DSST Foundations of Education cheat sheet

Accountability era: A Nation at Risk (1983) framed schooling as a national economic risk; No Child Left Behind (2001) tied Title I funds to Adequate Yearly Progress, and ESSA (2015) shifted authority toward states with evidence tiers (Tiers 1-4).

Standardized testing logic: norm-referenced tests compare students to peers; criterion-referenced tests compare performance to a fixed standard. Reliability = consistency; validity = whether a test measures the intended construct.

School choice spectrum: charter schools (public, autonomous, lottery admission), magnet schools (theme-based, often desegregation origins), vouchers (public funds to private schools), education savings accounts, and homeschooling.

Funding equity: local property taxes create per-pupil disparities; states use foundation formulas and weighted student formulas to equalize; the 1973 San Antonio v. Rodriguez ruling held that property-tax funding is not a federal constitutional violation.

Digital learning: blended learning mixes face-to-face and online instruction; flipped classrooms deliver content at home and practice in class; the digital divide covers device, broadband, and usage gaps.

Teacher labor market: shortages concentrate in special education, STEM, bilingual education, and high-poverty schools; alternative certification routes (e.g., Teach For America, residency programs) expand supply but raise preparation debates.

Standards debate: the Common Core State Standards (2010) were state-led standards in math and ELA; opponents framed them as federal overreach, and some states renamed or replaced them.

Equity vs. equality: equality gives identical resources; equity allocates according to need. Culturally responsive teaching and trauma-informed practice are current responses to demographic and social shifts.

Colonial foundations: the Massachusetts Law of 1642 required parents to teach reading and religion; the Old Deluder Satan Act (1647) required towns of 50+ families to hire a teacher; the first Latin grammar school (Boston Latin, 1635) and Harvard (1636) followed the English model.

Jeffersonian vs. Franklin models: Jefferson proposed publicly funded elementary schooling with selective higher education (Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge); Franklin's academy (1751) favored practical, utilitarian subjects over Latin.

Horace Mann and the common school movement (1830s-1840s): tax-supported, non-sectarian, publicly controlled elementary schools; the Prussian model supplied graded classrooms and the normal-school idea for teacher training.

Progressive education: John Dewey linked schooling to democracy and experience (learning by doing, child-centered curriculum); the Gary Plan and project method operationalized it; essentialists like William Bagley and later E.D. Hirsch pushed back.

Landmark legal decisions: Brown v. Board of Education (1954) overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896); Engel v. Vitale (1962) barred school-sponsored prayer; Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) protected student expression; Lau v. Nichols (1974) required language support; Plyler v. Doe (1982) guaranteed access regardless of immigration status.

Federal legislation timeline: Smith-Hughes Act (1917, vocational education), National Defense Education Act (1958, post-Sputnik math/science/foreign language funding), Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965, Title I), Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1975, now IDEA), Title IX (1972, sex discrimination).

Philosophical schools: perennialism (fixed truths, Great Books, Adler), essentialism (core knowledge and skills, teacher-centered), progressivism (Dewey, experience-based), reconstructionism (schools as agents of social reform, Counts), existentialism (personal choice and meaning).

Economic and social forces: the Industrial Revolution produced age-graded, factory-model schools; the GI Bill (1944) expanded higher education; Sputnik (1957) drove STEM reform; A Nation at Risk (1983) linked schooling to global competitiveness.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954) → current debates over school resegregation, attendance-zone boundaries, and charter/magnet enrollment patterns.

Sputnik and the NDEA (1958) → recurring STEM-pipeline policy, national standards debates, and federal leverage over local curriculum.

Dewey's progressivism → constructivist practice, project-based learning, formative assessment, and the persistence of the essentialist/progressivist pendulum.

Horace Mann's common school ideal → the charter and voucher debate: both invoke public schooling's democratic mission but differ on governance and funding.

IDEA and the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act → inclusion, least restrictive environment, IEPs, and universal design for learning.

Title IX (1972) → ongoing compliance questions in athletics and sexual harassment policy (e.g., Title IX and campus procedures).

The GI Bill and post-1944 college expansion → today's student-debt, college-completion, and free-college debates.

Cultural transmission vs. social reconstruction: perennialist/essentialist arguments for a shared canon resurface in curriculum wars over history standards, book access, and ethnic studies.

Accountability era: A Nation at Risk (1983) framed schooling as a national economic risk; No Child Left Behind (2001) tied Title I funds to Adequate Yearly Progress, and ESSA (2015) shifted authority toward states with evidence tiers (Tiers 1-4).

Standardized testing logic: norm-referenced tests compare students to peers; criterion-referenced tests compare performance to a fixed standard. Reliability = consistency; validity = whether a test measures the intended construct.

School choice spectrum: charter schools (public, autonomous, lottery admission), magnet schools (theme-based, often desegregation origins), vouchers (public funds to private schools), education savings accounts, and homeschooling.

Funding equity: local property taxes create per-pupil disparities; states use foundation formulas and weighted student formulas to equalize; the 1973 San Antonio v. Rodriguez ruling held that property-tax funding is not a federal constitutional violation.

Digital learning: blended learning mixes face-to-face and online instruction; flipped classrooms deliver content at home and practice in class; the digital divide covers device, broadband, and usage gaps.

Teacher labor market: shortages concentrate in special education, STEM, bilingual education, and high-poverty schools; alternative certification routes (e.g., Teach For America, residency programs) expand supply but raise preparation debates.

Standards debate: the Common Core State Standards (2010) were state-led standards in math and ELA; opponents framed them as federal overreach, and some states renamed or replaced them.

Equity vs. equality: equality gives identical resources; equity allocates according to need. Culturally responsive teaching and trauma-informed practice are current responses to demographic and social shifts.

Colonial foundations: the Massachusetts Law of 1642 required parents to teach reading and religion; the Old Deluder Satan Act (1647) required towns of 50+ families to hire a teacher; the first Latin grammar school (Boston Latin, 1635) and Harvard (1636) followed the English model.

Jeffersonian vs. Franklin models: Jefferson proposed publicly funded elementary schooling with selective higher education (Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge); Franklin's academy (1751) favored practical, utilitarian subjects over Latin.

Horace Mann and the common school movement (1830s-1840s): tax-supported, non-sectarian, publicly controlled elementary schools; the Prussian model supplied graded classrooms and the normal-school idea for teacher training.

Progressive education: John Dewey linked schooling to democracy and experience (learning by doing, child-centered curriculum); the Gary Plan and project method operationalized it; essentialists like William Bagley and later E.D. Hirsch pushed back.

Landmark legal decisions: Brown v. Board of Education (1954) overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896); Engel v. Vitale (1962) barred school-sponsored prayer; Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) protected student expression; Lau v. Nichols (1974) required language support; Plyler v. Doe (1982) guaranteed access regardless of immigration status.

Federal legislation timeline: Smith-Hughes Act (1917, vocational education), National Defense Education Act (1958, post-Sputnik math/science/foreign language funding), Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965, Title I), Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1975, now IDEA), Title IX (1972, sex discrimination).

Philosophical schools: perennialism (fixed truths, Great Books, Adler), essentialism (core knowledge and skills, teacher-centered), progressivism (Dewey, experience-based), reconstructionism (schools as agents of social reform, Counts), existentialism (personal choice and meaning).

Economic and social forces: the Industrial Revolution produced age-graded, factory-model schools; the GI Bill (1944) expanded higher education; Sputnik (1957) drove STEM reform; A Nation at Risk (1983) linked schooling to global competitiveness.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954) → current debates over school resegregation, attendance-zone boundaries, and charter/magnet enrollment patterns.

Sputnik and the NDEA (1958) → recurring STEM-pipeline policy, national standards debates, and federal leverage over local curriculum.

Dewey's progressivism → constructivist practice, project-based learning, formative assessment, and the persistence of the essentialist/progressivist pendulum.

Horace Mann's common school ideal → the charter and voucher debate: both invoke public schooling's democratic mission but differ on governance and funding.

IDEA and the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act → inclusion, least restrictive environment, IEPs, and universal design for learning.

Title IX (1972) → ongoing compliance questions in athletics and sexual harassment policy (e.g., Title IX and campus procedures).

The GI Bill and post-1944 college expansion → today's student-debt, college-completion, and free-college debates.

Cultural transmission vs. social reconstruction: perennialist/essentialist arguments for a shared canon resurface in curriculum wars over history standards, book access, and ethnic studies.