Volume 1 · Education
Structured change records
Each record keeps a stable claim ID and separates the documented change from its proposed cause, evidence of adoption and evidence of effect. Editorial research schema, not a validated predictive algorithm.
EDU-001 · Civics and social studies
Civics and social studies coexisted in the vocabulary of the 1916 federal curriculum report.
| Status | Documented |
|---|---|
| Period · place | 1916 · United States, national committee recommendation |
| Documented change | The report proposed an organization grouping civics with other social studies. |
| Proposed mechanism | Committee recommendation and federal publication |
| Adoption evidence | Not established nationally by this report alone |
| Outcome evidence | Not measured here |
| Other explanations | Course integration, Local naming variation |
| Limits | Contradicts a simple replacement sequence; does not measure local constitutional instruction. |
| Next evidence | Matched district curricula, schedules and examinations |
| Sources | social1916 |
EDU-002 · Social reconstruction advocacy
Counts explicitly argued for teachers to exercise social power and for a socialized economic order.
| Status | Documented |
|---|---|
| Period · place | 1932 · United States, published advocacy |
| Documented change | A stated educational and social reform program was published. |
| Proposed mechanism | Publication, professional debate and potential influence through educators |
| Adoption evidence | No national adoption estimate supplied |
| Outcome evidence | No causal student-outcome estimate supplied |
| Other explanations | Independent reform traditions, Partial rather than complete adoption |
| Limits | The author’s stated program does not establish the motives of every later educator. |
| Next evidence | Training syllabi, correspondence, adoption records and classroom materials |
| Sources | counts |
EDU-003 · Home economics terminology
The professional association documents a 1994 naming change to family and consumer sciences.
| Status | Documented |
|---|---|
| Period · place | 1994 · United States, professional association and field |
| Documented change | Professional naming change |
| Proposed mechanism | Association and professional program decisions |
| Adoption evidence | Association account; local implementation dates not assembled |
| Outcome evidence | Learning effects not measured |
| Other explanations | Professional repositioning, Expansion of field scope |
| Limits | Stated rationale is the association’s explanation, not an independent effect estimate. |
| Next evidence | Local course catalogs and before-and-after lesson content |
| Sources | aafcs |
EDU-004 · National defense and subject priorities
The 1958 NDEA supported selected educational fields in a national-defense context.
| Status | Documented |
|---|---|
| Period · place | 1958 · United States, federal legislation |
| Documented change | Federal support for specified educational priorities |
| Proposed mechanism | Legislation, funding and curriculum development |
| Adoption evidence | Specific local implementation not reconstructed in this edition |
| Outcome evidence | No single causal estimate claimed |
| Other explanations | Earlier scientific-education efforts, Local demand for advanced courses |
| Limits | National context does not explain every local course decision. |
| Next evidence | Grant awards, teacher institute participation and school adoption records |
| Sources | ndea, nsf |
EDU-005 · Dress codes
GAO’s 2022 analysis associated strict dress-code enforcement with greater classroom-removing discipline.
| Status | Documented |
|---|---|
| Period · place | 2022 report · United States public schools within the study design |
| Documented change | A contemporary audit finding, not a century-long trend |
| Proposed mechanism | Possible effects of rules and enforcement, requiring causal analysis |
| Adoption evidence | District dress-code sample examined by GAO |
| Outcome evidence | Association in the reported analysis |
| Other explanations | School context, Other disciplinary practices |
| Limits | Association alone does not establish that dress codes caused all observed differences. |
| Next evidence | Matched historical rules and enforcement records |
| Sources | dress |
EDU-006 · Institutional safeguarding
GAO’s January 2026 JROTC report identified reporting, training and oversight gaps.
| Status | Documented |
|---|---|
| Period · place | 2026-01-20 · United States JROTC oversight; study included visits in four states |
| Documented change | Dated audit findings about institutional controls |
| Proposed mechanism | Unclear responsibility and incomplete implementation of safeguards |
| Adoption evidence | Policies and agreements reviewed by GAO |
| Outcome evidence | No national century-long prevalence estimate established |
| Other explanations | Variation among programs, Differences in reporting visibility |
| Limits | Does not identify every instructor as unsafe or equate allegations with convictions. |
| Next evidence | Documented implementation of recommendations and independently checked outcomes |
| Sources | jrotc |
EDU-007 · Recent reading performance
The 2024 national fourth-grade NAEP reading average was lower than in 2022 and 2019.
| Status | Documented |
|---|---|
| Period · place | 2024 assessment · United States, national fourth-grade assessment population |
| Documented change | Decline on a specified reading assessment |
| Proposed mechanism | Unresolved by the trend alone |
| Adoption evidence | Not applicable to a descriptive assessment finding |
| Outcome evidence | Official reported national average differences |
| Other explanations | Multiple instructional and contextual factors |
| Limits | NAEP Proficient is not identical to ordinary grade-level proficiency; results do not establish a single cause. |
| Next evidence | Studies linking defined exposures to outcomes with appropriate comparison groups |
| Sources | reading2024 |
EDU-008 · Secondary education aims
The 1918 Cardinal Principles report explicitly proposed broad social and academic objectives.
| Status | Documented |
|---|---|
| Period · place | 1918 · United States, national commission recommendation |
| Documented change | Publication of a program for reorganizing secondary education |
| Proposed mechanism | Professional recommendations and federal publication |
| Adoption evidence | No nationwide adoption measurement assembled |
| Outcome evidence | No causal student-outcome finding asserted |
| Other explanations | Existing local practices could overlap with the recommendations |
| Limits | A statement of goals is not a census of classroom practice. |
| Next evidence | District implementation records and contemporary course schedules |
| Sources | cardinal1918 |
EDU-009 · Teacher preparation institution names
MCLA records institutional names changing in 1932, 1960 and 1997 from its normal-school origins.
| Status | Documented |
|---|---|
| Period · place | 1894–1997 · North Adams, Massachusetts, one institution |
| Documented change | Successive institutional names recorded by the college |
| Proposed mechanism | Institutional mission changes as described by the college |
| Adoption evidence | Institutional history confirms the names; course-by-course reconstruction not completed |
| Outcome evidence | No estimate of changes in graduate competence |
| Other explanations | Professional identity, Expansion of programs |
| Limits | One institution does not establish a uniform national sequence. |
| Next evidence | Archived catalogs and degree requirements across name changes |
| Sources | mcla |
EDU-010 · Adult educational attainment
NCES reports high-school attainment among adults age 25 and older at 24.5 percent in 1940 and 90.9 percent in 2020.
| Status | Documented |
|---|---|
| Period · place | 1940 and 2020 · United States adult population age 25 and older |
| Documented change | Increase in reported adult attainment |
| Proposed mechanism | Not causally estimated by these two observations |
| Adoption evidence | Not applicable to descriptive population statistics |
| Outcome evidence | Two values from NCES Digest table 104.10 |
| Other explanations | Multiple educational and demographic changes |
| Limits | Before 1992, four or more years of high school; later, diploma or equivalency completion. Noninstitutionalized population. Pandemic-related collection caution for 2020. Not an annual cohort graduation rate or a fixed-standard skill test. |
| Next evidence | Intermediate years, method notes and cohort-specific measures for further analysis |
| Sources | attainment |
EDU-011 · History assessment
New York history examinations changed their task structure between January 1998 and January 2025 while retaining constitutional content.
| Status | Documented |
|---|---|
| Period · place | 1998–2025 · New York State, two examination administrations |
| Documented change | 48 multiple-choice items and selected written questions versus 28 multiple-choice items, two short essays and a civic-literacy essay. |
| Proposed mechanism | Assessment redesign; institutional decision pathway not established in this comparison. |
| Adoption evidence | Official administered examinations. |
| Outcome evidence | No comparison of student results conducted. |
| Other explanations | Changes in assessment framework, Changes in measurement priorities |
| Limits | Two examinations do not establish national curriculum trends or a causal ideology. |
| Next evidence | Design specifications, adoption decisions, scoring rubrics and comparable performance evidence. |
| Sources | regents1998, regents2025 |