EDUC 101 A History of Urban Schooling in the United States

In every major urban center across the United States children and youth attend public schools managed by highly-bureaucratized administrative entities called 'school districts'. This course provides a historical survey of the evolution of U.S. urban schooling tracing its development from earliest community-based one-room schoolhouses to modern major urban unified school districts. We explore the roles that industrialization & immigration have played in the urbanization of communities and the ways in which schools have adapted in order to provide for the socialization of the urban worker. We examine shifts in the politics of public education as it pertains to control over schools and schooling and the various stakeholders involved. We conclude with a look at the evolving roles of the teacher school counselor and the administrator - as well as a glimpse into what the future holds for both traditional and alternative forms of public schooling in urban school communities across the U.S.