books about the us education system

The Education Systems of the Americas pp 1015–1042 Cite as

The Education System of the United States of America: Overview and Foundations

• Paul R. Fossum 3  
• Reference work entry
• First Online: 01 January 2022

1758 Accesses

Part of the book series: Global Education Systems ((GES))

Prevailing discourse in the USA about the country’s teachers, educational institutions, and instructional approaches is a conversation that is national in character. Yet the structures and the administrative and governance apparatuses themselves are strikingly local in character across the USA. Public understanding and debate about education can be distorted in light of divergence between the country’s educational aspirations and the vehicles in place for pursuing those aims. In addressing its purpose as a survey of US education, the following chapter interrogates this apparent contradiction, first discussing historical and social factors that help account for a social construction of the USA as singular and national system. Discussion then moves to a descriptive analysis of education in the USA as institutionalized at the numerous levels – aspects that often reflect local prerogative and difference more so than a uniform national character. The chapter concludes with summary points regarding US federalism as embodied in the country’s oversight and conduct of formal education.

• Education system
• Educational history
• Education reform
• Teacher supply

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution .

Barber, B. R. (1993). America skips school: Why we talk so much about education and do so little. Harper’s Magazine, 287 (1722), 39–46.

Google Scholar  

Beck, R. (1990). Vocational preparation and general education . Berkeley: National Center for Research in Vocational Education.

Berliner, D. C. (2011). The context for interpreting PISA results in the USA. In M. A. Pereyra, H.-G. Kotthoff, & R. Cowen (Eds.), PISA under examination: Changing knowledge, changing tests, changing schools (pp. 77–96). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

Chapter   Google Scholar  

Berliner, D. C., & Biddle, B. (1995). The manufactured crisis: Myths, fraud, and the attack on America’s public schools . Reading: Addison-Wesley.

Brubacher, J. S., & Rudy, W. (1997). Higher education in transition: A history of American colleges and universities . Transaction Publishers. Piscataway, New Jersey [NJ], United States.

Carson, C. C., Huelskamp, R., & Woodall, T. (1993). Perspectives on education in America: An annotated briefing. Sandia report. Journal of Educational Research, 86 (5), 259–310.

Article   Google Scholar  

Center for Postsecondary Research. (2019). Carnegie classification of institutions of higher education . School of Education, Indiana University. http://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/

Clauset, A., Arbesman, S., & Larremore, D. B. (2015). Systematic inequality and hierarchy in faculty hiring networks. Science Advances, 1 (1), 1–6.

Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education, National Education Association. (1918). Cardinal principles of secondary education, Bureau of Education bulletin . Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Cremin, L. A. (1957). The republic and the school: Horace Mann on the education of free men . New York: Teachers College Press.

Cremin, L. A. (1961). The transformation of the American school: Progressivism in American education, 1876–1957 . New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Cremin, L. A. (1988). American education: The metropolitan experience, 1876–1980 . New York: Harper-Collins.

Crowley, S., & Green, E. L. (2019). A college chain crumbles, and millions in student loan cash disappears. New York Times , March 7. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/07/business/argosy-college-art-insititutes-south-university.html

Curti, M. (1943). The growth of American thought . New York: Harper and Brothers.

Darling-Hammond, L. (2010). The flat world and education: How America’s commitment to equity will determine our future . New York: Teachers College Press.

Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education . New York: The Free Press.

Diffey, L. (2018). 50-state comparison: State Kindergarten-through-third-grade policies . Denver: Education Commission of the States. https://www.ecs.org/kindergarten-policies/ . Last accessed 12 Mar 2019.

Finn, C. E., Julian, L., & Petrilli, M. J. (Eds.). (2006). The state of state standards 2006 . Washington, DC: Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.

Fischer, K. (2019). It’s a New Assault on the University. Chronicle of Higher Education (February 17). https://www.chronicle.com/article/its-anew-assault-on-the-university/

Flaherty, C. (2017). Killing tenure. Inside Higher Ed (January 13). https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/01/13/legislation-two-statesseeks-eliminate-tenure-publichigher-education .

Friedman-Krauss, A. H., Steven Barnett, W., Garver, K. A., Hodges, K. S., Weisenfeld, G. G., & DiCrecchio, N. (2019). The state of preschool 2018: State preschool yearbook . New Brunswick: Rutgers University, National Institute for Early Education Research. http://nieer.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/YB2018_Full-ReportR3wAppendices.pdf . Last accessed 30 Apr 2019.

Fulton, M. (2019). 50-state comparison: State postsecondary governance structures . Denver: Education Commission of the States. https://www.ecs.org/50-state-comparison-postsecondary-governance-structures/ . Last accessed 15 Nov 2019.

Gerstle, G. (2015). Liberty and coercion: The paradox of American government from the founding to the present . Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Gutek, G. L. (2013). An historical introduction to American education (2nd ed.). Long Grove: Waveland.

Hartong, S. (2016). New structures of power and regulation within ‘distributed’ education policy: The example of the US Common Core State Standards Initiative. Journal of Education Policy, 31 (2), 213–225.

Hemelt, S. W., & Marcotte, D. E. (2016). The changing landscape of tuition and enrollment in American Public Higher Education. Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 2 (1), 42–68.

Henig, J. R. (2013). The end of exceptionalism in American education: The changing politics of school reform . Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.

Herman, J., Post, S., & O’Halloran, S. (2013). The United States is far behind other countries on pre-K . Washington, DC: Center for American Progress.

Hyslop-Margison, E. J. (1999). An assessment of the historical arguments in vocational education reform. Journal of Career and Technical Education, 17 (1), 23–30.

Hu, W. (2008). New horizons in high school classrooms. New York Times , October 26. A-21.

Kaestle, C. F. (1983). Pillars of the republic: common schools and American Society, 1780–1860 . New York: Hill and Wang.

Kaestle, C. F. (1988). Public education in the old northwest: “necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind”. Indiana Magazine of History, 84 (1), 60–74.

Katz, M. B. (1968). The irony of early school reform: Educational innovation in mid-nineteenth century Massachusetts . Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Kozol, J. (1991). Savage inequalities: Children in America’s schools . New York: Crown Publishing.

Labaree, D. F. (2010). How Dewey lost: The victory of David Snedden and social efficiency in the reform of American education. In D. Trohler, T. Schlag, & F. Osterwalder (Eds.), Pragmatism and modernities (pp. 163–188). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

LaMorte, M. W. (2012). School law: Cases and concepts (10th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Lannie, V. P. (1968). Public money and parochial education: Bishop Hughes, Governor Seward, and the New York school controversy . Cleveland: Case Western Reserve University Press.

Lattuca, L. R., & Stark, J. S. (2011). External influences on curriculum: Sociocultural contact. In S. R. Harper & J. F. L. Jackson (Eds.), An introduction to American higher education (pp. 93–128). New York: Routledge.

Lazerson, M., & Norton Grubb, W. (1974). Introduction. In M. Lazerson & W. N. Grubb (Eds.), American education and vocationalism: A documentary history 1870–1970 (pp. 1–56). New York: Teachers College Press.

Lynch, M. (2018). 10 (more) reasons why the U.S. education system is failing. Education Week , January 26. https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/01/29/10-more-reasons-why-the-us-education.html . Last accessed 18 June 2020.

Malkin, M. (2013). Lessons from Texas and the revolt against Common Core power grab. Noozhawk , March 3. https://www.noozhawk.com/article/030313_michelle_malkin_texas_common_core_education_standards . Last accessed June 18, 2020.

McLaren, P. (2015). Life in schools: An introduction to critical pedagogy in the foundations of education (6th ed.). New York: Routledge.

Book   Google Scholar  

Messerli, J. (1971). Horace Mann: A biography . New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Miller, C. C. (2017). Do Preschool Teachers Really Need to Be College Graduates? (April 7). https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/07/upshot/dopreschool-teachers-really-need-to-be-college-graduates.html .

National Center for Education Statistics. (2017a). Table 202.20, Percentage of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children enrolled in preprimary programs, by level of program, attendance status, and selected child and family characteristics: 2017. Digest of Education Statistics. Institute of Education Sciences. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_202.20.asp . Last accessed 15 Jan 2019.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2017b). Table 205.10, Private elementary and secondary school enrollment and private enrollment as a percentage of total enrollment in public and private schools, by region and grade level: Selected years, fall 1995 through fall 2015. Digest of Education Statistics. Institute of Education Sciences. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_205.10.asp . Last accessed 29 Jan 2019.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2017c). Table 214.10, Number of public school districts and public and private elementary and secondary schools: Selected years, 1869–70 through 2015–16. Digest of Education Statistics. Institute of Education Sciences. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_214.10.asp . Last accessed 21 Jan 2019.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2018a). NCES Blog: National spending for public schools increases for third consecutive year in school year, 2015–16. https://nces.ed.gov/blogs/nces/post/national-spending-for-public-schools-increases-for-third-consecutive-year-in-school-year-2015-16 . Last accessed 7 Jan 2019.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2018b). National postsecondary student aid study: Student financial aid estimates for 2015–16. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2018/2018466.pdf . Last accessed 7 Nov 2019.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2018c). Number of educational institutions, by level and control of institution: Selected years, 1980–81 through 2016–17. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_105.50.asp . Last accessed 7 Nov 2019.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2019a). Characteristics of postsecondary faculty. The condition of education: letter from the commissioner. Institute of Education Sciences. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_csc.asp . Last accessed 20 June 2019.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2019b). The condition of education: Preschool and Kindergarten enrollment. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cfa.asp . Last accessed 21 Jan 2019.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2019c). The condition of education: Public charter school enrollment. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cgb.asp . Last accessed 20 June 2019.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2019d). Digest of Education Statistics, 2017 (NCES 2018-070), Chapter 3. U.S. Department of Education. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/ch_3.asp . Last accessed 20 Nov 2019.

Newman, A. (2013). Common core: A scheme to rewrite education. New American , August 8. Retrieved 20 Sept 2019, from https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/16192-common-core-a-scheme-to-rewrite-education . Last accessed 20 Sept 2019.

Newfield, C. (2008). Unmaking the public university: The forty-year assault on the middle class . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Oakes, J. (1985). Keeping track: How schools structure inequality . New Haven: Yale University Press.

Office of Postsecondary Education. (2017). Institutional eligibility. In 2017–18 Federal student aid handbook (Vol. 2). Washington, DC: United States Department of Education. https://ifap.ed.gov/ifap/byAwardYear.jsp?type=fsahandbook&awardyear=2017-2018

Oprisko, R. (2012). Superpowers: The American academic elite. Georgetown Public Policy Review , December 3. http://gppreview.com/2012/12/03/superpowers-the-american-academic-elite/

Phi Delta Kappa. (2019). Fifty-first annual poll of the public’s attitudes toward the public schools . Arlington: PDK International. https://pdkpoll.org/

Povich, E. S. (2018). More community colleges are offering bachelor’s degrees – and four-year universities aren’t happy about it. Stateline , April 26. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2018/04/26/more-community-colleges-are-offering-bachelors-degrees

Pulliam, J. D., & Van Patten, J. J. (2013). History and social foundations of education (10th ed.). New York: Pearson.

Ravitch, D. (1977). The revisionists revised: A critique on the radical attack on the schools . New York: Basic Books.

Ravitch, D. (1983). The troubled crusade: American education, 1945–1980 . New York: Basic Books.

Reitman, S. W. (1992). The educational messiah complex: American faith in the culturally redemptive power of schooling . Sacramento: Caddo Gap Press.

Ross, D. (1991). The origins of American social science . New York: Cambridge University Press.

Schaefer, M. B., Malu, K. F., & Yoon, B. (2016). An historical overview of the middle school movement, 1963–2015. Research on Middle Level Education Online, 39 (5), 1–27.

Schneider, J. K. (2016). America’s not-so-broken education system: Do U.S. schools really need to be disrupted? The Atlantic.com , June 22. https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/06/everything-in-american-education-is-broken/488189/

Schimmel, D., Stellman, L., Conlon, C. K., & Fischer, L. (2015). Teachers and the law (9th ed.). New York: Pearson.

Spring, J. H. (1994). Deculturalization and the struggle for equality: A brief history of the education of dominated cultures of the United States . New York: McGraw Hill.

Spring, J. H. (2013). The American school, a global context: From the puritans to the Obama administration (9th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

Stewart, K. (2012). The good news club: The Christian right’s stealth assault on America’s children . New York: Public Affairs.

United States Department of Education, Office of Innovation and Improvement. (2009). State regulation of private schools . Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. https://www2.ed.gov/admins/comm/choice/regprivschl/regprivschl.pdf

United States National Commission on Excellence in Education. (1983). A nation at risk: The imperative for educational reform. A report to the Nation and the Secretary of Education, United States Department of Education . Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Urban, W. J., Wagoner, J. L., Jr., & Gaither, M. (2019). American education: A history (6th ed.). New York: Routledge.

White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education. (2019). Tribal colleges and universities, U.S. Department of Education. https://sites.ed.gov/whiaiane/tribes-tcus/tribal-colleges-and-universities/

Williams, J. (1983). Reagan blames courts for education decline. Washington Post , June 30. A-2.

Yin, A. (2017). Education by the numbers: Statistics show just how profound the inequalities in America’s education system have become. New York Times Magazine , September 8. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/magazine/education-by-the-numbers.html

Download references

Acknowledgments

Funding from the University of Michigan’s Horace Rackham Graduate School and the UM’s Life Sciences Values and Society Program supported archival research and reproduction contributing to this work.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

College of Education, Health, and Human Services, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Dearborn, MI, USA

Paul R. Fossum

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paul R. Fossum .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

DIPF - Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

Sieglinde Jornitz

Institute of Education, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Münster, Germany

Marcelo Parreira do Amaral

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Cite this entry.

Fossum, P.R. (2021). The Education System of the United States of America: Overview and Foundations. In: Jornitz, S., Parreira do Amaral, M. (eds) The Education Systems of the Americas. Global Education Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41651-5_14

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41651-5_14

Published : 01 January 2022

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-030-41650-8

Online ISBN : 978-3-030-41651-5

eBook Packages : Education Reference Module Humanities and Social Sciences Reference Module Education

Share this entry

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research