U.S. Department of Education

Historical Background

The debate temporarily ended in 1867 when, through the legislative creation of a Department of Education, the federal role in education became formalized. The commitment wavered when in 1868 the department was reduced to a bureau level within the Department of Interior (post–Civil War). Funds were cut and more than 30 separate entities were responsible for public education. None of these had a unified direction, common leadership, or working relationships.

The first official review on the effectiveness of America's educational system was found in the Commission on the National Emergency in Education. This post–World War I taskforce was charged with finding the “principal defects of the national educational system as revealed by the war.” It is pertinent to list the identified concerns put before the 1918 Commission because of the similarity they have with issues facing today's U.S. educational system. The 1918 Commission on the National Emergency in Education believed the issues to be as follows:

• The failure of the schools to reach non–English-speaking aliens and native illiterates
• The failure of the schools to provide an effective program of health education
• The great inequalities of public schools and particularly the inferiority of many rural schools
• The lack of a sufficient supply of trained teachers

As is also the case today, external factors began influencing educators' decision making regarding educational programming for America's children. The return of thousands of military personnel after the end of Word War II required new job skills and job training to meet the national need for engineers, computer scientists, and mathematicians. The baby boom that followed their return necessitated the nationwide building and development of new schools as well as housing. Later, in 1957, the launch of the Soviet Union's satellite Sputnik left Americans worried about the country's ability to compete in a more scientifically and technically sophisticated world.

The then-Department of Health, Education and Welfare responded to the academic needs and began financing graduate programs in counseling and [Page 908]guidance. These newly trained high school guidance counselors were charged with the responsibility of identifying America's future talented and gifted mathematicians and scientists. Schools were built in new subdivisions. Institutes of higher education were encouraged to create or strengthen their teacher preparation programs in addition to their graduate and postgraduate degrees in math and sciences.

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