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Part I: History of Education – U.S. and Virginia

Read Key Historical Events That Influenced Education in America and Virginia, and Historical Timeline of

Education in the United States. Answer the following questions in complete sentences.

a. What do you notice about this chart? What are the differences between the time periods covered? What do

you notice about the national and Virginia columns? What do you notice about changes over time?

Educating diverse students? Curriculum? Accountability?

b. Why do you think there were more events listed nationally than in Virginia? How do you think events

were chosen for inclusion in the handout?

c. What would you add to the Virginia column in the modern education period about educating diverse

students, standards, and accountability? How might you gather information to add to the Virginia column? If

you were to interview family members or other adults to gather information about education in Virginia, who

would you ask and why?

d. Look over the timeline and identify two or three questions that are unanswered about education in each of

the eras. List these questions in a word document entitled “Timeline Questions”. Highlight in yellow the

questions that you believe could be answered in an interview. Highlight in blue the questions for which you

would have to do library research to find the answer.

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Key Historical Events That Influenced Education in America and Virginia

Time Period Key National Events Key Virginia Events

Colonial Period • Harvard College established 1636

• Old Deluder Satan Law (1647)

• New England Primer used to teach alphabet,

vowel, and consonant structure and Bible

readings

• First Jamestown school established (1618)

• College of William and Mary established

(1693)

• Education seen as the responsibility of the

family

• Schools focused mainly on practical learning

and less on book learning

Early

Republic

1776–1865

• Washington, Webster, Franklin, Jefferson,

and Rush support public education in 1780s

• Elementary education focused on reading;

Latin Grammar Schools educated upper-class

white

males

• First school for the deaf

established in Hartford, CT

(1817)

• First public high school, Boston (1821)

• Horace Mann accepts the

position of First Secretary of the State Board of

Education in Massachusetts (1837) and wins

support for common schools; some resistance

to common schools because of diversity of race

and religions

• Individuals with disabilities are seen as

having a genetic deficit;

asylums proliferate

• First Women’s Rights Convention (1848)

• Field schools provide an elementary

education; academies designed to

provide education to sons of the wealthy,

although many wealthy families hire private

tutors

• Jefferson’s Bill for the Diffusion of

Knowledge (1779) proposes system of free

schooling

• State Literacy Fund (1810) to support

education of the poor

• University of Virginia established (1819)

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Time Period Key National Events Key Virginia Events

Growth of Schooling

and

Progressive

Education

1865–1945

• Establishment and growth of high schools

• First Morrill Act gives western states land to

sell if they use the profits to establish colleges

(1862)

• Civil Rights Act gives citizenship for native-

born except Native Americans and Asians

(1866)

• Indian Peace Commission

establishes enculturalization

policies through reservations and education

(1867)

• Dawes Act dissolves tribal lands and

establishes boarding schools for American

Indians (1887)

• The Second Morrill Act extends land grant

provisions to southern states (1890)

• Committee of Ten reforms secondary school

curriculum (1893)

• Plessy v. Ferguson maintains policy of

“separate but equal” in

public facilities (1896)

• Smith-Hughes Act provides federal funds for

the teaching of agriculture (1917)

• Cardinal Principles reform secondary school

curriculum (1918)

• 19th Amendment (women’s right to vote) is

ratified (1920)

• Pierce v. Society of the Sisters of the Holy

Names of Jesus and Mary finds that it is illegal

to require all children to attend

public schools (1925)

• Wheeler Howard Act restores

lands to tribal ownership (1933)

• Medical schools place quota

of 5% on female admissions

(Columbia and Harvard refuse all females)

(1925–1945)

• 12,000 Japanese Americans sent to relocation

camps (1942)

• Public school system established in Virginia

under the leadership of William Ruffner, first

Virginia superintendent (1870)

• Booker T. Washington enters

Hampton Institute (1872)

• Virginia Colony for Epileptic and

Feebleminded opened (1910)

• Virginia passes Eugenical

Sterilization Act (1924)

• Walter Plecker helps pass Virginia Racial

Integrity Law (1924)

• Buck v. Bell upheld Virginia statutes that

forbade “feebleminded” people from marrying

or becoming parents (1927)

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Time Period Key National Events Key Virginia Events

Diversity and Modern

Schooling 1945–present

• Brown v. Board of Education

declares separate schools

unconstitutional (1954)

• National resistance to mandated integration

(e.g., Little Rock, AK)

• USSR launches satellite Sputnik; Americans

fear they’re falling behind Soviets (1957)

• School District of Abington

Township v. Schempp declares

state-enforced Bible reading

and prayer in public schools

unconstitutional (1963)

• Elementary and Secondary

Education Act provides Title

I money for disadvantaged

children (1965)

• In Lemon v. Kurtzman, the

U.S. Supreme Court finds that

state aid to parochial schools

constitutes impermissible

entanglement between church

and state (1972)

• Title IX bans sex discrimination in education

institutions that receive federal funding (1972)

• Education for All Handicapped

Children Act (1975) mandates

that schools provide special

education services

• President Reagan establishes

the National Commission on

Excellence in Education. The

Commission’s report, A Nation at

Risk, calls for K-12 reform (1983)

• In Wallace v. Jaffree the

Court finds that a state law

allowing time in schools for

meditation or voluntary prayer is

unconstitutional (1985)

• No Child Left Behind Act directs

state testing in reading and

math and mandates federal

reporting of student scores

of low-income, race/ethnicity,

disability, and limited English

proficiency (January 2002)

• “Massive Resistance” to school desegregation

(1956–59)

Standards of Learning

development begins (1983)

• Virginia Board of Education adopts Standards

of Learning in English, mathematics, history and

social science, science, and computer technology

(1990)

• Standards of Learning assessments are

developed (1998)

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Historical Timeline of Education in the United States

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.

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."

1785

The Continental Congress (before the U.S. Constitution was ratified) passes a law calling for a survey of the

"Northwest Territory" which included what was to become the state of Ohio. The law created "townships,"

reserving a portion of each township for a local school. From these "land grants" eventually came the U.S.

system of "land grant universities," the state public universities that exist today. Of course in order to

create these townships, the Continental Congress assumes it has the right to give away or sell land that is

already occupied by Native people. (Land grant university: Set up through the Morrill Acts of 1862 & 1890;

The original mission of these institutions, as set forth in the first Morrill Act, was to teach agriculture, military

tactics, and the mechanical arts as well as classical studies so that members of the working classes could

obtain a liberal, practical education.)

1790

Pennsylvania state constitution calls for free public education but only for poor children. It is expected

that rich people will pay for their children's schooling.

1805

New York Public School Society formed by wealthy businessmen to provide education for poor children.

Schools are run on the "Lancasterian" model, in which one "master" can teach hundreds of students in a

single room. The master gives a rote lesson to the older students, who then pass it down to the younger

students. These schools emphasize discipline and obedience qualities that factory owners want in their

workers.

1817

A petition presented in the Boston Town Meeting calls for establishing of a system of free public primary

schools. Main support comes from local merchants, businessmen and wealthier artisans. Many wage

earners oppose it, because they don't want to pay the taxes.

1820

First public high school in the U.S., Boston English, opens.

1827

Massachusetts passes a law making all grades of public school open to all pupils free of charge.

1830s

By this time, most southern states have laws forbidding teaching people in slavery to read. Even so,

around 5 percent become literate at great personal risk.

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1820-1860

The percentage of people working in agriculture plummets as family farms are gobbled up by larger

agricultural businesses and people are forced to look for work in towns and cities. At the same time, cities

grow tremendously, fueled by new manufacturing industries, the influx of people from rural areas and many

immigrants from Europe. During the 10 years from 1846 to 1856, 3.1 million immigrants arrive, a number

equal to one eighth of the entire U.S. population. Owners of industry needed a docile, obedient

workforce and look to public schools to provide it.

1837

Horace Mann becomes head of the newly formed Massachusetts State Board of Education. Edmund

Dwight, a major industrialist, thinks a state board of education was so important to factory owners that he

offered to supplement the state salary with extra money of his own.

1840s

Over a million Irish immigrants arrive in the United States, driven out of their homes in Ireland by the potato

famine. Irish Catholics in New York City struggle for local neighborhood control of schools as a way of

preventing their children from being force-fed a Protestant curriculum.

1848

Massachusetts Reform School at Westboro opens, where children who have refused to attend public

schools are sent. This begins a long tradition of "reform schools," which combine the education and

juvenile justice systems.

1848

The war against Mexico ends with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, which gives the United

States almost half of what was then Mexico. This includes all of what is now the U.S. Southwest, plus parts

of Utah, Nevada and Wyoming and most of California. The treaty guarantees citizenship rights to everyone

living in these areas mostly Mexicans and Native people. It also guarantees the continued use of the

Spanish language, including in education. One hundred fifty years later, in 1998, California breaks

that treaty, by passing Proposition 227, which would make it illegal for teachers to speak Spanish in

public schools.

1851

State of Massachusetts passes first its compulsory education law. The goal is to make sure that the

children of poor immigrants get "civilized" and learn obedience and restraint, so they make good

workers and don't contribute to social upheaval.

1864

Congress makes it illegal for Native Americans to be taught in their native languages. Native children

as young as four years old are taken from their parents and sent to Bureau of Indian Affairs off-reservation

boarding schools, whose goal, as one BIA official put it, is to "kill the Indian to save the man."

1865-1877

African Americans mobilize to bring public education to the South for the first time. After the Civil

War, and with the legal end of slavery, African Americans in the South make alliances with white

Republicans to push for many political changes, including for the first time rewriting state constitutions to

guarantee free public education. In practice, white children benefit more than Black children.

1877-1900

Reconstruction ends in 1877 when federal troops, which had occupied the South since the end of the Civil

War are withdrawn. Whites regain political control of the South and lay the foundations of legal segregation.

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1893-1913

Size of school boards in the country's 28 biggest cities is cut in half. Most local district (or "ward") based

positions are eliminated, in favor of city-wide elections. This means that local immigrant communities

lose control of their local schools. Makeup of school boards changes from small local businessmen and

some wage earners to professionals (like doctors and lawyers), big businessmen and other members of the

richest classes.

1896

Plessy v. Ferguson decision. The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the state of Louisiana has the right to

require "separate but equal" railroad cars for Blacks and whites. This decision means that the federal

government officially recognizes segregation as legal. One result is that southern states pass laws

requiring racial segregation in public schools.

1905

The U.S. Supreme Court requires California to extend public education to the children of Chinese

immigrants.

1917

Smith-Hughes Act passes, providing federal funding for vocational education. Big manufacturing

corporations push this, because they want to remove job skill training from the apprenticeship programs of

trade unions and bring it under their own control.

1924

An act of Congress makes Native Americans U.S. citizens for the first time.

1930-1950

The NAACP brings a series of suits over unequal teachers' pay for Blacks and Whites in southern states. At

the same time, southern states realize they are losing African American labor to the northern cities. These

two sources of pressure resulted in some increase of spending on Black schools in the South.

1932

A survey of 150 school districts reveals that three quarters of them are using so-called intelligence testing to

place students in different academic tracks.

1945

At the end of World War 2, the G.I. Bill of Rights gives thousands of working class men college scholarships

for the first time in U.S. history.

1948

Educational Testing Service is formed, merging the College Entrance Examination Board, the Cooperative

Test Service, the Graduate Records Office, the National Committee on Teachers Examinations and others,

with huge grants from the Rockefeller and Carnegie foundations. These testing services continued the work

of eugenicists like Carl Brigham (originator of the SAT) who did research "proving" that immigrants were

feeble-minded.

1954

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The Supreme Court unanimously agrees that segregated

schools are "inherently unequal" and must be abolished. Almost 45 years later in 1998, schools,

especially in the north, are as segregated as ever.

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1957

A federal court orders integration of Little Rock, Arkansas public schools. Governor Orval Faubus sends his

National Guard to physically prevent nine African American students from enrolling at all-white Central High

School. Reluctantly, President Eisenhower sends federal troops to enforce the court order not because he

supports desegregation, but because he can't let a state governor use military power to defy the U.S.

federal government.

1968

African American parents and white teachers clash in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville area of New York City,

over the issue of community control of the schools. Teachers go on strike, and the community organizes

freedom schools while the public schools are closed.

1974

Milliken v. Bradley. A Supreme Court made up of Richard Nixon's appointees rules that schools may not be

desegregated across school districts. This effectively legally segregates students of color in inner-city

districts from white students in wealthier white suburban districts.

Late 1970s

The so-called "taxpayers' revolt" leads to the passage of Proposition 13 in California, and copy-cat

measures like Proposition 2-1/2 in Massachusetts. These propositions freeze property taxes, which are a

major source of funding for public schools. As a result, in twenty years California drops from first in the

nation in per-student spending in 1978 to number 43 in 1998.

1980s

The federal Tribal Colleges Act establishes a community college on every Indian reservation, which

allows young people to go to college without leaving their families.

1994

Proposition 187 passes in California, making it illegal for children of undocumented immigrants to

attend public school. Federal courts hold Proposition 187 unconstitutional, but anti-immigrant

feeling spreads across the country.

1996

Leading the way backwards again, California passes Proposition 209, which outlaws affirmative action in

public employment, public contracting and public education. Other states jump on the bandwagon with their

own initiatives and right wing elements hope to pass similar legislation on a federal level.

1998

California again! This time a multi-millionaire named Ron Unz manages to put a measure on the June 1998

ballot outlawing bilingual education in California.

2001 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) signed into law by President George W. Bush. NCLB reauthorizes ESEA

to hold schools accountable for student achievement and penalizes schools that don’t make adequate

yearly progress towards the goals of NCLB.

2002 US Supreme Court ruled that school voucher programs are constitutional and do not violate the first amendment.

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2003 The Higher Education Act is reauthorized, expanding access to higher education for low and middle income students. 2004 The IDEA reauthorized including modifications in the IEP process and procedural safeguards, increased authority for school personnel in special education placement decisions and alignment of IDEA with NCLB. 2009 The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 provides more than $90 billion dollars for education.

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Part II: Oral History Interviews

Assignment:

Historians rely primarily on written sources when researching history. However, when there are no available

written accounts, such as the personal educational experiences of individuals, historians conduct interviews.

You must interview at least five individuals. The older the people you interview, the more different their

experiences will be from today. Also, their experiences will be different depending upon where they were

educated, so try to provide as much diversity of experience as possible. When conducting these interviews,

ask the following:

Where and how were you educated? (For example, did you go to public or private school? Was the

school in a city, suburb, or rural area? Did you celebrate holidays in your school and if so, which ones?)

Why did you or your parents make that choice?

What other options for schooling were available (public versus private schools, school choice within

district, etc.)? Were these options available to all groups (women, African Americans, American Indians,

the disabled)?

Can you tell me about any controversy you remember surrounding segregation, integration, and “massive

resistance”?

What were your graduation requirements? Did you have to take any major standardized tests (e.g., school

achievement tests, local tests, state standardized tests such as the SOLs) to graduate?

In your school, how were classes grouped (by ability or level; honors, college-preparatory, general)? If

the classes were grouped by ability or tracked, how did you choose your classes?

Did you have the same friends all through school? Did you take the same courses as your friends?

In what ways do you think schools today are different from when you were a student?

What stories do you know about the educational experiences of some of your relatives from previous

generations?

Type the answers to each interview and include in your summer assignment binder.

Conducting the Interview:

For tips on conducting an interview, see: “Conducting the Interview”

http://www.louisianavoices.org/unit2/conduct_interview.html

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Activity - Summarizing the Interview:

After you have conducted your interviews, you must synthesize your information. Write a two-page, double

spaced, narrative. Since you cannot include everything, you will need to do what all good historians do.

Start by identifying your most important findings and order them chronologically. Make your narrative

interesting by telling the story of education in earlier times in the words of your interviewee. Also, like a

historian, you will have to provide some historical context based on what you learned from Key Events.

Compare what you learned about education then with what you know about education now. This is your first

college essay. Be sure to proofread.

At the end of your narrative, create a list of your interviewees [note their relationship to you – grandmother,

neighbor... – after the interview method]. Examples:

Example of a personal interview in person

Smith, Nana. (2011, June 29). Personal interview. [grandmother] Example of a personal interview by phone

Brown, Chris. (2011, July 4). Telephone interview. [neighbor] Example of a personal interview by email

Evenwood, Rachel. (2011, August 2). Email interview. [great-aunt]

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Part III: Historical Perspectives

Assignment: Open a new document; title it “Historical Perspectives”. Complete the following activities.

Be sure to number your answers!

Activities:

Research what schools were like in colonial times. Begin by reading “A Brief Overview of the Evolution

of Public Schooling”. Type the answers to the following questions.

1. What were the difficulties of life in colonial times? Was there a lack of educational opportunities?

Why?

2. List 10 characteristics of schools at the time of the Revolutionary War.

3. How have schools changed over the past 200 years? Compare/Contrast with schools today.

a. PURPOSE: What was the purpose of schooling in Colonial America? What is its purpose

now?

b. FACILITIES: What did school buildings look like at the beginning of our country? Now?

c. STUDENTS: Who went to school? Now?

d. CURRICULUM: What did students learn in school? Now?

e. MATERIALS: What kinds of learning materials were used in school? Now?

4. What historical factors might have influenced these changes?

Using the information gathered for questions 1 – 4 above, write a two-page, double spaced, essay that

describes the changes in the purposes of schools, the materials used in school, what is taught in school,

who goes to school, and what schools look like, and explain what historical factors might have

influenced these changes. Describe how this information compares to what schools are like today. Be

sure proofread your work!

Resources:

Schooling, Education, and Literacy in Colonial America:

http://alumni.cc.gettysburg.edu/~s330558/schooling.html

Back in the Day: Lessons from Colonial Classrooms:

http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson166.shtml

Schools during Colonial Times:

http://www.arps.org/amhersthistory/nas/

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A Brief Overview of the Evolution of Public Schooling

The nation’s founders faced a dilemma as they envisioned the type of education America’s early

citizens would receive. They had to balance the critical thinking skills necessary for active citizenship with

the need to foster patriotism and unity. Fearing the new nation would splinter into factions, George

Washington thought the schools should help homogenize the populace by emphasizing people’s

similarities. Benjamin Rush argued that students had to be taught restraint and deference to authority

through direct instruction in the ideals and virtues of Christianity. “Let our pupil be taught,” Rush explained,

“that he does not belong to himself, but that he is public property.” Noah Webster worried that unless the

schools imposed order on the new citizens, the country might fall into anarchy. These men were worried

that the young nation could fall to pieces if students were not directly taught to love their country. Thomas

Jefferson proposed a bill to set up a public education system in Virginia in 1779, but he was unsuccessful.

At that point, American citizens were not willing to pay for these public schools. In addition, some feared the

schools would not be religious enough, while others were concerned that educating the poor and working

classes would lead to more civil unrest, not less.

The first public or common school system was established before the Civil War in Massachusetts

under the leadership of Horace Mann, but only after he could convince the powerful business leaders that

educated citizens would make better workers. The South generally lagged behind, so Virginia didn’t

establish public schools until 1870 under the leadership of William Ruffner. Like Mann, Ruffner experienced

harsh opposition, but he managed to convince his constituents of the benefits of educating all Virginians.

Separate schools were established for African Americans and American Indians. The Hampton Institute was

created for these populations, but its curriculum was centered on vocational training, not college reparation.

Booker T. Washington was the most famous graduate of Hampton and he publicly defended its industrial

education approach against attacks by his rival W.E.B. DuBois, who disagreed with the idea that blacks

should be taught to take their humble role in society. Some Indians attended Hampton as well, but under

the Dawes Act of 1887, many were forced into boarding schools where they were required to cut their hair

and forget their Indian ways. “Kill the Indian in him,” a proponent of the Act declared, “and save the man.”

Despite the obvious humiliation, such ideas were believed to help these populations.

Public education began to extend to high school during this time. However, it wasn’t until the end of

the 19th Century that high schools could be found in most communities. Most high schools used the

curriculum recommended in 1893 by the Committee of Ten, which suggested that college-bound and non-

college bound students should be taught the same curriculum. Over time as more immigrants arrived in

America, especially from what was considered the less desirable areas of Southern and Eastern Europe,

many schools switched to the recommendations of the 1918 Cardinal Principles, which sought to prepare

students for life, not just for college. Part of the schools’ mandate was to “Americanize” immigrants and give

them the skills they needed to adjust to social life in urban areas, which usually meant working in a factory.

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The Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 signaled the federal government’s commitment to the development of a

vocational workforce in the public schools. This Act provided funding for the training of industrial,

agricultural, trade, and home economics teachers.

Education in the first part of the 20th Century is often described as the “Progressive Era.”

Progressives believed that science and rational thought could improve the lives of everyone. They attacked

the “traditional” ways of doing things and replaced them with new ideas based on experience and empirical

research. In schools, this meant instead of rote memorization and recitation of facts—the most common

forms of teaching—students would do hands-on activities and learn by doing. Such ideas were believed to

be more in line with the new psychological research on children. Educational philosopher John Dewey was

regarded as the driving force behind the progressive education movement. He wrote prolifically about how

the new educational ideas were going to improve democratic society as a whole. His ideas were driven by a

new philosophy called pragmatism that emphasized how truth had to evolve over time to meet the needs of

a changing society. Later Dewey became a harsh critic of how his ideas were often misinterpreted by his

followers.

At the same time, some policy makers wanted to make schools more efficient, essentially

suggesting they should be run like businesses. This meant “educational experts” would now be in charge of

centralized school districts and run them “efficiently” like businesses. Those who were in charge (principals

and superintendents) became known as administrators. Until World War II, most administrators were men,

and most teachers were women. Teachers were paid very poorly and were expected to adhere to a strict

code of conduct enforced by the local school boards and school superintendents.

During the second half of the 20th Century, two important and related issues challenged students,

parents, teachers, and school leaders: should public funds be used to support religious education and

should religious observations be allowed in schools? The U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of religion

to the nation’s citizens, and Thomas Jefferson called for a “wall of separation between church and state.”

However, some taxpayers whose children were enrolled in non-public schools have argued that parochial

as well as public schools should receive federal dollars. In a series of decisions since 1971, the U.S.

Supreme Court has determined that federal funds may be used to help parochial schools only in specific

situations, such as services for children with disabilities, salaries of Title I teachers, and purchase of

instructional materials. At the same time, however, the Court has determined that in the public school

setting, a variety of religious activities (prayer in schools, mandatory Bible reading, and the like) are

unconstitutional. In some cases, restrictions on religious observations in public schools led parents to

decide either to home school their children or place them in private schools.

In 1987, a professor at the University of Virginia, E.D. Hirsch, wrote Cultural Literacy: What Every

American Needs to Know. Hirsch became associated with the “back to basics” movement, which promotes

the view that all students should be knowledgeable about a set of agreed upon facts and concepts. He

contends that this core knowledge helps all citizens, regardless of class or race, contribute to society.

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Hirsch outlines the facts he deems most necessary in multiple texts and he promotes them through his Core

Knowledge Foundation. Hirsch’s writings influenced the decision to develop Standards of Learning in

Virginia.

In 2001, Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act. President George W. Bush signed the

legislation into law in January 2002 as the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

A major goal of this law, according to the President, is to prepare children from the many diverse

backgrounds that make up U.S. society to acquire the “complex skills” required by today’s workforce. In his

foreword to the new law, Bush suggested that, “taken together, these reforms express my deep belief in our

public schools and their mission to build the mind and character of every child, from every background, in

every part of America.” This law requires, for the first time on a national level, that schools report detailed

information to parents and the federal government about how students are doing on tests in core subject

areas. Furthermore, test scores must be disaggregated by subgroups, including low-income, race/ethnicity,

disabled, and limited English proficiency. Lawmakers argue that this new system of accountability will

ensure that parents, citizens, and decision makers will know how well schools are educating every

individual student, regardless of race, class, ethnicity, or disability. Under No Child Left Behind, each state

is responsible for establishing its own set of standards and accountability assessments. Virginia’s Standards

of Learning actually preceded the passage of No Child Left Behind and were developed based on many of

the same goals.

Thus, as our nation has evolved, citizens, scholars, and decision makers have expressed differing

(and often conflicting) points of view about the purpose of public education: to prepare citizens for their role

in a democracy; to prepare individuals to work in business and industry; to prepare students to be life-long

learners; and to assure that all who complete a high school education have been exposed to and

understand certain core facts and concepts.