St. John's College, with campus sites in Annapolis, Maryland, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, is the most enduring example of the Great Books program of study in American liberal education. The four-year program at St. John's is aimed at producing "liberally educated human beings" who acquire "a lifelong commitment to the pursuit of fundamental knowledge and to the sea…
In the United States' federal system, states carry out the function of providing for the education of their citizens. The U.S. Constitution does not specifically identify education as a federal obligation and the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution reserves to the states those areas not specifically delegated to the federal government. Historically, since the early nineteenth century, towns…
Educator, philosopher, artist, and scientist, Rudolf Steiner founded the Freie Waldorfschule (Independent Waldorf School) in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1919; its establishment led to the Waldorf educational movement with more than 800 schools worldwide in the early twenty-first century. Steiner's spiritual—scientific research is known as anthroposophy. Rudolf Steiner was born in Kraljeve…
The major test of a modern U.S. university, according to Clark Kerr, President Emeritus and former Chancellor at the University of California, is how wisely and how quickly it is able to adjust to important new possibilities. As its popularity and presence has grown on college campuses, planning has become the process-oriented means to pass the test of change referred to by Kerr. Planning has been…
Faculty member at Teachers College, Columbia University, from 1930 through 1965, Florence Barbara Stratemeyer was a founding figure in the field of teacher education and curriculum. Stratemeyer was born in Detroit and from 1917 through 1919 attended the Western State Teachers College in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she earned a diploma and license in elementary teaching. She spent 1920 through 1921 …
Children's success in their educational endeavors and their general socioemotional adjustment are influenced by a variety of personal characteristics and environmental experiences. One of the most powerful determinants of children's developmental course is the social context in which they live. In particular, experiencing a stable and supportive environment during childhood is likely…
Student activities are an integral part of the school program. Qualified students must be able to participate in any activity without regard to race, religion, national origin, disability, or sex. Generally approved by the principal and under the direct supervision of the staff, activities should contribute to the educational objectives of the school and should avoid interrupting the instructional…
Student loans are increasingly used to provide financial assistance for students in higher education, in both industrialized and developing countries. The need for financial assistance to enable students from low-income families to meet direct and indirect costs of education (tuition fees, books, and living expenses) is widely recognized, and the case for student support programs to ensure equalit…
Student mobility is the practice of students changing schools other than when they are promoted from one school level to the other, such as when students are promoted from elementary school to middle school or middle school to high school. Mobile students can change schools in between school years, such as during the summer, or during the school year. But no matter when it occurs, student mobility…
Starting college can cause much anxiety in the heart of a new college student because of all the unknowns–"What should my major be? Will I make any friends? How will I find all of my classes? Whom do I ask if I have a question?" New student orientation programs are designed to guide students in answering all of these questions. Prior to the beginning of classes, students are g…
Student affairs professionals have always been concerned with the development of the "whole student" or a student's intellectual capacity and achievement, emotional make-up, physical condition, social relationships, vocational aptitudes and skills, moral and religious values, economic resources, and aesthetic appreciations. Although the activities of student affairs have chang…
Until the 1970s, study abroad programs for American college students mostly followed the general education/liberal arts model that was pioneered in the 1920s by the University of Delaware, and later by Smith College. More recently, significant shifts in international involvements, in U.S. higher education, and in the characteristics and interests of college students have greatly altered the aims, …
Sub-Saharan Africa, referred to as "Africa" in this article, comprises the forty-two countries on the African continent south of the Sahara and the six island nations close to it. Africa's rich cultural and ethnic traditions reflect different heritages in all countries–an early Christian heritage in the Nile Basin, a strong Islamic influence in the north, and Christian …
Almost all children, regardless of their home backgrounds, enter school bright, confident, hopeful, and highly motivated, certain that they will succeed in school. However, within just a few years, many of these children will be on a path toward failure. In particular, many students will be reading far below grade level. Research shows that disadvantaged third graders who have failed a grade or ar…
American society operates on an underlying faith that everyone is "free to perform at the level of his or her ability, motivation, and qualities of character and be rewarded accordingly" (Gardner, p. 22). In other words, individuals should have the opportunity to go where their talents take them. At the same time, Americans hold dear the belief that all people should have an equal op…
Summer school programs, also known as extended-year programs, are designed to provide educational opportunities to students during the summer months when schools traditionally observe summer break or summer vacation. Summer school programs generally fit into one of three categories: (1) remediation, (2) enrichment, or (3) extended-year for students with special needs. Remediation summer school pro…
The twenty-first century finds one-third of America's public school children attending one of ten large urban (large-city) school districts. By 2020 approximately one-half of public school enrollment will be clustered in twenty districts. The educational stewardship of a majority of the nations youth rests uncomfortably on the shoulders of a very few large-city school superintendents. Their…
The superintendent of schools is a position of wide influence but one that is narrowly understood. This, in part, stems from its history. Rarely has a position of such centrality grown in such a tangled way. Consequently, there has not been much written or studied about the superintendency, and to this day, not much is known about how it functions and why some people do it well and others do not. …
Supervision, as a field of educational practice with clearly delineated roles and responsibilities, did not fall from the sky fully formed. Rather, supervision emerged slowly as a distinct practice, always in relation to the institutional, academic, cultural, and professional dynamics that have historically generated the complex agenda of schooling. In colonial New England, supervision of instruct…
Prior to the twentieth century, the United States Supreme Court issued few important decisions concerning education, and virtually none dealing with schooling at the elementary and secondary levels. Schooling has always been considered primarily a state and local government function in America, and it was not until well into the twentieth century that the Court seriously imposed on the states prov…
Curriculum theorist, curriculum reformer, and teacher educator, Hilda Taba contributed to the theoretical and pedagogical foundations of concept development and critical thinking in social studies curriculum and helped to lay the foundations of education for diverse student populations. Taba was born in a small village in southeastern Estonia at a time when the country was in transition politicall…
Educational objectives describe the goals toward which the education process is directed–the learning that is to result from instruction. When drawn up by an education authority or professional organization, objectives are usually called standards. Taxonomies are classification systems based on an organizational scheme. In this instance, a set of carefully defined terms, organized from simp…
Philosopher of education, college president, and social activist, Harold Taylor was a recognized spokesperson for Progressive education at the postsecondary level. Taylor was born in Toronto and, upon completion of the B.A. and M.A. degrees at the University of Toronto, received a fellowship to study philosophy at Cambridge University. Shortly after his arrival he questioned the social significanc…
The role and responsibilities of elementary and secondary school teachers have undergone a significant evolution since the publication of the first edition of the Encyclopedia of Education. Historically, teachers have been viewed as purveyors of content knowledge and academic skills, but teachers in the early twenty-first century have also become ambassadors to multicultural communities and promul…
Can teaching be taught? Do individuals learn to teach or are they endowed with an innate gift for pedagogy? Are certain individuals born teachers? Do individuals learn about teaching from copying others, from listening to lectures, from reading about it? Are some ways of preparing teachers better than others? These and related questions about teaching and teacher education persist. Joseph Axelrod …
By 2005 America's schools will be serving more children (54 million) than ever before, and the total number of teachers will have grown to more than 3.5 million (up from 2.5 million in 1980). Because of rising student enrollments, growing numbers of teacher retirements, the reduction of class sizes, new curriculum requirements, and high rates of attrition among beginning teachers, the Unite…
Baseball is known as the national pastime of the United States, but teacher evaluation beats it hands down. Everybody does it–some with a vengeance, others with the casual disregard that physical and emotional distance afford. Most enthusiasts grow up with the game, playing a sandlot version as they go through school. Indeed, familiarity with the job of teaching and the widespread practice …
Although they are seldom mentioned in the educational literature or in professional educators' organizations before the early 1980s, it has become commonplace to refer to certain projects, programs, networks, and collaboratives of prospective or experienced teachers as teacher learning communities. The term combines two basic concepts–teacher learning and community–that are pa…
All nations have established specialized institutions and particular processes by which prospective teachers are educated; however these institutions and processes vary in their structure, goals, and organization around the world. The variation is not only due to expected differences across countries and cultures, but also to a major transition that the field of teacher education has been undergoi…
The best-known teacher unions in the United States are the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). However, not all public school teachers are their members, nor are all of their members public school teachers. Membership also includes support staff in the public schools, such as secretaries, bus drivers, and cafeteria workers, and some outside the schoo…
Researchers and other scholars seeking to understand and define the knowledge and thinking underlying teaching have focused on numerous issues and bring multiple perspectives to bear on this complex domain. Much of this work has addressed some combination of three sets of interrelated questions: Efforts to address these questions are motivated, in part, by the connection between how teachers teach…
Student learning in higher education is a function of both formal and informal experiences. Formal learning takes place as a result of a classroom or related activity structured by a teacher and/or others for the purpose of helping students to achieve specified cognitive, or other, objectives. Informal learning encompasses all the other outcomes of students' participation in a higher educat…
Faculty members' work accomplishes the core teaching, research, and service goals of colleges and universities. Teaching enhances the development of students, research advances the development of new knowledge, and service contributes to the growth of nonacademic, professional, or college and university communities. Observers have debated since the late 1800s whether faculty work roles enha…
Team teaching involves a group of instructors working purposefully, regularly, and cooperatively to help a group of students of any age learn. Teachers together set goals for a course, design a syllabus, prepare individual lesson plans, teach students, and evaluate the results. They share insights, argue with one another, and perhaps even challenge students to decide which approach is better. Team…
Technology education (TE) in the United States is a field of elementary and secondary education that until the 1980s was commonly referred to as industrial arts. Its focus is on promoting technological knowledge and skills. The notion of teaching children about contemporary technology and industry has been a recurring international theme throughout the history of education. Modern American technol…
Computers and Internet connections are becoming widely available in schools and classrooms. In 1999, 99 percent of teachers in the United States had access to a computer in their schools, and 84 percent had one or more computers in their classrooms. At the same time, Internet connections were also widespread, with 95 percent of schools and 63 percent of classrooms having access. Worldwide, many co…
Technology is information or knowledge that is put to use in order to accomplish a particular task. Technology transfer is the application of information into use. American research universities have become increasingly involved in various technology-transfer activities by establishing technology/business incubators, technology parks, venture capital funds for start-up companies, university resear…
Lewis M. Terman was a psychologist who developed some of the earliest and most successful measures of individual differences. He was raised on an Indiana farm and, after an early career as a schoolteacher and high school principal, received his doctorate in psychology from Clark University in 1905. After four years of teaching pedagogy at the Los Angeles State Normal School, he joined the educatio…
The term standardized testing was used to refer to a certain type of multiple-choice or true/false test that could be machine-scored and was therefore thought to be "objective." This type of standardization is no longer considered capable of capturing the full range of skills candidates may possess. In the early twenty-first century it is more useful to speak of standards-based or st…
Historical records indicate that for as long as systems of writing and formal schools have existed (whether for secular, religious, or other purposes), textbooks, in one form or another, have also existed, whether on clay tablets; scrolls; bound sheets of papyrus, vellum, or parchment; or modern mass-produced books. There are records of textbooks being used in schools in ancient Greece, Rome, Chin…
Teacher and Progressive education administrator, V. T. Thayer was the author of many books on American education. In his outlook and work, Thayer remained an articulate and persuasive advocate of Progressive education, philosophic naturalism, and secular humanism. V. T. Thayer received his doctorate in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin in 1922. While studying for that degree he was an inst…
Edward L. Thorndike was an American psychologist, educator, lexicographer, and pioneer in educational research. The groundwork for research into learning was provided in 1913–1914 by his three-volume Educational Psychology, which set forth precepts based on his experimental and statistical investigations. These precepts–which covered such wide-ranging topics as teaching practices and…
Participation in interscholastic athletics programs provides students from diverse backgrounds opportunities to cooperate with and compete against their peers through sport. Participation in school sports may lead to the following benefits to students: improved physical health and fitness, higher self-esteem, a stronger sense of community and purpose, consistent time spent with an adult mentor, an…
Pupil transportation, also known as school busing, has become one of the most important segments of the American educational system. It is subject to the same rules one might find in the classroom, including the dictates of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 and a host of laws and rules governing disabled or special needs pupils. Pupil transportation is big business. The number of s…
Tribal colleges and universities are unique American institutions that offer opportunities for Native Americans to pursue higher education within their own cultural and regional contexts. Generally located on or near Indian reservations, tribal colleges and universities (also referred to as tribally controlled colleges) aim to preserve and communicate traditional native culture, provide higher edu…
Tutoring typically involves two individuals, a tutor and a tutee. The tutor is more knowledgeable or expert than the tutee and attempts to help the tutee learn, usually in an academic area. Age is not necessarily a factor in the tutoring relationship–the tutor and tutee may be the same age–as long as the tutor has greater knowledge or skill than the tutee. Traditionally, tutoring has…
Ralph W. Tyler's long and illustrious career in education resulted in major contributions to the policy and practice of American schooling. His influence was especially felt in the field of testing, where he transformed the idea of measurement into a grander concept that he called evaluation; in the field of curriculum, where he designed a rationale for curriculum planning that still has vi…
A persistent debate that the United States has struggled with since its early history is the role of the federal government in the education of its citizenry. Much of this debate has played out in battles over the existence of a national government entity focused on education, such as the U.S. Department of Education. The divisive issue of the federal role in education stems from an ambiguous char…
Career-long education is a cornerstone tradition of the American military. The capstone of the America's professional military education systems is the War College, or, more correctly, the Senior Service Colleges (SSCs). While each of the four primary SSCs reflects its service origins, students attending each are selected from the five military services, from civilian agencies, and from all…
Identified by American industrialist and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller as "the greatest investment I ever made," the University of Chicago, founded in 1891, became a standard-bearer for modern America's universities by being the first to meld the great English and German traditions of higher education by creating an institution focused on teaching and research. In 1891 th…
The University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) is a consortium of sixty-seven universities that offer doctoral programs in educational administration. UCEA's mission is to advance the preparation and practice of educational leaders for the benefit of all children and schools. UCEA fulfills this purpose collaboratively by (1) promoting, sponsoring, and disseminating research on…
Historically, university researchers have collaborated with industrial scientists on marketable projects. News coverage at the turn of the twenty-first century might lead one to believe that this is a current phenomenon. However, science historians have traced collaborations between European companies and university researchers back to the 1800s. In the United States, university-industry research …
Established by universities to promote scholarly communication, university presses publish books and related material in a wide range of academic, creative, and professional subjects. They provide college and university faculty and other serious researchers with outlets for specialized works and make new ideas and perspectives available to a national and global audience. The sales of university pr…
The University of Virginia, known since its founding in 1819 as "Mr. Jefferson's University," has personified, in past and present, a distinctive approach to public higher education whose integration of academic vision and architectural environment attracts national and international acclaim. The University of Virginia remains one of Thomas Jefferson's greatest legacies…
Upward Bound (UB) is a federal educational program designed to prepare high school students from poverty-level homes for entry and success in college. It was begun in the summer of 1965, when the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) funded seventeen summer pilot programs on college campuses under the Community Action component of the Economic Opportunity Amendments of 1965. It formed a miniscule p…
The dictionary definition of urban is simply "a term pertaining to a city or town." In everyday parlance the term is used frequently to distinguish something from the terms rural, small town, suburban, or ex-urban. These objective size and density definitions, however, do not convey the range of meanings intended or received when the term is most commonly used. Perceptions of urban a…
The Urban Institute, founded in 1968, is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to conducting independent research on a broad range of social and economic issues of particular importance to improving the quality of life in metropolitan centers in the nation and throughout the developing world. Through statistical research, polling, and interviews, the institute seeks to make available pertine…
Children's experience with violence has been linked to a variety of negative outcomes, one of particular importance being children's school adaptation and academic success. Since the early 1980s researchers and professionals working with children have become increasingly aware of the extent to which many children experience or observe violence within the confines of their own homes o…
The term blindness brings to mind many images as well as many unfounded beliefs. Although popular opinion suggests otherwise, individuals with blindness do not possess an extra sense allowing them to intuit the visual world. Likewise, people with visual impairments do not exhibit superhuman abilities in touch and hearing. In fact, most people who are blind can actually see–very few people w…
Few articles in the field of international and comparative education have been as influential in academic circles and among some donor-agency personnel as Philip Foster's "The Vocational School Fallacy in Development Planning" (1965). This article went to the heart of the long-running (and continuing) debate about whether schools and their curricula can influence society throu…
Vocational education in the United States is the product of an extended evolutionary process. Economic, educational, and societal issues have repeatedly exerted influence on the definition of vocational education, as well as on how, when, where, and to whom it will be provided. There are many legal definitions of vocational education (i.e., how vocational education is defined by law). These legal …
Volunteer work offers an opportunity for individuals and communities to engage in activities that affect the common good of society. For young people, volunteer work provides a way to gain a variety of useful skills, to understand the community in which they live, and to enhance community life. The community, in turn, fosters the development of a citizenry that is involved in creating a better dem…
Fifty years after his death, Lev Semyonich Vygotsky attracted the attention of Western psychologists and educators for his theory of cognitive development. In contrast to other cognitive perspectives, Vygotsky accorded a central role to culture and social interaction in the development of complex thinking. In addition, he advocated the study of children's unfolding development of cognitive …
Among education scholars the sociologist Willard W. Waller is known for writing the Sociology of Teaching (1932), an early classic in the sociology of education and the first extended treatment of schools as organizations in social contexts. He was born in Murphysboro, Illinois, and died in New York City, just days prior to his forty-sixth birthday. After attending public school in Illinois, Walle…
Superintendent of schools in Winnetka, Illinois, from 1919 to 1943, Carleton W. Washburne is most notably connected with the Winnetka Plan which he developed and promoted. Washburne also served as president of the Progressive Education Association (1939–1943) and on the faculty of Brooklyn College (1949–1960). Early in his career Washburne was a protégé of Frederic Burk…
Born a slave on a Virginia plantation five years before the Civil War began, Booker T. Washington's professional life as an educator and leader of African-American interests demonstrates how education, race, public policy, and politics intersected in the United States during the late nineteenth century. Washington's career placed him at the center of a debate among African Americans …
John B. Watson was an important contributor to classical behaviorism, who paved the way for B. F. Skinner's radical or operant behaviorism, which has had a major impact on American educational systems. A professor of psychology at Johns Hopkins University (1908–1920), Watson is often listed as one of the most influential psychologists of the twentieth century; his work is standard ma…
The first person to write a dictionary of American English and permanently alter the spelling of American English, Noah Webster through his spelling book taught millions of American children to read for the first half-century of the republic and millions more to spell for the following half-century. Born a farmer's son in what is now West Hartford, Connecticut, Webster attended Yale College…
In 1996 the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) brought sweeping changes to the welfare system in the United States. This federal law was designed to move adults quickly and permanently into the workforce, promote family stability, and allocate greater flexibility to states in designing public-assistance programs. Though welfare reform primarily targets the beh…
Western Europe is a concept of rather recent origins, reflecting the post—World War II split between those European countries that fell under Soviet domination and much of the rest of the continent. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the concept may become obsolete. Contemporary western Europe includes France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Low Countries (Bel…
Every year, the White House Fellows program offers a small number of America's most promising young leaders an opportunity to participate in government at the highest levels. The White House Fellows program is one of the most prestigious and selective fellowship programs for leadership development and public service in the country. White House Fellows are selected by the President's …
One of the twentieth century's most original metaphysicians and a major figure in mathematical logic, Alfred North Whitehead was also an important social and educational philosopher. Born in England, he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he also taught mathematics from 1884 until 1910. He then moved to London, where he was professor of applied mathematics at the University of…
Women's studies is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry that arose in the early 1970s. Within thirty years, it developed into a recognized discipline with undergraduate majors, masters and doctorates programs, university departments and programs, a scholarly literature of books and journals, and professional associations. The origins of women's studies are multiple, the scope and na…
Teacher, scholar, publisher and administrator, Carter Godwin Woodson articulated ideas that are antecedents to the discipline of black studies; however, he is best known as the "father of black history." Woodson was born in New Canton, Buckingham County, Virginia, to former slaves Ann Eliza (Riddle) and James Woodson. The oldest of nine children, Woodson labored on his father'…
Writing pedagogy has been shaped by an array of influences over the years, including social and demographic change, insights derived from research, and grassroots movements among teachers. Recognizing that writing assumes many guises and serves varied purposes, teachers and researchers continue to chart the challenge of preparing diverse students to meet the literate demands of private, academic, …
Yale University, a private institution, is situated in New Haven, Connecticut. Its library of more than 10 million volumes is the second largest university library and third largest library system in the United States. The Yale Center for British Art (1977) holds the largest collection of British art and illustrated books outside the United Kingdom. Yale College provides a liberal arts education i…
A concept designed to minimize three-month summer learning losses, year-round education (YRE) maximizes the use of public facilities by dividing the school attendance days into rotating instruction and vacation segments. Students are enrolled in formal learning programs over a twelve-month year, keeping school buildings open at least 240 days. Intersessions–the equivalent of summer schools&…
Superintendent of the Chicago schools from 1909 through 1915 and elected president of the National Education Association (NEA) in 1910, Ella Flagg Young attempted widespread reform in an increasingly industrialized and diverse America. During her teens, Young enrolled in a normal school in Chicago, and after graduation began teaching, receiving a series of rapid promotions eventually leading to he…
The United States has a complex and rapidly changing population and is fortunate in having analytical tools such as the U.S. Census, which is compiled each decade, and the Current Population Survey, which is compiled every year. Thomas Jefferson directed the first census in 1790, implementing the Constitution's provision that each state add or lose seats in the U.S. House of Representatives…
Youth development programs seek to improve the lives of children and adolescents by meeting their basic physical, developmental, and social needs and by helping them to build the competencies needed to become successful adults. Examples of youth development programs include community service, mentoring programs, and neighborhood youth centers. It is unclear exactly how many youth development progr…
The American Field Service (AFS) is a nonprofit volunteer-based educational organization concerned with promoting understanding among people throughout the world. Its purposes are to involve high school students, young adults, and teachers in the family, community, and school life of other nations. Each year the AFS sends more than 10,000 students, young adults, and teachers to a foreign country t…
Experimental physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Jerrold R. Zacharias directed the Physical Sciences Study Committee curriculum development project and other science education reform efforts. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Zacharias earned his A.B. in 1926, A.M. in 1927, and Ph.D. in 1933, all in physics, from Columbia University. He held a teaching position at Hunter College i…
Laura Zirbes was a leader in elementary education and reading instruction. A professor at the Ohio State University, Zirbes founded its elementary laboratory school and was a strong practitioner and promoter of the Progressive education philosophy. Zirbes taught elementary school in Cleveland from 1903 to 1919, then worked at the experimental Lincoln School at Teachers College from 1920 untill 926…