Status of American Public Education in 1920

By 1920:

1. The Common School movement has succeeded in making education accessible for nearly everyone, though not exactly as Mann and others had envisioned.

2. Approximately 32 % of eligible students are enrolled in high school (@ 2,200,000+)

3. Schools are graded 8-4, though there are still lots of one-room ("multi-age") schools in rural areas.

4. Curriculum has been pretty much standardized and reflects the recommendations of the various NEA committees. Curriculum for secondary schools is "departmentalized." In 1893-95, the NEA Committee of Ten on Secondary School Studies and the Committee of Fifteen on elementary school studies issued a series of reports that recommended the standardization of public high school and elementary school curricula.

5. Teacher training, though still pretty minimal -- basically 6 weeks of "institute" training -- is moving toward normal school training.

6. Curriculum is split into tracks -- college preparatory, general, and vocational -- abetted by the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 which provided federal matching funds for vocational education in public high schools, provided federal funds for the salaries of teachers of agriculture, trades, industry, and home economics in secondary schools and stipulated in detail the vocational character of the courses to be taught.

7. "Professional Educators" (Superintendents and Principals), whose sympathies are with corporate leaders rather than the common people, have replaced "Headmasters," who were people who both taught classes and administered a school, and have effectively snatched power away from local school boards.

8. Thanks to the "social efficiency" / industrial model, also, schools are getting much larger -- especially in urban areas -- and more bureaucratic. (Standardized grade reports, etc.)

9. Promotion and placement are both largely on the basis of tests -- the "Scientific Measurement" and Educational Psychology people are pretty much in charge of education.

10. In 1896, in Plessy v. Ferguson, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that states can provide racially separated public facilities, as long as they are equal, including schools. This ruling legalized racial segregation and established the legal doctrine of "separate but equal." That doctrine remained the law of the land until it was overturned in 1954 (Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, KS). Except for a few tribally-operated schools in the Indian Nations (Oklahoma), Native American education is almost exclusively in boarding schools practicing deculturization.

11. The U. S. has become an industrialized and largely urbanized society with an increasing gulf between the rich and the poor.

12. In 1916, the American Federation of Teachers was formed as a labor union for classroom teachers. It was affiliated with the AFL-CIO.

13. In 1874, a Kalamazoo, Michigan, case established that states may establish and support public high schools with tax funds.

14. In 1901, the first public junior college was established in Joliet, Illinois.

15. In 1905, the first junior high schools were established in New York. These were 7th & 8th grade "intermediate schools."

16. In 1918, Mississippi passed a compulsory attendance law; all states (46) now had compulsory attendance.

17. In 1919, the Progressive Education Association was established to promote the educational philosophy of John Dewey

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