Major Leaders in the Education Reform

One remarkable leader in the public schools reform movement was Horace Mann of Massachusetts. In 1837 he became the first secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. During his 12 years of service, Mann created and established teacher training programs and instituted curriculum reforms. He also doubled the money that that the state spent of schools.

William H. McGuffey was a teacher and preacher in Ohio who first published his popular grade-school reading books in the 1830s. By 1879 McGuffey had sold more then 60 million copies. The books contained, reading, writing, and arithmetic as well as democratic cultural values of hard work, honesty and love of country.