By the mid-20th century, the ideal of universal education from kindergarten through high school had become a reality for substantial numbers of Americans. But certainly not for all, especially the nation’s racial minorities.

Segregation
The largest exception to the growing inclusion of U.S. public education was African Americans. Before the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865), southern slaves not only had little access to education but could be punished for learning to read. With the end of slavery, black Americans in the South lived largely segregated lives. Education was no exception, despite the establishment of schools by the
Freedmen’s Bureau and others to meet the demand for what black educator Booker T. Washington called “an entire race trying to go to school.” Segregated schools, upheld in an 1896 Supreme Court decision under the doctrine of “separate but equal,” became the practice in 17 southern and border states into the 20th century. Even so, estimates are that black literacy in the decades following the Civil War jumped from 5 percent to 70 percent.
 
Outside of the South, the principal issue was one of population and housing patterns that resulted in de facto segregation of black and white students. As urban areas became concentrated with African Americans, city school systems developed into predominantly minority enclaves surrounded by largely white suburban schools.

Brown v. Board of Education
African Americans challenged segregation throughout the nation’s history with little success until school integration became central to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1950, after years of careful preparation, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) recruited 13 black parents in Topeka, Kansas, who attempted to enroll their children in their local schools. The NAACP sued when they were turned away, and by the time the Brown v. Board of Education case reached the Supreme Court, it had been consolidated with similar cases from three other states and the District of Columbia.

In a unanimous 1954 decision, the Court declared, “Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” Kansas and other border states complied with the decision, but the South defied the Court in a campaign called “massive resistance” that resulted in an ongoing confrontation between the state and federal governments. The integration of Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas in 1957 required the dispatch of U.S. Army soldiers, and when black student James Meredith enrolled in the University of Mississippi, it triggered widespread rioting. Southern resistance to school integration didn’t end in many parts of the South until the years following passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 under President Lyndon Johnson.

Equally important to the cause of integration was the first significant infusion of federal funds into public education through Title I of the Elementary and Secondary School Act of 1965, which has since provided billions of dollars in aid to school districts with poor and disadvantaged children. Only schools that could demonstrate that they didn’t practice racial discrimination were eligible for Title I funding.

Racial imbalances persist in many public schools, however, as a result of residential patterns and the concentration of minorities in urban areas. An ongoing study by Harvard University has found that racial segregation has increased in a number of states with high minority populations, affecting many poorer Hispanic students as well as African Americans. By contrast, Asian Americans are the minority group most likely to attend racially mixed schools. The lesson is that although American education remains committed to principles of equality, it often falls short of that goal in practice.

 
Nuevo Schools English Academy in Rogers, Arkansas.

Bilingual Education and Assimilation
The legacy of Brown and its principle of equal access for all served as a model for other racial minorities, as well as for women and the disabled.
 
Hispanics often found themselves in segregated, poor schools, and, in fact, a little-known 1947 court decision ended separate schools for Spanish-speaking students in California.
 
The language question remained, however: whether to place students in English immersion programs or in bilingual classes where students continue to use their native language, typically Spanish, while also learning English.
 
The question of bilingual education is an old one and reflects a continuing debate over whether the United States should be seen primarily as a melting pot, emphasizing a common identity, or as a mosaic, with clearly defined cultures and backgrounds.
 
Bilingual proponents contend that students can keep up academically in their native language and transition to regular classes when they have learned English. Advocates for English argue that a bilingual approach only slows down mastery of English and prevents students from joining the mainstream culture.
 
Many school districts adopted bilingual approaches in the 1960s and 1970s, but their popularity has waned along with lack of funding. In recent years, the typical pattern is to designate students as “English Language Learners” and place them in regular English classes, supported by specialists in teaching English as a second language. About 3.7 million, or 8 percent of all students, receive special English language services, according to the U.S. Department of Educatio.

Students engaged in a biology class experiment.

Women and Title IX
The campaign for equal rights for women in education focused primarily on colleges and universities. The result was Title IX, a 1972 amendment to the Higher Education Act that banned discrimination on the basis of gender in higher learning. As a result, women’s enrollment in traditionally male professional programs such as medicine, law, and engineering increased markedly.

The most public controversy over Title IX, however, has concerned athletes and whether the law unfairly harmed men’s collegiate sports programs. The issue has been a subject of furious debate in political and sports circles. Proponents cite the profound impact of Title IX in opening up academic as well as athletic opportunities for girls and women. Opponents argue that the law has become little more than a quota system that harms the interests of both men and women.

Acoma Pueblo students of New Mexico learning English.
 

Mainstreaming
Advocates for disabled and “special needs” students also drew upon the model of the civil rights movement to call for fuller inclusion of these students in regular classrooms and school activities, a process termed “mainstreaming.” They argue that studies show that placing physically and mentally disabled students in regular classes for at least part of the day results in higher academic achievement, greater self-esteem, and improved social skills.

A 1975 law, now known as the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, calls for all children with disabilities to receive “a free appropriate public education.” The law requires schools to prepare an individual education plan, or IEP, for each disabled child and to place the child in the least restrictive classroom setting possible.

The law has enjoyed widespread support, although the costs of implementation have grown rapidly. Much of the overall increase in spending for public education in recent years can be attributed to the costs associated with providing an accessible, equitable education for children and adolescents with physical and mental disabilities.

According to recent figures, U.S. public schools are educating about 6.1 million special-needs children. The most common learning disability is speech and language impairment but special needs can include disabilities as a result of mental retardation, emotional disturbance, or physical problems.

Native American Schools
One of the few exceptions to the direct involvement of the federal government in education is that of Native Americans. The federal administration of Indian schools reflects the special relationship between the government and the semi-sovereign tribes of American Indian and Native Alaskan peoples that is embodied in both laws and treaties.

The first exposure of American Indians to formal schooling often came through missionaries and church schools, where the emphasis was less upon academic instruction than religious conversion and becoming westernized in manner and dress. As the frontier moved west in the 19th century, many of these church-run schools were gradually replaced by those operated by the federal government’s Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The policy of these schools was to assimilate Native Americans into the mainstream by forcibly stripping them of their tribal culture. Many Indians were educated in boarding schools, often far from home, where they had their hair cut and their native clothes replaced and they were forbidden to speak their own languages. The most prominent of these boarding schools was the Carlisle School in Pennsylvania.

A 1928 report spotlighting failures and abuses in Indian education led to reforms and increased financial aid known as the Indian New Deal. Later, the civil rights movement sparked a parallel Indian rights movement. Over decades, the federal government reversed policy and established an educational system that seeks to provide modern skills and knowledge while preserving the traditions and culture of Native American peoples.

Today the Bureau of Indian Education administers 184 elementary and secondary schools, along with 24 colleges. These schools are located on 63 reservations in 23 states across the United States, serving approximately 60,000 students who represent 238 different tribes.

Cooperating on math problems in Tesuque, New Mexico.