Over the past century, American schools have been the focus of researchers and educators seeking to improve the education of the country's children. Few studies, though, have examined what the schools--their physical presence and the changes within them--have meant to the students who attended those schools (Currens 2017; Kilinc and Burlbaw 2011;…

Teacher education remains a largely unexplored area within the history of American education. This paper is an example of the types of state-specific stories that are needed as university administrators and policymakers make critical decisions about the content and purpose of teacher ed curriculum. These decisions, in turn, have a direct impact on…

Historically, tactful and calculated development efforts have been attempted through various avenues in American higher education institutions. Higher education institutions have been creative in their attempts to ensure financial solvency. However, the common fallback of tuition increases have proved insufficient to meet most institutions'…

The combination of two technological tools, Microsoft Excel and ArcGIS, has proved powerful in organizing, categorizing, and expressing data visually in meaningful ways. The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has found its way into historical research due to its interdisciplinary nature and usefulness. The goal of this paper is not to…

The Civil War was concluded over 150 years ago but recently, monuments erected to commemorate the Civil War and its participants have been the site of civil unrest (e.g., Charlottesville, VA in 2018) and calls for removal of such monuments. The Confederate monuments debate has been going strong for decades, and it seems to have been picking up…

Texas A&M University has long been known for its engineering and agricultural programs. Only in the last 50 years has its reputation included the preparation of teachers for general education in the public schools of Texas. However, agricultural education has been an integral part of the institution's mandate since early in the 20th century.…

Austin Hall and Old Main serve as the heart of what is now Sam Houston State University. The buildings' rich histories help one to understand how Sam Houston State University and its proud teacher education heritage came to be. To begin with Austin Hall's story, the University's original building has a unique and interesting tale that journeys…

In 1935, as part of a relief project funded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA 65-66-7752), the State of Texas undertook a statistical and research study of the Texas Public School situation with particular attention to be paid to the efficiency of the existing organization of administrative units, adequacy of public school plants, and the…

On the eve of her birthday, August 14, 1904, the young Jewell Legett recorded in her diary that she had "been feeling so strange today … 20 years old! What an age it is! Just the time to be a girl and learn to live" (Legett 1904). Her summer vacation from the 1903-1904 term at Baylor University was spent with her parents and brothers in…

One of the most controversial notions of the twenty and twenty-first centuries is defining citizenship among nations. The power to decide who is and is not a citizen has become so prominent in the culture of the United States that the topic now pervades the curriculum, particularly in states with diverse and rapidly growing populations, such as…

Across the United States, the Great Depression was a period of tremendous upheaval. Economic, family, political, and educational institutions shook mightily as the tremors of widespread financial downturn were felt. Public schools faced increasing hardships, which included financial problems such as a weakened tax base due to the non-payment of…

In 1879, with aid from the Peabody fund, Texas's first tax-supported teacher training institution, Sam Houston State Normal Institute (SHNI), opened on the site of the old Austin College in Huntsville (Richmond 1941, 37). The need for qualified educators in Texas was growing as the state struggled to make up for decades of neglect of and antipathy…

A majority of American students have taken the journey through schools that progressed from first to twelfth grade. So by the 1913 Committee on the Economy of Time in Education, American education featured a twelve-grade system quickly evolving from the forces of consolidation and corporate efficiency. Such was not the reality in Texas schools.…

During the period 1962-1994, the United States Supreme Court handed down several decisions that increasingly limited the influence of religion in schools ("Engel v Vitale" 1962; "Abington v. Schempp" 1963; "Lemon v. Kurtzman," "Early v. DiCenso," and "Robinson v. DiCenso" 1971; "Wallace v.…