LEARNING CURVES. With the introduction of widespread testing in the 1910s, students with learning disabilities were grouped into special classes for “morons” and “mental defectives.” Those considered “mentally retarded” were assigned to multiage ungraded classrooms. (June 24, 1930) | |
ON THE MOVE. The 1921 “Report of the Superintendent of Schools” noted that the cost of renting buses from private contractors was “one of the largest items of the education of crippled children.” It went on to suggest that the district buy its own vehicles, laying the foundation for a transportation system that would one day serve all students. (Dec. 3, 1956) |
A version of this article appeared in the December 11, 1996 edition of Education Week as Windows to the Past, Pt. IV