The K-12 education system is the public education system in the US, Canada, the UK, and parts of Europe. Compulsory education began in Massachusetts in 1852, and kindergarten was developed before it. The Fisher Act of 1918 helped shape the K-12 system. Federal funding for education began in 1953 and split into the Department of Education in 1979. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was signed into law in 2002, raising accountability standards and requiring basic skills assessments. The future may include mandatory pre-K attendance and options beyond 12th grade.
The K-12 education system is the public education system that most people are familiar with today. Consisting of grades 13, Kindergarten through 12, it refers to the public school system throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and also parts of Europe. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact history of education, as it has occurred in some form for centuries in all parts of the world.
Today, K-12 education represents the compulsory education required of all children in the United States. While this type of education can be obtained from publicly or privately funded institutions, children who have reached compulsory school age (ages six to eight, depending on the state) are required by law to attend school. Compulsory education in the United States began over 150 years ago when Horace Mann established a state education system in Massachusetts, which became the first state to pass school attendance laws in 1852. In 1918, children were required by law to receive an education in all states.
Kindergarten was actually developed before compulsory education. While not mandatory in all states, children are required to start school in most states at age six. If your child is too young to start kindergarten the year they turn five, they may technically need kindergarten since they will be six years old in that school year. The word kindergarten is of German origin and means “children’s garden”. The concept was the brainchild of Friedrich Froebel, a self-taught philosophy teacher, who sought to develop a guided play place for children to “bloom”.
The first kindergarten established in England was in 1852, and the United States established its first in 1856. Although education was required of all children in Massachusetts at that time and many other states followed suit, not all schools provided, nor requested, asylum.
Similarly, not all schools required a student to remain in school beyond a certain grade, as compulsory education initially applied only to elementary age children. Many children were also allowed to skip parts of the school year, particularly the farmers’ children who were needed at home to harvest crops and prepare for winter.
The Education Act 1918, or the Fisher Act, was an act of the British Parliament that implemented changes in progressive education and helped shape many aspects of the K-12 education system used today. The Fisher Act raised the age at which children can leave school to 14 and addressed educational needs, such as health inspections and accommodations for children with special needs. This act also led to the development of a committee that reported and made recommendations to education policy makers.
In the United States, unlike England, public education was governed by each individual state. As early as 1791, seven states had specific provisions for education in their individual constitutions and had formed in part on the basis of an education without religious bias. Before compulsory school attendance laws were passed, education was mainly localized and available only to the wealthy, and often included religious teachings. As a result of compulsory attendance laws, Catholics banned themselves in opposition to states enforcing mainstream schooling and created private Catholic schools. In 1925, the Supreme Court ruled that children could attend public or private schools for education.
Over time, each individual state has developed its own education department to oversee the public education system. Compulsory attendance grew to include kindergarten and compulsory attendance up to the age of 16. Sources of funding for public education have also grown to include federal, state, and local sources. Federal funding was overseen by the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare from 1953 to 1979, until it was split and the United States Department of Education was formed as an autonomous entity.
By the 1950s, compulsory education had become well established, but the K-12 education system was still in its infancy. Schools were still mostly localized, but education was no longer available only to the wealthy. Even into the 1950s, however, segregation by race was still a common practice in public schools across the United States. Then came another historic Supreme Court decision.
In 1954, the United States Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education in Topeka, Kansas, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Although this decision was met with resistance and it took many years for legalized segregation to be completely eliminated, especially in the Southern states, the federal courts were eventually successful.
This achievement was not without its repercussions, and many inner-city and urban schools saw an exodus of affluent and middle-class white families, who moved into suburban districts. In time, many urban districts were left with only poor families, and it became difficult to attract and pay quality teachers and education.
Since the formation of the United States Department of Education in 1979, the education system has been similar to what it is today, but has undergone a number of developments and modifications to meet the changing needs of education. Funding has always been a concern for public schools, especially in poor and urban neighborhoods, where the quality of education was also in question.
As a result, federal funding is now directly related to academic performance, as determined by standardized testing under the current No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). NCLB was signed into law by President George W. Bush on January 3, 2002. Under this law, accountability standards were raised in an effort to improve performance and give parents flexibility in choosing schools.
NCLB requires states to administer basic skills assessments to all students at certain grade levels and to meet the standards set by each state in order to receive federal funding. Specific and more stringent reading achievement targets were placed under this law, and states also had to develop exit or graduate exams with specific assessment measures in place. The intention was to keep the schools at a higher level of accountability, but it was debated from the outset.
Currently, the K-12 public education system provides a free 12th grade education to eligible students. Families have the option of sending their children to private schools, but are then responsible for tuition fees. The future of education will undoubtedly experience social and economic changes and challenges, just as it has in the past. Programs may soon expand to include mandatory pre-K attendance, and may even expand to include options beyond 12th grade, as these are concepts, in their early stages, that are currently being explored.
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