advanced in education in just my life span.

References:
1. Hinkle Smith, S. L. (2018). Adapted Physical Education. Adaptive Physical Education --
Research Starters Education, 1.
2. What is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?(n.d.). Retrieved from
https://adata.org/learn-about-ada

According to "Immigration Act Of 1990"(n.d.), "The Immigration Act of 1990 was passed by Congress in 1990 and signed into law by President George H. W. Bush (R) on November 29, 1990. Its stated purpose was to "change the level, and preference system for admission, of immigrants to the United States, and to provide for administrative naturalization." ” (para. 1). One of the ways this affected education was it allowed for more visas for students and educators with "exceptional" abilities, the intent was to foster more educational diversity.

References:
Immigration Act of 1990(n.d.). Retrieved from https://ballotpedia.org/Immigration_Act_of_1990

This reform was on a state level, it allowed much more government funding and aid to be awarded to public schools across Massachusetts. It seems that not only did it work then, but Massachusetts is still reaping the educational benefits of their reform 20 years later. According to Chester (2014) “Implementation of these changes brought controversy and challenges, but few would argue today that the standards-based reform effort embarked upon in 1993 has been anything less than an overwhelming success for the Commonwealth. Over the last two decades, scores of individuals and organizations have pursued and implemented a non-partisan agenda of high standards and accountability that has made Massachusetts a national leader in education. People look to Massachusetts as a place where high expectations, a consistent educational agenda, and strong fiscal support for schools have produced results. ” (p. 2). This is a great example of a state mandate that effected other states as well. As mentioned in the quote above, this reform made Massachusetts's education system a role model for other states across the country. It's fascinating to see state law effect national change, when often one only thinks about how federal laws can make an impact.

References:

1. Chester, M. D. (2014, November). Building on 20 years of massachusetts education reform. Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, n.d.(n.d.), 1-23.

According to (The American Immigration Council, 2019) “The first version of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act was introduced in 2001. As a result, young undocumented immigrants have since been called “Dreamers.” Over the last 18 years, at least ten versions of the Dream Act have been introduced in Congress. While the various versions of the Dream Act have contained some key differences, they all would have provided a pathway to legal status for undocumented youth who came to this country as children. ” (p. 1).

Granting undocumented youth the right to obtain an education and eventually become a citizen is to profound to me. Allowing every youth the access to education, regardless of immigration status is one of the most significant altruistic accomplishments in American history. This act allowed "undocumented" citizens to become a part of their communities and allowed parents to earn income while their children were at work. Any reversal of this act under the current administration would and has been devastating and would/will have serious long term consequences. There are many students to rely on schools for up to two meals a day, and many undocumented parents that need to be able to send their child to school so they can hold down steady jobs to provide income and shelter.

References:
( 2019, August). The Dream Act, DACA, and Other Policies Designed to Protect Dreamers
Immigration ReformLegislationDACA/DAPA. American Immigration Council, (n.d.) 1-5.

I am from Manhattan. I was eight years old, sitting at my desk on a regular Tuesday when the planes hit, when the city shut down any way to get in our out and my Father was across the river watching it happen in real time. I didn't understand why my mom was picking me up from school so early, I thought maybe I was in trouble. It turns out I was the first student in my whole school to be picked up early because as soon as my mom heard the news she ran straight to school and told a trusted school security officer to go get me. I think a while after that they tried to 'stop' letting children pick up there kids. She told me about the World Trade Towers and I thought vaguely about the fact that I has been supposed to go in a field trip there.
I went back to school two days later.

The new monument in its' place ("9/11 Memorial & Museum", 2020) is for tourists to take pictures at, or for today's kids field trip. I don't go down near there, even when I go home for a visit. I avoid that whole section of my home island. It's a shared type of PTSD New Yorkers share that we really may never know the full effects of (Mijanovich & Weitzman, 2010.

On the surface everyone returned to as normal as 'normal' could be under the circumstances. New Yorkers have grit and determination and we just kept moving, through the debris and smog. I kept going to school but everything seemed tinged with this sense of foreboding. New York was (is) resilient, and I saw this reflected in my educators who kept showing up to their jobs, I saw resilience in my friends who lost family members but still sat with me at lunch. It's a leading by example type of attitude, it's a community trauma bonding that is hard to explain but it stuck with me my whole educational career. Horrific, unimaginable things are going to happen, and then you adjust and find a new normal. If we come together as a community things become more manageable. Although my experience is from a place of privilege, there was also a large spike in Xenophobia towards the Muslim population (Schuller, 2016)

When it almost the 10 year anniversary since 9/11 my english teacher wrote for the 'do now' question something along the lines of "Should we keep talking about this every year or should we try to move on?". I responded with "never forget". It doesn't mean we need to dwell on the past, but to me it means we must never forget our community, our NYC identities, and that when crisis strikes, we are the only ones we have to turn to.

References:
1. 9/11 Memorial & Museum(2020). Retrieved from https://www.911memorial.org/
2. Mijanovich T, & Weitzman BC. (2010). Disaster in Context: The Effects of 9/11 on Youth
Distant from the Attacks. Community Mental Health Journal, 46(6), 601–611.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-009-9240-5
3. Schuller, S. (2016). The Effects of 9/11 on Attitudes toward Immigration and the Moderating
Role of Education. Kyklos, 69(4), 604–632.
https://doi.org/http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%291467-6435/issues

This act "puts pressure on schools with bad teachers and weak administration" (Teachings in Education, 2016). The goals were to make sure teachers were quality and qualified, try to close the gap in education and to ensure every child became proficient while also giving families more choices when deciding on which schools to attend (Teachings in Education, 2016). One of the issues with NCLB was it focused heavily on mass amounts of standardized testing. It failed to individualize the tests, assuming that every child across America should and would be able to answer and pass a single curriculum exam. The reality of trying to have a national exam that all students passed because of a singular test based curriculum being taught in every school was that it failed to take into account that students are individuals and come from a range of socioeconomic statuses. It also failed to take into account that the constant testings is really stressful on children. This is something I remember from my childhood, and it's also the first topic discussed in the Boondoggle Documentary "No Child Left Behind [Documentary Film]". The first two minutes of the film is children reading letters they wrote about how stressed they are and describing panic attacks without knowing what they are (Boondoggle, 2011). It's important for children to be proficient but if it's being orchestrated in a way where children's mental health is at risk, it's doing more harm than good.

References:
1. Boondoggle (2011, April 7). No Child Left Behind [Documentary Film] [Video file]. Retrieved
from YouTube website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiGN7kVyeaM
2. Teachings in Education (2016, September 19). No Child Left Behind: Explained &
Summarized [Video file]. Retrieved from YouTube website:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0--2nhsDorg

The Common Core standards are becoming national standards but it is not technically a federal mandate. Each state designs their own curriculum that all align with the states individual needs while meeting certain educational milestones that can be measured on a national and international level. The new educational goal was to prepare students to be successful in college and then careers.

However, the common core standards have been greatly criticized across the nation since their initiative began. According to the article "Uncommonly Bad", "The objections to Common Core are many, including the unconstitutionality of nationalizing education, the use of political coercion to ensure state adoption, the illegality of imposing the national curriculum that the standards will inevitably entail, and the loss of local and parental control over children’s education," (Robbins, p. 12). On a more practical level parents have complained about how the Core Curriculum overcomplicates parts of the education process that should be simple e.g. having to solve a multiplication problem a "certain way" when there are smplier, easier, or simply different methods not being taught (Lamoreaux, 2013).

References:
1. dcpublicschools (2012, November 2). Three-Minute Video Explaining the Common Core
State Standards [Video file]. Retrieved from YouTube website:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s0rRk9sER0
2. Lamoreaux, K. (2013, December 16). Arkansas Mother Obliterates Common Core in 4
Minutes! [Video file]. Retrieved from YouTube website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=wZEGijN_8R0
3. Robbins, J. jrobbins@americanprinciplesproject. or. (2013). Uncommonly Bad. Academic
Questions, 26(1), 8–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12129-013-9336-9

"On March 11, the World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a pandemic. Two days later, President Trump declares a national emergency. States close schools, and many colleges and universities suspend "in-person classes."" (American Educational History, 2020).

Schools throughout most of the nation are now closed, who knows what short or long term effects this pandemic will have on education. Though some schools are looking into online methods, many children utilize a physical campus space as a resource for at least one meal a day. Teachers and parents alike depend on schools in order to maintain gainful employment. The longer this goes on the more devastating the long term effects may be. This is an unprecedented situation we are dealing with here.

Refrences:
1. American Educational History: A Hypertext Timeline (2020). Retrieved
from http://www.eds- resources.com/educationhistorytimeline.html
2. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak(2020). Retrieved from
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019