Education

Education in the 1950's became more than just traditional reading, writing, and arithmetic. Events going on in the world influenced what was done in school. Teachers wanted to teach students how to perform jobs in the future.

People began to accept the idea of African Americans needing education as well.
 * Desegregation in Education **


 * In 1954, the official policy of “separate but equal” was passed.
 * This policy stated that all children in America should receive adequate and equal education.
 * In 1956, Autherine J. Lucy successfully enrolled in the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa.
 * In 1957 Elizabeth Eckford was the first black teenager to enter then all-white Little Rock Central High School.


 * NDEA **

National Defense Education Act
 * In 1958 Congress passed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) in response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik. They wanted to make sure that the kids of the future were educated properly and enough to compete against Russia scientific and technical fields.
 * The NDEA included support for loans to college students, the improvement of science, mathematics, and foreign language instruction in elementary and secondary schools, graduate fellowships, foreign language and area studies, and vocational-technical training.

In the 1950's there was an increase of 30% in school enrollments due to kids of the Baby Boomer era becoming of school age.
 * Increase of Enrollments **
 * Increases of more than 1.5 million elementary and secondary-school students occurred in 1952, 1953, 1955, and 1958.
 * A record 2 million new students entered school for the 1959-1960 school year.
 * New-student populations increased at twice the growth rate of the general population.
 * The biggest college-enrollment increase occurred in 1956, with more than 450,000 new students

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The rise of enrollments lead to some problems. media type="youtube" key="pRTF4eLtzFs?fs=1" height="385" width="480" <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Movements to improve American schools. ** <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Men wrote books about crises in schools including teachers not doing their jobs.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Shortage of Schools & Teachers **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1953 the Office of Education reported a shortage of 345,000 classrooms, which caused overcrowding in 60 percent of the nation's classrooms, and some 20 percent of students attended schools that failed to meet basic safety standards, such as fire protection.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Caused by: Increased enrollment & an increased number of kids of school age.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Rudolph Flesch
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Arthur Bestor
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Albert Lynd
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Robert Hutchins
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Admiral Hyman Rickover