Join  D. Roderick Kiewiet (Caltech) in discussion with Tine Paulsen (USC POIR) about Rod's paper, The Common School Movement.

REGISTER HERE>>>

Abstract: Beginning around 1840 , the Common School Movement in the United States contributed to a large increase in the average amount of schooling that children acquired. This was made possible by a massive expansion in financial resources devoted to education, most of which was supplied by state and local governments. After discussing the widely disparate ways in which education was provided in previous decades, this chapter documents the differential impact of the Common School Movement in the various regions of the country and the great racial disparities that persisted. It explores a number of hypotheses as to why the Common School Movement succeeded. This chapter also reports on the efforts that were undertaken in the first part of the 19th century to provide schooling for poor children, and discusses the shortcomings of the Common School Movement.