What was education like in America during the late 19th century?

Issue:

Can anyone give a general description of how education was like in the late 19th cen? Were public schools already the norm?

Question :

What was education like in America during the late 19th century?

Best Solver (Answer):

Answer by Louise C
Public school education at an elementary level was the norm in the late 19th century. But only a minority of children went on to high school, the majority of children left school to go to work before they reached high school level. And even fewer went on to college. It had however become quite usual for women to go to college by the late 19th century, women made up a third of all college students by 1880, and in 1890, when the Ladies Home Journal held a subscription selling contest, the prize was a scholarship to Vassar.