About 50 miles east of Topeka, Kansas, in what is now the suburban town of Merriam sits South Park Elementary School. Built in 1947 for white children at a cost of $90,000, the school at that time showcased eight modern classrooms, a multi-purpose auditorium, a lunchroom, and playground. Today, the building serves as a monument to a struggle for…

The role of federal involvement in education has, in recent years, become more and more prevalent. Such an involvement was not part of the historical origins of education at virtually any level. Whether it was for economic reasons, defense of the nation, the accountability of American taxpayers, or the pursuit of better civic-minded individuals,…

For most of the nineteenth century, county agricultural fairs had little to do with schools and schooling; nevertheless, they served as potent sources of learning. During the post-Civil War generation, most of the learning county agricultural fairs generated had little to do with livestock, crops, and cultivation; nevertheless, farmers and others…

In the current vernacular, co-education means the education of the sexes together within an institutional setting. Once a phenomenon, today, women enjoy nearly equal status on campuses that were at one time bastions of "maleness." Moreover, the counter-culture revolution of the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, ushered in a new…

This paper seeks to specifically focus on the evolution of civil rights case law and legislation as it pertains to educating students with disabilities, specifically the often implemented but poorly understood Section 504 provisions. The purpose of this paper is to examine historical influences that precipitated the implementation of Section 504…

There are six oversized boxes in the New York Historical Society that contain the remains of the Public School Society (PSS), New York City's first experiment with publicly-funded education. They are filled with the detritus of the Society's nearly fifty years: recommendations for prospective teachers from their clergymen, student certificates of…

Having limited access to colleges and universities offering women the same educational opportunities available to men, elite women of the 19th century crossed national borders for advanced study and teaching opportunities. The career of Tsuda Umeko, founder of one of the first private institutions of higher education for women in Japan, leader in…

As African American female Professors in the academy representing different socioeconomic backgrounds the authors explore the intersections of race and class in two Kansas City, Missouri schools from 1954-1974. They situate their stories within a brief description of the historical context of Kansas City and its struggle to integrate schools from…

Against the backdrop of internal colonialism, this article examines the educational and social lives of Allen Wright and his children to better understand how this Choctaw family successfully navigated the pressures of dual cultures by: (1) providing the socio-political context of the indigenous culture prior to Wright's birth; (2) chronicling and…

Since its inception in the 1920s, the field of gifted education has remained in a constant ebb and flow. Public understanding and support, as well as, federal aid has mirrored this pattern, waxing and waning in response to national interests and concern from private institutions and foundations. Discourse between excellence and equity also has…

Schools are public entities that reflect the inequalities of communities; inequalities in race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Public schools privilege males through power in leadership positions such as the principalship. This privilege is historically ingrained in the public school structure and invisible to stakeholders. This article…

In the post-World War II era, efforts to improve the accessibility and quality of higher education rose to prominence in US educational debates and policymaking. In retrospect, a confluence of factors helped to forge this growing social consensus about the need to create educational opportunity and to diversify the nation's colleges and…

This paper presents an early phase of a research on the history of Alabama State College Laboratory School, 1920 to 1969. The research contributes new, critical history to the current story of segregated schooling and offers a more complete picture as to the richness that the African American culture, community, and dedication to educational…

When one reads scholars from the past, many of the same problems found in schools in 2009 are quite similar to the problems educators were complaining about more than a century ago. One of the current controversial topics in schools today, for example, is student success, or lack thereof, in mathematics. Because of differences in mathematics…

In this essay, the author provides a critique of sources relevant to the feminization of teaching in the United States from the mid- to late-nineteenth century. Sources covering topics such as the American Civil War, labor market forces, increasing urbanization, educational reform, and regional differences, and how they affected the feminization…