Great Society Programs

This entry describes the Great Society programs of the 1960s and looks at their effects on education and on other aspects of society and their implications for educational measurement and evaluation. The Great Society programs constitute an unprecedented set of federally funded educational, social, and environmental programs that were enacted during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson (1964–1968). These programs were intended to eliminate poverty and racial injustice and to ensure that the country’s systems of political, educational, employment, and health opportunities were open to all Americans. Many of the Great Society programs have endured until the present time, although they have gone through numerous revisions over the decades.

The policies and initiatives of Great Society programs have shaped education in the United States for over ...